How to know when chess.com is about to restart servers?

It happened to me again.

About 90 minutes ago, with a totally winning game (ahead by a queen vs. a minor piece, with my opponent having no counterplay), my 15/10 rapid game was aborted due to a server restart.

So, I missed out on the win (and rating points) that were all-but-guaranteed.

This is *extremely* frustrating.

Sometimes I see the little red box that appears before starting a game, warning about server restarting in x minutes - but it did not appear this time. If it were there, I would have noticed it and avoided starting a rapid game. It was not there.

Is there a place where it is possible to see the server restart schedule, or a part of the site to go to see if a server restart is imminent (apart from the aforementioned little red box, which I find doesn't always show up for me) so that this never happens again?

There's usually a banner leading up to the server restart, though that may only show up Ann hoe in advance. I know the old interface had a console message, in the chat area about scheduled restarts, but I think only the banner is in Play

I'm rarely up during the time of restarts, buy they are generally scheduled around the same time when they happen. I think it's normally 1 am Pacific (9 am UTC)

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, there is *normally* a banner when a server restart is on. But that banner did not appear for me today - and it's not the first time it's happened. Who knows why. Maybe something to do with my browser or the extensions I've got installed.

But what I'm looking for is a surefire way to know in advance when server restarts are coming - not relying on the banner.

I'll have to keep an eye out in the Play interface, to see where all it shows and  when exactly. 

Bumping this thread up - because I really want an answer.

Can anyone on the chess.com staff step in and help?

This is the red box which I'm talking about. Today it showed up for me, but it doesn't always.

This what I am looking for an alternative for, so that I know when the servers are about to restart - *not* relying on this notification, which doesn't always appear for me before games begin.

Found out there's a ticket about this and some solution should be available at some point.

Currently, there's a single instance of the live server process, as far as I'm aware. So, if they need to do maintenance or code fixes, they have to restart.  Until the site migrates to a more distributed live process, that's likely to be the case, since you don't want to prevent games from starting, while trying to age out existing games.

Also, not sure what your deal with Danny is, but he doesn't run the site. He's the Chief Chess Officer, and while likely has some pull, there's other decision makers, such as the CEO, @erik

This exact thing just happened to me. Playing on app. No notification or indication of server restart before game. Less than 3 minutes in, absolutely crushing position, up a Queen & knight. Win basically guaranteed. Game cuts out “aborted”. No elo points, nothing in history, and I don’t even get to analyze the game. Wtf. Not cool. If it’s a server restart, fine, but don’t let me start the game within minutes of a server restart when I’m selecting 10 minute rapid…

Idem, I think they are setting the banner on the website, but not the app. When playing on the app, all I get is a pop-up one minute before saying "Server about to restart!". Sometimes.

To add insult to injury, when the server restarts it never states plainly "The server is restarting, this game will be automatically aborted". Instead it behaves as if I'd lost the connection (shifting the responsibility to the player) and makes me scramble for 2 minutes trying to move my phone around to see if that would make a difference. Not cool.