Ping Disadvantage for Indian/Asain Players in Blitz/Bullet.

Hi Chess.com,

I want to raise a concern about server selection and fairness in online games.

Chess.com has multiple server regions, including Asia, and many players are from India and other Asian countries.

However, whenever Indian/Asian players get matched with players from the US or Europe, the game almost always seems to be hosted on US servers, not Asian servers.

This creates a huge latency gap:

• Indian/Asian players often face 250–300 ms ping

• US/Western players get only 30–50 ms ping

In fast time controls like blitz and bullet, this delay causes Asian players to lose time unfairly, even when moves are played instantly.

If Chess.com provides Asian servers, why aren’t cross-region games sometimes routed through them, or at least balanced more fairly?

Is there any lag compensation system?
Or any plan for region-based matchmaking so games are more equal?

When we try to abort the match we see please read sportmanship policy,it feels unfair to call it a sportsmanship issue when one side has a consistent technical advantage due to server location.

Thank you.

The server chosen, for pool based games, is based on both players and tries not to favor one region over another.

https://www.chess.com/news/view/chesscom-gameplay-now-faster-with-servers-across-world

There is also lag compensation, up to max amount

https://support.chess.com/article/423-why-did-the-clock-times-suddenly-change-the-clocks-seem-broken

Life is a b===h ain't it.

it does when ever i play US people it get 243-300 ms that means it is connected to us based server

Kid, first of all, try to understand how the internet actually works.
Upgrading your Wi-Fi won’t magically fix latency if the server is located in the US.
Whether you’re on high-end Wi-Fi or “potato Wi-Fi,” the main delay comes from physical distance and cable routing.
That’s why you’re seeing ~300ms — it’s network latency, not your local connection.
Educate yourself.

I don't believe that's always going to be the case. US based players do not always get a US based server when playing members not in the US. The system determines the best choice, based on both players locations and the available server.

Do you even know how to check your ping whenever you are playing an indian opponent!? Kindly check again play some bullet now

High ping doesn't just happen to US based servers. Latency is partially a function of distance, but even systems closer in proximity can have higher latency caused by a number of factors.

Did you check the ping for each and every game!! how much are you getting? I’m pretty sure it is 10~50ms

A lot of people from Europe and the Americas can say the same thing.

An example is Hikaru, he gets a major advantage because the server is basically in his backyard

Why I had 480k ms in variants server

I don't but it would depend on who I'm playing and which server we get connected to. Unless it's a tournament, and those haven't been migrated to the new system yet, and are US based.

Check ping first if you play in website then in comment sectuon you can type /ping im pretty sure its always 10-50ms

If there is no lag you could be the top bullet player in this website

As they say in antiques trading, "it is what it is". You could play at a longer time limit which you're happy with. Bullet is meaningless in any case and at 5 mins the ping difference won't be so acute. 10 minutes would be better but weirdly, chess.com counts 10 mins no increment as rapidplay whereas the entire rest of the world considers it to be the slowest blitz speed. As soon as 10 mins gets an increment it does become rapid.

Australia with 8,000 ping:

🙄😢😭

People from any country can say that exact same thing, it's not just Asia experiencing that.

rlly? I'm from India, and I have 70 ms ping. Improve ur connection bro.