Live Online Chess: Social Features & Downsides

The book features social network analysis of the author's live rated online chess games with various players (including high and middle-strength computer software) from different time zones and cultures around the world. For most of them the social features and downsides of real-time online chess were investigated and documented, including social magnetism, gambling, anonymity and use of pseudonyms, nationalism, Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) issues, Islamophobia, and social stratification and mobility. The accompanying game annotations and post-game discussions mainly dwell on responsible participation and civil discourse using live online chess games as medium. Online chess has become a test case for us as an international/trans-national group to think about how we can live in a socially-differentiated society, where its members subscribe to a plurality of forms of knowledge arising from considerably different environments, experiences and genetic makeup.