What is Games Explorer? I see there is a tournament where you are not allowed to use it?

Games Explorer is pretty much the chess.com opening database. It shows the various moves played from the beginning by masters games (up to about year 2006), your games and any other chess.com member's games (if you have a platinum/diamond membership). It shows the number of games played with each move, the White wins/draw/Black wins percentages, the various replies and their percentages as above. You can also access the games played in that particular opening. 

There have been a number of discussions about using it during turn-based play. Although it is entirely allowed within the site rules, some players have strong reservations about its use.  e.g.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/fully-integrated-game-explorer 

A TALLY OF DATABASE-USERS & NON-USERS

Using Books & Databases for Playing Turn Based.

thank you for the feed back.

i am new to playing chess on the computer like this and am learning a lot about a "culture" of play I am unfamiliar with. i often get the impression that some people are using a computer to "look up their moves" (and wonder why they would do that).

i am still amazed by the masive learning resource of this site.

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There is naturally a lack of awareness and also confusion about chess technology and terminology - since virtually all of us started out with a board and wooden pieces.

Here's a quick site-playing-rules-a-guide-for-the-perplexed.

Nice post, it sure makes it clear what you can and cannot do :)

thank you. that is very interesting.

The endgame is still a gray area. Let's say I'm studying king and pawn endgames every day. One of my games is approaching a king and pawn endgame. The positions that were in my study plan already might be quite relevant to the upcoming endgame.

see your point

Thanks for the table. Very neat.

I think you should add that using a computer during the game for turn-based is only ok in unrated games, regardless of any agreement or tournament rules.

Until chess.com creates a separate rating for advanced chess, they should not sanction what I will call "rating pollution".

i think its quite interesting the differnt views people have expressed and the implied objectives they seem to have in playing online chess. being a rather elderly gentleman(!) i have quite old fashioned ideas about the game and have approached the online environment as a way i can have hundreds of games to improve my borad game (if or) when i next sit down over a board with someone. as such it comes unnatural to look up anything during play. i do spend hours studing and take the opint about endgame studies but see that again as - if i remember it i can use it.

interesting discussions. thank you

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chess.com's current rules here http://www.chess.com/legal.html do not stipulate unrated games (but they do in another place).

Assuming everyone in one of these special tournaments is using computer assistance, won't any rating changes be on the same basis as for standard unassisted games?

But if someone plays a bunch of games in with an engine (whether their opponents agree to it or not) and then play me without one, my rating change due to that game won't be relevant to the computer free rating pool. The rating pool is polluted as ozzie puts it.

Erik has definetly stated somewhere that computer use is only allowed in UNRATED games, im sure of this....

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http://support.chess.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=17&nav=0,6

Very clear. Thanks.

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Thanks Arty

...by masters games (up to about year 2006)...

If accurate, why so much lag in updating opening line data?