Change Log: Feb 2025
🚀 Milliseconds Matter: Pushing the Boundaries of Online Chess and the Coffee Machine
At Checkmate Live, we believe that every millisecond matters. In the high-stakes world of competitive chess, a fraction of a second can mean the difference between victory and defeat—between executing your carefully planned strategy and watching your position crumble due to lag.
⚡ Our development team has been running at full throttle to revolutionize how online chess handles network latency. Working around the clock, they've tackled the edge server routing errors that affected some players last year, developing our groundbreaking Pro Lag Compensator system and unlocking 3,200+ edge nodes to fight Lag.
🧪 As we continue in this alpha phase, your feedback is especially valuable in helping us refine and perfect our technology. Despite our extensive testing, we know that all the testing in the world can't reveal every edge case until real players encounter them in the wild. This change log represents months of relentless innovation, endless testing sessions with players across continents, and countless cups of coffee as our team pushed to deliver what we believe is the most responsive, fair chess experience possible online.
The results speak for themselves: zero time loss for players with up to 300ms ping, server-authoritative timing that preserves competitive integrity, and a foundation for exciting new features that are now possible with our edge nodes operating at full capacity.
To our players: thank you for your patience and feedback as we've worked to get this right. The knight's move of innovation isn't always straightforward, but with each challenge, we're building something truly special. Let's play! ♟️
Release Highlights
Pro Lag Compensator system for fair competitive play, tested across different global regions providing zero time loss for players with up to 300ms ping
Latency indicators and time compensation for moves
Global Edge Server deployment optimizing connectivity worldwide
Broadcast delay system successfully tested across 66 tournaments for enhanced integrity
Enhanced fair play with v2 anti-cheat detection algorithms and result flagging
FIDE-rated players with synced IDs can now skip 30 games verification requirement
1-1 Chat support for registered players
Chat notifications for event registration and upcoming games
Fair play rulings now managed and tracked through chat system
Enhanced Arbiter Mode with improved tournament management tools, tested in live events
Quick game improvements with camera and 3D avatar support
Arbiter Module tested in Live event environment
Game pause system enhancements for better tournament control
New board customization options and interface improvements
Enhanced FIDE rating integration and player verification
New player communication features including notifications and alerts
Improved tournament reporting; standings and tiebreakers
New fair play features including reporting and appeals systems
Game play enhancements
Fixed mobile experience with improved controls and interface
Updated Playbook with quick start options and improved navigation (updated regularly)
Terms Amendment
👦👧 Players 13+ may now participate in Echess tournaments subject to the rules of the organiser and parental consent
⚠️ Age restrictions still apply to Checkmate Live and our terms of services.
🔧 Competitive Edge: Lag Compensation & Edge Computing
At Checkmate Live, we’re tackling one of online chess’s greatest challenges—network latency—by leveraging our Pro Lag Compensation technology. Using live data from last year's tournaments, we accelerated the rollout of this critical feature from our roadmap. This enhancement not only upholds our commitment to a strict, server-authoritative clock but also levels the playing field, ensuring a more reliable and competitive environment for every player.
Pro Lag Compensator
✅ Move Registration Guarantee – Compensates for network delays up to 300ms ✅ Server-Authoritative Clock – Maintains true competitive timing without adjustments ✅ Competitive Integrity – Prevents manipulation possible with adjustable time banks ✅ Dynamic Calculation – Algorithm dynamically calculates time compensation based on user latency ✅ Zero Time Loss – Users with 300ms ping now experience 0.0s time loss per move ✅ Fair Compensation – Provides up to 300ms compensation per move ✅ Tested Globally – Successfully deployed with tournaments with players across India, Philippines, Poland, and other regions
At Checkmate Live, we don't fiddle with your clock to cover up lag. Every move is recorded fairly while keeping the game clock honest.
💡 Adaptive Lag Compensation (ALC) Coming Soon
For casual games, we're developing a "lag bank" system similar to what other platforms use, but enhanced to prevent abuse. This will not be used in pro tournaments—rated and competitive games will always follow our strict server-authoritative time rules.
🌍 Global Edge Server Infrastructure
✅ 3,200 Nodes Worldwide – For ultra-low latency ✅ Dynamic Activation – Edge servers activate based on player density, improving responsiveness over time ✅ Continuous Improvement – As more players join from a region, latency further improves through real-time optimizations
🛠️ Speed Bumps on the Journey to the Edge 🤯
Despite our best efforts (and the wizardry of our tech team), there are moments when we find ourselves scratching our heads, wondering why a glitch appeared or a lag spike snuck through.
💡 Why does this happen?
Online chess is moving into uncharted territory—traditional platforms haven’t tackled real-time lag compensation or edge computing at this level before.
Internet infrastructure varies wildly by region—even with 3,200+ edge nodes, some weird ISP routing quirks can cause unexpected hiccups.
We’re bringing esports-grade tech to chess, which means there’s no playbook—we’re writing it as we go!
Last Year’s Technical Roadblock 🚧
We hit a major challenge that had everyone scratching their heads—our team, our engineers, and even the brilliant minds at our cloud provider. A handful of players reported severe performance issues, forcing us to take a deeper dive into our infrastructure—and we’re actually grateful they did.
What Went Wrong Under the Hood 💡
Our initial edge server deployment had a few critical configuration issues:
❌ Routing inefficiencies – Some nodes didn’t distribute workloads efficiently across the global network. ❌ Network traffic detours – Instead of direct routing, some packets took unnecessary detours, causing frustrating latency. ❌ Move registration delays – Lag was identified in the WebSocket event implementation, especially for pawn moves. ❌ Unexpected lag & crashes – Some players experienced major slowdowns that disrupted gameplay.
Our Response: No Excuses, Just Solutions 🚀
We didn’t just acknowledge the problem—we attacked it head-on. Those initial performance hiccups became a blessing in disguise, pushing us to develop the Pro Lag Compensator, a system designed to not only fix current issues but future-proof our platform.
How We Turned Things Around ✅
🔹 Full audit of infrastructure to identify and resolve bottlenecks. 🔹 Reconfigured our global network for faster and more efficient routing. 🔹 Deployed the Pro Lag Compensator system to stabilize move registration across all time controls. 🔹 Completely rewrote & optimized WebSocket logic, reducing move lag significantly. 🔹 Expanded tournament testing with players India, Philippines, Poland, and more, ensuring optimisations worked with players from multiple regions. 🔹 Implemented enhanced real-time monitoring to detect and prevent similar issues instantly.
Bringing in Fresh Expertise from the Age of Ascent 🧠
To further optimise our infrastructure, we brought in Alex out new CloudOps lead with deep expertise in edge computing for online gaming. This ensured that we didn’t just optimise our platform—we future-proofed it.
Alex, brings expertise from Age of Ascent, a cutting-edge MMO that pioneered large-scale real-time edge computing.
His insights are helping us refine:
Edge routing & server selection to reduce lag further
Scaling infrastructure to handle large-scale global tournaments
Real-time anti-cheat & move synchronisation at the edge
AI inference at the Edge
🚀 We’re the only chess platform applying cutting-edge edge computing techniques specifically designed for the demands of real-time competitive chess.
Looking Forward: Full Throttle Ahead 🏎️
Now that our edge infrastructure is at full capacity, we’re ready to unlock new features that were previously impossible. Our team is about to throttle up and push the boundaries of what’s possible in online chess.
To the players who helped us uncover these challenges, to our partners who collaborated tirelessly, and to our incredible development team who worked around the clock to solve these issues—thank you. Your dedication, expertise, and relentless problem-solving made Checkmate Live stronger than ever.
What This Means for Players 🎯
✅ No more move delays – Lag reduced significantly for all time controls. ✅ Ultra-low latency games – Enjoy instant move processing on a global edge network. ✅ More reliable matches – If a server has issues, another takes over seamlessly. ✅ Esports-grade tech in chess – Bringing competitive integrity & real-time fairness to online chess. ✅ No timebank manipulation – We don’t tweak your clock to hide lag—we fix it at the core.
✅ How do we handle epic fails?
We embrace them as opportunities to learn, improve, and keep pushing the boundaries of online chess. After all, innovation isn’t always a straight line—it’s more like a knight’s move! ♞
🔮 The Road Ahead: Unlocking New Capabilities
Now that our edge server infrastructure is fully operational and the Pro Lag Compensator is delivering results, we're excited to begin rolling out additional features that leverage this powerful foundation:
Enhanced Analysis Tools that utilise edge computing power for faster, more detailed game evaluation
Advanced Anti-Cheat Systems that operate at the network edge for more effective detection
Improved Tournament Management with better scaling for large global events
Expanded Global Coverage as we continue to optimise our network presence
These capabilities were always part of our vision, but required our edge computing infrastructure to be operating at full capacity. With the successful deployment and testing of our global node network, we can now begin throttling up these advanced features.
We embrace these challenges as opportunities to learn and improve. After all, innovation isn't always a straight line—it's more like a knight's move! ♞
🏅 How Checkmate Live Stands Out
Feature
Checkmate Live
Chess.com
Lichess
FIDE Online Arena
Move Registration Compensation
✅ Up to 300ms
✅ Varies by time control
✅ Limited
❌ None
Clock Adjustments for Lag
❌ No clock forgiveness (Pro games)
✅ Dynamic adjustments
✅ Partial forgiveness
❌ None
Server-Authoritative Time
✅ Yes
❌ No
✅ Partial
✅ Yes
Prevents Move Loss
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
❌ No
Edge Server Technology
✅ Yes
❌ No (CDN)
❌ No (CDN)
✅ Yes
🔄 Checkmate Live's Edge Computing vs. Traditional CDN
Edge Computing
✅ Global Network of Game Servers – Instead of relying on a few distant servers, we use a global network closer to players ✅ Faster Game Response – Moves are processed instantly, especially important in bullet and blitz chess ✅ Fairer Competition – Players in different regions get equal latency, preventing unfair time disadvantages ✅ More Reliable Matches – If one server has issues, others take over seamlessly, reducing disconnections ✅ Enhanced Security & Anti-Cheat – Distributed infrastructure helps detect and mitigate cheating faster
Traditional CDN (Used by Most Chess Platforms)
❌ Limited for Chess – CDNs optimize static content (websites, images) but not real-time game interactions ❌ Increased Lag – Game moves still travel long distances to a central server, increasing delay in fast time controls
Deployment Advisory
🔹 Server Updates & Transitions: When new updates or deployments occur, old nodes are purged and replaced with updated ones. During this transition, you may experience slightly higher latency until the new servers are fully warmed up and optimize.
🔹 Major Deployment Effects: For major deployments, the system requires time to propagate updates across all edge nodes. This means temporary increases in latency as servers synchronise and stabilise. Deployment durations can vary based on factors such as the nature of the update, network conditions, and regional considerations.
🔹 Dynamic Optimisation: As more players come online in your region, initial latency may be higher at first. However, as more users join, edge servers dynamically optimize routing, improving responsiveness and reducing latency over time.
🔹 Deployment Schedule Update:
Starting soon, deployments will be shifted to Tuesdays (CET).
This change aims to reduce disruptions during peak weekend play and allow for better monitoring post-deployment.
🔹 Tournament Readiness:
Nodes will be warmed up ahead of major tournaments to ensure optimal performance.
This proactive approach minimises potential latency spikes and ensures a stable gaming experience during critical matches.
🔹 High Latency Support & Optimisation:
Our system automatically optimises routing to provide the lowest possible latency.
In some cases, we can further optimise your location for better performance.
If you are experiencing a latency indicator above 300ms, please send us a screenshot via chat.
Include your latency measurement, city, and country, so we can analyse and work towards optimising your experience.
⚡ TL;DR: What This Means for Players
✅ Esports-grade lag compensation (up to 300ms) keeps competitive games fair while maintaining strict timing ✅ Edge-powered move processing ensures instant response time ✅ No clock manipulation – every move is recorded fairly while keeping the game clock honest ✅ Global network optimisation means faster games, better security, and smoother tournaments ✅ Properly configured edge servers now delivering the full benefits of our technology as intended
At Checkmate Live, every millisecond counts. We're obsessed with creating the most responsive, fair chess experience possible.
To players affected by last year's edge server misconfiguration: we sincerely apologise for the frustration this caused. Your experience helped us identify and fix critical issues, making the platform better for everyone. Thank you for your patience and feedback as we continue to push the boundaries of what's possible in online chess. Let's play! ♟️
✨ New Features
Player Experience
Pro Lag Compensator:
Time Compensation Algorithm - Dynamic system that calculates compensation based on latency, providing up to 300ms per pawn move with zero time loss
Up to 300ms of move registration compensation while maintaining server-authoritative clock
Latency View on profile picture and game screen
Latency Indicators - New ping display in player profiles and games (0-200ms: green, 200-400ms: orange, 400+ms: red)
Extensively tested with players from different global regions
FIDE Integration:
Seamless incorporation of official FIDE ratings with FIDE ID Sync
FIDE-rated players with synced IDs can now skip 30 games verification requirement if already rated
Logic added for FIDE players without current ratings for a time control
Display real names in nominated Echess games
Additional Improvements:
Auto Promotion setting
Battle Pass System - Fixed visibility from level 1 and improved animation issues
New Board Customisation - Added new customisation options for chessboard
Quick Game Improvements:
Added quick game camera for pro users
Added quick game with 3D avatar
Added reconnect camera functionality on quick game
Game Pause Enhancements:
Disabled the possibility to draw/resign when game is paused
Disabled pause during abort timer
Fixed camera onboarding when game is paused
Performance Upgrades:
Homepage performance improvements
Tournament system optimisations
Fixed Player Flags - Corrected player flag display issues on Safari
Battle Pass - Fixed set battle pass for users
WebSocket Logic - Improved WebSocket logic: Completely rewrote and optimised this logic, a substantial undertaking that required extensive code changes. Resulted in significantly improved move registration performance
Global Edge Server Network - 3,200 nodes deployed worldwide with dynamic activation based on player density
Tournament Management
Tournament Schedule UI - Complete overhaul with improved tournament cards, advanced filtering and optimisation
Addition of Echess section for Federations
Tournament Filtering - Added filtering options: Active -> Pending -> Finished
Performance Improvements - Enhanced tournament system performance
User disqualification now noted on results
Tournament soft delete on tournament schedule
3 days for daily
7 days for weekly
30 days for competitive tournaments
Tournament results still viewable under a players profile
Archived tournaments to be added to search (on roadmap)
Enhanced Arbiter Mode:
Improvements based on feedback from International Arbiters during Echess Trials and Road to Al Ain tournaments
Additional Arbiter controls added
Game pause functionality tested in live event environment
Echess Format Support - Added dedicated support for Echess tournament format
Break Periods - Breaks between rounds and stages
Improved Scheduler - More flexible time slot options with closable empty state
Force Start Fix - Manually start tournaments when needed
Admin Controls:
Tournament organisers can now remove players when necessary and pair again
Admin team can now add/remove prizes directly without developer assistance
New Admin tools
Documentation and Support
Playbook Updates:
Added quick start options for faster onboarding
Reorganized content for clearer navigation
Improved documentation structure
Upgraded Chat Support:
Direct 1-to-1 player communications with support staff
Players receive notifications via chat for event registration and 1 hour before games
Fair play rulings now managed and tracked through chat
Notification System - New notifications to guide players through tournament experience
Tournament Alerts - Players now receive notifications for cancellations or rescheduling
Fair Play and Security
Broadcast Delay System:
Successfully tested and implemented across 66 tournaments (both camera and non-camera formats)
Arbiters and players maintain real-time view while spectators receive delayed feed
Integrity feed protection to prevent cheating through spectator views
Anti-Cheating Measures:
Enhanced detection and prevention systems
Fair play rulings now flagged on game results in front end
v2 Anti-cheat detection algorithms fully tested
Security Enhancements:
Prevents playing from multiple devices simultaneously
Tested multi-account, device, and collusion detection systems
Restricted playing from multiple devices simultaneously
Bug Fixes
Tournament Experience
Tournament standings display issues
Tiebreaker calculation update on front end
Prize distribution
Schedule display inconsistencies between main screen and Schedule tab
Swiss pairings and standings display
ELO inconsistency across schedule, standings, and participants
Tournament duplication edge cases
Tournament calendar overflow issues
Color pairing mechanism in Knockout tournaments
Game Play
Time increment calibration
Move counter display
Draw offering visibility issues
Countdown modal behaviour inconsistencies
Camera onboarding Edge cases resolved
Mobile Interface
Fixed "Join Tournament" button visibility on mobile
Improved "Join Game" button visibility when games start
Fixed draw/resign/rollback buttons on mobile
Various text visibility issues on small screens
Swiss standings table display on mobile
User Interface
Fixed multiple notifications issue
Calendar date/time selection problems (PM/AM issues)
"Scroll to top" arrow appearing behind elements
Level Up animation issues
Battle Pass visibility from level 1
Removed distracting red indicators from player UX
Avatar loading issues (added non-AR option)
Fixed Role level-up reward images
Fixed Subscription cards in settings
Fixed Animations when battle passes level-up
Fixed Overflowing image over purchase button in store tiles
Fixed player flags on Safari browsers
Technical Issues
Connection glitches and stability issues
Registration and Email confirmation issues
Various performance optimisations for tournament play
In Development
Adaptive Lag Compensation (ALC) system for casual games
Advanced Game Analysis Engine with industry-leading processing speeds
Performance goal: 1-1.5 seconds per move at Depth 20+
Aiming to outperform Lichess, Chess.com, and ChessBase analysis speeds
Advanced Chess Analysis and Coaching Module:
Comprehensive game analysis tools
Opponent preparation features
Integrated coaching tools and resources
Match prediction algorithms
Advanced chess visualisations
Additional Upcoming Features:
Arcade Mode - Targeted for July release
Tokenomics Paper - Introducing "Proof of Play"
Reporting Feature and Appeal System - Adding to chat with automation for improved response times and efficiency
Payment System Enhancements:
Replacement of current payment option
Additional payment options being integrated
Lobby System Upgrade:
Improved handling of no-shows
Penalty system for players who fail to appear for scheduled games
Social Platform Integration:
Telegram, Discord, and WhatsApp integration
Enhanced Social Hub functionality
Improved friend invitation system
Thank You to Our Community
We deeply appreciate all the players who have provided us with valuable feedback throughout this alpha phase. Your insights, bug reports, and patience have been instrumental in helping us build a platform that truly serves the needs of chess players worldwide.
As we continue to refine and expand Checkmate Live during this alpha stage, we welcome your ongoing feedback more than ever. If you encounter any issues or see ways we can improve, please message us directly through the chat support. Even the smallest observation could help us discover and fix an edge case that our testing didn't reveal. Every comment, suggestion, and report helps us improve and innovate. Our goal remains constant: to create the most responsive, fair, and enjoyable chess platform possible before our full launch. A big thanks to the platform dev team and Cloud provider for all your assistance to get us at full throttle.
Want to dive deeper? For those interested in the technical details behind our lag compensation technology and edge computing infrastructure, check out our in-depth article: The Invisible Opponent: Defeating Lag at the Edge.
Thank you for being part of the Checkmate Live alpha community. Your early support and feedback are shaping the future of online chess, and we're excited to continue this journey with you, one millisecond at a time.
Let's play! ♟️
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