Anyone else having the problem with the inbox stuck on "loading..." forever?  Is there a fix or is this problem on the Chessmaster Live side?

Anybody else have this problem?  Since I haven't received a response I'm assuming its just confined to me.  So I guess the solution is to call Msft.

Sadly, not just you.  Read the topic "Message Chess" several have posted about the problems with this feature and the lack of response from both Ubi and MS.  Pretty sad, since it's about the only reason I got and played it.

Keep us updated on your progress if you choose to take up the torch for those of us who have tried in the past and failed.

I'm currently having this problem as well.

 Patuxent wrote:

Anyone else having the problem with the inbox stuck on "loading..." forever?  Is there a fix or is this problem on the Chessmaster Live side?

I normally have been able to get into Message Chess without a problem. Last night I received the Loading screen, but it never loaded. Tried turning the Xbox off and then back on to establish a new connection, but same thing. Tried it again this morning around 6 AM EST and still could not access the Inbox. I have one game pending in Message Chess. Let's see what happens when I get home tonight.

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I'm still having this problem. It is a server side issue. The problem is there is nobody you can talk to in order to have it fixed. I've tried everything I can think of. I'm afraid you're probably just out of luck like the rest of us. We paid for a game that just doesn't work for us any more. I used to keep 12 message chess games going and check them every night before I went to bed. I did this from the day the game came out until it quit working. Its pretty frustrating. I guess all we can do is hope for some time of reset of the scores and other server side data.

 dosfx wrote:

I'm still having this problem. It is a server side issue. The problem is there is nobody you can talk to in order to have it fixed. I've tried everything I can think of. I'm afraid you're probably just out of luck like the rest of us. We paid for a game that just doesn't work for us any more. I used to keep 12 message chess games going and check them every night before I went to bed. I did this from the day the game came out until it quit working. Its pretty frustrating. I guess all we can do is hope for some time of reset of the scores and other server side data.

"I'm still having this problem"

Are you saying that once it quit working, you have never since been able to log into the game again?

Yes, unfortunately there is no one to speak to on any issue with this game.

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Yes, once it quit working, it has never worked again. I try it from time to time hoping it will. I love Chess. I'm not great, but I do play competitively when I can. Now I just get a few games in on FICS before I go to bed.

When I first started having issues, I noticed there was a game where there was no opponent listed in my list. It said I had lost, but I couldn't remember this loss as I hadn't finished a game recently. When I'd try to load the game it'd say the game was unavailable. I couldn't view it. I couldn't delete it either. I figured there was something wrong locally so I deleted the game and all the game saves from my hard drive. I downloaded the game again after and the odd game was there again. I figured there was nothing I could do so I just ignored the game. Less than a week later I got the loading error and the message chess feature of the game has not worked since.

Since getting the loading error I have deleted the game and game saves several times. I've even upgraded to an Elite with a new hard drive and copied nothing over. The error still persists though.

 dosfx wrote:

Yes, once it quit working, it has never worked again. I try it from time to time hoping it will. I love Chess. I'm not great, but I do play competitively when I can. Now I just get a few games in on FICS before I go to bed.

When I first started having issues, I noticed there was a game where there was no opponent listed in my list. It said I had lost, but I couldn't remember this loss as I hadn't finished a game recently. When I'd try to load the game it'd say the game was unavailable. I couldn't view it. I couldn't delete it either. I figured there was something wrong locally so I deleted the game and all the game saves from my hard drive. I downloaded the game again after and the odd game was there again. I figured there was nothing I could do so I just ignored the game. Less than a week later I got the loading error and the message chess feature of the game has not worked since.

Since getting the loading error I have deleted the game and game saves several times. I've even upgraded to an Elite with a new hard drive and copied nothing over. The error still persists though.

Wow!!! that is a major problem and very sad. I think my problem might be similar to yours. I have played Message Chess on and off for the last year with a friend that I happened to meet as a result of actually playing message chess and never had a problem. We also chat several times a month via XBL. We've played and also have won and lost games by default because our jobs prevented us from getting in to make a move. Never had a problem.
 
About a week ago I decided to create a 5 day match. After 2 days, someone accepted and since I was white, I made the first move. I then checked each day to see if my opponent would make a move and he didn't. Tuesday night there were about 7 hours left for him to make his first move. I went in last night to see what had happened.. I wonder if he didn't make a move at all, I was the only one that made the first move and that's why the game is stuck. I had a game listed in each of the available visible slots when you get into the Inbox and there were a total of 7 slots.

I'll try again tonight when I get home and let you know what happened. I hope it just doesn't jam in the Loading stage forever!!!

Yikes!!!!

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I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. It sounds like you're having the same issue. I've talked to several others and they've all said it started with an errored game.

This is really dissapointing to me. I bought a 360 the day it came out and I waited a long time for a decent chess game to come out in the marketplace. Although not perfect, chessmaster was a pretty decent effort. It is a social game. You do make friends and then one day due to no fault of your own its gone and there is nothing you can do about it. I just wish there was somebody you could get to fix this. I've talked to people at both Ubisoft and Microsoft and have gotten nowhere.

Please keep me posted. I plan on posting here again if this issue ever gets resolved for me. As for right now I'm pretty much resigned to waiting for the server data to get cleared or another chess game to come out.

 dosfx wrote:

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. It sounds like you're having the same issue. I've talked to several others and they've all said it started with an errored game.

This is really dissapointing to me. I bought a 360 the day it came out and I waited a long time for a decent chess game to come out in the marketplace. Although not perfect, chessmaster was a pretty decent effort. It is a social game. You do make friends and then one day due to no fault of your own its gone and there is nothing you can do about it. I just wish there was somebody you could get to fix this. I've talked to people at both Ubisoft and Microsoft and have gotten nowhere.

Please keep me posted. I plan on posting here again if this issue ever gets resolved for me. As for right now I'm pretty much resigned to waiting for the server data to get cleared or another chess game to come out.

Well we are not the only ones for sure. I just shot an email to MS via the support line here on Xbox. Let's see what response I get. I'll keep you posted. I also might contact MS from home tonight to see if speaking with a rep makes any difference.

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 dosfx wrote:

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. It sounds like you're having the same issue. I've talked to several others and they've all said it started with an errored game.

This is really dissapointing to me. I bought a 360 the day it came out and I waited a long time for a decent chess game to come out in the marketplace. Although not perfect, chessmaster was a pretty decent effort. It is a social game. You do make friends and then one day due to no fault of your own its gone and there is nothing you can do about it. I just wish there was somebody you could get to fix this. I've talked to people at both Ubisoft and Microsoft and have gotten nowhere.

Please keep me posted. I plan on posting here again if this issue ever gets resolved for me. As for right now I'm pretty much resigned to waiting for the server data to get cleared or another chess game to come out.

I was able to see the Leaderboard for Message Chess and the last person I've played, never won nor lost any games in Message Chess. That indicates to me that he either could not log in after he accepted the game OR never bothered to log in again, hoping he could win by default.

Another thing I noticed is that I can't create any new games. It tell me that I have 5 open games in Message Chess and that based on my ELO, I can't create any more till I raise my ELO. Problem is of course that if you can't play, you can't raise your ELO. Each game type has it's own ELO, so playing with AI or with a live player, will not affect you Message Chess ELO.

I wonder if you can remember - after you win or lose a MC game, you have the option to save it to your hard drive for later review. You can delete it from your Inbox. You can always go back to it from your saved game on the hard drive. Did you delete those MC games from your Inbox or did  you leave them as I did and eventually reached the limit. I have a feeling that's the problem. Let me know what you think.

Here's what's happened so far. On Friday I was on the phone with MS support for 45 minutes and got disconnected, my end. Called back and was on the phone for 1 hour and after speaking with the rep, he was in the process of transferring me to his manage, got disconntect.

So on Sunday I tried again with regard to Chessmaster Live, I contacted MS again, had to start from the beginning. Rep finally told me that he checked the forum and indeed other have said that they were having the same problem and that as they also stated, nothing had been done. I told him that I was very capable of reading the forum, in fact I was the one that mentioned it to him and I didn’t need someone to “parrot” me back what I had already been able to ascertain on my own. He apologized, but said there was nothing he could do. I told him that I knew there was nothing he could do, that’s why he needed to escalate the issue to upper management who will be able to do something and I found his response while polite, completely unacceptable. He finally transferred me to his manager. He sort of tried to tell me the same thing and finally told me that I would have to contact Ubisoft. I told him that others have already tried and failed. In fact on their site for Chessmaster Live, they have the link for the game, but when you click on it, there are no FAQ’s or posts from anybody at all. No doubt they must have not entered them or erased them. It ended that he gave me two phone number to try and stated that if I do get a response, they will give me some type of reference code, even if they don’t fix the problem. Armed with that info, I should then contact MS again to have MS escalate for me if Ubisoft does not fix or resolve the problem. So far I’ve sent Ubisoft a detailed description of what transpired. I will call them tomorrow from work, since I left their phone number at home this morning. I deleted the game last night and every thing in the Game folder for Chessmaster Live. Re-downloaded it again and tried this morning to see if I could access the inbox, but no difference – “LOADING” is all I get. Same issue as others that have posted on the forum. Let’s see where this all takes me. Bummer I can’t play message chess. I also know I can create any games because it says I have 5 open games. So the only thing is to play a live match “IF” someone happens to be on Live looking for a game to play. Regardless, each game type has it’s own ELO, so playing one type & raising my ELO, will not affect my Message Chess ELO. If the problem doesn’t get resolved, the only thing I know I will be able to do is to play against the AI of the game. It was only $10, but what a bummer it doesn’t work. I will escalate this as much as I can. If Xbox support fails, I will submit an letter or email to MS Xbox management. Might take months,but I feel it’s the “right” thing to do, even though it might not be the most productive.

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 dosfx wrote:

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. It sounds like you're having the same issue. I've talked to several others and they've all said it started with an errored game.

This is really dissapointing to me. I bought a 360 the day it came out and I waited a long time for a decent chess game to come out in the marketplace. Although not perfect, chessmaster was a pretty decent effort. It is a social game. You do make friends and then one day due to no fault of your own its gone and there is nothing you can do about it. I just wish there was somebody you could get to fix this. I've talked to people at both Ubisoft and Microsoft and have gotten nowhere.

Please keep me posted. I plan on posting here again if this issue ever gets resolved for me. As for right now I'm pretty much resigned to waiting for the server data to get cleared or another chess game to come out.

You wanted to have me keep you posted, so here's the latest that has happened since my previous post.On Sunday 2/8/09 I spoke to one of MS reps and he escalated my concern to a manager after consistent urging on my part. The manager asked me to contact Ubisoft directly and provided me with a phone number - (919) 460-9778 at Ubisoft.

I called Ubisoft  and spoke to Drew. Interestingly, he informed me that it is Microsoft that can do something about this, not them. Their game (Chessmaster Live) is residing and being accessed via the Microsoft servers not Ubisoft's. They have no control over the game once they finish it and turn it over to MS. MS is the only one that can get into the game to see what is happening. With that info, if they need to write a fix they can and submit to MS to be included in the game. Hence, they can't do any trouble shooting to see what is happening, only MS can see what's transpiring and test the game to duplicate the issue or go into my profile to see what's happening.

That was news to me. That's why when you go into the game, all the ELO comparing you and your friends, etc. is actually coming from MS. I thought there was some type of link between Ubisoft's servers and MS, however Drew confirmed that's not correct. We spoke quite a while and he was really pleasant and helpful. He provided me with a ticket reference number and asked that I give that to MS along with his name so MS can contact him directly on this issue. He finally indicated that this would be the only and best way to get this issue resolved. That level 1 reps at MS have little knowledge of games and I would have to escalate to an MS manager to deal with this.

Today I contacted MS, spoke to a manager and provided him with details of what is happening along with Drew's name and contact number and my reference number at Ubisoft. The manager at MS gave me a new Service Reference number and told me he would be escalating this to their system's development department and that I should hear back in about 5-7 business days.

That's where I'm at - wonder if that's were you got to also. Did you ever hear back from Microsoft or go as far as I've done? Let me know as I'm curious.

Just so you know, I'm not able to create any more message chess games, when I try it says I'm at my limit of 7 or need to increase my ELO. Naturally I need to play a game to increase my ELO which is not possilbe. I think that what locks this up is a series of unique steps. One of them has to do with your opponent not ever making a move on their first move and at the same time, the other is how many games you have showing in your Inbox (lost or won) instead of saving them to your hard drive, then deleting them from the Inbox. If you are playing mulitple players at once and one of them doesn't make a move, if all Inbox slots are filled based on your ELO, the Inbox goes into a perpetual state of "LOADING".

I have a friend in FL that I've played in the past and he has not problem with the Inbox. However, he never keeps the game there after finishing it. He saves it to the hard drive, then deletes it form the Inbox. I'm willing to bet the problem lies with the scenario that I've painted. What do you think?

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Thanks for keeping us posted on your progress. I did contact Microsoft twice. During the second call I was told it was Ubisoft's product and I should contact them. I did call Ubisoft and they told me the same thing you were told. Microsoft hosts the servers and is responsible for this issue. I called Microsoft once more explaining the problem again, telling them I had contacted Ubisoft and what Ubisoft had told me. The person I talked to gave me the same runaround, telling me Ubisoft was responsible. I did not get to talk to a manager. This is the point where I gave up. You've made more progress than I did.

At this point I'm pretty confident the issue is server-side. I know Microsoft hosts the servers. Somebody is going to have to get through to the right person at Microsoft to get this fixed. Hopefully you'll be the one.

As for my personal practices, I was able to have 11 or 12 games open at a time due to my rating and I usually had that many open. When a game finished, I always deleted it from my inbox immediately. The few exceptions were complex games I wanted to review later. In those cases I would save the game to my hard drive and then remove them from my inbox. I would say maybe 95% of the games I played I did not save before deleting. The other 5% I saved and still removed.

When I ran into the weird game that couldn't be viewed or deleted, I was actually down to about 7 games. This would happen in situations where I had several games finish in the same evening, usually from people not playing any moves. When I had several spots open, I would first look for available games and take what was out there. If I had spots to fill, I would only place one challenge out there. I didn't want to put 5 challenges out and end up playing the same person in 5 games. From there, every night I checked my games, I would put out another challenge. I would do this nightly until my box was full again.

I can only speculate what would cause this to happen. I wonder if it has something to do with the account you're playing against expiring. Its situations like that which developers don't always plan for.

Please keep me informed on your progress. I have replies to this post being emailed to me. I may put in another call myself. I would really like to use the message chess feature. I miss it.

Hi DosFx,

I'm on the phone with MS support as I'm writing. They called me yesterday and left me a message that they had a resolution for me & provided the case number. I was out from work yesterday. I called MS back and of course have to speak to a Level 1 person again.

They asked me questions, trying to piece together what's in the notes and what I stated already, which is a little frustrating. Then they transferred me to a manager in Level 2. She is asking me everyting again all over again as I'm writing this. This time even more detailed notes because she read back to me what I stated and allowed me to re-explain and wrote exactly what I stated instead of trying to interpret.

I noticed you stated that if a player's Live account expires while you are playing, this might happen. This is exactly what happened to me. The other player has a friend invite from me, never responded and when I check, the last game he played was Chessmaster Live and has never been online again. Probably got a 30 day Gold Free Trial. He never played and locked me up. He does appear as one of the players I've played Chessmaster with on the LeaderBoard, however what is interesting is that he's never played a game and never lost a game with an ELO of 600. She wrote all this down and is escalating to a Level 3 Service Rep.

I activated another gamer tag last night and I was able to get into the inbox to create and view games. I went back to my Skier7667 tag and was not able to create a Message Chess game because it told me I had 7 open games and needed to update my ELO or delete the games. Since I couldn't delete the games, I tried creating an Xbox Live game and was able to do that. I figured that if I played a game and won, it would raise my ELO and maybe that would work in the interim.

Well I was able to play, someone joined in, but I unfortunately lost, so my ELO for Live Chessmaster went down. Not only was it not so much fun to lose, but I didn't accomplish anything with regard to the Message Chess issue.

I think it would be a good idea if you would try too because they would see there is more than one person having this problem. People start the process, but give up because it's so frustrating, so MS thinks there really isn't a problem.

Now is the time to jump in and reopen or start again. You are welcome to have my case # with MS if you want to (just PM me), that way when you call you can refer to it, so they will see that this is a real issue and not with just one person. I think this is associated with my gamertag or my Xbox 360, not a problem on their end - not true. It's on their end or the game itself.

Let me know what you think. I will be awaiting a call from them again - this time from Level 3 I was told. I just hope when they call I'm available so I don't have to start from Level 1 again. Level 1 told me they cannot directly patch me straight through to Level 3. Level 3 calls out, but does not accept calls in. Sounds the same as where I work. We don't want customers to contact our programers or support people directly. They have to call an extention and the support person picks up the call. If the support person calls the cusotmer and they are not available, a message is left to call the 800 number, not their own number. This causes the customer to almost start from scratch. That's why all my customers end up calling me directly when they can't get a support person directly, ha! ha!

Let me know how else I can help. The more of us that make the effort, the better chance this issue will be resolved.

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Hi DosFx,

Well it's been an incredible experience so far. Friday after 5 they contacted me at work and left a voice message that they need more information. I called them back from home on Saturday and it was a Level 1 rep. He stated that it appears I'm having a problem with Chessmaster Live and if I could explain to him the problem. Needless to day I asked him was he kidding. That he needed to read my last 5 calls to them and he wouldn't be asking me that question. I asked him if 5there was any record of my previous calls. That I spent almost 45 minutes with one of their managers and she read back to me everything I said, re-editing it so it was almost word for word. He put me on hold, appologized and informed me that he was sorry - so was I!

He then asked me what modem I have. I know where they are going with this. So I told him that I would gladly tell him, but that is not the problem because I have taken my Xbox to another distant location, different ISP & modem, yet the the problem persists. He said he understood, but had to ask. Then he switched me to his manager - more appologies. The manager advised me that Level 3 had called me on Friday and was going to call me again on Monday - today. We had a major snow storm in NY and my office was closed today. So I will probably have to contact them again tomorrow and start from the begining again. Appears they assign a new REF # for each call.

One thing I noticed, since my amount of calls has been quite numerous, their thread is very long on this and they probably don't want to read it since it will take a long time. Other thing is that since they have no idea about Chessmaster Live and the Inbox for Message Chess, their first impression is that I'm having a problem with my XBL messaging or Chat. I always have to explain and clarify.

I wonder if Level 3 will be any better. I've taken word for word what it says on the screen on my end and they ask me again what it says. Yikes!!

One thing I noticed - I can't get into the Inbox because it's always loading. If I try to play a game, joining or create one, it tells me that I have to raise my ELO score because I have 7 open games. I played a game again a 2nd account - Live "head to head", as 2 players on my Xbox. I made sure I beat the dup player and my ELO score went up, however that had no impact at all. I imagine you have to raise your ELO for message chess, which of course can't be done if you can't play or get into your inbox.

Thought I keep you posted!

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Thanks for the update. I don't know how you persist. I gave up long ago. There is a failure in customer service here. I love my 360, but I have always felt like I've been on my own since buying it. Good luck and keep us posted. You're a lot more persistant than I am.

 dosfx wrote:

Thanks for the update. I don't know how you persist. I gave up long ago. There is a failure in customer service here. I love my 360, but I have always felt like I've been on my own since buying it. Good luck and keep us posted. You're a lot more persistant than I am.

Well, I know in corporate invironments, there are many layers and getting through to the correct layer can be a problem. Having a contact is a "godsend". Unfortunately MS like many companys today, even my own which is very small in comparison, have given up on the "assigned rep" to customer way of doing business. So everytime you call you get a different person who starts at the beginning. It's like when you go to McDonald's, maybe haven't seen the menu in a while, are standing about 4-5 feet from the counter, trying to give the impression you are not quite ready yet and are contemplating the menu AND the rep say: "Can I help you?" I find it so frustratingl. Don't they see my eyes are focused on the menu above their head about 6 feet!!!! Happens all the time - WHY? do I ask!! Unfortunately that's what they have been instructed to do.

I do have to tell you that I had the hardest time controlling myself and not raising my voice. However, you can tell the sarcasism in the tone of my voice. This last rep actualy thanked me for not getting angry at me and told me I was a gentleman because someone else would have not behaved the same way. I could tell he was Hispanic, like myself and I just felt so bad that he's put in such a position of helplessness by MS. Furthermore, you get more with honey than vinegar and I deal with customer's all day long.

The other thing is that I am not very familiar with the word "NO". In fact, I'm not even sure if I spelled it correctly and certainly my hearing senses do not comprend that sound. So I'm going to continue this endeavour, even if it goes nowhere.

This post is great because others have the same "loading" problem. Of course there has to be hundreds more. Most people just want to play a game and if it doesn't work, they move on.

I did notice one interesting thing last night. I logged into Chessmaster Live, went to the Inbox and noticed that it says at the upper right in faint grey lettering - "0/6 Games" then "You have no active games"

Then when I try to create or join a game, it says: "You have 7 games open and cannot join or create a game till you raise your ELO score".

So that last game after I successfully as white made my first move and black never made his first move, is the one that locked the message chess game portion of Chessmaster Live. The Friends section of the Gamertag proves this because if I try to rate this person, it tell me I had to have played with them before I can rate them. He never made a move, so he technically never played against me.

They are suppose to call me today, but haven't. They were suppose to contact me yesterday at work, but there was no message. Tonight I'm going to start sending emails out to MS that are involved with XBL and other MS personal that I know. It might take a long time, but someone is eventually going to take a closer look. Unfortunately this is a $10 game. If this was Halo or GOW, Bungie or Epic would have been asked to fixed this right away. Even if it takes a while to write new code, at least they would be on it. In our case, you get the impresstion that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. I'll keep posting.

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I've been missing message chess for a while. I played it every day for several months before it stopped working. I'm happy to say that I've found a suitable alternative on Facebook. Chess.com has an application there where you can play message chess type games, giving a number of days per move which you can set. The application tracks your rating, allows you to have multiple games open at once, saves your games and more. Based off of features, this application has so much more than Chessmaster's message chess.

I'm still hoping message chess gets fixed, but until it does, I'm happy to be playing this type of game again. If you're interested in this, you can find it by logging into Facebook and going to applications. Click "find more" and type in "Chess". It should be at the top of your results, but if it isn't, click on "most active users" and it will be. It'll say "Chess by Chess.com" and will have a picture of a green pawn next to it.

Hi dosfx,

Thanks for the info - I appreciate it. I'll have to check it out.

Yesterday after about 2 weeks I received a message from the rep in level 3 that they have some development, but didn't state what it was. Unfortunately I wasn't able to speak with him directly. When I call back, I'll be speaking to a level 1 rep and I just hate to think that I'll have to go through an explanation from the beginning as in the past. I tried again accessing Chessmaster Live last night, but no difference, still can't create or join a message chess game. Funny how it has shows 0/6 games currently active when I hit Inbox, yet when I try to create or join a game, it tells me that I have 7 (not 6) currently open and I have to increase my ELO scrore. Of course one can't increase their ELO in message chess if they can't play. So one part of the game thinks I have a potential of 6 games and currently have 0 games being played. The other one when I try to create/join a game tells me I have 7 games open. Right hand and left hand are not communicating.

Let's see what MS has to tell me about the development they have for me. I'll die if they tell me to create a new Gamertag. That would work of course, since any new gamertag to the game starts out "clean". However that is not a fix, that is a "Band-aid". Let's see, I'll keep you posted.

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Hi dosfx,

Well a resolution has been reached by Microsoft, however unfortunately it does not fix the problem with the game. A third tier rep named Jay looked at the problem and we played a lot of telephone tag over the last two weeks. I have to say he was responsive sometimes called me twice in the same day. Unfortunately when you call back you cannot get him directly and have to leave a message with one of the other reps that takes the call. We finally connected on Thursday and he advised me that he was sorry but there was nothing further he could do, however for my troubles they were refunding me the price of the game. He gave me the codes for the Microsoft points so I can add to my account.

 I estimate this was the end of it or will they continue researching this. His answer was somewhat evasive and told me to continue checking the forum for any developments. This is probably a less expensive way for them to deal with this problem than to continue interfacing with me as they have the last two months. I'm sure that if everyone had this problem would do what I did it would be much more focus, unfortunately not everyone is willing to expend the amount of time or patience to deal with this.

 I wonder if they deleted the fact that I ever purchased the game and allowed me to be purchased as new, would that fix the problem. Maybe that would disassociate my gamer tag from the game and it would appear that I am a new player even if I lose any progress in the game with regard to gamer score. I was able to verify that by using a different gamer tag associated with my Xbox, that gamer tag can play message chess.

The end result is that I really can't continue to complain about this issue due to Microsoft refunding the price of the game. I know I can play Chessmaster Live against the AI and on Xbox Live against other players, just can't play message chess. Unfortunately that is one part of the game that I really liked. There are also many that are play message chess and are not experiencing any problems. I think I was unlucky to play against someone that never made a move and for some reason that confuses the game and creates this issue. The error message that you get asking that you increase your ELO of course is impossible to do if you can access your inbox or create/join a game.

So there you have it-the end result. I'm not completely happy with the outcome because I was hoping they would fix the problem, however in the interest of customer satisfaction I can't say that Microsoft didn't do their part. Microsoft hosts the game on their servers, but they didn't write the code probably making it very difficult to fix this issue. For Ubisoft this game is probably very low on their agenda and unless a lot of pressure was put on them nothing is going to be done.

I may if I find some more free time e-mail certain executives at Microsoft Xbox and articulate what happened with this issue.

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Thanks to you guys above for posting all that info.

The same problem just happened to me. The inbox just keeps loading and loading. It's pretty annoying as I've been playing this game every day - though I did have a break for a red ring of death once.

It seems to me from what you guys are saying that they are not going to fix it. It can't be a very difficult bug to fix, but it would probably need ubisoft to spend some money, and nobody likes spending money do they?

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Japan Gaming Guide

 theninjahut wrote:

Thanks to you guys above for posting all that info.

The same problem just happened to me. The inbox just keeps loading and loading. It's pretty annoying as I've been playing this game every day - though I did have a break for a red ring of death once.

It seems to me from what you guys are saying that they are not going to fix it. It can't be a very difficult bug to fix, but it would probably need ubisoft to spend some money, and nobody likes spending money do they?

Yes it's a pity this has happened. So you have tried to access your inbox and it’s just loading. It be interesting to know if:

1) When you try to create a message chess game, does it allow it or like me do you get the message that you already have too many games open and to increase your ELO?

If it does it probably would be best to delete it since you can't access your inbox, however I have a feeling that it won't let you-let us know.

2) Also did this happen to you because someone didn't make a move or just out of the blue?

3) Also go to your inbox and while it is flashing “Loading”, take a close look towards the top, does it tell you that you have any open games?

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Hi Skier I also just got this problem. Found this thread looking for a solution but am disapointed it doesn't look like there will be a fix for it. Glad they at least refunded you.

I get a slightly diferent problem where I consantly get the error message "The chessamster live server is not available at this time. Please try again later." I get the same message when I try to create a game or try to do anything with message chess.

As far as I can remember I dont save the games & I only had 3 on the go when it first happened. I did win a game by default the day before so maybe my opponent like yours didn't make a move or quit live.

Also if I try to access my inbox I see text saying "You have no message chess events." above the error message box.

 roygbiv6 wrote:

Hi Skier I also just got this problem. Found this thread looking for a solution but am disapointed it doesn't look like there will be a fix for it. Glad they at least refunded you.

I get a slightly diferent problem where I consantly get the error message "The chessamster live server is not available at this time. Please try again later." I get the same message when I try to create a game or try to do anything with message chess.

As far as I can remember I dont save the games & I only had 3 on the go when it first happened. I did win a game by default the day before so maybe my opponent like yours didn't make a move or quit live.

Also if I try to access my inbox I see text saying "You have no message chess events." above the error message box.

Hi roygbiv6, Yes, unfortunately there does not appear to be a fix for this. If you read all my postings, you will see that it took a tremendous effort on my part in dealing with MS over several months. Each time I called I had to start from the beginning, try to not lose my cool with the reps because I would be asked the same questions over & over again coupled with their unfamiliarity with the game, making it very frustrating. Ubisoft, who I contacted directly and was able to speak to a live person who was pretty knowledgable, was not able to help because he claimed that since the game lies on MS servers, only MS could initiate any requests to Ubisoft for a fix. Once they release the game, it's up to MS pretty much. MS realized I wasn't going to give up and the issue was escalated to level 2, however we had to play phone tag and when you call back, you always start back with the level 1 rep that knows nothing and can't simply do a phone transfer on the spot. They note that you called and then you have to wait for a call back, most likely not that day. So it took repeated calls the same day which got logged causing urgency for the level 2 rep to respond. You get the picture, it was taking up more time on their part and it was easier to do a refund, which takes away my ability to complain anymore. If I continue to complain they can simply say, "we gave you a refund for the product", this way it's like if I never bought it, diminishing my ability to continuing to complain. I wasn't happy with the result, because I really wanted Message Chess to function. I have a friend that has used it and has no problems. He has won matches due to non response from the other player, however the other player probably acknowledged losing the match. I think the glitchh is when the other player doesn't acknowledge that they lost. Even if you acknowledge you won. the system probably thinks the match has not been totally addressed or closed by "both" parties. This other player has not acknowledged my email requests to please go in and acknowledge his game with me. I can tell because I can see his game score for Message Chess is still ELO 600, the starting number. ELO for message chess has not bearing on your ELO for live chess, one doesn't impact the other. Infact, there are ELO's for each of the chess game variants. It also shows he's neither lost or won, but if he would go in, he would see that he has to acknowledge the loss and that's when his score would decrease and the game will be closed out. I would no longer have 7 open games and would be able to access my Inbox. No matter how you look at this, it's a flaw in the game because you can't raise your ELO to open another game, if you can't play a game. So you are caught in this circular situation. He's even gone into Chessmaster and played the game, but not Message Chess. Truth is your ELO has no impact on your Gamerscore, so he really shouldn't be concerned, especially since he doesn't play Message Chess part of the game. I haven't had the time, but I am going to file a more rigorous complaint with MS about his unprofessional conduct and basically "cheating", which is against the Terms & Conditions of XBL when one becomes a Live Member. This could impact his live membership and can be cancelled. I wil email him one more time politely ask him to please cooperate before I take this final step. It's a lot of work for such a simple thing and I know most would not bother and give up. It really has nothing to do with the $8 or $10 for the game, it has to do with my desire to want to play that game. The message you mentioned - "The chessamster live server is not available at this time. Please try again later." - I received last weekend several times also as I periodically go in to see if maybe this issue is somehow resolved. This is not the same thing I'm encountering though. I see the message in dark letters on the Inbox, "You Have No Current Games" or something like that. Then when you try to create or join a game, that's when I get the error, "you already have 7 open games, increase your ELO score or close some games". Can't increase ELO if I cant' play and can't close games because on my end there aren't any open that I can close. Which leads me to believe the issue is with the last player that still has not closed that came, so the servers think it is still technically open. Let me know if you are able to get in or any news you uncover.

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Well this just started happening to me, I'm getting so fed up with this system, the only reason i have gold is because it was a gift. i Love chess, message chess was one of the main reasons i purchased this game. now I can't use it and after reading several posts, realize that nothing will be done about it.

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Sixty oz

I am really dissapointed, i liked to play chess corresspondence by Chessmaster Live, and my box doesnt work.

Its an important part of the program and it was bad to read that the problem doesnt have solution.

Yeah dude, it sucks B****. It was pretty much the reason I bought the game, so i could quickly make a move and turn it off check it later. it was a fantastic and integral part of the game, now every time I turn it on i check and am sorely disappointed.

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Sixty oz

Now today, I tried to access message chess and it just stays on Loading the entire time. fun fun fun, god why can't this be fixed.

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Sixty oz

I will let everyone know that if you don't have the jack of all trades achievement before your inbox goes bad, you won't be able to get it.  at least that's what I figured is wrong with mine.  I just got the requirements for the achievement today but nothing happened.  It may be a coincidence but something tells me it has something to do with this glitch as well.

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Sixty oz