Can I give a handicap on Chess.com?

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Avatar of jdmuys

Hello,

 

I made my 13 yo nephew join chess.com recently, and we have started playing online (he lives very far, and we cannot play IRL).

 

The problem is he is much weaker than me. Is there a way for me to give him some handicap when playing on chess.com? I'd start with queen or rook odds for example.

 

Thanks,

 

JD

 

Avatar of BronsteinPawn

Sure, just hang your queen.

 

Avatar of jdmuys

Yeah sure. Removing the piece from the starting position would be cleaner though.

Avatar of Gelate

It is a real issue.

Avatar of Martin_Stahl

You can do it in Daily chess. You have to start from a custom FEN position, just include the starting position with whatever odds you want.

Avatar of TheAuthority

You can also play with one hand behind your back. 

Avatar of madhacker

Have a few drinks before the game...

Avatar of Ziggy_Zugzwang
jdmuys wrote:
 

The problem is he is much weaker than me. Is there a way for me to give him some handicap when playing on chess.com?

 

 

 You could suggest he make a friend request to Kaynight ?

Avatar of Ziggy_Zugzwang

There goes my Christmas card...

Avatar of TheAuthority
stuzzicadenti wrote:

You can just pretend to play worse - I do this all the time against lower rated opponents. 

You are not doing them any favors

Avatar of SonOfThunder2

lol

Avatar of SonOfThunder2
Martin_Stahl wrote:

You can do it in Daily chess. You have to start from a custom FEN position, just include the starting position with whatever odds you want.

Every bit of this is true.  On to the next thread!

Avatar of web14

you can allow him take bck moves . 

Avatar of TheAuthority

Good point morethantwenty. Seriously, keep him away from these fora. 

Avatar of SonOfThunder2

lol

Avatar of ThatChapThere
Play the king's gambit.
Avatar of TheAuthority
ThatChapThere wrote:
Play the king's gambit.

The hell you say

Avatar of pwwaring
Martin_Stahl wrote:

You can do it in Daily chess. You have to start from a custom FEN position, just include the starting position with whatever odds you want.

 

Awesome! I didn't know that had been implemented. That feature had been on the wish list for years!

Avatar of Martin_Stahl
pwwaring wrote:
Martin_Stahl wrote:

You can do it in Daily chess. You have to start from a custom FEN position, just include the starting position with whatever odds you want.

 

Awesome! I didn't know that had been implemented. That feature had been on the wish list for years!

 

There was a bug a week or so ago on that that I ran into but has been fixed now. You just have to go into Custom Challenge and change the Type to Custom FEN.


Interestingly enough, it doesn't have to be unrated currently. Also, as it stands when I tried it, if you do a position from later in the game and have the move # in the FEN, it honors that and you won't be able to abort if you set something up incorrectly; you have to resign. Had that happen twice sad.png ... luckily I was doing it as unrated.

Avatar of pwwaring
Martin_Stahl wrote:
Interestingly enough, it doesn't have to be unrated currently. 

 

Hmm, well, let's hope they change that!

 

Also, as it stands when I tried it, if you do a position from later in the game and have the move # in the FEN, it honors that and you won't be able to abort if you set something up incorrectly; you have to resign. Had that happen twice ... luckily I was doing it as unrated.

 

Thanks, that's good to know too! I'll mostly use it to play unrated odds games with my son and my girlfriend, but good to know to not get bitten by it in the future...

 

I hope they carry this change through through to the Android and iOS apps too, so unrated and custom games can be started there as well.