A: You can see the listing of all tournament rounds you are playing in by selecting
Tournaments or
Compete → Tournaments in GameKnot's main menu, and scrolling down the page. There is a "withdraw" link available for each tournament on that page.
However please note that it is only possible to withdraw from the future tournament rounds. If the round had already started (i.e. the games have been started), it is no longer possible to withdraw.
A: We strongly believe that the future is in the open web standards (i.e. web apps and HTML5) and not in the proprietary apps for closed systems like iPhone, etc.. We would much rather focus on creating the best possible experience for our players right in their web browser, instead of supporting and maintaining custom apps for the multitude of various smartphones and PDAs out there.
We do however provide a
mobile version of GameKnot over at
m.gameknot.com for handheld devices with small screens. It's a smaller and lighter version of our website however, so it doesn't have all the features present on our main website.
A: All Chess Tactics exercises were generated using a powerful chess engine, so all solution moves are guaranteed to be the best possible and by a wide margin (the second best move and its score is shown when reviewing the solution on the right side of the page).
Please note that the goal of Chess Tactics is to gain
maximum advantage in the
shortest possible number of moves. You are likely overlooking something, that makes your solution not as quick, or it does not increase the material advantage as much, or both. Keep analyzing, and you will surely find the overlooked move.
A: Please see the following page for the complete Chess Rules (extracted from FIDE's Laws of Chess):
»
Chess Rules
A: Due to the extra load on the servers and considerable server resources required for the update of the
Games DB (it takes several days for the complete refresh), it is only done several times per year. You can expect to have your most recently completed games added to the main database in about 2-3 months. However, it usually takes less than 24 hours for your personal database to be updated after you make the corresponding request.
A: The way chess engines work (an extremely simplified explanation) is by attempting every possible continuation to the given position on the board and then analyzing the resulting position. Because the number of possible responses to every possible move grows exponentially with each subsequent move, and the chess engine has a limited time to analyze each position in the game, it can only analyze up to a limited depth (i.e. how many moves ahead). It is quite possible that just past the last analyzed move in the suggested continuation there is something that leads to a loss of material, or even a checkmate. The chess engine simply hasn't looked that far ahead. It if has, it would have chosen a different move prior to that, or 2 moves prior to that, etc..
In light of that, the last few moves in the suggested continuation shouldn't be "trusted" as much as the earlier moves. The playing strength of a chess engine is generally proportional to how deep they can analyze the position (i.e. how many moves ahead). Grandmaster level is 10-15 moves deep. However, near the end of the suggested continuation the analysis depth is only 1-2 moves, which makes it a beginner level. But it doesn't invalidate the entire suggested continuation in any way. It's just the way chess engines work in general.
A: As per the
chess rules (paragraph 3.5), castling is not allowed if the King has to pass through a square that is attacked by an opponent's piece. However, it if perfectly legal for the Rook to do so.
A: Sorry, unfortunately it is not possible to reuse the username for an account that was previously closed or deleted — mostly due to technical issues, because some of the old games, annotations, puzzles, etc. can still be referencing the old username. Please simply sign up for a new account with a new username.
A: Please make sure you do not have any more active games, and you are not playing in any mini-tournaments, and you have withdrawn from all other competitions (League, Ladder, etc.) — if you'd like to cancel your account on GameKnot please use the following link:
permanently close account.
Please note that this action is permanent and cannot be undone, and that your user name cannot be used again (i.e. you won't be able open a new account with the same user name later on), so please make absolutely sure that's what you want. It would be much more advisable to keep your account open, just in case you return to playing chess in the future (you never know!).
A: If you get a lot of email notifications, but you do not open most of them, sometimes Gmail can decide to classify GameKnot notifications as "junk mail" (spam) and simply discard them.
To make sure that you always get all email notifications, here's what you can do:
- Open any of GameKnot email notifications in your Inbox or Spam folder (if it ended up there).
- Click on 3 vertical dots in the upper right corner of the message ("More" menu). It is usually located next to "Reply" button and the date/time of when the message was sent. If you still can't find it, look for the star icon towards the upper right corner of the page.
- Select "Filter messages like this" in the drop-down menu.
- Make sure
is in "From" field. Edit or enter it manually, if needed.
- Make sure all other fields are empty and no check-boxes are selected.
- Click on "Create filter with this search" link in the bottom right corner.
- Check "Never send it to Spam" check-box.
- Press [Create filter] button.
Alternatively, if you can't find any GameKnot notifications to open:
- Click on downward-pointing triangle at the end of the main search field ("Show search options" menu). It is usually located at the top of the page.
- Enter
in the "From" field.
- Make sure all other fields are empty and no check-boxes are selected.
- Click "Create filter" link in the bottom right corner, next to [Search].
- Check "Never send it to Spam" check-box.
- Press [Create filter] button.
A: The user login is stored as "cookies" in your web browser. Please make sure that cookies are enabled and properly configured in your web browser. For example, don't set your web browser privacy settings too high, or don't configure it to automatically clear the cookies when you exit.
Please make sure you are not using "Private Browsing" option or the "incognito mode" (depending on your web browser) when accessing GameKnot, as it will prevent your user information from being saved between sessions.
Also, please make sure that the date on your computer is set correctly, so that the cookies won't expire prematurely.
Also, please make sure that any other software packages you may have installed on your computer are not interfering in any way. Some older anti-virus programs can cause cookies to be deleted at random times. Try temporarily disabling your anti-virus program, or switch to using a different program, to make sure there is no interference.
A: You have just joined a so-called "thematic mini-tournament". A mini-tournament can be created with predefined first several moves. You can see the starting moves by clicking on the "mini-tournament" link on the game page (in the right upper corner). Because each player plays 2 games, one for each side, even if the starting moves are not equally balanced for each side, it is not possible to use thematic mini-tournaments to gain unfair advantage.
A: It is a perfectly valid strategy in chess to play for the draw, if otherwise you are faced with losing the game. It is up to you to find a way to checkmate your opponent, despite their best efforts to tie the game. There is absolutely nothing unsportsmanlike about using the threefold repetition rule (
FAQ #39) or the threat of a stalemate (
FAQ #37) to one's advantage.
A: You can log out from your account via GameKnot's front page. The corresponding link is located near the top of the page, where you enter your username and password when logging in. To quickly access the front page from any other page, simply click on GameKnot logo in the upper left corner of the page. If you are leaving your computer unattended in a public place and want to make sure that no one else can interfere with your games, it is recommended to close all web browser windows as well, after you click the "log out" link.
A: When you postpone your games, you should receive a confirmation message via the GameKnot messaging/notification system, that will include the date and time until which your games were postponed. Please click
MESSAGES in the main menu to make sure that you did receive the confirmation. Please double-check that you returned to playing your games prior to the indicated date and time (until which you postponed your games). You can also access the main
game postponement page for the log of 5 most recent postponements that you made. If you did in fact postpone your games, you should see a line in the log that shows when and for how long you had postponed your games. If you do not see the record of your postponement, it is likely that you simply thought about it, or meant to do it before leaving, but didn't actually postpone your games. Please refer to the main
game postponement page for more information, including the game postponement
rules.
A: All chess puzzle solutions are automatically verified by the software to be correct and complete. Please select "Options" -> "All moves graph" in the bottom right corner of the chess puzzle window to get the complete listing of all moves for the correct solution.
Please note that we do not automatically verify that the current solution is the absolute shortest/fastest, so it is still possible that there is another solution in a fewer moves. If you think you have found an alternative or shorter solution, please enter it via "Options" -> "Another solution". You would have to provide moves that lead to a checkmate, and a virtual opponent will automatically iterate through all possible responses, to prove that your solution is complete.
A: Please simply keep playing. It is not a permanent restriction on your account, just an automatic check of how many games you have lost in the past 40 days in under 16 moves. Chess games normally take over 30 moves to complete on average, and we keep getting complaints that players are attempting to cheat by routinely losing quick games to lower their rating. It would be in everyone's best interest to discourage this behavior as much as possible.
It can also affect players that are not attempting to cheat in anyway. However, even if you did not lose these games on purpose, the "abnormally" quick losses did affect your chess rating so it does not match your true playing ability. Which means any new opponents who did not thoroughly check your profile page, and your rating graph, will likely be unpleasantly surprised when your playing level does not match your current rating. Which will be especially the case in competitive environments like tournaments and teams.
So please keep playing and winning games normally. Your rating will recover by the time this 40-day "timeout" is over, and you'll be able to participate in tournaments and team matches again.
A: Players' rating can change significantly over the time it takes for a tournament round to be completed. As per GK tournament rules, the rating limits for each section are only enforced at the start of the 1st and the 2nd round. The reason for enforcing rating limits in the earlier rounds only, is that otherwise it would be possible for someone to "sneak" into the higher section via the lower section by keeping their rating low, and thus avoiding playing higher-rated opponents and avoiding early elimination. Until the later rounds, when the player would allow their rating to go over the limit and be transferred to the higher section. If you see a player with a rating exceeding the limit for your tournament section, they've simply improved their chess playing skills and their rating rose after the start of the 2nd round.
A: Please use the following page to buy a premium membership for someone else on GameKnot as a gift:
gift premium membership.
Please don't forget to enter the username of the player you'd like to give the premium membership to in the corresponding field. Most of the time your payment will be processed immediately, but in some cases please allow up to 2 business days for your payment to be processed and credited to the designated account. You will receive a separate notification when your payment is processed.
A: The red/green colored bars under each move represent the player's advantage at that stage in the game. Green means the player is winning, red = losing. The length of the bar represents by how much, i.e. how great or little the advantage is. Highlighted moves have been found by the chess engine to be notably less than optimal (a mistake or even a blunder). If you click on the highlighted move, you can see what would have been the optimal (best) move in that situation, as suggested by the chess engine.
