We are pleased to announce the completion of a major overhaul to the new Caissa Live Games functionality. As those of you who play Live Chess Games on Caissa have noticed, we have been phasing in these updates over the last few weeks.
 
And you responded.
 
This past weekend we approached 1000 games played in a 24 hour period. Thanks! We expect the number of live games to grow even faster in the coming months.
 
For a summary of the current Live Chess Games features, we encourage you to view the latest video tutorial:
 
Live Games Overview Video Tutorial
http://www.caissa.com/tutorials/live-games-overview/live-games-overview.html
 
You can also access the the Video Tutorials at any time from the "Help & Info" tab above.
 
Thanks again for your continued support as we watch Caissa grow exponentially in the coming months.
 
Abbreviated list of Live Game Updates:
 
- Ignore and disable chat in live games.
 
- Implemented an abandoned game timeout so if your opponent disconnects, you can claim a forfeit after 5 minutes.
 
- Added 3 different board size options.
 
- Added the ability to play a game against Caissa while you are waiting for a human opponent pairing. Upon the human pairing, the Caissa game is "Paused" and you can return to it at any time in that session.
 
- You can no longer play a Caissa game and a Human game at the same time in the same session.
 
- Fixed bug in the Watch Games so that if you pick and game to watch and a move is made in the game while you are waiting for it to load, the moves are out of synch.
 
- Re-designed the Challenge function for ease of use; more clearly differentiated the human opponents from the computer opponents.
Added the ability to send a challenge based on an specific Chess Opening (applies to both Chess and Chess960).
 
- Redesigned the Challenge notification popout to include the Challenger's avatar as well as more clearly differentiate non-standard parameters like unusual time controls.
 
- Fixed bug where if you put yourself on the waiting list and then logged off, you were still on the waiting list.
 
- Added "Kibitz" function when watching Live Games. You can comment on Live Game with other members viewing the game (the players do not see the Kibitz).
 
- Made many behind-the-scenes updates to properly handle situations where your opponent logs off or disconnects when you are playing a Live Game.

- If your opponent logs off while you are in a game, they are automatically resigned.
 
- Fixed a bug where a draw is offered and ignored, the draw keeps getting offered on every subsequent move.
 
- Added country and flag to player information on the Play a Live Game (game board) screen.
 
- General formatting updates to make the graphic design of the ive Games area more consistent.
 
As always if you have any suggestions or bug reports, let us know!

Indeed, it is a fantastic updated feature. Well done.