You can choose to renew/create a new subscription at any time by clicking on "Rates" at the top of the page or by clicking on "My account" if you are logged in with your username.

If you are not logged in, creating your account can be done at the same time that you make your subscription.

We offer various payment methods such as secure payment by credit card, Paypal, bank transfer, by check (France only), and also by Audiotel services. If you pay by credit card, PayPal or Audiotel services, your subscription will be instantly extended. It will be deferred if paying by Check or Bank Transfer. 

You can get registered by clicking on the "Sign Up" button at the top right of the site.

Registration is free and there are no commitments. 

You can talk to all the players who are in the community (except during the 7-day trial period), unless they have indicated in their gaming preferences that they do not want to talk. So you can "chat" live on the game interface or send messages by e-mail via the website.

Chatting in the game interface

The chat box is placed to the right side of the chess board. After selecting the player with whom you want to talk from the list of players, you can type a message and hit the "Enter" key.

When your friends are online, they are automatically added to the list of players that you can talk to. Also your opponent will be added if you are playing a game.

In this list of players, when you observe a game, you'll notice that you can talk to them at "@game." This is a shortcut to send a message to all the observers of the game.

Sending a message via the website

Yes. You can create sub accounts by linking them to your main account. Each sub-account works as a real account and has its own preferences and statistics. The sub accounts have their limits where the main one is not being able to simultaneously connect with multiple sub-accounts.

At the start of our game interface, the chessboard is blank and the game does not start automatically. So if you want to move the pieces, they remain frozen.

To find an opponent, you must either send a proposal to play to a player or accept one from a player. In the game interface, the proposals to play are commonly called “challenges”.

 

You can send/accept proposals of play in the area at the left of the chessboard or ask the server to automatically find an opponent corresponding to the defined game settings.

Yes, it is possible. However at the moment you cannot do this online. You should contact us for the change. 2 options are available to you:

- Restart with a blank ranking

- Keep your current ranking

In any case:

- Your subscription will be moved to your new account

- Besides your rankings, your games, statistics and other content will not be retained.

It is possible to change accounts within a reasonable limit (1 or 2 times a year) or if it seems justified.

According to our Terms of use, it is prohibited:

- to insult other players or to make racist comments

- to use the game zone for commercial purposes or to advertise

You can immediately add the player to your blacklist. Such a list can be managed in the "Live gameplay" section of the site, or directly in the gaming interface. So this player will not be able to bother you. 

If a player made inappropriate remarks, write to us specifying:

- the username of the player involved

- make a screenshot of the game window (especially for serious insults this will be a proof for us to take action)

To take a screenshot:

* Press the “Print Screen” key on your key board.

* Then go to “Start”, “All programs”, “Accessories”, “Paint”.

* Once the "Paint" program is open, go to "Edit" and "Paste".

* You should see the picture of the screenshot you captured.

* You just have to “Save” it in .JPEG or .GIF format (choose the format from the drop down menu by avoiding .bmp, .tif or .doc formats which are unnecessarily too heavy)

Note: if the player is shown to be unpleasant because of bad remarks made by you or following your provocations, you may also be penalized.

What actions will be taken following the reported cases?

- warning if it is a first time reporting, unless the comments are considered serious

- removing the chat option

- deactivating the account temporarily or permanently

- filing a complaint if the comments fall within the scope the law

When you sign up, your login details will be sent immediately to the registered e-mail address. There can be several reasons for not receiving it:

- e-mail has gone to your spam folder (In this case check the contents of this folder)

- the syntax of the entered email is incorrect. In this case please contact us by specifying the relevant username and the correct e-mail address. We will do the correction and we will send you your password.

- your anti-spam system requests us a manual validation from the sender (an email was sent to us asking us to visit a site in order to confirm the dispatch of the email): use another email address. Welcome emails are automatic, and we cannot respond to these requests.

Do not hesitate to contact us in special scenarios, we will find a solution.

To castle, move the king two squares to the right for kingside castling and 2 squares to the left for queenside castling.

Castling is allowed under the following conditions:

            - all the squares between the king and the rook must be empty

            - neither the king nor the rook should have left their original position.

            - none of the three squares (starting square, passing squares, final square) should be controlled by an opponent's piece. (The rook then does not allow avoiding a failure)

According to our Terms of use, it is prohibited:

- to use analysis software without having an account accompanied by a (C). (C for Computer)

- to lose games intentionally or accepting multiple wins from a player who loses games voluntarily.

You can immediately add the player to your blacklist. Such a list can be managed in the "Live Game" site, or directly in the game interface. So that player can no longer annoy you.

If you see or suspect a player to break these rules, you can submit this game which is considered to be suspicious for verification within 24 hours.

Request for verification of a game

At the end of a game, on the right side of the interface, you will see the appearance of an exclamation mark. Click on it and select "Cheat". A window pops up allowing you to choose the game in question, and then to validate your request, which will trigger verification.

After the analysis of an administrator, if cheating is proven, the result of the game will be amended, Elo points will be recalculated and sanctions will be applied. If the game was played in a tournament, the tournament will be accordingly recalculated. The dishonest player will receive a regulations reminder and will be informed of the applied sanctions.

His opponents will also be informed that an action has been taken on one of their games.

In any case, the complainants will be informed of the actions taken on their report.

Sanctions that will be applied to the cheater will be the following:

- If this is the first time, players will receive a warning that will be kept on their file.

- In case of recurrence, players will receive a final warning before account suspension.

- In the third warning, the account will be suspended.

ELO rating for online games is not calculated in the same way as the official ratings. Here, the system used is called the Glicko system. It considers the rating volatility by calculating a RD parameter (rating deviation or standard deviation).

The bigger the RD parameter is the bigger the number of points won/lost will be. When the players start with a new rating, they are given a rating of 1720 points and a RD of 350.

Their rating will therefore adjust to their actual level due to large variations of points.

After each game, the RD parameter as well as the number of points won/lost decrease.

Just after 5 games, the RD parameter has lost half of its value. Above 100 games, it will vary only a little.

When you do not play for a long time, the RD parameter goes up in order to readjust its rating.

For more information about the calculation: take an aspirin and visit the website of its inventor :)(http://www.glicko.net/glicko/glicko.doc/glicko.html)

You can request to send your password on this page. For obvious security reasons, your password will be sent only to the e-mail address that is entered during the sign up. If you think you have entered a wrong e-mail address during the sign up or for any other special cases, contact us.

The game is declared as a defeat for the person who goes offline and the victory is given to his opponent. However, there are special scenarios:

- If the players reconnect within 20 seconds, they can return to the game and continue playing it.

- If the player who goes offline has a material advantage of at least 3 pawns (or a piece) the game shall be counted as a defeat for him, but no Elo points are removed from him. However, his opponent will normally earn the Elo points.

- I cannot enter into the game zone

It is helpful to clearly define the type of problem that you are having.

Is it a display problem?

Does the game screen appear? Or does the display remain blank?

If nothing appears, you probably will have to download or update the latest version of the Flash plugin to run the application properly. Download link:

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Is it a connection problem?

Note the error message that appears.

Here are the most common error messages:

* Connection closed: It means that your computer is unable to connect to our server:

1. Make sure you are connected to the Internet (try to surf a web page to test the connection or refresh the page that you are currently browsing)

2. Check the rules of your firewall (Refer to the documentation for your firewall software). The connection should be allowed to outbound ports 443 and 843.

            * Your subscription has expired: Make sure to renew in order to instantly regain access

            * Login banned: Your account is suspended. Contact an administrator to find out the reason.

            * Your IP address is banned from connection: due to an abuse and whatever it is, your username and your connections is banned.  Contact an administrator to find out the reason.

            * Too many active connections under your IP address: Too many connections are being used under your IP address.

We have a 24/7 monitoring service of our servers, including the quality of the network connection. In rare cases (Less than 20 cases per year) the server can be down due to a crash down of the server or a scheduled maintenance. Generally, it is due to maintenance and the disconnection does not occur suddenly. A message appears in the game interface alerting you of the closing down of the connection for a certain period of time.

Furthermore, we analyze the disconnection cases that are reported to us and do the necessary research to rule out any problems of the server.

Unlike browsing websites or watching videos, playing online games require a persistent and a perfectly uninterrupted connection.

The interruption of the connection can have several reasons and among the most common are:

- Connection mode:

For an optimal connection, choose the network cable connection. USB or Wi-Fi connections are indeed considered less stable. However if you have no choice but to sign in to a Wi-Fi network, here are some explanations and advice.

Wi-Fi connections are quite difficult to maintain due to the low transmission power. The quality of the Wi-Fi signal is highly dependent on factors such as the material used (transmission/reception antenna) or the obstacles between the antennas (metal parts).

Here are some tips that can make Wi-Fi network more reliable:

- Place the Wi-Fi antenna about 30 cm away from the wall.

- Place the antennas at a right angle, one with relative to the other (perpendicularly)

- Choose 1, 6 or 11 transmission channels to avoid interference from other appliances or telephony. (The channel is set in the ADSL Box or the router. Refer to documentation)

- The signal must be at least "Good" or "Very Good" or "Excellent". Otherwise, the signal will be too weak and the interruptions may occur.

- Warned Users: In Windows XP, the energy saving can create network interruptions. (To resolve this issue, go to properties of the network adapter and disable "Allow Windows to deactivate this device.")

- Warned Users: In Windows XP, also the network may reset itself after some time. (To resolve this issue, edit the system registry. In the code HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesLanmanServer, add or modify the key word Autodisconnect (DWORD) with the value of ffffffff (Hexadecimal) or 4294967295 (Decimal)

- Connection:

- The quality of your ADSL filters is important (brand filters). Also verify that there is an ADSL filter in all the sockets to which a telephone is connected.

- The use of a telephone extension cord can cause problems. Take them out whenever possible. (There are special ADSL extensions that are shielded and less prone to losses)

If the problems persist, perhaps it will be wise to contact your service provider to verify your connection line/ your ADSL device (Box or router). You can request your service provider to measure the actual capacity of your ADSL line. If they tell you that the actual data connection speed is less than what you have subscribed for, you can ask to go for a lower speed and the quality of your connection can be improved.