Time manipulation

I have been playing on chess.com for a while now and recently I have noticed some possible cheating.  Here is the problem: My computer suddenly says I am "disconnected".  The game pauses for a short period of time and suddenly the game resumes.  Sounds like an internet connection problem right? Read on... 

When this happens it is usually during the end game when I have the game won and the move is obvious.  Additionally, my opponents time is usually about to expire.  All aspects of the game are the same with the acception of one diffrence "the time".  When I return my opponent suddenly has my time and I have theirs.  This lack of time is causing me to lose the game on time. To note  I usually play one minute games. 

This seems inocent at first glance and Initally I would chalk it up to internet connection.  However, what doesn't make sence is that I usually watch the clock closley and again this only seems to be happening when my opponent is one move away from losing or his/her time is about to expire. 

Is this some type of program minuplation or is there an explination for why this is occuring?

Hi, from how you have decribed the situation, I think there might be a problem with the program you can check with the administrator. You are right that someone might be manipulating the program by tweaking the program. I think that you should try to open a new tab and check whether your internet has a problem when this happens again.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the posts. It just happened! My opponent had just 3 seconds left and I had nearly 15 seconds remaining. I was in position to mate in two. The game, again, suddenly stopped and I was temporarily disconnected. Again, the game resumed after about a 5 second pause. When I returned my time was now expired and my opponent had 23 seconds remaining and I was at zero. This has to be more than coincidence.  

It's not more than a coincidence, sorry. Why does this only happen to you for example?

Very suspicious

I think that u should report this to the webmaster and request for the problem to be solved

if you disconnect your time keeps ticking away. So disconnecting in a blitz game means that you lose. I have a really unreliable wireless and I've lost many games because of this.

Something similar happened to me a while ago - it was my opponents move, he timed out but he was given the win as if I had timed out.

Thats the same with me. My opponents time is out then 14 more seconds were on hiss clock agian

EXPLANATION:

if you disconnect when it's your opponent's turn you will see his clock going down. If he moves while you're disconnected his time on the server will stop going down (and yours will start decrease) but on your computer it will continue the countdown for him. So when you reconnect your browser updates the real time of the server and your opponent's time jumps up. All normal.

For example, you disconnect with you having 30 sec and your opponent having 1.30 and it's his move. If he moves 15 sec later his time on the server will be 1.15. But on your browser it will keep going down - let's say you reconnect after 30 sec, in your browser you have 1.00 your opponent and 30 secs you. But the real time in the server is effectively 1.15 for him and 15 secs for you. When you reconnect you get synchronized and it seemed like your opponenet increase his time, but it's all correct.

Is there a long pause before it says you are disconnected?

If you are disconnected, it will wait about 10-15 seconds before telling you and trying to reestablish a link. In one minute matches, this is pretty much a guaranteed loss.

Oh, it happens to me too. You probably have an excellent connection, so it doesn't happen to you.

I have a decent internet connection and coincidently my opponents have never used any kind of time manipulation cheating on me!

What luck!

Sorry brah I do not believe they are all using some kind of time manipulation...

Cobra - are you using an app? If you are, that could be the problem. Regardless, I believe the problem is almost certainly caused by your software, computer or connection. I'd like to be able to pull the plug on my opponents sometimes, but there's just no way.

I didn't mean disconnecting only happens to him, remember he was saying that it was his opponents deliberately making him disconnect.

This is correct.

And if you have a poor internet connection, you shouldn't play fast time controls... I guess if you reached a mate in two position with 15s vs 2s that it was bullet.

That's being unfair, not everyone lives in a country with good Internet options.

...and ?

This is the only way to keep people from really cheating by artificially disconnecting to take more thinking time.

It's like saying chess.com is unfair because it is accessible only to people who have an Internet connection.

It's not always that simple, I have several times experienced the same problem, although I have a very good internet connection. The connection to the Live server fails at times for some reason, while at the same time the connection to other websites (including the regular chess.com website) is fine.