Solve the lag problem, chess.com

I have been on this site nearly 3 years and I have only recently found out why I lose so many games at Blitz. I thought my very poor Blitz rating (compared to my Rapid, Daily and OTB ratings) was entirely due to my 74 year old brain not working quickly enough! Then a few  weeks ago I happened to see my opponent's clock suddenly gain a number of minutes whilst my clock reduced considerably ( possibly by the same amount). I then concluded it was probably due to a wifi fault or something in my house. Reading some posts on here, is it more likely due to latency problems caused by chess.com servers?

No, it's most likely something client side, something on your local network segment, or between you and the site.

Some sites just allow all lag and don't count it against either clock.

Thanks Martin, but what makes you think the problem is as you describe? What is different between my problem and the lag others in this thread experience? Is there anything I can do at my end to try and improve matters?

Verry laggy

There are some things you can do on your end to minimize issues.

https://support.chess.com/article/213-how-do-i-fix-my-disconnect-lag-issues

If the problem is being caused by something between you and the site, there may not be anything you can do. The site is working on a more distributed infrastructure for live games so eventually you'll connect to a server geographically closer to you, but I don't know how far along that project is or when it will be released. That should improve lag too.

Thanks for that Martin 👍

. Ever since a few months ago winning has been impossible because of cheaters. They always just lag switch to get extra time, about 50% of people get about 30 seconds extra against me for no reason. I used to be great at flagging people, now the moves all take my clock time mo matter which player. I have timed my moves, playing twice as fast as other players and still getting flagged.

Hi CalmMongoose

Apologies for my IT ignorance but I don't understand.  How can anyone lag switch to get extra time? And how can you know you are playing twice as fast as an opponent? Also how do you know they have received 30 seconds extra?

Chess.com used to show a chart showing how long you and your opponent took for each move. That seems to be no longer available.  Is that correct?

A lag switch will do nothing other than lag the person using it since the site only forgives a certain amount of lag. If it seems you're losing time too quickly, it's very likely you are experiencing excessive lag or disconnects.

https://support.chess.com/article/423-why-did-the-clock-times-suddenly-change-the-clocks-seem-broken

https://support.chess.com/article/213-how-do-i-fix-my-disconnect-lag-issues

@wba4rsj timestamps can still be shown 

I have a fine connection.  basically i can do everything else on the internet but play bullet chess, apparently. games, videos, multiple devices.  My test feed is about 200 mps.  Apparently, not fast enough for the chess.com servers.  For the money, this is a not a great service.

it lags horribly while playing bullet...my internet works fine on other website but don't know what is the problem with chesscom

Absolutey...chess.com is TERRIBLE. I lose about 66% of my time in a game from lag. I'm sure part of it is on my end. I regularly beat 2000+ in live chess. I just beat a 2100 9 out of 10 games on a 5 minute timer but on chess.com I"m a 1400 because of TERRIBLE LAG. It is like wearing weights when you train though and I am actually better because of chess.com's low quality performance. Always look on the bright side. Chess.com is the slums of the chess world!

Is there some way we can ask Chess.com to respond to each point we have raised in this thread?

Yeah, I also can't make progress with blitz because of the lag. just look at my games and see how many totally won games I've lost while making a move and then seeing that the opponent won as soon as he plays his move. I should have been 1800+ by now yet I can hardly pass 1600 because of this.
I'm giving up on this, totally unplayable. I tried everything: closing all other tabs, closing all wifi connected devices, nothing helps.

i was about to win my last game in a tournament after a 4 out of 4 score (i was going to get first), and then suddenly with 1 minute left everything disconnected. this is not the first time today. please fix this!!! this site has a serious reputation in the chess community! i'm not happy with what just happened and i'm probably not the only one who had such a thing.

here is the tournament: https://www.chess.com/game/live/56719215623

The servers are lagging so bad right I can't even play. It just says "Reconnecting..." and nothing is happening, yet my time keeps ticking down. Chess.com is already in the doghouse for banning Hans without a good explanation, and now this.

same problem here

I just lost a game due to disconnect, I have a completely stable connection, fix your site!!!!

Lost a 5/5 Blitz game this morning after 4 moves each. Dropped the connection, wouldn't re-connect & timed me out!! This is so annoying. I have had issues with dropped connection many times on this site, the most annoying was a Blitz game where it dropped the connection when my next move was an unstoppable checkmate! Grrrrrr!!