Clock of opponent always stops counting down correctly!

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Holtzi96

I start hating this.. I have lost about 25 games like this! My oponent runs out of time, while I have plenty left. Clock counts down normally until about 15 sec before his time runs out. Then the clock starts adding time to his clock after each of his moves. Eventually I run out of time... What the.... Can someone please help? It's frustrating.. Thanks!!

Kansha

Hi there,

What you are experiencing is caused by internet lag.

http://support.chess.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/91/0/why-did-the-clock-times-suddenly-change-the-clocks-seem-broken

http://support.chess.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/121/0/what-is-lag-and-what-are-the-colored-lag-indicators-in-live-chess

Holtzi96

I cannot believe that... It just happens in the last seconds of the game... And it does not happen on my side... My clock keeps moving as in the beginning... But my opponent's clock DOES not end often times... If it was an internet lag, then it would likely happen also during the beginning and middle of the game... It really sucks... If someone has 10 sec left, I don't get it why he has then 13 seconds left a minute later... Any help very much appreciated, since chess.com is great, but this issue is terrible... Thanks in advance!

omnipaul

The server's lag corrections tend to get worse as the game progresses.  Not only that, but you're paying more attention to the clocks as time runs low.  Both of these contribute to you noticing this effect more in the last few seconds of the game.

The clock you see running for "your" clock is tracked on your computer, so of course it isn't going to be affected by internet lag.  This also explains why you might suddenly lose all of your time - the server finally tells your computer that your [official] time has run out and your computer updates the clocks to show the final result.

Holtzi96

It seems I have not artulated it well enough...one more try: if my opponent e.g. has 10 seconds left, it ALWAYS counts down to zero within 10 seconds and it is my win (because of time). That just happens if the opponent does not make a move withinthose 10 seconds. If he moves... Then actually time is added and added etc. There is definitely a bug, I can tell you that...

DrFrank124c

Its true! I think some people have found a way to cheat by manipulating the clock! Something should be done about this!

leopardseal

I have this time problem on several games can anthing be done about it 

omnipaul

No.  It is the server trying to compensate for lag.  The times shown on your computer are not accurate, especially your opponent's.  The server tries to guess at the amount of lag time that you and your opponent are experiencing and compensates for that.  Sometimes it is wrong, however, if there is a sudden spike of lag.  If your opponent's time appears to go up, that is the server realizing that there is more lag than expected and compensating the player with the appropriate time.  You never see the effect on your time because your computer is keeping track of your time without lag.  Your opponent would probably actually see the same thing happening to your time on their computer.

snickersma

I've lost count on the number of games I've lost in a winning position ... When I have like 30 secs left in a two minute game and my opponent maybe 5-10 ..

I move ... And wait while my opponent clocks out - the computer (my iPad) thinks ... Thinks .. Then it comes up that I just lost on time.

Now - I think I have won maybe 1% of games like this .. My opponent seems to stop moving.

Maybe it's just a perspective thing .. But it really feels like your opponent disconnecting themselves when they are about to lose - causing your own clock to time out because the server hasn't correctly added your move to the board ... Or something like that ..

leopardseal

I have experience most of the above I have changed my provider to Chess24 I am only an average player and losing games on time in this manner is annoying 

Kuyakoy1975

Lots of cheaters!!!

NoviceT808
It happened to me most of my games, often I just resign after 10 moves (you can't resign any earlier!) and let the cheaters win. Could chess.com please allow earlier resign than this because there is no point playing!!!
krazyattackingplayer

I have seen the exact same thing. Winning position, with plenty of time left and for some strange reason, my moves are locking up and his/her moves are lightning fast. This always happens when opponents are in a lost position. I also notice their connection status is quite strong, BUT as soon as the position is lost for them, they disconnect from the game, reconnect and their moves are all of a sudden super fast, while mine lock up. I think they are cheating.

krazyattackingplayer

If it was lag, it would be occurring randomly through out the entire game.

Falcon87
krazyattackingplayer wrote:

I have seen the exact same thing. Winning position, with plenty of time left and for some strange reason, my moves are locking up and his/her moves are lightning fast. This always happens when opponents are in a lost position. I also notice their connection status is quite strong, BUT as soon as the position is lost for them, they disconnect from the game, reconnect and their moves are all of a sudden super fast, while mine lock up. I think they are cheating.

I just lost a a game in the same way, am i playing too slow? it seems my opponent is playing slow but when i look at his clock, the clock is not moving! wtf? chess com is horrible now!

Martin_Stahl
Falcon87 wrote:
krazyattackingplayer wrote:

I have seen the exact same thing. Winning position, with plenty of time left and for some strange reason, my moves are locking up and his/her moves are lightning fast. This always happens when opponents are in a lost position. I also notice their connection status is quite strong, BUT as soon as the position is lost for them, they disconnect from the game, reconnect and their moves are all of a sudden super fast, while mine lock up. I think they are cheating.

I just lost a a game in the same way, am i playing too slow? it seems my opponent is playing slow but when i look at his clock, the clock is not moving! wtf? chess com is horrible now!

 

https://support.chess.com/article/423-why-did-the-clock-times-suddenly-change-the-clocks-seem-broken

 

https://support.chess.com/article/213-how-do-i-fix-my-disconnect-lag-issues

 

guardrose

Hi, everyone, I've got the same problem many times and it's not lag 100%, as you told it usually starts at the end of the game, only one or two times I won in that battle, but I had more than 40 sec in reserve. But If you have 30 sec and your time traveller opponent has 10, 99% you would lose. Support is not responding on that((( I suppose here are many bots playing and only imitating human behaviour, in the end they start showing true faces. It is not lag, believe, lag is always twice to you and your opponent, also I check connection after these situations every time, and it ok with minimum delay always.

Martin_Stahl
guardrose wrote:

Hi, everyone, I've got the same problem many times and it's not lag 100%, as you told it usually starts at the end of the game, only one or two times I won in that battle, but I had more than 40 sec in reserve. But If you have 30 sec and your time traveller opponent has 10, 99% you would lose. Support is not responding on that((( I suppose here are many bots playing and only imitating human behaviour, in the end they start showing true faces. It is not lag, believe, lag is always twice to you and your opponent, also I check connection after these situations every time, and it ok with minimum delay always.

 

Lag isn't all the time and can be dynamic. Your opponent can't see your connection details and can't cause lag for you and since the server keeps the official clocks, they can't manipulate that either.

TANightingale

It's an excruciatingly annoying problem, but it seems as if the technical staff can't, or will not, do anything about it.

Martin_Stahl
TANightingale wrote:

It's an excruciatingly annoying problem, but it seems as if the technical staff can't, or will not, do anything about it.

 

Lag happens and can't be fixed exactly. The site can make the client and server code as robust as possible and get the best connectivity they can, but lag will still happen.

 

There is a decision on on how to handle it:

  • Ignore lag completely and only account for move times; downside is that a game can last a lot longer than it should based upon the agreed upon time.
  • Count all lag as part of the move time; no one really wants that.
  • Use the code to set the move time on the client and allow some maximum amount of lag that is not counted; this is what the site does.

So many things can influence lag. Other code and processes running on the client (multiple tabs with background processes, download, streaming, ads for basic members, etc), wireless vs wired connectivity,  other traffic on the local network, the member's ISP and traffic on their network,  any of the routers/networks between the ISP and the chess.com servers, down to the site servers/network/code. The site only controls a small portion of that.

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