What to Do If Your Opponent Disconnects or You Get Disconnected in Pokémon Chess

If your opponent leaves, Pokémon Chess shows an "Opponent disconnected!" message and a Back to Menu button — the game does not resume, so you return to the lobby and host or join a new room. If you drop, the game shows "You have disconnected for reason: …" with an Attempting to reconnect… status and a Reload button. Click Reload to rejoin; if that fails, go back to the menu and start a fresh room. There is no reconnect-to-same-game guarantee documented on the site, so treat a dropped game as lost.

When your opponent disconnects

The site's own interface text covers this case directly:

• A message reading "Opponent disconnected!" appears.
• The only listed action is Back to Menu.

What this means in practice:

1. The match ends — you won't be able to wait for them to come back within that room.
2. You are returned to the main menu, where Available Rooms and Host Game live.
3. Host a new game or join an open room to keep playing.

There is no forfeit-win credit described for an opponent disconnect in the page text. The separate Forfeit button exists for a player who is still in the game and chooses to concede ("Lost your queen and salty? At least forfeit instead of rage quitting"), which is a different situation from a connection drop.

When you get disconnected

Your own disconnect screen is more informative than the opponent's:

• It displays "You have disconnected for reason: …" — the reason field is filled in by the game.
• Below that, "Attempting to reconnect…" shows the client is trying on its own.
• A Reload button is offered as the manual fallback.

Steps to take:

1. Wait a moment to see whether the automatic reconnect completes.
2. If it doesn't, click Reload to reload the page and re-enter the site.
3. If you still can't get back in, return to the menu and host or join a new room — the previous game should be considered over.

Why a reload may not restore your old game

The update notes state that timers are now "kept track of on the server instead of on each client." That change is about clock accuracy and anti-cheat, not about session recovery — nothing in the page text promises that a reloaded client rejoins the same room. Plan on restarting rather than resuming.

Things that can look like a disconnect but aren't

Two other messages send you back to the menu and are easy to confuse with connection trouble:

If you see Game Over! Rematch?, the game ended by the rules — not by a network problem.

Cheater detection and "winning for no reason"

The update notes mention cheater detection: "If you win for seemingly no reason, they may have been trying to cheat…" So an abrupt, unexplained win may be the system catching a cheating opponent rather than a random disconnect. Either way, the result is the same for you — the game ends and you go back to the menu.

Reporting bugs and disconnects

The site directs bug reports and discussion to its Discord ("To discuss (and report new bugs…), join the discord!"). If disconnects are happening repeatedly rather than once, that is the channel the developers point to. The page also credits Idea and graphics by Little Z and Programming by El Xando, and links a "buy the dev a coffee" option — none of which affect how disconnects are handled.

Quick checklist

• Opponent gone? Read the message, click Back to Menu, start a new room.
• You dropped? Let the auto-reconnect try, then click Reload.
• Still stuck? Return to the menu and host or join again.
• Repeated drops? Report it on the project's Discord.
• Don't confuse a normal Game Over! Rematch? screen with a disconnect.