I long ago found that detuning 200 keeps the game more relaxing.....
But I do miss between side PM's....sometimes it was fun to do a quick back & forth after a particularly good 1v1's, or compliment a player on their very good moves.
I do too, it was always cool to be able to chat with friends or good foes on the other chess pieces. Imo taking it away for to deter ppl giving away CV locations or NOE raids just doesn’t matter that much. If ppl want to do that they’ll shade anyways.
I’d say cross country channel chat should be brought back