A: Please visit the following page for more information about getting started on GameKnot.

A: If a rated game ends with fewer than 3 moves made (so called "short game"), it will not affect your rating, and will be treated as an unrated game. The reason being, it's hardly possible to show that someone was winning or losing a game after only 2 moves.

Please note however, that short games still affect tournament results, team match results, etc., and only the rating will be unchanged. Also, please note, that in chess moves are counted in pairs — i.e. 3 moves means both opponents made 3 moves each.

» More about the rating system.

A: During the first 20 games, a special formula is used to quickly approximate player's rating. It is based on the opponents' ratings and the results of the games. This way it won't take many months for a higher rated player to reach their true rating. The downside however is that your rating can change significantly from game to game during your first 20 games on GameKnot. Including losing rating points after a win, if you play against opponents rated more than 200 points below your expected rating. However, once you complete your first 20 rated games, you will never lose rating points after a win.

» More about the rating system.

A: 24 hours are automatically added to all non-postponed games (but not to exceed the original time control) every Saturday between 5-6pm local GK time (PST) to prevent timeouts over the weekend for people who play from work/school and don't have computers at home. It is designed to ensure that if you make your move on Friday, you should have until the same time on Monday to make your next move.

Also, extra time will be added to all games in case of an unplanned website/network outage lasting more than an hour or due to any other extraordinary events (such as natural disasters, etc.) affecting the majority of players on GameKnot. A special announcement will be sent out to everyone in such cases.

Please don't rely on the extra time being added for you and always postpone your games manually using the link located directly below your active games list, if you need more time to make your next moves.

A: Unfortunately not. Please always use "analyze the board" feature to try different moves, before making the final move on the board.

A: There are several possible reasons why you might not be able to make a move:
Please make sure that you are logged in to your account on GameKnot from the front page.
Make sure it is your turn to move.
Please double-check that you are making a legal and valid chess move and that your King will not be in check after your move is submitted.
To move a chess piece on the board, first click on it (press the left mouse button and then quickly release it) and then click on the square you'd like to move it to (press the left mouse button and then release it). After you click on the chess piece, it will become "glued" to your mouse cursor, until you click on the destination square. If it doesn't happen, that means the chess piece you are trying to move has no valid moves available at this time.
Your web browser might be the cause. Please visit the following page for more information.

A: To change your username, please select Settings in GameKnot's main menu. Please note that this ability is reserved for our premium membership subscribers, and that usernames cannot be changed more often than once a year.

A: The link to request to reinstate a timed-out game is included in the e-mail and the private message you receive after the game is over. After you request to reinstate the game, a brand new regular (i.e. non-team, non-tournament, non-league, etc.) rated (i.e. it will also affect your rating and stats) game will be created with the same time control as the old one and starting with the last position on the board. Your opponent will be given an option to decline the reinstatement. The old timed-out game will still be counted towards your rating and stats (including team rating, tournament standing, league stats, etc. etc.). In other words, reinstating a game doesn't restore your previous rating nor stats. Please note that only the timed-out player can request the game reinstatement, and that each game can only be reinstated once.

A: To change your e-mail address, please select Settings in GameKnot's main menu.

A: Please visit the following page for general troubleshooting suggestions for many common problems/issues you might encounter.

A: To change the personal info shown on your stats/profile page, please select Settings in GameKnot's main menu.

A: To disable specific e-mail notifications or all of them altogether, please select Settings in GameKnot's main menu.

A: Please visit the following page for more information on how to resolve page loading problems.

A: Players without a premium subscription (i.e. with a free membership) can play simultaneously:
up to 2 games until you confirm your e-mail address
up to 6 games initially, plus 1 additional game for every 4 wins (any rated games), up to 12 games total maximum
no more than 10 games can be joined or started within 3 days (including cancelled games)

Premium membership subscribers can play simultaneously:
Silver up to 30 games
Gold up to 50 games
Platinum up to 100 games
Titanium up to 200 games

A: All of us would love to be able to play chess every day, however unfortunately the so-called "real life" often gets in the way. Which is why players can postpone their games when they need more time because something in their life is preventing them from playing chess. Having said that, we also limit how often and for how long games can be postponed, in order to prevent abuse of the game postponement feature.

Players can postpone their games for many valid reasons (due to holidays, vacation, illness, too busy at work, a new baby, broken computer, no internet access, etc., or simply to take a break from chess). Because games can take weeks or even months to be completed, it is not unusual that something will happen in one's life that will take priority, or will otherwise preclude one from making their moves, often due to circumstances beyond one's control. The majority of players also prefer to win by crushing their opponent on the chessboard, and not simply because their opponent was unable to make their move in time.

We do however have a number of limitations in the game postponement rules that prevent its abuse. Specifically, there is a "waiting period" after each postponement during which games cannot be postponed again. Also, if your opponent continues to make moves in any of his/her games during the postponement period, you will be able to cancel the postponement and restore the original time control for the game. The corresponding link will appear on the game page (above the chess board) that will allow you to cancel the postponement after your opponent makes 5 or more moves (in any of their games) during the postponement period.

Also, if you find your opponent's behavior annoying, you can always add them to your ignore list.

» Complete game postponement rules

A: Please subscribe to a premium membership. As you probably already noticed, free memberships are limited in many ways -- such as the number of games you can play at the same time and very limited access to many advanced features. Not being able to share the same computer with other players is one of such limitations (due to frequent abuse of our free accounts, unfortunately). By subscribing to a premium membership you will instantly gain full access to all features on GameKnot.

A: Please visit the following page for general troubleshooting suggestions for many common problems.

A: Unfortunately it's not possible, please continue playing using your current account.

If you wish to change your username, please refer to FAQ #7.

If you have an issue with your rating, please refer to FAQ #33.

A: If you are referring to some of your or other player's stats, please note that not all of the information shown on the website is updated in real-time. Some stats are updated hourly and some are updated daily/nightly. Please wait at least 24 hours and everything should be updated. If more than a day passed since you checked the last time, please visit the following page for more information.

A: When using regular time control (NN days per move), each player has the fixed number of days to make each move and the clock is restarted after each move is made. With the Fischer/incremental time control, each player has a time bank that is never restarted, but instead extra time is added to it after each move. It is much closer to the way how the real chess clock works when playing over the board, yet it is also very suitable for correspondence-style chess.

For example, if you are playing a game with "5d + 1d < 10d" time control, that means you have 5 days to make your initial move. Then 1 day is added to your clock on top of whatever time you had remaining at the time you made your move. That is how much time you will have to make your next move after your opponent makes theirs. And so on and so forth. For example, if you have 1 day and 8 hours remaining on the clock when you make your move, you'll have 2 days and 8 hours total (1 day added) to make your next move (after your opponent makes their move). The same calculations are made for your opponent, but using a separate time bank.

To avoid huge amounts of time accumulated by players, there is a limit on how many days you can have maximum (denoted by the "<" symbol). If the accumulated time exceeds this number, it will be reset to the maximum (i.e. 10 days in our example).

Needless to say, this time control was invented (and later patented) by Bobby Fischer.