Accepting Open Challenges

An open challenge is a request for a game that has not been accepted yet. Rather than letting chess.com randomly select your opponents for you, open challenges give you a little more control over selecting players, countries, ratings, etc. Chess.com has two ways (methods) to view and accept open challenges.

Play -> Play

The first method is by hovering over 'Play' on the left menu, then clicking 'Play' or '+ New Game'.

Click 'Custom Game', then click the 'Open Challenges' tab.

A graph shows open games looking for opponents, and the type of game they want to play.

The icons are different depending on what kind of game it is. You can see the legend below the graph to see each meaning.

Orange lines show your current ratings for the different time controls.

You can hover over an icon to see who the player is, their rating for their requested time control, and the country they are from. If you do not recognize a flag, you can hover over it to see the name of the country.

Above the graph are three filters to show certain types of games.

Clicking an icon for a live game immediately starts the game.

Clicking an icon for a daily game shows the game screen, where you can see further details about the game and the player, and decide whether to accept. You can see the player's record, whether you have played them before, their timeouts, average move speed, and more. You can use this information to decide if you want to accept the challenge.

For live and daily games, decide quickly. These challenges get accepted fast!

Play -> Live Chess

The second method is by hovering over 'Play' on the left menu, then clicking 'Live Chess'.

Click 'Open Challenges'.

A graph shows open games looking for opponents, and the type of game they want to play. Unlike the first method, this graph only offers live games and does not show the orange lines nor gives you filtering options. You can hover over an icon to get opponent information but does not spell out the country name when hovering over the flag.

Any filters you selected in the first method (Play -> Play) apply to this graph. To change the filters, you must use the first method above.

I recommend using the first method, because it provides more information and play options.

For additions, corrections, deletions, and updates to these instructions, please comment below. I am always looking to improve. Happy challenges!