Feature Suggestion: Option to Continue Game with Bot if Opponent Disconnects

Hi Chess.com team & community,

I wanted to suggest a feature that could improve the experience when a live opponent disconnects and doesn’t return. After the full reconnection timer runs out, players could be given the option to continue the game against a bot of similar Elo, with the same position and remaining clock time.

This wouldn’t replace the waiting period or affect rating—just give players the choice to finish out the game meaningfully instead of ending on a technical win. To keep things fair, it could be limited to games where more than 10% of the initial time control remains, and marked clearly in the game history as transitioning from a human to a bot.

Example: in a 10|5 game, if my opponent disconnects on move 20 and doesn’t return after the timeout, I could choose to continue vs. a bot rated within 50 Elo of them, preserving the rhythm of the match and making the experience more useful—especially for practice or analysis.

Curious to hear others’ thoughts on this—thanks for reading.

Bots don’t play like real people, and the ELO assigned to them is not accurate