 | WHAT'S NEW ON GAMEKNOT: |  |
September 22, 2005: RSS feed
- RSS 2.0 feed is now available with the list of games in which it is your turn to move. Look for the orange RSS icon near the bottom of your active games page.
September 12, 2005: Online chess games database
- It is now possible to perform a search for all previous positions in a game, if the current postion on the board cannot be found in the database.
May 21, 2005: Conditional moves
- By popular demand, conditional moves are now available on GameKnot. After making your move, you can now enter a response to any future move by your opponent. If your opponent makes a move that you predicted, your next move will be automatically submitted by the system as per your instructions. The link to conditional moves can be found directly below the game board.
April 11, 2005: Personal chess games database
- Do you like our online chess games database? You can now have your own past games organized the same way, with the same detailed stats.
April 2, 2005: GameKnot clubs
- Several new features and minor fixes (including the ability to upload a club picture). A link to GameKnot clubs is also in the main menu now.
March 26, 2005: GameKnot clubs
- Introducing an entirely new feature -- GameKnot clubs (currently in beta stage).
March 12, 2005: Chess teams
- A short note can now be added to most of team related actions (joining, leaving, challenges, etc.).
February 22, 2005: Profile
- A larger size of the chess board can now be used when the large chess set is selected in the player's profile.
February 15, 2005: Premium memberships
- The premium membership system has been updated to allow for easy upgrades from one level to another at any time by paying only the difference in subscription rates (excluding certain conditions).
September 29, 2004: Player rating based on team games only
- Another stat is now available on player profiles -- player rating based on the team games only. You can also get the entire past team game history for the player by clicking on the number (including all previous teams, if any).
July 25, 2004: Teams
- Time control for team games can now be set to either 3, 5 or 7 days per move.
July 24, 2004: Online chess games database
- Each game board page now has a "Game DB" link, which takes you directly to the corresponding position in the chess games database, if it exists in the database;
June 29, 2004: Online chess games database
- New addition: the corresponding chess opening (using ECO classification) is displayed for each position in the database (when available).
June 21, 2004: Online chess games database
- Several improvements to the chess games database: if multiple games arrive at the same position on the board using different moves, the corresponding branches are merged; improved white wins / black wins balance bars; FEN displayed for each game in the database; the links to all previous positions leading to the current position on the board are provided.
June 9, 2004: Game postponements
- Small change in the game postponement rules -- if you postpone your games for less than 2 weeks, the "waiting" period during which you cannot postpone your games again will be equal to your postponement -- i.e. if you postpone your games for 5 days, you will not be able to postpone them again for 5 days after the postponement period is over (instead of 2 weeks, as it was before).
June 6, 2004: Online chess games database
- By popular demand, our online chess games database has been expanded to include links to individual games and to have 2 versions -- one larger database with games between players rated 1500 and higher and the other, smaller database, with games between players rated 1900 and higher only.
May 30, 2004: Online chess games database
- An online database of games between high rated GameKnot players is now available.
March 26, 2004: Game notes
- Personal game notes are now shown on the printer friendly version of the game board page and on the "analyze the board" page as well, for both active and completed games. You can make a personal game note (accessible by you only) by clicking on the "make a note" link in the upper right corner of each game board page.
March 12, 2004: Team ranking
- Teams are now ranked by their Elo rating.
February 28, 2004: Thematic mini-tournaments
- Initial position can now be set up for mini-tournaments, therefore making thematic mini-tournaments officially supported by GameKnot.
February 15, 2004: Timeouts
- You can now see the number of timed out games for each player on their stats/profile page, and their percentage of the total number of completed games for that player.
February 5, 2004: Send a message to everyone on the team
- If you are a member of a team, you can now send a private message to everyone on your team.
January 25, 2004: Team captains currently online
- You can now get a list of team captains who are currently online (i.e. accessed the site less than 10 minutes ago).
January 16, 2004: Blitz Chess is back!
- If you prefer to play fast real-time chess, please try our Blitz Chess.
January 3, 2004: Relative values for pieces on the board
- In addition to sums of relative values of captured pieces you can now see the difference in relative values of black and white pieces left on the board (the number in the middle). This number better reflects the true material advantage in case any of the pawns have been promoted.
December 30, 2003: Relative values for captured pieces
- You can now quickly assess who has the material advantage in a game -- the number displayed to the left of the captured pieces is the sum of their relative values (for each side). Pawn's value is 1, knight: 3, bishop: 3, rook: 5, queen: 9.
December 28, 2003: Download PGN archive of all active games
- Premium subscribers now have an option of downloading a PGN archive of all their active games. The link can be found near the top of the active games list page. Also, you can download a PGN archive of all your past games (available to everyone, the link can be found at the top of your past game history page). Paying subscribers can also download other players' past games in PGN format from their respective past game history pages.
December 14, 2003: Skip and next game
- There are two new links in the upper right corner of each game board page now -- skip game and next game. Click on "skip" if you want to go to the next game where it is your turn to move. "Next" will take you to the next active game regardless of whether it is your turn to move or not.
November 30, 2003: Max team games limit
- You can now limit the number of active team games you play at the same time via preferences.
November 28, 2003: Rating graph
- Rating graphs are now available for all players with more than 5 completed games. The thumbnail on the profile page coverts 1 year of rating changes. Click on it to get a detailed rating graph for all past dates (premium subscribers only).
November 23, 2003: Italian and German FAQ
- Italian and German translations are now available for the FAQ page and rating system description. Please send any corrections or translations to other languages to webmaster. Thank you.
November 16, 2003: Team challenges
- Team challenge is now a 3 stage process: first, a challenge is sent from team "A" to team "B" with a list of participating players; second, team "B" responds with a list of their players; third, team "A" approves the player selection from the team "B", at which point the team match starts.
November 15, 2003: New server
- A brand new server has been added to the cluster which hosts our site. GameKnot in now run on a combined 10.4 GHz of CPU power and 4.5 Gb of RAM. Quite a remarkable progress considering that only 3 years ago we were hosted on a single server with 0.45 GHz CPU and 0.25 Gb of RAM.
November 9, 2003: Elo ratings for teams
- Team ratings are now calculated using Elo formula as well.
November 2, 2003: Referral contest
- announcing the first GameKnot referral contest. Three 1-month premium memberships will be awarded on December 1st, 2003 to randomly selected players who refer at least 1 player via our referral program by December 1st. Each referral will count as one entry for this contest (regardless of their subscriber status), which means the more people you refer, the more chances you'll get to win one of the prizes. Good luck!
October 26, 2003: Elo rating
- close to 50% of all votes were cast in favor of Elo rating system in the latest poll, so it is now used on GameKnot exclusively. All ratings have been recalculated using Elo rating formula.
October 21, 2003: GameKnot referral program
- You can now receive one free month of premium subscription for each person you refer to GameKnot when they subscribe to a Gold or Platinum membership.
September 20, 2003: Blitz games (beta)
- You can now play fast/blitz chess games on GameKnot (beta).
September 8, 2003: Game postponement rules changed
- If you have postponed your games before, you will only be able to postpone them again 2 weeks after the previous postponement period is over.
September 7, 2003: Vacation flags and tournaments
- If a vacation flag is set for your account at the time when a new tournament round starts, you will not be excluded from the tournament (as it was in the past). Instead, all your games in the new round will be automatically postponed upon creation.
September 7, 2003: Team's past game history
- Team's past game history is now available from the all teams table (click on the team's rating) or from each individual team's profile page. You can now track how the team's rating changed over time.
August 28, 2003: Mini-tournament changes
- You are now considered to have completed the mini-tournament as soon as you finish your last game -- no need to wait for all players to finish their games before you can join/start another mini-tournaments. Also, premium subscribers can play in up to 10 mini-tournaments simultaneously now. You can also get a list of all mini-tournaments you have completed in the past, by using "switch to completed" link on "my mini-tournaments" page.
August 23, 2003: Customizable "my games"
- Active games list is fully customizable now. You can add, remove and rearrange different columns by clicking on "customize this list" link at the top of the page. You can also sort the list by any column by clicking on that column's title.
August 17, 2003: ChessColony.com = GameKnot.com
- If you find yourself unable to access GameKnot using GameKnot.com domain name (http://gameknot.com), you can also use ChessColony.com domain name (http://chesscolony.com) to access GameKnot.
July 27, 2003: Unrated games
- When challenging someone to a game, you can choose to play it unrated now. Your (and your opponent's) rating and stats will not be affected by the result of that game in any way.
July 6, 2003: "In reply to" link
- If you receive a private message, you can always see what message it was in reply to now. Look for "in reply to" link next to messages in your inbox.
July 6, 2003: Unrated mini-tournaments with no rating limits
- You can start an invitation only mini-tournament with no rating limits now. All such mini-tournaments will be unrated, i.e. no mini-tournament points will be awarded at the end of the mini-tournament.
June 21, 2003: GameKnot online store
- GameKnot online store is open. Now you can buy t-shirts, mouse pads, mugs and other items with GameKnot logo. 30-day money back guarantee is offered on all products, so you can always return something you didn't like.
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