| Game Play Interface | ||
|---|---|---|
 | Chapter 15. Play Online |  |
| Game Play Interface | ||
|---|---|---|
| | Chapter 15. Play Online | |
The Chess Tempo online play interface is made up of the board and clocks, the move list, in game chat, and navigation and action buttons. The board, move list and chat window are all resizable by dragging the drag handles (only shown when mouse is over the area for the chat window). Resize settings are remembered via a browser cookie, so will be used when you next use the site from the same machine and web browser.
Moves can be made on the game board by either dragging the pieces or clicking on the piece and then the target square. The board has two icons in the top and bottom left of the board, the top left icon is the settings icon, and brings up the board settings panel. The bottom left icon is the board flipping icon.
For those wanting to maximise board size within the browser window, it is recommended that you resize the board such that it uses the maximium vertical space, this may force the Users, Seeks, Games etc tabs to render beneath the board, but can still be accessed by scrolling your browser window down when required.
The board settings panel is launched by clicking on the settings icon in the top left of the board. The settings panel lets you choose a number of board options and all options are stored in a browser cookie, so they are remembered as long as you use the same browser, on the same machine. The available settings are:
Pre-moves allows you to enter a move while it is your opponent's turn to play. The move will be automatically played after your opponent moves. Move legality is only checked after your opponent moves, and illegal moves are not-played. You can cancel your pre-move by clicking anywhere on the board. The pre-move will be highlighted either by outlining of the from and to squares, or an arrow, depending on the move highlighting option you have chosen.
The game clocks and player names are shown either to the right of the board or above and below the board , depending on the preferences set. The currently ticking clock is shown in green (or red when time is running low), and the time control of the current game can be seen by hovering over the clock display with the mouse.
The move list displays all moves in the current game. You can move through the move list using the navigation buttons beneath the move list, by clicking a move in the list, or by using the arrow keys to move forwards and backwards in the move list.
The game chat window allows you to communicate with your opponent, other players viewing the game can also participate in the chat, however game particpants and non-playing kibitzers are not able to see each others chats made while the game is in progress. Special chat commands start with a '/' character, you can see a full list of chat commands by typing /help into the chat entry box.
Game chats persist across logouts, so when returning to the game you can still read all previous chats. This also applies to completed games, and chats can be reviewed at any time from the history tab or by launching games in your database archive in the playing interface using the 'view in playing' button.
The circular icon in the far right of the chat entry field shows if the chat is currently enabled or disabled. If the icon is a green tick then the chat is enabled, if it is a red cross then the chat is disabled. Click the icon to toggle between enabled/disabled. Note that when you disable chats, you will not be shown any incoming chats in all games, not just the current game. In other words the chat disable is a global setting that applies to all games. Note that chat messages sent by others will still be archived even when you have chat disabled. This means at a later point if you disable chat and view the game again the archived chats will all be loaded. Your opponent or other game visitors kibitzing on the game will be told when you disable or enable your chat status, and when you first connect to a game, your opponent will be told if your chat is currently disabled.
Several game actions are available in the game actions menu, actions available:
The game abort actions and 'After' game actions are available outside the game actions menu.
The game abort button allows you to abort games if your opponent has not responded within 60 seconds of the start of a game. So for example if you are black , and white has not moved after 60 seconds, an abort button will appear next to the game actions menu. Similarly, if you are white, and have made your move, but your opponent has not moved after 60 seconds, you will be provided with an abort button.
This method of handling aborts means users can't abort a game once it has started for reasons such as not liking the opening played, or not liking their opponent rating, or the colour of the pieces they have been given. If you want to control the rating of your opponents, then set a seek rating filter in the challenge dialog when creating your seeks. Users who regularly wait 60 seconds at the start of non-correspondence games, hoping their opponent will abort the game for them may lose access to the playing feature.
The next game button jumps to the next available game where it is your move, and will choose the game with the least time left. Note that while there are still moves where it is your turn, the next game button will only cycle through moves where it is your turn, games where you have already made your move will be skipped over. Once all games have their moves are played , you can use the next game button to cycle through all your games. If you want to jump to a specific game where you have already moved, the My Games tab is the best place to do this.
The 'After' game action selector lets you choose what will happen after your current move on this game. By default you will stay on the current game, but you can choose to jump to the next game where it is your move, where it will jump to the game with the least time left. The after option and next game buttons are only shown if you currently have more than one game.
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| My Games |  | Vacation and Sleep |