Please use the following page to submit questions, comments and suggestions to GameKnot's customer support.
Please rest assured that we closely monitor all GameKnot servers 24/7 with an immediate automatic notification to GameKnot staff if there are any problems or slow response. If there are any issues affecting connectivity to any of GameKnot servers for more than 1 hour, we will add extra time (24 hours or more) to all games to prevent time-outs, as needed. Such incidences are extremely rare however, as they would have to be caused by a catastrophic hardware failure, or some natural disaster.
Most often the slow page loading is caused by a temporary Internet traffic congestion on the way from your computer to GameKnot servers. Unfortunately it is not something that we have control over, or something that we can fix from our end. Try accessing the website later on, during a different time of day, or using a different Internet connection.
Make sure to do a complete scan of your computer for viruses and spyware, as they might be overloading your system as well. To rule out any issues local to your computer, try accessing GameKnot from a different device.
Also, it has been reported previously that some of the Internet security software packages can cause the slow loading of the pages on some systems. If you have any of the antivirus or firewall programs installed on your computer (McAfee, Norton, etc.), try temporarily disabling them to see if it helps.
If you have previously installed any third-party add-ons or extensions for your web browser, try temporarily disabling them to make sure they don't interfere.
If none of this helps, and you are absolutely sure it has nothing to do with your computer or your Internet connection, and the problem persists for more than a couple of days, please contact your ISP and they should be able to run some tests to see if there are any issues in the network segment between your computer and GameKnot servers.
The automatic emergency postponement should help if you are unable to access GameKnot for extended periods of time. Also, please refer to question #33 if you did lose any games by time-out because you couldn't connect to GameKnot.
What is considered cheating? How to report cheaters?
It's quite simple — you cannot use anything besides your own brain, and you cannot consult anyone besides yourself. That includes chess programs, chess engines or chess computers, your friends, colleagues etc. etc. — using any of them is strictly prohibited.
Chess books and game/move databases are allowed (as they are permitted in correspondence chess too), with the exception of endgame tablebases. Nalimov endgame tablebases, or any other books/programs/tools that show the exact moves to make for a guaranteed win/draw from a given position on the board, are not permitted.
This only applies to games that are still in progress, and games that are rated, or a part of a competition. Feel free to analyze your games with chess engines or discuss them with your friends after the game is over, but not while the game is still in progress. Unrated games are accepted as well, as they are generally played for learning purposes. However, both opponents must understand beforehand that the game will be unrated and that outside assistance will be used during the game.
If you have a concrete evidence that someone is cheating, please submit a formal complaint, and we will review the case. Please make sure it is not a mere "I suspect my opponent is using a chess program", or "his/her moves feel too computer-like". Unless we can conclusively prove that a player is cheating beyond any reasonable doubt, we would very much prefer to wait until there is more evidence available, instead of accusing a completely innocent player.
Please note that someone winning a large number of games in a row is not a conclusive evidence of cheating as it often happens when a strong player chooses their opponents to be mostly lower-rated, which is technically not against the rules, and it is relatively easy to achieve for a higher-rated player.
Also, a chess engine "agreeing" with most of the moves made by a player does not necessarily prove that they were cheating. It can also mean that the player's rating is on par with the chess engine's playing strength (or better). It could also be because the game was progressing in such a way that there was only one decisive (or non-losing) move at each turn. On the other hand, if for example a player routinely loses to lower rated players and then suddenly starts playing like a grandmaster, which would be very strong evidence that they are cheating. In any case, please refrain from using a chess engine to analyze any games still in progress, as not only it is against the rules by itself, but it is also very unlikely to prove that your opponent is cheating.