Notes
Table notes: what turned up while opening games and reading terms
Four short pieces from the checks of 10 and 11 November 2026: why Yacht replaced Board Game Arena, the two games that were dropped, the invented names in Master Chess, and how two hosts count votes.
Why Yacht took the sixth place on the list
11 November 2026
Until 11 November 2026 the first game here was Board Game Arena, a catalogue site of its own. It was taken off so that every game button on Lobby Meadow leads to one of two portals, CrazyGames or Poki.
The two reserves from the first check, Battleship War and Rummy on Poki, pit you against computer players only. Board Game Arena had been the list's one way for friends in different homes to share a game, so its replacement needed that too.
Yacht by Bloob on CrazyGames has it. Create Match gives a private lobby with a 4-digit number and room for up to 6, and no screen showed a shop. It brings a chat that CrazyGames marks as not moderated, which is why the Yacht page points families to the private match.
Two games that were opened and did not get a page
10 November 2026
English Checkers Free sits on CrazyGames with the flag for no in-game purchases. Its Play online screen tells a different story about stakes. It shows “Bet Size” buttons of 10, 50, 200, 1000 and 2500, a line reading “Your Gold: 310” and a Shop. The main menu also has Bonuses and Chat. Betting a currency on the result of a game is the mechanism this guide leaves out, whether or not the gold can be bought.Domino on Poki, credited to Kzunec Games, has a shop with a button labelled “Buy random” at 45 coins, next to items that unlock after watching a video. A purchase with random contents fails the third check even when the price is in coins earned by playing.Two more games passed every check and wait in reserve: Battleship War and Rummy, both on Poki. Both are credited to Codethislab, the studio that already has Master Chess and Four in a Row on the list.
Who is Kind Whale? Invented names in Master Chess
10 November 2026
A guest who opens the online lobby of Master Chess is given a name made of an adjective and an animal. Ours was “Joyful Swan”. The quick match paired us with “Kind Whale”, who met a pawn on e4 with a pawn to b6.
The name says nothing about who is behind it, and that includes whether anyone is. One move was not enough to tell a person from a program.
Two buttons sit beside the nickname, one to draw another and one to edit it. The Create Match form has a Name Room field as well, and the public lobby lists rooms by name. Our own room appeared as “Joyful Swan room” before we closed it.
For a parent that is the whole exposure in Master Chess: a nickname, a room name and the moves. There is no chat box and no emote.
A score out of 10, a score out of 5 and a share of likes
10 November 2026
Lobby Meadow gives no scores of its own. The facts table on a game page repeats the host's public rating, and the two hosts count differently.
CrazyGames prints a figure out of 10 with the note “based on last 6 months”, beside like and dislike counts for the whole life of the game. Master Chess shows 8.3 next to 66,889 likes and 14,229 dislikes gathered since 2018.
Poki gives a figure out of 5 with a total of votes and names no period. Four in a Row stands at 4.2 from 411,953 votes.
One number can be worked out the same way for all six: likes as a share of all votes. It comes to 85% for Mancala Classic, 84% for Yacht, 82% for Master Chess and for Hearts: Classic, and 80% for Ludo Hero and Four in a Row. The size of the count differs far more, from 2,256 votes for Yacht to 806,519 for Ludo Hero.