If you're playing with a friend who is much stronger or weaker than you, it can be a lot more fun for both parties to play an balanced / odds game!

To play an odds game, your opponent must be your friend.

Balanced / odds games are unrated!

First, go to Play and choose Play Online then choose Custom:

Next, click on 'Random' to instead choose your opponent.

You can NOT play odds/custom position games against a random opponent, and must choose who you are sending the challenge to. Click on 'Random' to instead choose your opponent:

You will be shown a list of recent opponents. You can choose from the list, or type in the username of whoever you want to challenge:

Once you've chosen your opponent, click on 'Standard' and then choose 'Custom Position / Odds game' from the dropdown:

Next, choose what kind of odds! The default is Auto balance, which will have the computer decide what to do based on the rating difference. If you want to choose your own odds, instead choose 'Select from list' and then scroll through the list of options:

Once you've decided, then click 'Play' and your challenge will be sent!