How to Master the In's and Out's of Live Chess

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Richard

May 9, 2012

Dear Chess.com Members,

Today i am writing an article on "Live Chess", a detailed blog that will outline and explain almost every aspect of "Live Chess" and its counterparts.

I will be doing this from a "Full screen premium view"

For those of you who don't know what live chess is please read this before continuing:

http://support.chess.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/132/13/playing-live-chess-on-chesscom

Ok so let's enter the world of "Live Chess", to enter, go to:

http://www.chess.com/home
Hover over "Play" on the top left, and click "Play Live Chess"
On the next page click the big orange button that says "Play Live Chess"

Now your in , If your screen looks like this then please click "Full Board"

if you can. If you can't then continue in simple board so:

Ok, so this is what the Full Board Should look like below:

Now as you can see i have numbered all the various tabs and buttons, what do they do? Ill tell you:

1) Alerts

Alerts - This tabs lets you know if you have any game challenges or private chat requests being sent to you.

2) Friends

Friends - This list all your friends currently logged into the live chess server, you can click on your friends name and select "Invite to chat" or "challenge to game", alternatively you can aslo remove a member from your friend list or block them completely

3) Chat

Chat - This tabs lists all the chatrooms open to you, mainhall is the general chat room , there is also help & support room, and a vast sleection of other national rooms. You can enter any room by clicking on the "rooms" tab and select "join"

4) Games

Games - This tab shows every game that is currently ongoing on the chess.com live server.

Inside this tab there is also a "players" tab and a "seeks" tab.

The "players" tab shows all the players logged into live chess, and they are searchable through the alphabet at the bottom. This is a great tab to find current "Titled players matches" like so:

The "seeks" tab lists the open seeks that you may accept and play including the chess.com computer player.

5) New Game

New Game - This tab allows you to create a new game based on the limitations and specifications you apply from the box, such as the "time controls" , "min rating", "max rating" and whether you want it rated or unrated.

6) Tournaments

Tournaments -This tab lists all the ongoing and upcoming tournamens in live chess, you may join them if you wish or observer them:

7) Seek Graph

Seek Graph -The seek graph is a quick way to set yourself up for a challenge, it lists all the current seeks and you just have to click on which do seems to be in the rating that bests suit you. The "X" axis or (bottom of the graph) is the "TIME" and the "Y" axis or (side of the graph) represents the ratings:

8) Chat Submission

Chat Submission - This is where you enter your chat and press "Enter" or click the arrow to submit it. (basic members may only chat once every 60 seconds)

9) Home

Home - This will take you back to : www.chess.com/home

10) Stats

Stats - The Stats tab show all your statistics for your games (online games, live chess games, bullet, blitz, standard etc) Here is what mine looks like:

10) Settings

Settings - The settings tab is used to change the various settings around live chess, there are 5 tabs in "settings" (style, play, alerts, tabs, filter)

The intial tab thats active is style:

Then the "play" tab:

Then the "alerts" tab:

Then the "tabs" tab:

And finally the "filters" tab:

11) Simple Board

Simple Board - Brings you back to the board we say at the start of this blog

12) Help

Help - Brings you to the help and support FAQ's

13) Logout

Logout- Log's you out of live chess and the main site

Tips to know about Live Chess:

1) Live Chess has three different ratings based on different time controls:

Bullet rating - For games under 3 minutes.
Blitz rating - For games of 3 minutes to 14 minutes.
Standard rating - For games 15 minutes and longer.

2) Obey all the rules and warning the moderators or staff give, it is all conducive to a great atmosphere

3) If you need to report someone, go to "Help" at the top right, and select "Contact Support" on the bottom left of the page.

4) If you are having browser issues or lag, please ensure your:

not streaming or downloading any media, youtube, mucisc, videos, downloads etc,
Running eithere Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome as your browser (NOT Internet Explorer)
Clear all your cookies and cache
That your browser is the latest version

5) Live chess Moderators give of their time to volunteer to help other members with questions, problems, directing members to links, and preventing and dealing with abusive members, so please listen and adhere to any advice given, as they are there to uphold the policy and rules chess.com has put in place.

6)kohai is Staff and runs live chess and the moderators, amongst other duties around the rest of the site she is involved in. kohai is very fair and understanding. If she has to speak with you about abuse, please listen and apply the advice given so that you may not slip up again. Persistence in abuse or speech of subjects against site policy could lead to being kicked or banned by her.

Live Chess Rules:

Rules of Behavior

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

            1) Cheating
            2) Accusations of cheating (naming/shaming)
            3) Offensive/vulgar language/toilet humor
            4) Personal attacks
            5) Spamming (spammy pointless/distracting posts/lettering)
            6) Advertising and/or promoting other websites
            7) Religious or political topics in Main Hall
            8) Racism
            9) Discussion of illegal activities (guns/drugs, etc)
           10) Posting of any external links

This applies to all rooms in Live Chess with the exception of private chats and Debate room

Fair Play Policy

Click here to view the policy : http://support.chess.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/171/0/fair-play-policy

Chess.com encourages players to be kind and show good sportsmanship. Our Fair Play policy expects that players will not...

1) intentionally disconnect during games

2) stall to make opponents wait unnecessarily

3) frivolously abort games because they don't want to play black, etc.(Note that we have now implemented a limit on the frequency with which users may abort games; please Abort only when necessary. Also see below.)

4) If your account is flagged for habitually breaking this policy, your play will be restricted, requiring you to wait 5 minutes between games (including aborted games).

So we can see that chess.com is carrying out this policy for those members who out of bad sportsmanship choose to intentionally disconnect or let the time run out

Useful Links

Reporting a member or contacting staff:

http://support.chess.com/Tickets/Submit

What is Lag:

http://support.chess.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/121/13/what-is-lag-and-what-are-the-colored-lag-indicators-in-live-chess

How do i claim a draw:

http://support.chess.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/40/13/how-do-i-claim-a-draw

How do I challenge a friend to play:

http://support.chess.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/127/13/how-do-i-challenge-a-friend-to-play

How do ratings work?:

http://support.chess.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/16/13/how-do-ratings-work

Why did the clock time suddenly change?:

http://support.chess.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/91/13/why-did-the-clock-times-suddenly-change-the-clocks-seem-broken

How live tournaments work:

http://support.chess.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/177/13/how-do-live-tournaments-work-where-can-i-join-one

I hope this has helped, any further questions or anything i missed you think i should add, please feel free to message me or email me at hydra@chess.com

Kindest Regards

Hydra

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