Why does the customer lose time on the clock in online games?
Why: the clock is controlled by the chess platform, not by us. The customer's clock starts the instant the opponent makes their move: while our robot is still driving the opponent's piece across the board. That costs roughly 2–7 seconds every move, and the customer cannot make their own move until the robot finishes.
We cannot change this. It was asked repeatedly in beta. The app shows a notice before every online robotic match ("Note: your clock starts once the opponent makes a move"), which can be dismissed permanently.
What to recommend:
- Use time controls of 20 minutes or longer, or untimed games, for the first sessions.
- Avoid blitz and bullet entirely on the robotic board.
- Reassure them that AI games are unaffected: those are untimed. Separately: in AI games the game clock may currently keep running while the robot moves. A fix to pause the clock during robot movement in AI games is in development.
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