permanently disable chat?

The suggestion of @spartacuspicenus in comment #2 is good, but the zen mode works fine. You can activate and deactivate the chat by pressing the "z" key. That easy.

@Toscani #10
I would like to try the suggestion "In preferences, pick Standings tab over Chat or Chat over Standings" but I can't find it (I don't use English as inferface language but that should not be the reason). Can anyone please tell me where to find "standings over chat"?

It would be nice but it does not exist. I forgot to write feature request.

The zen mode is useful but I think it's another thing.
This could be an interesting feature request.