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NUMBER OF GAMES IN PROGRESS:
61
NUMBER OF USERS ONLINE:
3

Frequently asked questions

The following is a list of questions you may have when playing chess at nothingbutchess.com

Correspondence Chess

How do I send a message to my opponent?
When it is your move, you'll see a text field where you can type a message to your opponent. That message will show up when you submit your move. It will last until your opponent makes their move.

My opponent and I are playing a game with one day per move. Their time has expired and I've tried sending them an email, yet they refuse to move. What can I do?
Once each player has made a move, the game becomes "official" at nothingbutchess.com. If your opponent's time is up and they haven't made a move for whatever reason, you have the option of claiming a timeout win. A link will show up both within your list of correspondence games and on the chess board itself, allowing you to claim your victory.

My opponent's time is up, yet the link to claim victory isn't showing up. Why not?
This is because the minimum number of moves hasn't been made yet. You can not claim a time out victory for games such as this. Your alternative is to simply delete the game.

Live Chess

My opponent's time went down to zero, yet they were still able to make a move. His/her time was then reset to three seconds. What gives?
This is due to the lag between when a move is made and when an opponent sees that this move has been made. When it is not your turn, there is a function that periodically checks to see whether or not a move was made. There can be a gap of a few seconds between when a move is made and and when an opponent recognizes that move. This gap in time is actually recorded so that each user isn't penalized.

So the sequence of events is: 1. You make a move. 2. Your opponent's clock within your browser immediately starts counting downward 3. Your opponent's gui picks up the fact that you moved 2 and a half seconds later. 4. The move is updated in your opponent's gui and their clock starts counting down. At this point, there is a discrepency of 2.5 seconds between the amount of time your opponent sees and what you see. 5. Your opponent makes his/her move and your clock immediately starts counting down on his/her server. 6. Your gui notices your opponent's move one second after it was made. The gui syncs the discrepency in time up with the server so that the correct time is displayed. That was the time difference you noticed. 7. Your clock starts counting down. Notice it is one second behind what your opponent sees.

There is one other reason that there can be a time discrepency and that is due to the imperfect nature of javascript and the computer it's running on. If your machine is being heavily taxed, javascript can run slower than normal, thus presenting a different time than what is actually correct. The reverse happens and sometimes javascript actually runs a little fast on a machine. In all situations, the amount of time left is actually calculated with each move and when the clock reaches zero, an additional check is done to confirm that the time is indeed up.

I tried changng the time but was told I could no longer do so. Why not?
Once your opponent clicks start, the time that was set at that time is the time that will be used for the game. Although the board host has the power to change the time, unfair scenarios can be created if this protection mechanism wasn't put into place. Imagine a situation where two people agree to a five minute game and the non-board host hits start. The board host waits a little while, then changes their time to 20 minutes and hits start. You now have one player forced to make all of their moves in 5 minutes while the other player gets 20 minutes. To avoid this, once the non-board host hits start, the time set at that time will be the time for the game.

What does the number of games abandoned mean?
One of the inspirations for this site was