lost connection

Can somebody please explain to me what happens when your connection in interrupted during a Live game?

I was playing a Live game just now and had about 4 minutes left on my clock, while my opponent had only 12 seconds. I also had a forced draw by repetition, which I would probably have taken as I was 2 pawns down.

My connection then got interrupted for maybe 20 seconds or so and when it came back again I was informed that I had lost the game on time!!!

I am completely baffled. If, as it seems, the clocks in Live chess don't work after one player has lost the connection, I will have to confine myself to playing Online Chess in future.

I need to find out whats causing your disconnects.

which browser and version are you using ?  ( i need to know so i can test on the same one my end)

Are you running any other applications when you disconnected ? Like media/music  players,
sending/receiving emails? current downloads? other tabs open ?

What type of connection do you have to the internet? adsl ? wifi ? dial up?

I am using Windows XP and the browser is IE8. My connection is ADSL.

I did have a couple of other tabs open in the browser, but no other applications.

I do not get disconnected very often and when I do the game has always resumed normally.

I was just wondering what had happened in this particular case, when my clock ran down from around 4 mins to zero in less than 30 secs. Surely I should be allowed to reconnect within the time remaining on my clock?

Yes you should have two minutes to reconnect to the game. I'll see if i can replicate it.

Sorry about this

Last night / early this morning I was playing a game and I kept on getting disconnected (it felt like just about every other move). This has never happened to me before so I just put it down to an ISP related problem. However, because of the numerous disconnects (maybe for no more than 10-20 seconds at a time) I found myself in time trouble towards the end of the game. I probably did have an ISP related problem because everything is back to normal now, but that doesn't explain losing more time than I was using because of the disconnects.

By the way I use: Windows XP, ADSL, and firefox.

I'm glad it's not just happening to me! lol

Really annoying when you lose rating points because of a system problem.

No this wasn't you. You're in the uk, so am i. So your 'late last night, early this morning' i was working in live chess and there was a problem in there around 1am.  We restarted the servers so this may be why now you're seeing it as being back to normal.  You experienced what everyone else in there was around that time

"Switch it off, then switch it back on again" works for me.

OK I will give Live Chess another go.

Hopefully this was a one-off and won't happen again.

Thank you for your help.

It doesn't surprise me to hear that  - I've got the same impression, although I don't know how they do it.

If there is any truth in it then it definitely needs investigating.

The point of my original post was that when I am disconnected, I often lose more time on the clock than has actually elapsed while I was away.

We are told that on one particular occasion this was due to a server problem but what about all the other times?

I still suffer regular disconnects and sometimes the time lost is excessive.

It sounds as though maybe I am just playing the wrong people! :-(

Yes good point Godspawn, let's just all stop playing then!

I have been experiencing the disconnection interruption for about 4 months.  Ironically, I was about to become a premium member then this issue of disconnection became increasing more frequent, so I have decided to hold off until this issue has been addressed.

It is quite frustrating because it can take up to several minute to reconnect and by that time the game is lost by abandonment or time.

Although I do realize "yes" this is only a game, I also realize that we have been attracted to the site so that we can play; for the love of chess...

It needs to be understood that this love means we would like to play complete games without worrying about and error that reads...

"connection disconnected....reconnection....loading...." 2 minutes later only to have the same thing happen again two games later, and so on and so on. 

If this is continued, What's the point?

Great site, I love the play and most of the opponents are awesome but the site has a serious bug that needs to be corrected...

I agree with dorian4, I was considering Premium membership too but the site is just too unstable. There is indeed a serious bug - when I started this topic they said that they were going to look into it but I haven't heard anything since.

A few minutes ago I lost a game on time with a time limit of 6min + 8 secs! I usually go for games with an increment these days, so that I can make up the time if disconnected.

In this game I was getting disconnected (although only briefly) on almost every move. I started to move "instantly" (less than 1 sec per move) but my time just kept on running down. Sometimes I would be disconnected when it was my opponent's turn and then reconnect only to find that it was still his move and his clock was still running but yet I had lost about 10 secs on my clock! That can't be right.

That is why I say that it is not just a connection problem - a lot of the problem is the way that the clocks are handled when a player disconnects and reconnects.

When I finally lost on time I had actually gone from a totally won position to totally lost, but only because my opponent had plenty of time to think over each move, whereas I had to react instantaneously (and even that turned out not to be quick enough).

No more Live chess for me, I will limit my games to Online. I do enjoy the Live chess when the site is running smoothly but the frustration when it doesn't means that it is not worthwhile playing.

The above questions again to you all who are having bad disconnection problems.

Guys, I need to know details in order to help you.  I know and understand you're all upset and frustrated by this issue, so am I, but I need details to check on please.  You need to help me help you  :)

Thank you for the offer but I don't require help as I have now stopped using Live chess.

I haven't encountered problems with the Online chess system.

This is something I've noticed, people say they won't buy a paying membership because of site problems.  Is this supposed to make the staff work on it faster?  Or is this some exuse for not buying one?

It's simple - the Live chess doesn't work reliably, so why would I want to pay for it?

It doesn't really worry me whether the staff are working on it or not.

with your name I would think that you would like losing.