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I wonder if there has been a test to compare connectivity to the major chess websites. Or whether it is easy to run such a test myself if needed.

Here is what I mean to test:

I am mainly playing on two websites (lichess.org and chess.com) and one one of these it frequently feels like I 'lose' seconds. Maybe it is only 1-5 seconds per time, and only once or twice per game, but still it adds up.

I notice this only on one of these sites which makes me suspect it could be server side rather than my personal wifi and such. However, maybe it is a matter of perception, hence my interest in a benchmark or test.

In case it is relevant:

  • In both cases I mostly use the mobile web version from my android phone
  • I am located near Amsterdam
  • Outside the games I do not notice any slowness on the sites

What have I tried?

I ran the ping app on my phone, actually the site where I notice the weird behavior has lower ping time (but neither of them comes close to 1000ms), so I suspect it may not be a general connection issue but rather something that happens when playing games.

Dennis Jaheruddin
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    I couldn't find a source right now but afaik premoves differ. In lichess you almost don't lose time on premoves where in chess.com you lose a couple miliseconds even if you premove. But this probably doesn't explain 1-5 seconds delay you mentioned. Edit: There is [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/frpw9d/do_premoves_on_chesscom_use_some_of_the_clock/) reddit post. – Minot Nov 14 '21 at 06:42
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    @Minot You lose 0.1 seconds per premove on chess.com (by design). It's nothing to do with connectivity. – Mobeus Zoom Nov 15 '21 at 00:20
  • Do you mean you use the web version from a browser in your phone? In that case consider trying the apps. – Daniel Alfredo Sottile Nov 15 '21 at 18:28
  • I will consider the app, but am still curious as to whether there is a way to measure 'in game latency spikes' – Dennis Jaheruddin Nov 21 '21 at 10:32
  • Switched to the app, and actually am seeing even much worse lag spikes where even if I premoved it sometimes costs me 4 sec, last game 3x. I understand this could be my local issue, but just want to measure the achieved connectivity difference between the sites in gameplay. – Dennis Jaheruddin Dec 12 '21 at 12:46
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    Lichess measures server lag [here](https://lichess.org/lag). [This chess.com](https://support.chess.com/article/357-what-is-lag-in-live-chess) article is also related, although it refers to players' problems – double-beep Jan 04 '22 at 19:56
  • @MobeusZoom That's when you have a good connection. But if the connection is bad then the pre move time might take more than 0.1 s. – Abhyuday Vaish Mar 08 '22 at 16:40

1 Answers1

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You can check your ping on lichess.org by going here. For chess.com, you can type /ping in the chat when playing a game by going here.

A trick to check ping on the chess.com app. (Btw, I think it'll be the same on the app and website) Go to New game -> tournaments -> Daily -> Then in the top left you'll get the menu where you can go to Live chess page -> Type /ping in chat.

Edit: The Live server of Chess.com is in the primary data center in California. Following are the approximate ping for the regions on chess.com.

  • 12 ms for US connections
  • 156 ms for European connections
  • 145 ms for Asia-Pacific connections

Lichess's server is located in France. So, the ping would be lower in European countries and higher in other continents.

Abhyuday Vaish
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