I ABANDONED THE CHESS PLATFORM CHESS KING PLAY

There are so many mistakes on this chess platform that I don't have time to list them.

Perhaps a little later, I will describe them in more detail.

For the moment, I will mention the following mistakes:

1) In one of my first games there, I played against a player with an ELO of over 2200. The moment I made a move that made it clear that I would win in a tactical combination, the game was interrupted. I scored a point, but my ELO didn't change. The archives had no game notation, even though the game metadata were recorded there. Chess King did not respond to my complaint.

2) Despite setting a limit on the ELO I wanted to play with, I was constantly being confronted by players whose ELO was, for example, 500 points lower than mine.

3) Even though I set the restriction (as I remember) not to ask for a move back, my opponents managed to do so. However, asking for a move back in rated games should be automatically impossible. Unfortunately, some players asked for a move back many times in a row, and for no reason, just disrupting the game. If you can't bid a draw more than three times in a game, why can you ask for the move back dozens of times in a row?

4) On Chess King Play, there is a widespread habit of hooliganizing, for example, accepting a challenge to your game only to cancel it. On dozens of occasions, my game was accepted, but the opponent either didn't move or immediately cancelled the game. 

5) There is a widespread bad habit of abandoning the game when the position on the board is bad. The opponent is forced to wait another five to ten minutes even though the game's fate has already been decided.

6) There is a technical means of blocking rogue players, but it works only half-heartedly. I have managed to block about thirty hooligans. Still, I have failed to block another thirty or so, either because it proved technically impossible for some reason or because it suddenly turned out that there was no such opponent on the list of players.

7) Chess King Play players use chess engines en masse, even though they have declared that they do not. Already from level ELO 1800, cheating is done massively. I understand this very well when a chess engine is used against me in a quick game. I've played hundreds of training games with the grandmasters with fast time control, and I know perfectly well what they can and can't do in a short amount of time.

8) It's not just that this chess platform technically allows hooliganism and cheating. This platform itself is likely doing dubious manipulations. For example, this platform "randomly" gave me black pieces about seven times in a row yesterday. Such coincidences do not happen in real life.

(For a similar reason, I stopped using the Chess.com platform a few years ago. Namely, in correspondence chess, this platform "randomly" gave me the same opponent ten times in a row despite many options for providing opponents. This opponent always played the same opening variant I knew perfectly well because of my previous ICCF games. He later officially complained that I was cheating. In fact, after I got out of the opening, I made many mistakes in those games before I won. Cheating was probably done by Chess.com instead, who manipulated it for political reasons, which I do not wish to discuss here. I abandoned this platform.)

9) ChessOK and Chess King Play platforms are mixed. While it is difficult to find information about it, the Chess King Play is a newer version of the ChessOK Playing Zone. In this case, however, mistakes are not avoided. 

I had to make a separate account in both. They managed to get me to play with myself even though I had the same username and the same details on different platforms.

Nanomaster is playing against itself. - Chess OK

Nanomaster is playing against itself. - Chess King Play

10) Meanwhile, I could not download my game notation (PGN) on the Chess King platform. Finally, I got the PGN file, which initially opened in the chess programs. However, sometime later, the game disappeared - the game notation was empty! The PGN files downloaded were broken.

11) Audio notifications are not working properly. Since everyone plays blitz with a time control of 5 minutes or less, but I like to play slow games, I sometimes have to wait hours before someone accepts my offer for a match. I was doing other things then, such as reading a computer book. However, it has often happened that I did not notice that the game had already started. Namely, the sound notification works only when the Chess King Play window is opened. If, simultaneously, another window is open in which I am reading a book, then the game starts secretly, completely unnoticed. (In the Windows app of the ChessOK Playing Zone, the notification about the beginning of a game did not work at all.)

Chess King's hostage

This platform also has learning files under Chess King Learn. Generally speaking, these PGN files are comfortable, interesting and useful. 

However, I wonder why they sell study files for money that give the reader a headache because they are written in broken English? If you're making thousands of dollars selling these files, you could spend a hundred dollars a year fixing your grammar mistakes.

Of course, I have nothing against the professionalism of Russian grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk. However, these files teach children outdated opening theory. It is a haltura. 

For example, in one of the main variations of the Queen's Gambit, in one position, one move has been known for decades. It is the most frequently used, successful and the strongest according to chess engines. Surprisingly, this move is omitted from the study materials without any comment. There are many more examples.

Finally, I would like to ask whether this Alexandra has a reason or a conscience? Today, I liquidated my account at their Chess King Play. Earlier, as I remember, I had to create a separate account there in addition to the Chess King account through which I bought the study files.

And behold a miracle. After liquidating my account on Chess King Play, I also lost access to my study files, which shouldn't have anything to do with the playing zone because those study files are in the store and not the playing zone. Without any warning. (On the ChessOK, an older version of the Chess King, there are two separate accounts - one for the shop and the other for the playing zone.)

As a result of all this mess, I feel I no longer want to have any business with this Chess King platform!

ON THE "LICHESS STATEMENT ON THE WAR IN UKRAINE"

On 09 March 2022, the popular chess platform Lichess has issued an announcement 

"Lichess Statement on the War in Ukraine"

https://lichess.org/blog/Yie1MhIAACAAk6OQ/lichess-statement-on-the-war-in-ukraine 

https://archive.ph/jcINL 

The statement is about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, starting from 24 February 2022. The moto of the statement is: 

Truth is the first casualty of war.

A week later, the commentarium of that post is closed already. 

Concerning that statement and the restrictions on Russian chessplayers, the following philosophical questions are arising: 

1) Is it right to politicize sports (and chess, among other sports)? 

2) If sports is politicized, is it right to abandon the principle of universality?

As we see, Lichess is commenting on "geopolitical situations". And the restrictions are applied to Russia and Russian chessplayers. So, Lichess regards it as acceptable to politicize sports. If it is done in goodwill, it might be fine. However, I believe that it should not be done in a discriminatory manner. 

If the aggressive wars are to be condemned, all aggressive wars should be condemned. 

Unfortunately, we see that Lichess has the opinion that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the first and perhaps the last aggressive war: 

"This is unprecedented for all of us."

It seems that the war has indeed killed the truth! So far, in the Ukrainian war, several thousands of people have been killed, and Russia has occupied a part of Ukraine. However, during the US occupation of Iraq, millions of people were killed. The US occupation of Afghanistan lasted for tens of years. Again, millions of people were killed. 

Lichess declares: 

"Lichess has always advocated vocally for freedom, openness and mutual collaboration. We will always promote and defend these values against those who promote subjugation, opacity, and hostility." 

Then, let us see when and where Lichess condemned the Afghanistan war, the Iraq war, the current war in Yemen supported by some Western governments? Unfortunately, it is not easy to find such statements on the internet, and Lichess does not provide any links to such earlier statements either. And Lichess does not apologize that it has failed to do so. 

Lichess also talks about war crimes: 

"All users are reminded that Lichess has the right to proactively remove access to certain services or features of our website from users who, at our sole discretion, violate our Terms of Service (ToS). This includes the glorification of terrorism, sharing extremist, bigoted, or racist views, and promotion of genocide / war crimes." 

The context is clearly such that everyone tends to think that Russia, who started the war against Ukraine, is the side committing war crimes. But, unfortunately, it is not a logically valid inference. There is no reason why the side starting the war is also the only side committing the war crimes. On the contrary, the evidence suggests that both sides have probably committed war crimes in the current Ukrainian war. Moreover, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, some Ukrainians probably committed war crimes in the Donbas area. The shelling there also began before the Russian invasion. Up to 1000 times per day were shot, and most of the hits were on the separatists' area, according to the OSCE reports. 

When did Lichess make a statement about Donbas? And on what grounds does the chess platform Lichess decide who is committing war crimes and glorifying racist views, etc.? Lichess avoids explicitly saying that these are some Ukrainian nationalists celebrating terrorism, extremist, bigoted, or racist views and promoting genocide/war crimes. 

In conclusion, I stress that I am against military aggressions and wars, particularly against unjustified wars and against war crimes. But unfortunately, I do not feel Lichess' statement to be sincere and rational. It makes an impression that it is not made in support of Ukraine but against Russia. Furthermore, it makes an impression that people in Afghanistan and Iraq can be legitimately killed, according to Lichess, while Russia is the worst actor anyway. 

You have never sanctioned the US or the US sportspeople despite all those numerous military aggressions and wars the US has initiated. 

While I am neither a Russian nor a Russian citizen, and I do not live in Russia, I feel that Lichess' statement is hypocritical and does not contribute to the peace on Earth. 

Therefore, I am trying to use Lichess as rarely as possible from now on. 

 

My Lichess profile

UNVACCINATED ONLINE CHESSPLAYERS

I have read that in Latvia and in some parts of Australia, unvaccinated deputies are banned from voting and giving speeches — even from far, digitally. As online voting cannot spread the virus, I propose that unvaccinated chessplayers should be banned from playing online chess because online chess cannot infect anyone with the virus as well.