Correspondence and real-time games

Correspondence (turn-based) games are the heart of the site: you make a move whenever it suits you and come back hours or days later for your opponent's reply. Your status page shows which games are waiting on you.

Real-time games are for when both players are online at once and want to play through a game in one sitting. They're only offered when your opponent is present.

You can start either from Invite or the Waiting Room.

The two kinds differ in one rule: an Undo in a real-time game always asks your opponent, while in correspondence a fresh move your opponent hasn't seen can be taken back at once — see Undo, passing and scoring.