Online play rules

Updated October 15, 2026

The game

Only legal moves are accepted. Checkmate or resignation ends the game. Stalemate, threefold repetition and 50 moves by each player without a pawn move or capture produce an automatic draw.

A draw offer stays open until your opponent accepts it, plays a move, or the game ends. Your own next move does not withdraw your offer.

Clocks and connections

The server runs the clocks. A completed move switches the running clock and adds any increment. Disconnecting or leaving the board does not pause a standard game. Running out of time loses unless the opponent cannot checkmate by any possible legal sequence.

Both players can see the recorded clock after each move in Moves. Download PGN includes those clocks when available; older games may have missing records.

Fair play

Make your own moves without engines, notes, another player or other outside assistance. Use your own profile. Do not arrange results, manipulate ratings or harass opponents.

Our optional game settings

God Mode is a time handicap for ordinary online games: activate it before your first move to halve your initial time and remove your increment. Time already spent still counts. It adds no reward and is unavailable in tournaments.

Ordinary games can be aborted before two half-moves have been played, with no rating change. Chess242 ratings are platform ratings, not FIDE ratings.

Report a problem or request a review

Use “Report or request review” on the game, or Support. Include the game reference and what happened. You can also request a review of a fair-play restriction. Automated fair-play flags require human review; they do not establish cheating.

We automatically recognize standard insufficient-material positions. Unusual locked or forced positions can require a manual dead-position or timeout review. This remains a limitation of automatic adjudication.

Scope

Our standard-game rules are based on the FIDE Online Chess Regulations. This is not a claim of FIDE certification or complete compliance. Official supervised competitions require additional organizer, arbiter and monitoring arrangements. See our separate tournament policy.