1. The board is hidden to prevent people studying the board for their next move while they are waiting to reconnect.
2. If the clock stopped during disconnection/reconnection, people may abuse this to stall for more time.
3. Working on this one.
All players have 2 minutes to return to the game, if a player doesn't return within that time the game ends by adandonment.
Thanks for your comments, kohai.
1. if the clock still runs, while people should be prevented from using her/his time to study the board? What about the opponent's board, is that hidden as well during the reconnecting period?
2. Isn't the clock is managed by the server. Fics (free internet chess server) has server based time seal function. Maybe similar function can be introduced here.
Now I understand why my games were abondoned after two minutes. It seems to be too harsh in my opinion.
By the way, what's the best way to get reconnected to the live chess server? Just sit there waiting or close and reload the whoe page?
#1. If you and i were in a game, and i disconnected, i wouldn't see the board during that disconnection/reconnection period, but you would.
Not everyone has a good connection and some have slow computers, so its not easy for everyone to reconnect in 1 minute for example.
2 minutes was tested by staff and was added as that as the average time it takes to reconnect. Its not that long to wait, just feels longer because you're sat waiting for it :)
If your page is one that does take time to reload, try (when not playing, but maybe just observing someone elses game), leaving live chess by closing that window/tab, then coming back in. See how long it takes to get back in then and compare it to how long it takes to reconnect after a proper disconnection.
Only you on your pc will be able to determine which is the quicker solution for you.
What's the logic behind the idea to hide the board when someone trying to get reconnected while his/her opponent has the view of the board? Isn't this utterly unfair?
I still think the 2min limit for reconnection is too short. Do you have statisitics on the percentage of games that were abondoned after this is implemented on the site.
Again, I appreicate your comments and thoughts!
#1. If you and i were in a game, and i disconnected, i wouldn't see the board during that disconnection/reconnection period, but you would.
I don't underatand that at all. If I disconnect, my clock is still running; why shouldn't I be able to use the time to think? It doesn't make sense that the only person who can see the board is the one who's clock is not running. Not to mention that this doesn't punish people who disconnect; it punshes people who disconnect and don't have a good idea of the gamestate in their head.
I am recently on vacation in China. I played quite many live games with broadband internet connection in two major cities. It seems the live game support isn't very stable here. Sometimes it takes several mintues to load the initial page. I could also experience interrupted connection several times within one game. When it happens, the web page tries to load the game from starting position so I can't use that time to think about the position even my clock is still running. What's worse is when reloading of the game fails after the connection comes back, the server decides that I lose the game because it's abandoned?! Ｉlost my last two rated games because of that. What's funny is both me and my opponent still have lots of time on the clock.
So I wonder what's the experience of other players playing live games from China?
And I suggest the following improvements: