Question about top rated games and the chat

Hi everyone I am a GM from germany and I registered just about 3 Days ago so I am very new and not familiar with all the features yet. 

In the top rated games are always a lot of spectators however I have never noticed any spectators in my games and im sure i have been in a top rated game before. Do the players of the match cant see the spectators and/or the chat? And who can see the chat between me and the other player? 

And second, I have not yet managed to challenge someone to a live game. Although friends of mine have explained it to me exactly and im sure im doing it right it doenst work for me, I dont even get the notification that the challange has been successfully executed and thus i dont get any accepts or declines either. Is that because I am a new user or what is happening?

Thanks for the replies,
Basti  

Hello, and welcome.  To answer your first two question, no the players in a live game cannot see the comments of the spectators.  And only the 2 players involved in a game can see the chat comments between those players.

The simplest way to challenge a friend to a game is:

1)  Open their profile page, then click on the "Challenge to Play".  The "New Game" page will then appear.

2)  On the "New Game" page, choose the game parameters.

3)  Once the game parameters are set, click on the large "Create New Game" link.  This will send the challenge to your desired opponent.  Wait for your opponent to respond (if they are not presently online, they will recieve the challenge as soon as they log on).

EDIT:  I just realized that I gave the instructions for starting an "online" (aka correspondence) slow game.  The instructions for challenging someone to a "live" game are different.  I'll try to post more instructions later today when I get time.

Below is the shortest procedure (that I know of) for challenging a person on your friends list to a live game.

1) Starting on the home page, click on "PLAY".

2) Inside the drop-down menu click on "Live Chess".

3) On the Live Chess page, click on "PLAY LIVE CHESS!".

4) On the chess board app, click on "Friends" (those friends who are presently online).

5) Click on the friend's name that you want to play.

6) Click on "Challenge to a Game".

7) Fill in the game parameters, then click "Create New Game".

Hey thanks for the replys, thats the method I used however its not working if people are not on my friendslist when it actually should work as well right?

If you want to challenge someone not on your friends list, try clicking on "Games" (instead of "Friends") in step 4 of the instructions in my previous post.  If the "Challenge to a Game" option does not appear, I think this means that either the person does not accept challenges, or your rating is outside of the person's range filter (you are rated too high or too low), or the person has blocked you. 

No the Challenge to a Game option appears however when you finish the procedure and click on create new game nothing happed, it didnt even say that the challenge was send out however i just tried it now and it works so problem solved, i guess its just not possible for new players because i noticed i couldet talk in the chat during the first 2 days as well. Anyway problem solved and thanks again for your answers. 

Sebastian, Welcome to Chess.com...you should (and deserve) to have the GM title before your name on this site...please click the link below.

 http://www.chess.com/members/submit_title_proof

"Verify your account and get a FREE Lifetime Diamond Membership!"...good luck and thanks for beating me like a drum, perhaps someday I will be as good as you.

I guess you're doing everything ok. As far as I know, titled players do not challenge randomly as described above, normally they challenge each other. However, if you want to play against weaker players, then just lower your rating range. For example: Max +200, Min -1000.

Regarding to chat in live chess, nobody can see what you're talking about with your opponent as far it is during the game or nobody joined to watch the game before the end. If spectators have already joined your game (you cant know this), every comment you will make after the finish will be public.

Huh, I hope I didnt forget sth. :)