Hacking clock at Chess.com

I made definitely less time to make decisions than my opponent, I was cheated on the clock. 

https://www.chess.com/live/game/3528359016

just stop cheating 

Today  my opponent  ( public accusations ate not allowwd -- MOD ) had a new way to  hack the clock.   ON the very last move,  he paused  for a long time (i felt it during the game).    But  the  time  taken  did not  get assigned to him.  But rather,  that  long time (33 seconds in a bullet game)  got assigned to me  when i made my next move  (which happened to become the last move).  I knew for sure that i had not taken a long time for that move and hence  this was a clear  cheat.  I don't  know how these guys  hack the clock, but it happens  a lot to me  in bullet games (more than  blitz games).   Very often the  clock would suddenly  assign  a huge value to me   (and then it becomes obvious to me that i am playing a hacker).  But i am tired of reporting these, because  obviously  chess.com  is unable to figure out  the security flaws and loop holes in their  software.   

Since so many  on the forums are complaining,  one of the following  must be true...

1. Either  there indeed  is a  loophole that  the geeks have figured  to exploit  for time cheats.
2. OR,   the  chess.com  server   has  some bug  that  causes  random  miscalculations  in  "where to assign the  time"    ie.   instead  of  assigning  the time taken to  the correct side,  the server  assigns  the    time taken  to  the  wrong  player  and hence  it  appears  to the world that  someone  is  cheating  (in fact  he is not cheating,  but  the server  has  bugs related to  time management   when  thousands  of games are being played).

I know from experience  these kind of bugs  (random, not  repeatable  easily)  in any computer system  are  the  hardest  to  find  and fix.  Hence   we can not  blame  chess.com much either.   It  takes  genius  level  programmers  to  find these kind of bugs  and  they usually  work for google (not chess.com).

If you had poor connection, it could've been that he moved but you didn't receive the move or anything he did, but chess.com did, so their servers started counting down your clock, but you didn't know because you hadn't gotten any information from them. Then when you finally got something from them, he'd made his move, and your clock was counting down for your move.

They say it's possible to hack EVERYTHING on Mister Chess Dot Com.

Totally on ur side anirban john !....when I play rated games ?....it happens now & again....and the higher the rating ?....the more so.

It's NEVER....I repeat, it's NEVER-EVER happened in a non-rated game.

Hmm - i  should try some non rated games and see if  i face this  issue.   I have played  thousands of  games,  and  now can say that i have also faced  the issue  of  suddenly  the  clock  "blinking"  when  opponent  gets  into  a  bind  and  is about to lose.  Suddenly  the  timer would become an issue, forcing  error moves on my part  or timer running out on me.   The  volume of people  who are complaining of similar things  points  to  the  same  bug  in the server  OR  the option of  security flaws   and exploitation  by  third world  geeks  who  are  good in  software  engineering.

It's NOT the server. Else why would it happen when it does ?

YKW ?....the times it has happened to me ?....I was winning them in broad fashion ! It's never happened when I was the beneficiary nor when I was remotely losing !

(....the more I think about this the madder I'm getting....starting2seethe !)

If you're seeing portal's and stuff, you aren't the only one doing drug's here. Let the time hacking begin ! 

Stop it richie....just stop.

(whatever ur on....)

I'll just say that your opponent flat out cannot hack your clock. To do that they need full access to our server. If they managed to that there are lot better things they could do than mess with your clock. 

Likely something else is happening. Lag or other internet issues. 

that clocks flashing on both sides was telling you you had lost connection mate , you did the right thing and refreshed the page but I think your time limits caused you to forfeit , due to lack of reconnection in time

a few tips ive found to help connection are clearing those cookies your comp might have picked up as you've browsed the web , get shut of them delete browser history but keep passwords obviously , hope this helps , perhaps longer time controls in game too soo you get more time to reconnect

OR...

A handful of users out of 60,000 online at a given time don't understand how the internet works, and blame momentary loss of connection on hacking.  If someone can prove that all of their *time-dependent transactions* online are working at the exact moment they lose clock time at chess.com (not just some other browser tabs that can retry the connections without visible effects anyway), then you can *start* to make a case,

You tell me the most likely cause.

OK - for test, i played  unrated now against  4 different players.  Timer was 2/1  and  one game of 1 minute.  All unrated in total about 10 + games.   What a surprise.....following were my observations:

1. Ratings of the 4 players who accepted my unrated challenge randomly  issued..... (Bullet / Blitz ratings are as follows) :    1668/1752 (michaelshuler),   1728/1575  (cmgeremyblake),   1610/2032 (aktepe6),  1862/1851 (Appollyonn).     I  beat  all of these players  without much trouble.
2. Timer was the biggest surprise.  It felt like i had ton of time  and in many cases i wound up with 1 minute  left on clock (nearly)  when i checkmated them or they resigned.  The feeling of play was  very different  from rated games where i would  feel that my clock runs  down much faster.  I have nearly  lost about half my games due to timer issues  in rated games.
3. The level of play indicated  that i can  easily  beat a  2000 +  player  in an  unrated game even though  my  bullet rating is about 1500.  One  guy did a chat with me and  did acknowledge this fact  (and his rating was nearly 1900).
4. So,  the  sample  is very small (only  about 15 games)   but  this does indicate something. Perhaps  a sample size  of  50  to 100 rated games is something i will try next, to  prove there indeed is a timer issue in rated games.

Just for the record - i have never lost connection (to chess.com or  any other site).  I have rock solid  internet  connection  from  my  cable company  that  has 100%  uptime / connection  in nearly 2 decades.   My internet connection has gone down  less than 5 times in 2 decades.  So,  rule out connection  issues  (true for most USA players  with cable modem).    I know enough about computer networks   to  understand  what is lag and  what  my lag is  etc.   Lag is also not  a issue.

In order to  hack  timer,  geeks do not have to  go into  the server (which is hard) - they can hack the  javascript  (or whatever else  chess.com is using)  and gain  into loop holes.  

that clocks flashing on both sides was telling you you had lost connection mate , you did the right thing and refreshed the page but I think your time limits caused you to forfeit , due to lack of reconnection in time

Not true. I have reconnected within 15 seconds (w/@ least 2 minutes left on each side !) and it kept flashing AFTER reconnecting. 

No, this could potentially be a new online chess variant, this serious stuff we're talking about right here.

A handful of users out of 60,000 online at a given time don't understand how the internet works, and blame momentary loss of connection on hacking.

Interesting, that we haven't heard from those on the 'benefit' side of getting a win this way. Yet, when I check afterwards ?....they clearly show a win against me as I show a loss. Wut always happens is I go frozen, reboot the site, & then can't get into the game until I time out !....& something else, it's happened to me when it's THEIR move !

It's bullshat & now I'm starting to seethe just thinking about it !....wutd I do ?