I have pofile set so I do not automaticaly win on time if timee runs out.  I like this because often a game is more interesting to play out than to just win on time.  Especialy if I am playing with a friend.  If it is a tournament game I'll take the win on time no question.

So far so good. 

But imagine this senario:

I challenge a player a few hundred points higher than myself.  The game is great.  I invest a lot of effort.  I think I have a strategy that may win this game but so far he/she has blocked everything I've thrown at him/her.

Then he/she runs out of time.  Now I have a dillema if I claim the win on time I get a nice rating boost, but then I miss out on what is shaping up to be a delicious endgame.

So I wait and meanwhile my opponent loses the twenty other games he/she was playing all on time.  Now his/her rating is four hundred points lower than mine and even if I win my rating only gets a tiny bump.

I am experiencing a similar scenario.

One of my opponents is playing about 500 games.

I would guess his rating is inflated by gaining points from many of his games when his opponents run out of time after losing interest in the game waiting for him to move (delayed by generous use of vacation time.)

When we started the game he was probably a hundred points higher. Now as he stares at a mate-in-one,down a rook and queen, he continues his vacation scheme.

Like you, I will receive a smaller bump than if he had resigned with dignity instead of hoping I expire. But like you, I am here for the games and for meeting people, and the exasperation with some people fades after the game ends.

To answer your question: take the win on time, unless you feel you will gain from the experience of playing on. I've done the latter, also.

Yes unfortunatly i suffered the same problem. 8 moves into the game and it was beginning to look like a great game. He was 1800+ when i challanged him from the open seeks and by the time he timed out he was only in the 1300+ rating, which also effected my average opponent stats by 20 points, which only annoyed me even more. So i feel your pain in this but there isnt anything u can do except move on and remember all in all its just a game and u have plenty more quality games that wont time out to look forward too.

It wasn't always this way, but now it is set up so that if a player times-out in a bunch of games, their rating will freeze before too long (it will drop for the first few games) so that you will not be shorted on your win too much.

dillema resolved!

great new indeed!