Some elements on chess.com are quite difficult - and counter-intuitive - to locate. In general, these are facilities that have been added subsequently to the original site creation, and which therefore have not been positioned as part of the grand chess.com architecture.

Game Analyses are a case in point. Locating one's analysed games is tricky. There's no route via the green top-of-page command menus. They are not mentioned explicitly either under the MY HOME set of menus.

They CAN be found via: PLAY, Online Chess, View my games archive, Show, and picking Computer Analyzed from the drop-down menu.

They can also be found by trawling through messages received, and searching for "Computer Analysis Finished!" (or a substring of that title).

Which aspects cause you the most grief in tracking down?

How to put your account on vacation!  I don't even want to go figure it out right now.  I always do, but it seems to take me ten minutes when I'm trying to get out the door!  :-)

Also, is there anyway to search members by location - other than United States?, say 50 or 100 miles radius, or by state?  That would be nice.

Can you cancel an offered draw. because i offered the wrong person a draw (hard to explain) but yeah now i cant take it back and look at the game. im playing atomichumbucker. up up material and queen my pawn soon or win his rooke. but yeah is there anyway to un offer a draw?

I've never had any real trouble finding something on chess.com, although I've heard people complain that it's more complicated than, say, soundchess.com.

Though I don't think that's something that can be fixed, 'cause soundchess is only simple because it doesn't have any features  ;)

No-one seems to think so. I've done that before now. I would have liked the system to ask for confirmation.

Vacation doesn't appear in any of the menus. It's true: you only have to click your heels twice to get there (YOUR NAME, My Online Chess settings). Once you're at the right screen, click on PAUSE MY GAMES, write your message and - whatever you do - DON'T FORGET TO CLICK ON Save preferences! It would benefit from better signposting.

 The only way I know of is by sending your opponent and asking to refuse the draw.

Now it will obviously be their option.

Artfizz, post #1, the forum instigator or initiator.

Thanks for the info, I never had a game analyzed as I did not find the link, now I know what to do, I do not know much help I  will get, as you know I need to better myself or take the analysis with a grain of salt, I will definetely try it and look forward to the results. Thanks again.

On a second note I need more explanation on your statement: "They can also be found by trawling through messages received, and searching for "Computer Analysis Finished!" (or a substring of that title)."

I am familiar with fishing and trawling or trolling as we call it in Canada.

And what is it that you meant ? can you give us one specific example?

 I think that there are 2 ways to go on vacation:

1. You can refer to Artfizz post#6 if you want to go on vacation right now or tomorrow morning.

2. If you have a paid membership and will run out of time to play one of your opponent's game, the system will automatically put you on vacation. Again not easy to get back to your games but use the same thread as artfizz suggested pos#6 I believe it is on the same page.

Requesting a computer analysis can be done at any time after a game has finished. As with awarding a trophy, the buttons (Computer Analysis and Give a Trophy) remain visible until used - and can only be used once for any game. (There are further restrictions relating to membership type, for Computer Analysis). I was concerning myself with subsequently locating a completed analysis.

I hope you are not confusing phishing with fishing, or trolling with trawling. Here are some loose definitions ...

phishing: trying to trick someone into giving you their sensitive information. e.g. sending them an email, pretending to be from their bank, and inviting them to log in to a fake, copy of their bank's website so that you can steal their login, password and account details.

fishing: 1. getting away from the wife and kids and drinking beer with your buddies

            2. looking for some vague information, that you're not sure even exists

trolling: posting controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of provoking other users into an emotional response or generally disrupting normal on-topic discussion. [Wikipedia]

trawling: systematically searching through a body of information (e.g. emails, messages, forum topics, forum posts) trying to locate a specific one for which you have incomplete data. e.g. you may remember a few words or the approximate date it was sent or received. (Also, harvesting credit card numbers from emails.)

artfizz post #10

Can you give us an insight on the methodology that you use for trawling, for instance on how to locate specific forums or postings by a specific member?

And is the methodology applicable to any search on chess.com?

This topic Index for locating Threads contains tips on searching.