Hi,

I'm a diamond premium member and can't play any tournements due to my rather high timeout precentage, I understand the reasons for setting limits but I have two problems with it.

Firstly in the tournament section the search parameters are rather limited, only being able to view all tournamenta, offical tournaments, thematic tournaments, no vaction, prem only and friends tourneys. missing probably the one most obvious category - tournaments i can enter! at the moment i have to hunt through huge numbers of tournaments and go into the lobby just to check i can join, and as few people change the timeout percentage from the default of 10%(!) i have to look through hundreds. Adding a search function so you can look for tournaments you can join should not be too difficult.

Now for my issue with the timeout percentage, as i have already said i understand why the limit is there but it is too restricting. My percentage is very high because when i first joined chess.com I signed up to alot of tournaments, and when i subsequently lost my regular access to the internet all these games timed out, as did all the additional ones that started because of the tournaments and so i got about 100 timeouts, now for me to reduce this to below 10% i need to play 1000 games! since returning to the site i haven't timed out but still i have only played around 220 rated games, I tried to increase the number of games i played by volunteering to play unrated (so i could play quickly and not worry about my rating) ones only to find the 200 or so i played didn't count towards my timeout %.

my second suggestion is to modify the timeout % to take into account time in some form, either in the % timeouts over the last year or 6 months or whatever or %in the last 50-100 rated games.

Stuart

1 - See here to cancel membership. Once the period you have paid for ends, close your account and start a new one.

2 - The period after which timeouts could be forgiven would have to be at least 12 months to account for students and seasonal workers.

Perhaps start a lot of games, play  a few moves, so they count, then resign - you will lose rating points, but they will be quickly regained

You can start your 800 challenges to KingStuart now so the rest of the members are not annoyed by the early resignations.

Perhaps you can take turns resigning so both your ratings are not overly affected.

I do not think you will have time for anything else for awhile. Note resignations at zero moves count.

That is a great idea about adding the feature of being able to look through tournaments by timeout percentage.  You're not the only one who has had this problem, I believe. 

How about creating your own tournaments?

Create a free account to use as a resigning partner, and make it resign, not you.  That way: (a) you won't annoy others with 1000 early resignations, and (b) you won't lose any rating points (I think...).

Of course, you could also do a hundred other things that clearly breach chess.com rules.

Alternatively, stick to a site-legal method.

Premium members have a timeout limit of 15% to be a tournament director.

They have to change the default setting of 10% timeouts for registering, so they can join their own tournament.

Tad, you love to host tournaments...can't you make a high time percentage tournament?

Multiple accounts are not allowed because ratings will be affected. Someone could use this method to either raise their rating or conversely (or should I say perversely) lower their rating in a drive for zero.

Maybe if you asked Erik to reset your timeout ratio, justifying the reasons - he may consider.

I have at least six times. This is the most recent. I will surely host another but now with team matches it isn't easy to find timeouters in need of more games. (You wouldn't believe the number of sharks circling for timeout wins I had to remove.)

Sharks circling for playing in time out tourney...that's so damn funny.  So they have normal time out percentages but they still try to join that tournament?  lol

to the OP:  if you ask me, I'll make a little tournament for you.

Tad, I've always meant to ask you...why do you host tournaments that you don't play in?  I mean...what's the motivation behind it?

There is a poem "anyone lived in a pretty how town" with a line "and only the snow can begin to explain how children are apt to forget to remember".

There is no answer, so only the snow can begin to explain...

I think that's against site rules. It messes up with overall ratings.

i agree with the OP. i also have a high % timeout mainly through no fault of mine. now i am finally interested in joining tournaments, i cant. i cant seem to find any tournament that doesnt require less than 10% timeout.

it will be appreciated if chess.com had a search feature as the OP proposed to help us sift through the ones players like us could compete in. alternatively can someone suggest a legal means of driving down my 38% timeout to less than 10% quickly enough. i have been in and around 1700-1800 for a long time now and i do feel the need to test myself in tournaments now. cheers!!

Method 1: Don't timeout any more and wait 90 days.

Method 2: Abandon the site for 90 days.

These are "legal" and infinitely faster than what was previously a lifetime tournament ban.