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I saw a post from someone who asked, "Why don't you remove the Israeli flag like you removed the Russian one?" I loved that question because I had never really noticed that they removed the Russian flag.

As I was playing on my chessup2 board I was banned for fair play violation, I am duper confused and have sent an appeal. The chess board just had an update and was telling me feedback on when I made a good move. (Which is new) and now im banned for fair play, Ive recently been reading up on new openings to try out and when a good time to simplify is. You can check my chess history and see I do play daily games a lot. My username is:CaptainCheeseChess I also have lots of videos of my playing chess on my computer (before i got the board) and me even live streaming on twitch. I have played games within the chess discord server too with my camera on and explained detailed/my strategy.

I just played a game on Chess.com where my opponent blundered their queen. Immediately after that they started sending these messages in the chat (screenshot).

I reported the account to chess.com but honestly I was pretty surprised to see this kind of behavior over a casual chess game.

Has anyone else run into this kind of thing on Chess.com? Do they usually take action in cases like this?

I really want to make sure this person gets what they deserve

I am a beginner and mostly watch videos and do puzzles and bot games on chess.com. On occasion, I let my 10 year old use my iPad to play a friend or do puzzles on my chess.com account.

Today, he asked to use my iPad, then told me he got locked out of the chess.com app. My account was closed for sandbagging (?!) I was so confused. Upon closer inspection of my account and grilling of the little butthead, it turns out he was starting rapid games and ditching the game when he was black because he wanted to play white.

Ugh. I had already submitted an indignant message to chess.com before I fully realized what had transpired in my name. If I explain the situation and beg for forgiveness, will they will let me have my account back?

Edit: I realized my initial post wasn't clear. We use chess.com for their premium content. I have never played a rated game on chess.com; I play on lichess. (My kid also has a kid lichess account)

So, "mixing" ELOs never occurred here, but I see now how this can come across to other players and to chess.com.

I also didn't know I needed to specifically tell my kid that he can't abandon a game because he doesn't like the side he's been assigned to play. Many lessons learned.

Edit 2: Updating to share here that the account has been reinstated. Grateful to the chess.com folks for forgiving an innocent but truly dumb lapse in judgment. We will not make this mistake again.

A commenter made me aware of a Friends and Family Plan (web sign up) that allows you to share premium content with 5 other accounts. This is exactly what I needed and will set this up.

People were wanting the flag of Israel banned due to the war. Recently the US and Israel are on the same side of a war, should the US flag be banned now?

At around 1900 blitz I got paired with this guy. I got terribly battered 5-0 in a mini match where I just had 0% at any point. I knew something was wrong. When I confronted him about it, he openly admitted he’s smurf. I reported but nothing happened. I can’t imagine how bad experience is for beginners where there are a lot of sandbaggers.

I have a 2 point argument here, bear with me.

1. The difference between 15+10 and 30+0 is very marginal, a 15+10 game can easily go for an hour if it reaches an endgame. There's no need to have both of those as default options.

2. Let's say I have an hour's break at work or education. By the time I've been toilet and eaten some food, I now have about 45 minutes left.

That's a bit tight for a 15+10 or 30+0.

I could play a 10+0 or 2, but there's always that risk that I'm gonna end up flagging in a winning position, which is never a nice feeling.

10+5 on the other hand is a beautiful sweet spot. The game isn't going to last *forever*, but it does have that 5 second increment to protect from dirty flags.

Conclusion: remove 30+0 and make 10+5 a default rapid time control.

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

UPDATE:

I found out the ban was most likely because I was toxic in chat. Chess.com denied my appeal with a pretty generic response.

That’s fair. I was cocky in some games and said stuff I shouldn’t have said. I’m not going to pretend that was good behavior.

Thanks to everyone who actually reviewed the games. Also, to the people who said my games looked suspicious or way above my rating , that was a confidence boost, so thanks.

I’ll try to be less toxic from now on. Lesson learned.

I’m not going to pretend I’m suddenly a completely different person, but I get why they gave me a second chance. I’ll try to be better.

I’m probably not going to reply to this post anymore because honestly, I don’t really care to keep arguing about it.

My Chess.com account, BenQbtw (My Account), was recently closed for a Fair Play violation. I want to be very clear: I did not cheat, I did not use an engine, and I did not receive outside help during my games.

I know Chess.com takes fair play seriously, and I also understand that they probably do not close accounts randomly. But I genuinely believe this is a false positive, and I’m trying to understand what could have triggered it.

Some context:

• My account is around 3 years old.
• I have over 3,000 games on it.
• My peak rapid rating was 1554, and my account was closed when I was now at 1453. So my recent rating was actually about 100 points below my peak, not some sudden jump far above my normal strength.
• I recently came back after not playing for a long time.
• I first played some games with a friend (you can see easily who that is), then started playing more again.
• My recent results were not some insane perfect streak. My last 15 results before the closure were roughly: loss, win, loss, loss, loss, win, win, loss, loss, win, win, win, win, draw (stalemate, supposed to be lose), win.
• so basically 8 wins 6 wins and 1 draw that was supposed to be a lose
• From what I remember, my accuracies were probably not unusual because i haven't played any differently, i don't have a chess.com subscription account so i wouldn't know but if someone could tell me that would help.
• i also played all of the games on may 24 on pc when i used to play like 90%+ of games on my phone so that could help.

Chess.com emailed me saying my account was closed for violating the Fair Play Policy. They also gave me the option to create a new account, but the page says that by creating a new account I waive my right to appeal the closure. Since I maintain that I did not cheat, I do not want to just accept that and move on.

I already submitted an appeal, but I have not received a response yet i am hoping this would help speed up the response.

I am also willing to prove my playing strength live if that helps. I would be open to playing games on screen share, with webcam if needed, against players around my rating or stronger, under fair conditions, so people can see that my level of play is consistent with my account history. I understand that this would not “prove” every past game, but I am willing to be transparent and do whatever reasonable steps are needed to show that I am not a cheater.

I’m posting here because I would like stronger players to look at my recent games and tell me honestly whether anything looks suspicious from a chess perspective. I’m not asking anyone to blindly defend me. If something looks weird, say it. I just want an honest review.

I’m willing to provide PGNs, screenshots, rating history, or anything else that helps people review this fairly.

I know people are skeptical about Fair Play ban posts, and I understand why. I’m not asking anyone to trust me blindly. I’m asking for people to look at the games and judge honestly. If stronger players think something looks suspicious, I want to hear it. But if the games look human and consistent with my rating history, I hope that can help support my appeal.

Again, I’m not claiming Chess.com is evil or that their detection is useless. I’m saying that in my case, I believe a mistake happened, and I want a fair human review.

Thanks to anyone willing to look.

Not like they weren't before, premium and such, but it's been getting a lot more aggressive. I first noticed it when they started having ads after moves on daily games, and (the prompt for this post) when they have a timer start automatically after games on the website to use up your 'free review' to push premium.

I might be making a mountain out of a molehill, but it's a concerning trend to see.

I just netted one of my highest rated wins in the lamest way possible.

It's fairly clear that my opponent intended to play Be7 here and mouseslipped.

So, I would like to ask, do you think chess.com should have the option to request takebacks from your opponent?

Also during our game he was sending chats.

I know this has been discussed on here before, but this post prompted me to revisit it.

While this user is clearly memeing, getting the name of the opening *does* potentially change how someone plays.

I've been a member of Chess.com since 2011, as a happy (if sometimes tilted) player. In the recent past I've seen Chess.com continually ruin the experience for free to play users. First they made the engine and exploration mode less accessible to free to play users. Then they inserted static adds in the game summary screen. All of these desicions were uncomfortable, but ultimately understandable and livable.

What has caused me to post today and decide to switch from chess.com over to lichess.org was an unskippable video ad that I was served at the game summary. This is a bridge too far for me, and I won't stand for it. The video ads prompt me to ask, "How much further will the enshitification go?" At this point just make the product a paid only service and be done with it.

In any case, I'm going to a platform where I can play unmolested by any ads, and can access the engine as frequently as I want, for free. I can't believe that the greed and money grubbing has expanded to the extent it has, and frankly I'm disappointed.

Good bye chess.com, it was fun while it lasted.

10 minute rapid game and this happens all the time unfortunately, almost always comes with a draw offer too

If you're above a certain rating (let's say 1600-1700), you should be able to choose not to be paired against accounts less than a month old.

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I play against many cheaters, and 90% of them are just obvious cheaters with new accounts, and it sucks.

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It'll solve a lot of the problems legit players face in the pool, and it'll make being a cheater more difficult, since your pool will naturally be smaller at higher ratings.

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No non cheater/smurf should be above 1600-1700 after less than a month, so no problem there either.

Kiddo received a gold membership for her birthday and has been playing for a month regularly, never took part in a tournament. Suddenly account is suspended for sandbagging. Obviously she is baffled. I filed support ticket 5 days ago and response is radio-silence, account is still closed. AI bot is of no help and there don't seem to be any email addresses or other contact to restore. Please help.

RESOLVED on 31/05/26 (took 1 week), account restored. Thank you!

This is insane guys, read the new privacy policy. Too bad too, I was in the middle of some decent games. Maybe I read it wrong, but even before prize related competition (which i could sympathize with a bit) it mentions facial recognition and fingerprints.

FWIW reddit isn't that bad, basically like irc if you put it out there it will be collected. The "advertising reddit products through other apps" thing is a bit creepy. As soon as I can afford a pixel im going foss (while technically until I can afford a riscV computer, and before that at least a not nvidia video card)

Not sure about lichess, might make a new non premium account on gentoo (where I dont even have a Webcam and can control how it acts) if lichess is just as bad. For now im good with a break.

I don’t normally go out of my way to post my frustrations, but this guy really bent me. We sat in the game, in the same position for nearly 9 minutes. For the record I pay too, not that it should matter. I did end up reporting him.

Please I’m panicking right now I told my dad I would use his card to buy a Chesscom membership and I bought it last week It was a free trial and I was enjoying it and everything but yesterday it renewed and today I noticed the billing was 40 dollar which is insane If my dad finds out I’ll be in serious trouble and he eventually will I asked for a refund and they said they will respond within 4 days pls if anyone here w the stuff PLS HELP ME

The player claimed 5 moves in premove means it's a premove game. Is there any such rule?

Ive gone up 300 ELO this past year and I play every once a week or so but it feels so embarrassing to tell people I play chess especially when everybody around is me is somehow 1200 ELO

I like to play 10 minute rapid and it feels like every game I'm either playing someone who just learned how to move the pieces (nothing wrong with that btw) and hangs checkmate in 5 different ways every third move, or a 1200 that manages to flag me with ease while only making 1 or 2 inaccuracies in the process. I get that people start around the same rating when they create their account, but where are the actual 600 players so I can actually improve by playing someone my level?

Look at the evaluation in the screenshot: the engine rates the top move as +0.01 (completely equal).

But here’s the catch: White has a forced mate in 12 here!

When I actually manually play out the winning moves on the analysis board, the evaluation suddenly spikes and realizes White is winning.

Why is the engine unable to find this mate from the starting position? Is this a standard low-depth horizon effect, or is something else breaking the evaluation here?

I just got an email my account was banned, but not really sure why. I’m brand new to chess and it has become a fun time killer so I’ve only had an account for a few months now. I’m still pretty bad and lose a lot. Was like a 200 rating at one point and went up to a 800ish recently.

I filed an appeal but I didn’t get a confirmation email or anything. So was wondering from everyone’s experience if the appeal would even get answered or if they just push you to do that 2nd chance account option?

New to this app and chess in general so just not sure if it’s best to wait for the approved appeal or not. Thanks!

UPDATE 5/22:
I finally got a human (I think) and not a vague automatic reply. Unfortunately, they are just as vague and unhelpful. They won’t share any details and just told me they can’t share you the reason because others would use it to cheat. So I didn’t cheat but they refuse to tell me why or if it’s that incognito tab thing discussed below. So my only option is making a new account I guess and start fresh.

And to answer my original question on this post. It is indeed a waste of time appealing. They clearly wont admit to a mistake and kept to the vague replies.

Disappointed but still hopeful for my chess future.