Site ChessDuel provides online and offline chess games. You can play online with other players or offline with yourself. Chess gaming functionality is provided with Java applet.

If you are located behind network proxy then it's required to configure applet's Socks proxy settings to play online. Please check Socks proxy configuration details at http://www.java.com/en/download/help/5000020600.xml

Your browser must support cookies otherwise login will be impossible.

Registration on the site can be done with Web hyperlink "Register new player". Registration form needs information about your nick, email address and password to be used. Also it's required to enter generated text displayed on the form and press button "Submit". The site will create your account and send you confirmation email with registration details. You will be able apply your additional details in "Account settings" form. The form also can be used to change password.

Site will inform you about errors which may happen during account creation process. Please remember that nick should start with Latin character and may have Latin characters, digits, and special characters ’_’ and ’-’. Both nick and email address should be unique among other accounts.

Your email address will be used exclusively to send confirmation email during account creation process, forgotten password and news or events only if you will choose to subscribe to them. We do not discover any information about you including your email address to any third parties.

Login can be done with Web hyperlink "Login". It will be required to provide your nick and password for successful registration.

Screen has a hyperlink which should be used for those occasions when you forget your password. It's required to enter your nick and generated text to receive email with password.

Web hyperlink "Logout" should be used to logout from the site.

Player can change his or her settings with hyperlink "Account settings" which is available only to registered players.

There are public and private types of accounts. Originally accounts are created as private ones. You can mark you account as public in the form. Public account type allows other players to see all your details including games you played. Private account type allows other players to see only your nick and ratings. Your email address is always considered to be private information which is not shared in any case.

Account settings allow to define a language to be used. The setting will be used only for emails. If you need to change language of the site please use corresponding links on site's header.

Hyperlink "Bidding settings" allows to set default bidding settings which will be used with applet. You can choose default game color, minimum rating of opponent, enable or disable sounds and move highlighting.

Chat is available to registered players with hyperlink "Chat". Enter your message in text field and press button "Enter" or click button "Submit" on the form to send the message.

Messages sent in general chat are visible to all registered players.

Playing games is available only to registered players. Hyperlink "Play games" opens a site's page with Java applet which requires installed JRE (Java Runtime Environment) version 1.5 at least. If required version of JREЕ is not installed on your computer then browser will offer you to install it. You may either allow your browser to make installation of JRE or can do this by yourself from Sun MicroSystems's site http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index_jdk5.jsp.

When applet will be successfully started it will show tab "Bidding panel" which is used to show and place game bids. The tab looks like a table with available bids. There are four buttons on top of the tab: "New bid", "Delete bid", "Current bid" and "Accept bid". These buttons correspondingly allow you to place new bid, delete your own bid, locate your own bid or accept a bid placed by other player. You can accept a bid only if your rating is sufficient for the bid. You may not place more than one bid and also it's prohibited to place bids when you play online game. It's impossible to change bid settings - please remove your bid and place new one.

Below is image with example of game bidding tab.

When you click on button "New bid" new tab will be shown with bid's details. You can specify player name, time to play, minimum rating and you colour. If you choose "Random" then color for you will be chosen randomly. If player's name field will be left empty then the bid will be available to all players otherwise only to specified player.

Below is image with example of new bid parameters.

Click on a figure will select it and permitted positions for the move will be highlighted in case of your move. To make a move you need to click on permitted position. It's possible to enable or disable move highlighting with either correction of your default settings in "Account settings" Web form or applet's "Game - Parameters" menu item.

Below is image with example of desk with highlighted moves.

If you have selected a figure but currently it's other user's move then your second click will define advanced move highlighted with red. Your advanced move will automatically occur when other player will make move considering the fact that this advanced move will be legal.

Below is image with example of advanced move highlighted with red for white knight.

Castle is available with moving king over a field.

When a pawn will reach opposite side four buttons on tool bar will be activated to allow desired figure selection.

There are two timers below the desk. Left side timer is used to show time left for you and right side timer time left for opponent.

There will be a message shown over desk when game will be finished. The message will contain game status.

You can use button "<" and ">" placed on tool bar after game's end to see it step by step. Your game will be stored in database so you can view it later in Web with hyperlink "View played games".

Game tab also has a number of buttons on the top which can be used to "Offer Draw" (green bidirectional arrow), "Accept draw" (red bidirectional arrow), "Give up" (red arrow), "Stop chat with player" when you don't want to get messages from this player and "Close" to close the tab (available only when game is finished).

During game playing you can send a message to your opponent. This message will be sent privately which means that other players will not see it. Ability to send a message will be blocked if other player will close a tab with game.

Chat panel at the bottom of game tab has another button "Stop entire chat" button which can disable chat at all.

You can play with yourself with help of applet's menu item "Games - Start new self game". It's possible to restart self game from any position. Personal games may be saved on server at any time when there is connection to the server. Saved personal games may be loaded later to review and editing through Web interface of game search. Pressing "e;Save"e; icon in applet's toolbar or selecting "e;Save game"e; from applet's menu which are available for personal games will display a screen to enter non unique game description.

You can override your own default game parameters with help of applet's menu item "Games - Bid parameters" where you can specify color selection, minimal opponent's ratings, usage of sounds and move highlighting. You can set any minimal opponent's rating but actual game offer minimal opponent's rating will not exceed yours.

You can view your played games with hyperlink "View played games" on the site available to registered player at left hand navigation bar. The screen will offer sorting, navigation and delete functionality. Additional link "Personal games" also located in left side navigation bar after registration can be used to load and edit personal games previously saved by the player.

There are two links "Received messages" and "Sent messages" which can be used to view sent and received messages. Messages can be sent either by your friends or administrator to inform you about significant events. You can send a message to your friend from player details page.

Friends are players with who you have established friendship. Friends can send you a message, see details of your account except your email and also can see your played games.

Ignored players are players who cannot send you a message or invite you to become friends. If you placed one of your friends in ignore list then this friend will be not able to send you a message but will be able to perform other activities permitted for friends. You can use player details page to place a player in list of ignored ones.

Invited and inviting players are those players who has been invited by you or who invites you to become friends. Player can be invited to become a friend from player profile page.

Ratings are calculated independently for several categories: blitz, fast and classic. Blitz is calculated for games no longer then 15 minutes, fast is calculated for game with 30 minutes or one hour limit and classic for two hour games. All games except two hour game are terminated when time is run out for any of players. Two hour games are given another 30 minutes if 40 moves were done.

Please send us your feedback in case on incomplete documentation or not answered questions on email address admin@chessduel.com.