I wanted very much to join the 2nd official chess.com tournament, but found that I couldn't because my timeout rate was higher than 10%. I have only played 53 games, since I don't play very fast (3days/move as I can only log on every two days to the internet).

That timeout ratio was caused during the chinese new year break where I had to visit my relatives and could not access the computer, thus unable to take vacation. I was playing a lot of games then and I came back realising all were lost due to time. Sicne then, I have not lost any games on time.

I understand that the timeout rate for tournies must be low for everyone to enjoy it, but it is hard for me to play enough games to push that percentage to below 10% despite playing a lot of game since then. I still want to join tournies, and it seems I have no idea why I could join 2 previous tournies, the 1st official chess.com one and the under1500 one.

I would really appreciate it if someone could explain that to me, and hope that maybe the management can tweak this system a bit such that it is not the timeout ratio but number of timeout. Understanding that this way doesnt not allow people with high no. of timeouts play, but perhaps we could "refresh" this biannually and recount the number of timeouts?

Thanks.

I see that your timeout percentage is currently 13%, so if you play and complete a few games, your percentage should drop rather quickly. 

You'll still be able to play in tournaments if you can find one in which the timeout cap has been raised by the director.  I, personally, think the default should be 5%.

You're 17 games away from a 10% timeout percentage. (7/67 = 10.45%)

The goal of the restriction is not to allow people to participate in tournaments who are likely to time out. I agree with your assertion that recent behavior is a stronger indicator of future behavior than aggregate behavior. Maybe timeout% should only take into account a player's behavior in the past 12 months.  ;)

lol i was playing in a round robin tournament and my internet was cut off for about a week, i tried to make my moves from somewhere else but eventually i lost about 25 games on time . i really liked playing tournaments too lol

hallo

I agree with likesforests

and by my lucky

I have been one with timeout 25% 

but who cares , ever more looks like this site is only for some whom can expend money and time

and may its time to look for other where can ate least

have a bit of support... 

good by

love ....

Yeah...  But it is too hard to make exceptions for those who really try.

You had to know in advance of the holiday that you would be away from the computer. Why didn't you set your vacation flag the last time you were online?

Marshal_Dillon wrote: You had to know in advance of the holiday that you would be away from the computer. Why didn't you set your vacation flag the last time you were online?

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well, I thought I had time after visiting my relatives, but apprently I came back very late and wasn't allowed to use the computer. never saw it coming.

well, i guess the only way is for me to play more and push the % down. no other way. thanks, anyway(:

Well I had the same problem just without any excuse. I really wanted to play in some tourneys, but had 3 timeouts so I had to play 30 games. So I started playing something like 19.(I play 24 hour games) Then I forgot to play for a day or two. Now I have to play 100 games because I got 10 extra timeouts. Can you honestly say this is fair.

Well, i guess you're right, theres no exceptions so we've to make the best out of it by playing more games..which is good, but it takes a long time, especially 3 or 5 day/move kinds, which might prevent you from getting further timeouts but it honestly takes forever, if you think about a normal game which might range from 30 moves plus, and 3 or 5day per move, which means months before you can 'redeem' yourself. since this is an international web for players from all countries, it's very likely that you'd be playing a person with a different time zone from yourself (here in Singapore we're 12 hours ahead of the States...so if I play an American, I'll probably never meet him or her online)...

Looking purely at your last post, might it be a wise idea to try and play the majority of your games against others based in Singapore. At the moment, there are 536 members from the country, so the chances of being online when at least 1 or 2 of your fellow countrypersons are online would be reasonable.

Overall, I feel that the 10% is a perfectly fair value, but fate can often conspire against us to result in games lost on time. I had almost a whole week where I had no internet at home, but fortunately this was only just after I'd joined Chess.com and it only resulted in me losing 3 games.

There were people who deliberately loose on time-outs, but about players who don't and that for uncontrollable/unforseen situations eventually timing out, is it justifyable. Nevertheless it's there rule. In the other site if you timed-out, your opponents may choose to claim win or wait for your move. It's chess correspondence in a way and I don't see advantage having time-out ratio, wherein you can always claim win or not and in tourneys a game can be adjudicated or a player can be kicked-out of the game if found abusive of it's move deliberately delaying the game specially in a loosing situation by going on vacation. As I see it, it's definitely a marketing strategy, wherein premium members can prevent time-outs by auto activation of pausing all games  when time is  running-out.

In other words upgrade to enjoy the freedom of joining tourneys and other multiple benefits availble only to premium members.

 Even though My connection is always on....I have way to high time-out ratio due to service provider related problems. I just hope that they would reset my time-out ratio when I upgrade my account,because if not.... it would seem no difference after all. Imagine the beauty of having unlimited tournaments joining capability but because of the high time-out ratio.... one cannot join in any tourneys. lol... I guess I'll have to try a month subscription before paying for a long term basis, to surely know the difference.

Good luck to all your games.... 

I'm fairly sure you don't have your time-out ration reset. Like I said, I lost 3 games on time not long after joining, and they're still counted now, despite me being a premium member.

EricHP2 wrote: Well I had the same problem just without any excuse. I really wanted to play in some tourneys, but had 3 timeouts so I had to play 30 games. So I started playing something like 19.(I play 24 hour games) Then I forgot to play for a day or two. Now I have to play 100 games because I got 10 extra timeouts. Can you honestly say this is fair.

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How on earth does one forget to play for a day or two?! In this case you should certainly play with a 3 or 5 day per move control and NOT with 1 day/move control. To answer your question, yes its fair. There are consequences for our actions and inactions no matter how many flimsy excuses we offer up.

The logic is quite simply. If your timeout ratio is greater than 10% for any reason then it is too likely that you will timeout your tournament games and disrupt the tournament. It doesn't matter if your previous timeouts are because you're a jerk, because your ISP is bad, because you were on holiday and your grandmother's computer broke, or any other reason good or bad.

 

If you have timeouts due to a bad ISP then you might have timeouts due to a bad ISP during the tournament. So, you're a liability to the integrity of the tournament and you can't join.

 

If you have timeouts because you didn't understand the time controls or the vacation feature, guess what? Prove to the rest of us you've figured them out before we let you in a tournament that you might disrupt.

 

The bottom line is that if you have timeouts in the past, you're more likely to have timeouts in the future. The staff doesn't have time for everybody's sob story. Most of which justify the person not being in tournaments (bad ISP for example). 

likesforests wrote:

You're 17 games away from a 10% timeout percentage. (7/67 = 10.45%)

The goal of the restriction is not to allow people to participate in tournaments who are likely to time out. I agree with your assertion that recent behavior is a stronger indicator of future behavior than aggregate behavior. Maybe timeout% should only take into account a player's behavior in the past 12 months.  ;)

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Yeah!  17 games is not that far away! If you are going to be away from the internet just use your vacation. I don't agree about taking in account player's time out behavior in the past 12 months because suppose you have 0% time out and just resently you time out a few games that put well over 25% in the last 12 month, but totally you only time 5% for all of your games. I will be harder to lower that 12 months 25% down. 

yup, i guess, after all its not like even however many timeouts you have, one day, you'll push it under 10%, so thing is, be patient, right? in any case, whether you wanted or not (OKAY, timeouts is always not wanted,so everyone will complain), there's no exceptions, so we gotta wait our turn..

ps. hope there's gonna be a 3rd one coming up!(: wait a min, i can't participate in anymore after june due to major exams determining which college i go into, so): well.

take everything as it comes, and it will pass. if it's bad, great, it will be gone if you're patient. if it's good, life in the moment, for the moment, relish it before you say goodbye. haha. philophising again. just to note, im a freethinker.

animalsafariranger wrote:

ps. hope there's gonna be a 3rd one coming up!(: wait a min, i can't participate in anymore after june due to major exams determining which college i go into, so): well.

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 This is very telling to me. I would bet dollars that the tournament you were trying to join is going to last past June. So, what would have happened then?