GameKnot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
GameKnot is an Internet chess server featuring tournaments and league play, along with Java single-player games, without the need to download additional software [1]. GameKnot has been in business since 2001 and currently has approximately 750,000 registered players who have logged over 13 million games and are, as of April 2008, currently playing about 130,000 games. For a typical match, unless two users are simultaneously logged in and committed to playing quickly, games are generally played over a period of days (for example, up to three days per move per person), weeks or even months, and games may resemble a correspondence chess match. The site offers a wide variety of features, including an extensive database including generally recognized names for chess openings, site-sponsored tournaments, player-sponsored mini-tournaments, a fast-paced Blitz chess Java application in its beta stages (it has a known black castling bug), the ability to program conditional moves during a game, the option to declare a vacation to suspend games, and an in-game "analyze board" function that allows players to explore potential moves. It also keeps a record of past games, allowing players to learn from previous wins and losses. GameKnot maintains a ranking system similar to the Elo rating system used by the World Chess Federation.
Each player's profile includes information on the Elo rating for that player, percentile for the Elo rating, a graph showing the player's rating over a period of one year, the total number of games won, lost, drawn and played, the number of games in progress, the last time the player was seen on the site, information relating to mini-tournaments and team play, the number and percentage of timeouts, the average time per move, the longest winning and losing streaks for the player, and detailed statistics showing win-loss percentages, the number of moves, trends for all games, games over the last year and games played in the last 90 days.
To avoid players with a free account using multiple accounts, GameKnot tracks users by IP address and scans for suspect activity, such as ratings manipulation by accounts playing from the same IP address. Unfortunately, their administration provides for no appeal to players who may play from the same IP address served up by corporate firewalls, making this system less than perfect.
GameKnot relies on the income from paying players, with multiple tier offerings to allow users to play more games at once. Teams, clubs, forums and tournaments are also offered, with higher tier fees required for team captains. For non-paying players, GameKnot subscribes to several advertising support networks, including those that provide pop-up and pop-under advertising. Non-paying players are generally limited to a maximum of 12 games at a time.
