Chess

Rules of Behavior

Chess.com is a friendly community. The following behavior is prohibited and can result in your being kicked or banned:

• cheating
• offensive/vulgar language
• personal attacks
• spamming or advertising other websites
• religious or political debate
• pointless/distracting posts
• discussion of illegal activities (drugs, etc)

Simply put: be nice and have fun!

Starting a Game

Creating a Seek - A "seek" is an open invitation to play. You click on the "Challenges" tab and then click "Start New Game" button to create an open seek that other players can view and accept. You can add in some parameters such as rating and time controls.

Finding a Game - Also under the challenges tab is a list of all the seeks that others have created, you can accept one of these just by clicking "Play" to the right of the seek.

Offering a Challenge - To challenge one player specifically, the easiest way is to click on their name in the "Challenges" or "Friends" tab and then using the popup choose "Challenge to a game".

Interacting with Members - You can click on a player's name in the "Challenges" or "Friends" tab to see more information about them, challenge them, or observe the game they are playing! However, if you click on a player name from the game board or in game chat then you will be taken directly to their Chess.com profile page.

Playing

Moving the Pieces - Moving the chess pieces is easy! You can either drag the pieces with your mouse, or click on the piece and then again on it's destination square.

How to Chat - To chat in simply type into the white text box below the chat area and hit ENTER on your keyboard.

Time Controls - Games on Live Chess are timed. There are two numbers for time: the first number is how many minutes you have to make all of your moves. The second number is how many bonus seconds you get for every move you make. So a time of 5 5 means five minutes + 5 seconds per move.

Lag - "Lag" is a measure of how much time it takes for the move made on your computer to be recognized by the server. The further you are away from our Live server (which is in Los Angeles, CA, USA), the longer the lag will be. We use lag-detection technology to determine lag and add time back to the clock to compensate. If you see your opponents time suddenly jump up, that is because they have a high lag. They didn't see your move that entire time it was lagging, so their time doesn't count down during that time.

Using the Interface

Tabs - There are different tabs available (Chat, Challenges, Friends) where you access the info you need. For example, click on the Challenges tab to find a game to play.

Changing Settings - There is a Settings link on towards the bottom right side of the page where you can choose options like board size, pieces style, colors, sound, etc.

Report Bugs

Click here to report bugs!

We hope you have a lot of fun with Chess.com Live Chess!

- The Chess.com Team