omg you changed it... AGAIN??

I don’t like the new analysis interface either

@My_real_name said in #1:

Why? oh my lord... WHY? i have spent hundreds, hundreds of hour invested in developing my studies and again you implemented this ugly, not practical at all, way to display the lines. Why? i was so happy when you brought back the old way which was perfect as it was now it is so confusing again i cannot read the lines quickly like in the old system please do something the community hates this way of displaying the lines at least give us the CHOICE please please at least give us the CHOICE of using the old way of notations

A very, very sad user

It was a lot easier to see the lines the old way.

@Bust-A-Move said in #2:

I agree. And now the button to go right back to the start of the game is gone as well. Very annoying to scroll back to the start of the game

It is still there https://imgur.com/a/YY21Qys

I totally agree with the complaints listed in this forum post. Just like many other players I’ve spoken to, as well as everyone who has written here, I find the recent changes highly confusing, impractical, and counter-intuitive.

The study feature is one of the most important tools on Lichess for me, and I’m sure for many other players and coaches as well. This new change drastically affects the way I study and the way I train people using the study feature, and it does so negatively.

To be more concrete: the lines connecting moves and branches almost always end up looking like a strange labyrinth, which is very disturbing and confusing to the user’s eye. Also, the continuity of the lines (not just the literal connecting lines, but the chess variations) is now completely broken. For example, Black’s response 3...h6 against 3.Bg5 is shown all the way down if there are sidelines branching out from White’s 3rd move, e.g. 3.Nc3, 3.g3, etc. However, reading it in this order is totally counter-intuitive and makes it impossible to have a high-level overview at a first glance. The original look had already solved this issue, aligning with how we naturally read things and build a mental map of the—something that is now lost with this recent update. Honestly, I don’t even understand why this change was made at all, as it broke something that did not need to be fixed. If the idea was simply “it would be nice to have such a look too,” then it would have been much better to introduce it as an option, similar to the “Inline” option, rather than forcing all users to suddenly adapt to this confusing new structure.

Additionally, as @Gordima pointed out, the collapsing feature is also very problematic. At the very least, it would be better to have them all open by default, or to provide an option to make that the default, instead of forcing us to right-click and select “Collapse all” every time we change chapters.

Please revert these recent changes regarding how study moves, lines, and branches are displayed (I mainly mean the hierarchy of those connecting lines etc.) back to the original system—or, in the worst case, at least enable a toggle option that makes it possible to switch back to the original look.

@thibault said in #30:

Thanks for the feedback. If would be most helpful if you could provide study URLs where you see these issues, along with screenshots if necessary, to help us understand in which situations "it is really hard to see things and comments etc are hard to find"
Is it ok if it's private study?

Now my studies have buttons everywhere. I don’t like it

https://imgur.com/a/cCCkyOL (picture attached)

@thibault said in #30:

Thanks for the feedback. If would be most helpful if you could provide study URLs where you see these issues, along with screenshots if necessary, to help us understand in which situations "it is really hard to see things and comments etc are hard to find"
If you can access it, then here: https://lichess.org/study/RvhzItjy

There are “+” buttons everywhere now. The old was really was a lot better.

Here is a comparison: new https://imgur.com/a/sioJvT5 vs old https://imgur.com/a/19o0BW6.

I prefer the old; I can see at a glance what is going on with the variations in a way that I just can't with the new. There is (at least for me) a really elegant readability in the old way of displaying hierarchy.

@thibault said in #30:

Thanks for the feedback. If would be most helpful if you could provide study URLs where you see these issues, along with screenshots if necessary, to help us understand in which situations "it is really hard to see things and comments etc are hard to find"

Exactly as pointed out by FM @Dr_Zee, here is a screenshot from me as well to elaborate on my point shared above as #34:
https://imgur.com/soZ0QVs

In this screenshot, White plays 39.Rxb1 and Black’s reply, 39...R@d3+, is pushed all the way down because the alternative line with 39.Bxb1 gets in the way. There is also no move number in front of R@d3, creating confusion about where it belongs.

Additionally, the move right above, Nxa2# seems to be hanging in the air. At a glance, it’s impossible to tell whether it is an alternative move to Q@a1 (four lines above) — since they are aligned to the left — or a continuation of 43.Q@b1.

This is a very simple variation, but in actual opening studies with many variations and larger sidelines, it becomes nearly impossible to keep track of the hierarchy of moves. In contrast, the previous version made the structure and hierarchy of moves very clear at first glance.

I hope this helps, thanks!