Disconnect Cheat Glitch

I was winning and about to claim the opponents queen when my screen disconnected suddenly. I reconnected, but something was wrong. I had to continuously reconnect to the game board over and over every 10 - 15 seconds. Once the opponents time ran out, the loop continued even though he was at zero time. Finally, when I stopped reconnecting it said that I had lost due to time out... unfair play...

You were disconnected and the reason could be down to the Live server to any of the connections between you and the Chess.com Live server. Your client doesn't communicate directly with your opponents so they have no way to impact your connection state.

https://support.chess.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1444849-why-did-the-clock-times-suddenly-change-the-clocks-seem-broken-

https://support.chess.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1444918-my-internet-connection-is-fine---why-am-i-getting-disconnects-

You explanation is exactly what you would see during a normal disconnection event.

If you are on the website, this may also help with connection issues:

https://www.chess.com/blog/News/how-to-adjust-your-live-chess-connection

Did you bother to read VP's post?

i thought about this and never said anything , ive experienced the same thing, we need to centralize the chess to only chess.com and no other form of technology 

The player's clients do not connect to each other. Traffic goes from the client, to the Live server. The Live server sends the moves, the updated clock settings and any chat on to the other client.

Since your opponent does not have your connection details, they can't disconnect you. If they try, they would likely lose their connection instead.

then why do so many people experience this

The site does have logs but based on the way the Live server works, it just isn't likely. Someone would have to compromise the live server process and if they are that good, they wouldn't be disconnecting games for a few rating points.

The connection to the Live server is near real-time. It isn't something that can be buffered, like live video, and minor network interrupts, can impact the connection. Those happen all the time in normal network traffic flows and normally isn't something you'll notice on regular browsing or general use.

There are a lot of different things that can cause problems. Streaming other things on your network while on live (downloads, listening to your favorite music stream, watching videos, etc), other running process on your system (AV, other scans, updates, etc), and things that aren't in your control (problem at your ISP, in a router or switch in any of the hops your traffic takes).

Anytime there is a resend event, that can cause issues. A lot of resends may cause a reset of the Live server connection to your client and if the problem persists, can cause a disconnect. The links provided in post 2 can assist to minimize issues.

However, sometimes things out of control of the site and the client end can still cause problems. Recently the site got hit by a bug in the Cisco switches used in the datacenter. Completely unexpected and caused problems for a couple of days. That has since been fixed.

it still happens

Saying that it isn't likely to happen is just denying the reality that it really is happening to multiple people... We would all feel better if someone would take our feedback seriously and investigate the issue instead of explaining why it shouldn't be happening... 

@erik has posted in one of the topics about he situation before and says that it doesn't happen. The way the Live server is architected doesn't give your opponent any of your connection details. They have no way of knowing your IP address and no way of sending traffic to you to disconnect you.

The reality is that disconnects happen for a lot of reasons and most of them are completely out of the hands of the site, other than how the code deals with them and how robust the client code is for reconnecting.

As to investigating the issue, every person that connects has multiple variables that impact their connection quality and the path the traffic takes is different for most people (there will be some overlap for part of the connection and for some subsets of users). So, the reason one person has the problem is often different than another person's.

I'm not going to say that the Live server code is 100% secure or bug free; that would be absurd. But if someone wants a win that badly, they aren't going to be hacking the server to get their opponent disconnected.

I have to add to this as well.  It's pretty clear that it's some cheat going on.  @VintagePawn this has been happening more and more and it *only* happens when my opponent is about to lose or has made a blunder.  There has to be some mechanism that you aren't aware of to make this happen.  If so many people are reporting it, think of how many other people it's happening to that Don't report it.  

Please take this seriously and conduct a detailed investigation, think outside the box because this is a real problem.

Do these opponents win every game? If they seem to win a lot of lost games due to timeout, perhaps there's reason to be suspicious. Did any of you bother to check? Because if your game is the only one, chances are it's a connection issue at your end and you're just being paranoid.

It is theoretically possible that your opponent could cause you to disconnect from the server.

However, I said "theoretically", because in practice, what it would take to do it is far beyond the ability of someone running some script.  They would have to gain control of the live chess server.  That's going to be protected by top-notch corporate IT security systems and procedures.

Maybe some major intelligence agency or organised crime group might be able to breach the systems if they were to try very hard, but there's no guarantee of that, and it's way beyond the ability of some script kiddie.  It's certainly not something that lots of your opponents are doing.  There's not a hacker with pseudo-magical powers behind every bush.  Hacking in real life doesn't work the way it does in the movies.

Additionally, if someone did manage to take over the server, they wouldn't be looking to steal a few rating points.  They would be looking for financial information on premium members, corporate secrets, login information to take over accounts for spamming ads, sensitive information that they could use to blackmail chess.com, and that kind of stuff.  A few rating points wouldn't matter to them if they have the ability to get some real money.

What is more likely is one or more of the following:

1. An internet glitch somewhere between your computer and the live server

2. A bug in the live server

3. A problem with your device

I don't know why so many people assume it must be some nefarious act by their opponent, but there are alternative explanations that are much more plausible.

I can almost guarantee you that the exact same thing happens when you are losing. You don't notice it since you are not as invested in the outcome. I can also almost guarantee you that you have won games because your opponent has been disconnected.

I am just a moderator that has read topics on disconnects and has seen feedback from staff on the issue, how the Live server is architected at a high-level, and understand how networking works. If an exploit does exist and it is brought to the site's attention (not just I get disconnected so I know my opponent did it), I'm sure that @erik would be very happy to see it to verify the veracity and to fix the problem.

Disconnects happen, for a lot of reasons. While there are a large number of them, from a numerical standpoint, out of the almost 2.5 million games played each day, the percentage that are wins/losses due to a disconnect are very likely  relatively minor.

For those of you who are members of the Cheating Forum, I posted a more in-depth thread in there: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/on-hacking-the-interface-clocks-etc-possibilities-and-practicalities 

I have been having issues with chess.com for the last few days , as soon as I'm about to win a game , I get the timer and then I'm not able to play and losing the game or the game goes draw , it is very annoying. There are people playing around with your system. why do I get that only when I'm about to win. This is unfair.

You guys are making us hate chess.com by not acting on this glitch. people are using it to their advantage and I'm unable to win the game even though I have won it

Did you check your opponent's previous games to see if this is common for him? Please do and share your findings. Thanks.

catch hold of [name removed - please don't make public accusations - MOD] , he has used this trick , as soon as i started winning , he used this cheap trick.