Had another opponent today who was still making chess moves after his TIME HAD RUN OUT!

I had almost 2 seconds left on the clock in a 1 minute 0 delay game.

His clock read -.2

That's right NEGATIVE time!

I make one move and the server says I lost on time!

How is that possible?

I just don't get how these folks are making their clocks run backwards!

I do hope this "cheat" has been fixed is Live chess 2.

GROWL!

google "lag chess servers".  it's lag, and it's a part of internet chess. 

This happens on even the more expensive (and proven) servers like the ICC. Only a tiny percentage of these situations are actually bogus.

Actually, I googled the servers that host chess.com:

http://www.zerolag.com/

seriously, zerolag is their name.

they need to re-evaluate.

re-evaluate what? There is no such thing as a perfect server, or a server that never has lag. If you can invent/run one, you would be a very very rich man, I promise.

What you fail to mention is that ICC, FICS and misc. other servers compensate.

Clock management is part of the game, especially at the faster time controls. You need to know exactly how much time is left for both players. If the clocks are not accurate what's the point of using them?

When a clock reads zero, it's zero - except on chess.com live chess beta.

All semantics aside, you can call it lag or whatever but the fact is live chess beta was poorly engineered.

The site owners/programmers have acknowledged this and are working to fix it but...doesn't make it any less frustrating.

It never ceases to amaze me that people will complain about sub-second clock corrections when they are playing a game of chess with someone on the other side of the world.

Amen Grobe...

Whoa!

Clearly some folks misunderstand the issue.

There needs to be one time standard for live chess, not three.

Like the constant random disconnects, it's just another one of those credibility problems that live chess (and live chess results/ratings) have.

I have some IT background and understanding of how networks operate.

Slow connections and regular old lag may be a factor but more likely it's java overhead on the players individual computers.

You don't see this problem on ICC or FICS where you're using client software that has timeseal or similar.

That's because 1. the software can compensate for any lag and 2. the software runs faster because it's actually installed locally and not being fed bit by bit (or maybe that's in little bytes ha ha) from the server.

There's no way for the clocks to stay perfectly in sync.  Each participant in the transaction, your computer, the chess.com server, and your opponents have to take temporary ownership of the official time if it is to be as accurate as possible.

This means that after each of your opponent's moves your local clock may continue to count down as it is not currently the official clock and only once you receive notice of your opponent's move, along with the official record of when he made it can your clock be readjusted for any network latency, and yes, possibly java overhead, that might have contributed to your clock continuing to count down after your opponent registered their move but before you received it.  Once you've received that reset time, and your clock is compensated for the lag, you are the official time-keeper until you make your move and hand it back off to the server, and ultimately to your opponent who's clock has also likely ticked-down too far by the time he receives your move.

There is no way around this, it doesn't matter what other chess servers might appear to do, it's an unavoidable reality and they undoubtedly deal with the same issue.