Questions & Answers

Frequently-Asked Questions about SparkChess and chess in general and their answers.

What are the time controls for my team?

All games played in your team’s play area will be subject to the team’s time control.

There are two types of time control:

Time per move: this is simple and intuitive for new players. Players must make each move within the allotted time, expressed in seconds. So, if you enter “60” in the time control, players must make their move within 60 seconds.
Total Time + Bonus time. This is how games in tournaments work. There is a total time for each player (in minutes) and an additional “bonus time” after each move (in seconds). So a time control of “10/5″ means that each player has 10 minutes to play at the start. They have to manage it – if they think too much on the first moves, there will not be enough time for later moves! After each move, the bonus time is added. Example: White starts with 10 minutes. White takes 30 seconds for the first move. White has 9’35” for the second move (10 minutes – 30 seconds thinking time + 5 seconds bonus).

How do I join or leave a team?

To join a team:

Once you’ve logged into multiplayer and entered a Playing Area, you’ll see the invitation window with a couple of buttons at the bottom.
Click/tap on the Teams button and a team list will appear.
Click on any team to see its details. Now you’ll see the team details, including stats and a list of members.
Click the Join Team button at the bottom. Your request will be sent to the team’s administrator for approval. It’s up to them to approve your request or not, but you can make further joining requests.

Note: If you make a new join request for another team, the old request will be deleted! You cannot belong to more than one team at the same time.

To leave a team:

Click the Account button in the invitation window. At the bottom of the account window you’ll see some buttons.
Click on Team. Now you’ll see the page of your team with the name, description and a list of members.
Click on Leave Team button at the bottom of the list.

How do I add, approve or remove members on my team?

For security and privacy reasons, players must personally ask to join a team. You can send them instructions on how to do this.

If you’re a teacher or chess instructor, please contact us. We have a platform where you can add users, assign them to your team, and more!

When users request to join your team, they must first be approved by you. To approve them, you’ll need to do the following:

Click the Account button in the invitation window. Your Account Window will be displayed.
At the bottom of the Account Window, you’ll see some buttons. Click on Team.
Now you’ll see your Team page, with its name, description as well as a list of existing (and pending) members.
- Pending members are shown first, along with some brief statistics, highlighted and with two buttons next to them: a “check mark” for approval and a “cross” for rejecting.
- To remove (“kick”) an existing player from the team, click on it on the list. A “cross” icon will appear. When you click it, the player will be removed from the team. Note: you cannot remove yourself in this way!

How do I edit or delete a team?

If you are the team owner, you can edit it just the way you created it.

Click the Account button in the Invitation window. Your Account Window will be displayed.
At the bottom of the account window you’ll see some buttons. Click on Team.
Now you’ll see your team page with the name, description and a list of existing (and upcoming) members.
- Click on Edit to make changes. Once you click Save, the changes will be sent for approval. You cannot make any more changes until the existing ones are approved (this usually takes less than one business day).
- Click Leave Team to, well, leave. Since you’re the team owner, all other team members will be removed and the team itself will be deleted. Note: this action is permanent – there’s no way to undo it!

How do I create a team?

Creating teams is only possible in SparkChess Premium (paid version).

Once you log in to multiplayer and enter a Playing Area, you’ll see the invitation window with a couple of buttons at the bottom. Click/tap on the Teams button
This will bring up a team list. At the bottom of the list there’s a Create button. Click/tap it. Note: The button is disabled if you’ve already created a team or joined an existing team. You must first leave a team to create a new one!
Upon clicking Create, you’ll be presented with a very short form. Just enter the team name, a description, and optionally the URL of a website (if your team has a website, Facebook page, Twitter page, or something similar). The time control settings are explained explained separately.
Click Save. Your form will be submitted for approval by the SparkChess team. Teams are usually approved in less than one business day. You cannot make any changes until your team is approved.

How can I set an avatar (profile photo) in multiplayer?

You can use the Gravatar service to add an avatar. Gravatar stands for Globally Recognized Avatar and it’s a free service from WordPress, the organization that maintains the WordPress software that powers over a third of the world’s web sites. Gravatar works by linking an email address to a public profile picture.

To add a photo, first you need to create an account:

Visit www.gravatar.com
Click on the big Create Your Own Gravatar button.
A simple account sign up form will be shown. Enter the same email address you’re using with SparkChess and a password. When you submit the form, you’ll receive a confirmation email. Click the Activate Account button on the email.

Now that you have your account, go to gravatar.com again and login from the top right. After login, you’ll see a page with the title Manage Gravatars and the text “Whoops, looks like you don’t have any images yet! Add one by clicking here!” Click on the link and follow the instructions.

If you don’t want a photo, our own system will generate a random profile image for you.

What do Alyx’ settings mean?

Alyx is a customizable AI character that we created. Unlike the others like Claire or Boris, you can tweak Alyx to alter her strength and play style.

There are currently ten parameters that you can alter. We tried to name them intuitively so as not to bore you with chess engine implementation details. Here are the basic descriptions:

Strength – this is the most important parameter. It specifies how many plies (half-moves) Alyx will think ahead. In some cases Alyx will think even more than this number, but this is the baseline. Increasing this value greatly increases the required time.
Time – this is the allocated time per move. It can be as low as 1 second and as high as 4 minutes per move. It should be high enough so that Alyx has enough time to finish thinking. In other words, it’s not enough to increase strength, you should increase the time as well.
Judgement – This parameter affects Alyx’ ability to evaluate captures and recaptures when thinking, in order to arrive at a ‘quiet’ position before evaluating the board. Chess engines call this quiescence.
Accuracy – This is the accuracy in evaluating the board. Increasing this to 100% makes Alyx always perform the best move; lower values allow for more variation in play. Decreasing this will lead to spectacular blunders.
Focus – You shouldn’t need to alter it too much. The impact on search is relatively limited. Lowering it can make most searches faster, with an occasional very slow one. Higher values will make search times more uniform. Technically known as ‘aspiration window‘.
Aggressivity controls how ‘desirable’ captures may seem. A higher value doesn’t mean a stronger play!
Memory – how much memory is allocated for ‘cache’ – remembering old positions. Higher values will improve search times, but only up to a point.
Intuition controls the heuristic algorithms, helping Alyx remember previous moves that were very good/bad. Altering it will subtly change the behavior, but there’s no a specific direction that will increase the strength. You’ll have to experiment.
Insight is important in discarding bad moves. Moving it all the way to the left will possibly lead to more accurate results since no move will be discarded in tricky situations, but will dramatically increase search times.
Knowledge affects openings and determines how much Alyx will rely on her memorized opening lines.

If you find an interesting combination of parameters, please share with us!

Do you have a special offer for schools or clubs?

Yes! SparkChess has been used in schools and chess clubs.

If you represent a school (public or private), chess club or any other educational organization, we’d be happy to talk.

We can offer volume discounts, special private playing areas in multiplayer, even rebranding.

You can also manage members, assign them to teams, allow autologin, and much more.