I can no longer see the Chess pieces, only a gray board

When I was in Portugal, on this same laptop as I am now, I was able to see a brown board and the chesss pieces.

Yesterday, I moved to Holland, and I am on the same laptop, so nothing has changed, and now I can no longer continue with my games.

I only see a grey board, and NO pieces.

However when I go to the home page, I do see the brown board with the pieces (in miniature).

So now, I can not continue with my games.

Please put my games on hold for me, and tell me how I can see the pieces again.

So I am on the same laptop, and have not changed anything to the settings.

I now am working from a Huawei Modem, in Portugal I had a fixed connection.

Awaiting your reply,

thank you.

What connection was it in Portugal compared to the connection in Holland?

Are you able to see the pieces from a cable connection or main pc rather than laptop?

I've put the games on vacation for you, but if you're in any no vacation tournament games, those won't be protected sorry.

In Portugal, it was a wired cable connection, with a Modem from Vodafone.

Here in Holland , I am working from a HUAWEI 220 Modem via USB.

After doing some reading up, I read that I have to hit the Control button, together with the F5 button.

This does help, but everytime I, or my opponent makes a move, it goes to grey again, with no pieces. This is an awful way to have to play, and is ever so time comsuming.

Is there a way to play normally again, or will this problem consist for the 6 months I am going to be here?

In the mean time I have a new problem:

I have finally managed to play out a game, this way, which is really not nice at all, and have won by Check Mate, against Baazar.

However, when I went to "Home", to see if I had received the 24 credit points for winning, it said that it was a draw????????????

Could you please look at the game LadyAngel versus Baazar, that I just ended today, and see that it is NOT a draw, but Check Mate.

I do not often win a game, so for me to finally win, and then not to receive my credit points,  is not very fair towards me, especially because I am playing with a handicap.

Could you please correct my rating points, and give me the 24 points that I should have received for winning the game.

Thank you kindly,

LadyAngel

The game was not checkmate, but stalemate. The white king is not in check and has no legal moves. Draw.

but before I moved the tower/castle (I do not know how you call it in the US),

he could have moved his king backwards, but even then it mentioned stalemate?

So, I do not understand.

If it mentioned stalemate before the game would have been stopped. It was only after you moved the rook, blocking off his square of Kg4 that the position was a stalemate.

A better move may have been Qg6 check, and after he takes your pawn Rh1 checkmate.

The tower/castle is more commonly referred to as the rook.

thank you very much for that advise.

The word "stalemate" had already appeared even before I had moved the Castle (rook), it appeared when my pawn landed on A1, and I exchanged it for the castle (rook). So I had not even moved yet.

And because I did not know what the word meant, I though it meant I was taking too long (stalling) to finish the game, so I though I had to "hurry up", and became so nervous, that I did not take time to "think".

So the word "stalemate" ruined my game for me, had it never appeared then I could have taken my time to think about my move properly without being "rushed".

Anyhow, it made me lose my game, so I will never ever forget what the word means from now on.

Bye the way, I looked "rook" up in the dictionary, and the word "rook" means:

"a large black bird, like a crow".

Strange that they call a castle a "black bird" / "crow"?

TRUE...that is one definition, a large black bird. However, during the evolutionary phase of chess the rook was called the "chariot". The Persian word for chariot is "rokh". It is easy to see how the present day term "rook" was then derived from that.

Thanks Hozer for that explanation.

But still, I do not see the link between a CastleTower, and a "chariot". In the one you can live, in the other you ride.

Over here in Holland, the pieces are called: Tower, Horse, the Bishop they call "Loper", which would translate into "walker" or "door-key".

Very confusing all these different names.

Good question. It's only a theory, but the idea is that since the rook can travel the entire width or length of the board in a single move assuming no blocking pieces, it moved with the "speed" and efficiency of a chariot.

Also keep in mind the form of the pieces have changed over the centuries and at that time the rook may well have been portrayed as a chariot...in fact i think I have seen such chess pieces.

Thanks again Hozer, you always seem to come up with these really helpful explanations! :)

I wish we could find a photo, of an old Chess-board, with the Tower/Chariot/Rook still looking like a chariot.

I will make a google search, to see if I can find something.

Thank you Scott, that is indeed very helpful. Would you have any idea in which country, and in which year such a Chariot/Rook/Tower was used?

I myself have found the following pictures of ancient chess pieces.

There the Tower (Rook) was known as a Warden!

Used in France, manufactured in Italy it looks like.

http://history.chess.free.fr/charlemagne.htm

ladyangel i also have grey board no pieces problem sometimes this clears up but at moment it aint coincidentally i a also conneted by a huaweii usb i wonder if the fault lies here ive tried f5 route and even changed my browser to no avail 

@Talfan1

I think it has to do with the speed. But saying that, I am not an expert in computers, so maybe an expert has a different answer.

But with me, it was the speed. If I took my laptop to my friends house (so the same laptop, the same setting, not changed anything), and went onto her fixed cabled Internet, I had no problems. I saw a coloured chessboard with pieces. So then I disconnected the Internet-cable, and put my HUAWEI 220 Modem via the USB-port back in, and GONE was the coloured chess board and pieces. I only saw the grey board and NO pieces.

And, after holding down the Control button, together with the F5 button, (at the same time) I once again had a coloured chess board with the pieces.

But I had to keep performing the same motion, after every move I or the opponent made.