Server restart results in bad game state

I was playing a tournament during a server restart. The game reported losing connection during the game, and after that came a popup saying connection was restored.

My opponent was to move, and since I was winning I suspected my opponent was letting the time run out on purpose. In the end, it turns out he won the game...even though from my end it seemed he ran out of time.

Game:

You lost connection to the server due to a server restart, so the last move was lost in transmission.
You do not notice this, as your board and your clocks are local on your computer.
It is prudent not to start a new game when the orange banner bottom left appears warning for a server restart.
You can refresh the page after the restart.

As I mentioned in the other topic as well; the problem here is that the client informs the user connection is restored, when in fact it is not.

@tpr

What about this auto-abort in the FAQ when the server restarts?

https://imgur.com/a/ffZMAj3

Same thing happened to me. Lesson learned for next time, but it does clearly say lichess will auto-abort a game due to server refresh.

I got a warning on my account because of this:

https://imgur.com/ukfuTBz

"Also note that when Lichess restarts and you lose on time because of that, we abort the game to prevent an unfair loss."

https://i.imgur.com/qNtHV34.png

#5
Good point, but maybe the interpretation is ambiguous.
"You lose on time because of this" IMHO means if the restart lasts longer than the game.
If the restart is successful, the game resumes, neither player has lost on time, but both are waiting for their opponent's move and one loses on time after the restart, not during. So both should refresh the page CTRL F5 after the restart to update their local board and clocks.

#7
But this loss of time is after the game resumed after the server restart. The game was not aborted but resumed.
Both players were then waiting for a move by the other side.
In short:
If the orange server restart warning bottom left appears, then do not start a new game.
If the restart happens during the game, then after the restart when the game resumes, press CTRL F to refresh the page.

@arihantsharma2403

I don't know if your a Lichess moderator or a dev, but while I appreciate the response, I find it a little annoying that you posted back the same exact FAQ answer I posted in a message just above: https://lichess.org/forum/lichess-feedback/server-restart-results-in-bad-game-state#5

This FAQ appears to contradict what happened in the game. @tpr however, offered an interpretation of this FAQ that makes much more sense:

"IMHO this means if the restart lasts longer than the game [not simply if the restart occurs]. If the restart is successful, the game resumes, neither player has lost on time, but both are waiting for their opponent's move and one loses on time [due to an out-of-sync, browser state] after the restart, not during."

Also, you shared the game state as it is now which of course is going to show Black making the last move. I don't know what the purpose of sharing this was, but it's an entirely moot point. Again, here is the state of the game as I saw it when the timer ran out:

https://i.imgur.com/4ckCXEl.png

Ultimately this is really not that big deal. I lost a few rating points. What does bother me is that I now presumably have a warning on my account for stalling in my game. I HATE stallers, especially stallers in 30 min games. So I'm a little upset I received it.

However, if you are a Lichess dev or moderator, given that your site is experiencing a huge growth of new users and most will be unaware how server resets can cause an out-of-sync browser game-state, I would make two very simple suggestions to eliminate this problem entirely and avoid any future complaints.

1. Include a message specifically recommending that the user refresh their browser. In addition, you can include a small info icon that links to an explanation in the FAQ. With that alone, no one has anything to complain about. They were warned about what's happening and what to do, end of story.

2. Update your FAQ to be clearer about how server resets can result in out-of-sync browser states, so when new players try to understand out why they lost on time, nothing gets lost in translation.