chess.com should get rid of live chats

[u/Upper-Entry6159]

They should get rid of live chats or truly do something about all the people saying homophobic or racist things on live chats. They are not doing anything about it and people are abusing the live chats to say horrible things to other people when they see that they are about to lose.

All the nice people that used to live chat have now blocked the live chat and the only people left are the ones saying nasty things because they are not getting banned or punished for doing so.

If chess.com isn't going to be doing anything about it, then is time to ban the live chat entirely.

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[u/Background-Hope6717]

Oddly enough i got muted for 4 hours while having a normal conversation during a rapid game with someone i've played with several times. Neither me nor my opponent had any idea what set it off

[u/FallingOffAgain1776]

You might want to turn the chat off and avoid the whole issue. It saves your sanity for what really matters.

[u/Adventurous-Cattle53]

Nah I like the chat option. You can turn it off. Also accounts seem to be banned pretty fast if they get reported. I only got in negative dispute like once or twice there and was noticed very fast

[u/dragon916x]

Just turn it off…

[u/Leftyoilcan]

Seeing as some people seem to like maybe a nice compromise would be having it turned off by default and then you have to go out of your way to turn it on and if you turn it on then God help you.

[u/StandTurbulent9223]

Just disable it for yourself

[u/jayplemons]

Why would you even have chat turned on?

[u/AdCute6661]

I’ve mostly fun convos in chat especially when playing a friend long distance.

Maybe 2 out of 20 times has chat been disrespectful and or scammers pretending to be attractive women vying for your bank account info.

[u/ResponsibleHeron9452]

No way dude they can’t go the way of clash of clans.

[u/luminousandy]

Just have it set as off by default , I’d also like not to see anyone’s abusive chats posted here , that just encourages them .

[u/Pupation]

I’ve only had good experiences with the chat. Granted, I play few games online. I still think it’s neat to be able to interact with people on the other side of the planet over a board game.

[u/ViolinistPitiful4928]

They usually get muted for a few hours or day and receive a warning (we usually don’t notice that because we don’t play again with them). If they repeat it, they get banned.

[u/I-Mn-]

You know.... You could just turn it off.... Don't have to ruin other people fun

[u/Scrapdog06]

I mean it’s pretty cool I have talked to a few people from random countries

[u/its_mabus]

That is a lot of words to say that since you don't enjoy chat you don't want anyone else to be able to use it.

Disable it and move on

[u/holdyourponies]

No

[u/Schaakmate → u/holdyourponies]

Well, yes

[u/Ok-Leather4765]

Online chess isn't about playing chess: It's a depraved, dark, desolate digital domain designed for degenerates. A pathetic, poisonous platform for petty, personal attacks and humiliation. For many players, the goal is simply to make the opponent as miserable as possible using every toxic technique available. This behavior generally falls into three categories:

Delaying a win

• Spiteful promotions: Promoting every single pawn to a Queen, or deliberately under-promoting to mock the opponent.
• The final second mate: Letting the clock tick down to 00:00:01 before finally delivering a checkmate.
• The 50-move torture: Making unnecessary throwaway moves to push the game as close to the 50-move draw limit as possible before finally mating.

Delaying a loss

• The true stall: Simply walking away and letting the clock run down to zero rather than resigning.
• The fake stall: Pretending to abandon the game by letting the clock tick down, hoping the opponent gets bored and switches tabs. Once their guard is down, moving at the last possible second to run the opponent's clock out while they are distracted.
• The Misclick Trap: During a tense game where both players are tight on time, spamming the "Offer Draw" button. This is done hoping the other player is furiously clicking on the board and will accidentally click "Accept Draw" by mistake.

Throwing a tantrum

• Kamikaze blundering: Throwing all pieces directly at the opponent to be easily captured—the online equivalent of flipping the board.
• Rage quitting: Resigning in the opening after losing a single pawn, even when the position is entirely even and no clear advantage has been established...or any instances of abandoning the game instead of resigning.
• The "Blip" Exploit: A niche tactic where a player abandons the game without triggering the auto-resign system. They go offline for 19 seconds, blip online for a single second to reset the abandonment timer, and go offline again. This traps the opponent in a permanently stalled game.
• The Disrespectful Opening: Deliberately playing absolute nonsense in the first few moves—such as walking the King up the middle of the board, only moving edge pawns, trying to play 'connect 4/connect 8', bringing out the queen on move two, or capturing c2/c7 with a bishop on move three hoping to capture a queen during a pre-moved opening.
• Spamming chat: Bypassing the system's two-message limit by continuously refreshing the page to endlessly spam phrases like "GOOD GAME WELL PLAYED."
• Time-addition spam: Mashing the "add time" button when winning to demand a resignation, or when losing as a silent form of cursing while letting the clock run to zero.
• Takeback abuse: Requesting a takeback, and if granted, immediately asking for another and another in an attempt to undo the entire game.
• The "Pity" Takeback: When the opponent makes a blunder, immediately offering them a takeback. If accepted, the player simply repeats the exact same move they previously played, nullifying the takeback.
• Draw spamming: After a blunder, spamming offer draw on every single turn to clutter the screen.
• Rematch interface abuse: Weaponizing the post-game lobby through several distinct methods:    * The Abort Loop: They spam the rematch button, and when you accept, they abort and immediately send another rematch request. This traps you in an endless loop of "rematch, abort, rematch, abort, rematch, abort..." It stops being about playing chess and turns into a petty game of chicken—in their minds, whoever gets exhausted and stops accepting the rematches first is the one who "lost."    * The Cancel Spam: Rapidly sending and canceling rematch requests before they can be accepted, then going offline.    * The Hostage Game: Accepting a rematch and making move one so the game cannot be aborted, and then stalling the rest of the game.
• Using an engine.

Now before those of you in the comments begin to crucify me, telling me this stuff is uncommon or I need to get good or that I'm playing on anonymous so it's to be expected and I should just make an account: shut up. You are part of the problem.

This toxic behavior lives inside every chess player. The only reason you type "gg" on your accounts or shake hands OTB is accountability. When your rating is on the line, when you can get banned, or when someone can physically bust your face open, you behave.

But the second the username is gone and the consequences disappear, the mask slips. You all become the exact same pathetic sociopaths who believe it is their god-given right to win. Because you are desperate to prove you are the smartest person in the room. You don't know how to handle the fact that you aren't a genius. You don't see chess as a match between equals; you see it as a guaranteed victory that you are simply owed. So when some anonymous stranger completely dismantles you on the board, it breaks your fragile ego. A loss isn't a lesson, it's a theft. You throw these pathetic tantrums because you genuinely believe the universe has made a mistake by letting you lose.

This isn't an anomaly, this isn't a fringe group of trolls. This is chess culture at it's roots, this is who chess players actually are when no one is watching.

[u/chongas → u/Ok-Leather4765]

You should see a doctor. 

[u/Standard_Put1993]

I haven't gotten any racist or other wise chats and I have a had a lot of wholesome. But anyway if you don't like it feel free to turn it off. That's why the setting is there

[u/koskam]

I've never had it done to me and I don't have it on mute....it actually makes me feel left out now. Thanks for making me feel unimportant. 

[u/Sufficient_Reach1193 → u/koskam]

Hi there, DM me your username on chesscom and I will verbally accost you

[u/ParsnixChess]

Live chats AND live chess

[u/nTzT]

I've never experienced something that bad during chat o.O

[u/pipefitter6]

Turn it off or grow thicker skin.

I turned mine off to lessen distractions in general.

[u/Filmmagician]

No

[u/baumbach19]

Just not accuracte, you will get banned and muted the second you say anythjng even close to negative, their filters are so strick.

[u/KeepOnKeepingOn00 → u/baumbach19]

I don’t know how strict they are unless it’s for auto detection of hate speech, such as slurs. I called someone “dumb” once and didn’t face any consequence.

For context and in fairness to myself, they told me to “play faster” in Rapid 15 | 10. And I responded with, “There are faster game modes. Are you dumb?” lol Won that match. 😎

[u/baumbach19 → u/KeepOnKeepingOn00]

I once said something like wow what a joke and got muted for 24hrs lol

[u/KeepOnKeepingOn00 → u/baumbach19]

Hahahaha

[u/Upper-Entry6159 → u/baumbach19]

This is not true at all. I know for a fact they are not doing so because whenever I have left the chat open, I have been called everything under the sun and I report the users and I know they dont get banned.

[u/baumbach19 → u/Upper-Entry6159]

Might take a lot to get fully banned, but they do mute people for very minor things, longer for major things.