Why #
Are you perhaps just a wee bit obsessed with chess? Well, so am I. It has become such an integral part of my daily life that I often find myself playing at the most inappropriate times having only to abandon a “winning” game 69 seconds later because my doctor tells me he has terrible news. “You’re the father”, he says. These situations are always tragic.
I have an affliction that can’t be cured but there’s no reason my Elo rating should tank because of it. Enter the chess.com multi-account multiverse. This article might not contain anything groundbreaking for any of you youngsters out there, but for us older folk these insights can be a godsend.
Having been involved in the small Southern Arizona chess community for some time now I have come to know a lot of the locals, some of them being highly respected chess players. We often meet up at the local pubs or any place with a pleasant and casual atmosphere. A lot of people think of chess as a stuffy, serious game invovling too much thinking and stress. Despite this reputation, those that are fairly serious about the game think of chess as a game for every occasion.
So there I am mingling with the chessers at the pub, getting to know some of the heavy hitters that just showed up. There were two masters, one IM (international master) and one NM (national master) embroiled in some blitz battling. After their game I introduce myself, we get to talking about ratings on chess.com and I find myself expressing woes about how horribly my rating fluctuates online because I enjoy playing chess while I eat every meal… and also when I’m drinking alcohol such as that night at the pub. We like to call this “Drinking & Thinking”.
Imagine my surprise when the younger NM just blurts out very matter-of-factly, “That’s why I have a different account for drinking…”
Why this never occurred to me remains a mystery. All these years my rating suffered for naught 😿. But since then I have implemented this practice for just about every occasion where it may benefit me. Below, I give specific scenarios for which I have created separate accounts, offer some additional suggestions and possibly a little food for thought.
How #
First, how do you manage multiple chess.com accounts? It’s called GMAIL. Yes, that gmail. Creating multiple accounts can be a huge pain in the ass but the “gmail trick” makes this a lot easier.
Let me break down the syntax:
For every new
chess.com account just modify your normal email, username@gmail.com by adding a plus sign, +, immediately after your real username followed by some descriptor like DrinkingAndThinking. The final result being username+DrinkingAndThinking@gmail.com. You just activated the infinite
chess.com account glitch.
You don’t really have multiple accounts on gmail (and that’s the beauty), but what you have are infinite monikers for infinite chess.com accounts.
Keep in mind that all emails sent to all these “different” email addresses go to the same email account. Very convenient.
When #
Eating:
One of my favorite pastimes is eating food and playing chess online. Don’t ask me why. I just love it. I’m Pavlov’s dog. I have forever associated eating with chess. Every time I eat food I begin salivating at the thought of a good blitz game. Unfortunately I can easily lose a precious minute or three cleaning up salsa off my knickers or getting a hankering for seconds mid-game. Surprisingly this account isn’t too far off my normal rating.
Drinking & Thinking:
There’s nothing more enjoyable than a good game and a good brew. However, these sessions can drop my Elo a solid 300 points. Nothing to be proud of but now I can quarantine my bad behavior.
Social Media:
As an official influencer of the masses I want to compartmentalize my separate personas. For this I have separate chess.com accounts for TikTok, Kick, and Twitch. This is of course in addition to my other accounts for the above and my regular account.
Challenges:
Having separate social media accounts eventually leads to different unique “challenges” for each. By challenges I mean something very specific. I’m not talking about the general challenges of maintaining separate social media accounts but trends/memes/challenges. God, why is English so difficult?? Anyways, such challenges drop your rating for various reasons.
Example: Edward (Lasker) 40 hands. The challenge here is to duct tape a 40oz of Mickey’s or whatever malt liquor of your choosing to your dominant hand, a mouse to your other, and play a rated 1 minute bullet game, no increment, with an opponent at least 200 Elo points above your rating. You have to finish your chosen beverage before the first game ends or win a single game before you can be unbound. I prefer standing in a trough for this one. This might fall under Drinking & Thinking, but challenges can be far and wide. You’ll notice a lot of chess influencers creating separate accounts for the various challenges they undertake.
Testing Openings:
This one’s pretty self-explanatory. You’re learning a new opening and you just don’t want your rating to suffer. Creating a new account for this is perfectly acceptable and probably a good idea.
Waiting:
Waiting for anything sucks. But it doesn’t have to suck as much. During these moments of torture I like to bust out my phone and play some quick games. Sadly most people tend to get offended when you’re not giving the cashier your credit card at the checkout line while you’re knee deep in endgame tactics. These games inevitably get abandoned. Again, your rating shouldn’t have to suffer.
Other Options #
Hell, you can just go to lichess.org and play some anonymous unrated games there. This is a fine option, requires no additional accounts and is an easy on-the-fly solution. I actually prefer the lichess app to chess.com’s. It’s just a cleaner, snappier experience. Ah, the wonders of open source. The other cool thing is that you won’t be at a severe disadvantage with premoves. On lichess both desktop users and mobile users can only premove one move whereas on chess.com desktop users can premove infinitely whilst mobile users can only premove once ☹️ . The main drawback with this solution is you’ll play anyone and everyone. This means you might be up against a master, patzer, or a machine. You’ll never know. However, I do use this option a lot on my phone for the sole reason that I don’t have to log out of my regular account and login to my other. Switching like this can be a tedious endeavor on your phone.
So there you have it. You are now equipped to play chess any time any wheres! Go take your addiction to new heights and happy chessing!