confused

Is it just me, or does it make no sense at all to take a piece off the board if you make a wrong move?  This creates a couple problems that for me were big.  This applies to chess mentor and tactics trainer both.

1.  sometimes the piece was needed to complete the puzzle on a later move but since it's not on the board the puzzle is unsolvable - but it doesn't let you know that.

2.  a board that has a rook holding a file closed to a king while a pawn pins a bishop looks totally different if thoses pieces are missing,  So two moves later, the position you're 'looking at' may be quite different than the 'real puzzle.'

3.  the pieces removed don't just get removed, they get dumped on a8; once  or twice I couldn't remember what if anything was 'supposed' to be there

Am I missing something?

What you are describing isn't supposed to be happening.... what browser are you using?

 Opera

That's what I suspected. Unfortunately, Opera doesn't work well with Chess.com. I'd recommed trying to access the site with Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

I just tried it in IE and it worked I I would expect.  Totally different.  Too bad, I 'hate' IE.  Don't care much for mozilla or firefox either.

Try Chrome, it's got a nice sleek feel, is REALLY fast, and works with Chess.com ;-)

You should try Mozilla Firefox though... Most people (included me) who hate IE turns to Firefox.