Playing preferences covers settings for play online feature, and are broken down into sub-tabs.
There are currently three options on where the player name and clock can be positioned relative to the board. The 'beside board - top/bottom' option has the names to the right of the board, with one name above the move list, and the other name at the bottom of the right panel below the chat. 'Beside board - top' is similar to the beside board top/bottom option except that both names are together above the move list. 'Above and below board' places the names directly above and below the board.
This option allows you to hide the ratings of you and your opponent, and any output showing rating adjustments after a game. This option is intended for those who find rating information distracting while they play. It only applies to information shown within the game tab, or notifications related to the current game. It will not hide ratings in places like the seek list or user list.
This setting turns on the confirm move board settings for all correspondence games. It overrides the game board setting, and forces the confirm move button to be used in all correspondence games. This means you can turn the per board confirm move option off to play live games, and have it automatically turned on when you play correspondence games without impacting the setting for live games.
The correspondence notification settings allow you to turn on email notifications seperately for move notifications, game state changes (start, end, draw offers etc), and time warnings. Time warnings are sent when your clock dips below 12 hours of time remaining. These options will be on by default if you gave permission for Chess Tempo to send you email related to the site when first registering. If you did not give permission and want email notifications, then you will need to turn the options on here.