SchemingMind.com FAQ

Click 'Community>Forums>New Player Forum'. You can read previously asked questions and post your own there.

If you are still playing a welcome game, you could also try asking your site guide in the game chat.

First, you need to find an opponent! - If you know who you want to play against, then you can use the search page (Players>Search Player Database). Enter the first few letters of their name and click the 'Search Now' button. If you want the system to select an opponent for you at random, then click 'My games>Suggest Opponent', enter the variant you want to play and the rating of the player you want to challenge (optional) and click 'Suggest'.

Once you have found a player's profile page, you can select the 'challenge' link from the top of the page (this link may be greyed out if the player is not currently accepting challenges). Enter the game details and click 'Start Game'.

Please note that this is correspondence chess - your opponent may not respond for a few days. You will have the option of cancelling the game if he/she does not respond within five days (neither rating will be affected).

There are several ways. If you have a game already in progress with that player, you can simply open that game (by clicking 'My Games > Current Games' and then selecting that game from the list) and then clicking your opponent’s name from the header information at the top of the history tab on the game page. (If you just completed a game with that player, you can click 'My Games > Completed Games'.)

Clicking the player's name anywhere in Scheming Mind will take you to their player profile, where you can learn more about them, see the games they've played, send them a private message, or challenge them to a game. These options are listed horizontally at the top of the profile page.

You can also search for a player by their Scheming Mind handle (or their Scheming Mind rating range) by clicking Players > Search Player Database. Again, when you see their name, click it and go to their profile, as described just above.

You can enter a move on the game page in two ways:

1. You can type the move into the small box in the area under the game board. For the server to recognise your move, it must be in coordinate notation (i.e. E2-E4), or,

2. You can click the 'from' and the 'to' square with your mouse - this will enter the move automatically in the correct box.

You can also enter a message to your opponent with your move - type this in the large box at the bottom of the screen.

Remember, you need to click the 'Submit' button to send your move to the server.

Sometimes a move sequence is forced or expected (for example in agreed openings, or forced endgames). You can save time by suggesting a line of moves to your opponent who has one chance to accept this line of play. By doing so, you save having to wait for each other to make several obvious moves.

To make conditional moves both players need to have the option enabled in their personal preferences. If they are available an extra option appears on the game page when it is not your turn to move.

If you wish to propose a line of play after your move, simply continue to make moves for each yourself and your opponent -- note that the move entry box is now called conditional moves. You will have to click submit once for each move so be patient, you can't enter a line all at once. Comments entered for any move will appear accordingly as you enter them. (Useful if you wish to annotate.)

If you wish to accept a line of play, be sure to look for these moves in the moves history before you make any other moves. Making another move will negate your ability to accept this move list. Then, instead of moving, select the 'accept conditional moves' option and then click submit. You are then able to proceed with adding more conditional moves, or if it is still your turn, moving.

Remember that this is correspondence chess - it is normal for games to take weeks or months to complete. But sometimes people do leave the site mid-game. You could try using the private message system to send your opponent a message, or wait until the time runs out and then abandon the game (if five or less full moves have been made) or claim a win.

You can see how active your opponent is before you start a game - each players profile page shows you when they were last active and how many moves they have made recently. If a player has not been active on the site for more than a month, it is likely that they won't respond to your offer of a game.

SchemingMind uses 'incremental' time controls; this means that you start a game with a fixed amount of time and for each move you make, an increment is added to your clock. The 'standard' time control used on the site is 30+1 (thirty days, plus one day added for each move). Other time controls used are Blitz (5+12h), Fast (10+1) and Leisure (30+3).

You can specify which of these four time controls you would like to play from your 'Challenge Preferences' page.

Each game you play is allocated a start date - this is usually five days after the game is set up, but it can also be a fixed date for some tournament games. You are allowed to move in games before the start date, but your clock is frozen until then. For games without a fixed start date, the clocks start running immediately after both players have moved (i.e. after Black's first move).

Just before you go away, you need to go to the holiday page (My Details > Holidays).

On that page you should check the check box and press the button (optionally you can enter a comment in the text box).

This will do a few things...

- It will 'freeze' the clocks in your currently running games until your return date
- It will add a message to each of your games
- It will prevent you from being shown in the 'suggest opponent' thing for one week
- It will prevent anyone from being able to challenge you
- It will give you a different icon in the players list

You can still move when you are on holiday (in case you stumble across an Internet cafe on the beach!), but please note that as your clocks are frozen you will not recieve any time increments.

Please note that holiday time will only be added to currently running games. If you start any games whilst on holiday they will not be paused, if any games are started on your behalf (for example new tournament or team games) then the start date may be extended until your return date - however moving in these games may start the clock running.

Each player is allocated four one week blocks of holiday per calender year, allocated in January. New players signing up in January, February and March are allocated four weeks for the remainder of the year. Players signing up in April, May and June are allocated three weeks, etc.

Extra holiday blocks can be awarded in difficult circumstances.

Yes, From the menu, select My Details > Personal Preferences. Then select what you want to do "After moving", and click save.

What are mini-tournaments?

Mini-tournaments are 'all-play-all' tournaments for three to ten players. Only full members of SchemingMind.com can start mini-tournaments, but standard members who are playing less than eight games can join them.

There are two types of mini-tournament. 'Public' tournaments, which available for any player to join, and 'private' tournaments which are only available to the friends of the person who started the event (through their buddy list).

A list of public mini-tournaments can be seen from the 'Community > Public Mini-Tournaments' menu - this list shows the total number of places in the tournament and the number of remaining free places. To join a tournament, just click the name of the event, select the check box and click the submit button.

Mini tournaments can be for any of the chess variants available here on SchemingMind.com - games are started as soon as the second player enrolls in the tournament.

New public mini-tournaments should be announced in the 'Mini-Tournaments' forum.

A green spot appears on the menu bar when there is an item below the highlighted menu which requires your attention. If you click the menu bar, the menu item is highlighted in bold.

There are three kinds of alert:

It's your move: The 'My Games>Current Games' menu is highlighted when there is a game in which it is your move. Clear this highlight by making the move.

Private Messages: The 'Community>Private Messages' menu is highlighted to alert you that someone has sent you a private message. Clear this highlight by clicking the 'Mark all messages as read' link under your inbox, or by deleting the message.

Forums: The 'Community>Forums' menu is highlighted when someone has made a new post in a user forum that you are monitoring. You can clear this highlight by clicking the 'Mark all posts as read' at the bottom of the main forum page. You can monitor forums by clicking the links in the second column on the forum page.

Xfcc (XML Web Services for Correspondence Chess) is a set of Internet protocols for sending Correspondence Chess data over the Internet, Xfcc was developed by Martin Bennedik and is an open standard so it may be used by any server. SchemingMind.com supports XfccBasic - allowing you to play your games using third party software. More details about Xfcc are available here:

http://www.xfcc.org

An Xfcc client program for Windows, written by Andres Valverde (the author of the popular correspondence chess email program ECTool) is now available. XECTool can be downloaded from here:

http://www.ectool.nu/xfcc/

XECTool is shareware, if you find it useful please support Andres by registering the program.

To use XECTool, or other Xfcc clients, you need to enter your SchemingMind.com username and password - you also need to enter the web address of the service, which is http://www.schemingmind.com/xfcc/xfccbasic.asmx

Future versions of ChessBase will support XfccBasic.

XfccBasic only supports a limited subset of chess variants, so some of your variant games may be unavailable using this service.

Sorry, it's not possible to take moves back on SchemingMind.com - think of it as being like the touch move in over the board chess!

The list and rules are under the 'Chess>Chess Variants' menu.

This can happen for several reasons.

Are you over your game limit? If so, you can't issue a challenge. Full members can play an unlimited number of games, so you might consider subscribing to the site.

Is your intended opponent over their game limit? If so, they can't accept a challenge.

It's also possible you're attempting to challenge a member to a type of game they have selected to not play, or with time controls they don't want to use.

You can check a player's chess variant preferences by finding their name (on a game or by searching the player database) and clicking it to go to their player profile page. On that page, you will see what kinds of games they prefer to play.

No, SchemingMind.com is a correspondence site - leave the player a message and they will respond in their own time.

Over time, you may find you enjoy playing certain players again and again. The buddy list gives you a place to keep track of their names. That way, when you want to challenge them to a game or send them a message, you have one short list to find them in. To add a player to your Buddy List, first, find that player's profile. Then, in the player profile table, scroll down (if necessary) to see the entry titled Buddy List. You can add or remove the player from your Buddy List by clicking add or remove.

Full members can choose to restrict entry to tournaments and teams they create to their buddies only.

Not at present, although there's a lot of stuff there that's hopelessly out of date anyway. If you can't find an answer to your question, feel free to ask in the fourms anyway - if you're lucky you might get a sensible answer!

Yes, the mobile version of the site is at http://wap.schemingmind.com or http://mobile.schemingmind.com

This is a simplified version of the site, designed for mobile phones or other mobile devices - you can't start games or join tournaments, also variant play is limited, but it's handy for making a move in when you're on the train!