It has been running for months and 4 games are remaining in the first round. Until now no problem except when I saw 2 of the remaining games in group #92:

http://www.chess.com/tournaments/pairings.html?id=18707&round=1&page=5

Looks like this "cryptious" guy is purposedly stalling the games although he is losing pathetically. (2 pawns vs Q+R+PPPP...)

Please have a staff declare the game lost for him and let us go on with the tournament which has already been ruined by a LOT of rating problems (sandbagging, priviledges for premium, faulty system, hypocrisy from new highly skilled members who joined the 1200 tournament knowing they're really about 2000, but that's another story)

</rant>

Problem is, this kind of stuff happens in every tournament. What makes yours special? I believe that erik has at least put on his to-do list the idea of "auto-advance" for players who have already secured a spot in the next round even though there are still ongoing games.  There are many other problems, but it seems kind of hard to figure out a way to fix them.

How does a new highly skilled player "know" he's better? It's not like he has a choice to join another tier anyway. I have yet to see sandbagging (we're not exactly playing for money here). Premium privileges - they get what they pay for!

Anyway, I feel for you too. I'm sure a lot of us are in a tournament where we have advanced, but it's still in the first round because of vacation-er and such. Say what you want, but it is what it is.

Pikachu, when you've been playing chess for years and/or have an official rating,  and/or know some opening, do tactics like crazy and more, you try to avoid the 1200 section and play for the challenge, not for an easy win.

After beating 3 guys 1500+, when someone gets as a 1800+ rating and join the 1200 section of a tournament because they paid for a diamond membership, this defeats the purpose of chess, fairplay and ruins a tournament.

Ok, I like to play high rated players sometimes, but I don't join an official tournament to boost the ego of some kids.

What's the relation sandbagging/money? People are stupid, if they can lower their rating on purpose to fool's-mate the first beginner, they will do it and I saw many members like that.

The tournament rule states that players who reach > 1400 before the tournament starts will be booted. I'm still to see this rule applied. There were countless members 1500-1600 and even 1700 joining the 1200-1400 section and are 1900 now. How can the system allow them to join? How can the tournament admin not force them to go? I even saw a 1600 rated player join a 1100-1300 tournament (and win of course)! (the guy is chessmover, tournament for the minnows)

I've never heard a sensible answer to those questions.

If I pay for a premium membership on chess.com, I want to know admins are here to make sure I get a fair game and not give me a system exploitable by some online rating addicts.

For official tournaments the rating restriction is applied at the start. Those outside the range are moved to the correct tournament.

The higher rated players did not join at their current rating.

See groups 5 through 9 where the highest rated players were 1400.

See groups 135 and 136 where the lowest rated players were 1201.

Once the tournament starts you have to improve or perish. This is even more applicable to the 1001-1200 range official tournaments where Grandmasters, with zero games played on the site, can register.

For member-created tournaments the tournament director has to manually remove players whose ratings move outside of the range after registering. You also have to consider that a player's rating can increase after the tournament starts.

@repecmps: What TadDude says is right. I think you're a bit confused with the way some of this stuff works:

At the start of a tournament, you cannot join a tournament where you are outside the limit stated. If you are outside that limit, you will not be able to join (and will be automatically removed if you managed to get in before your rating went up). For chess.com official tournaments, you will be moved automatically to the proper tier. However, once a tournament has already started, your rating is allowed to leave this tier (how can a 1399 in a 1201-1400 tournament expect to win in his group if he can't exceed 1400 rating?). What usually happens in tournaments is that those who are on "hot streaks" or got better after the tournament started (or in some cases, were underrated before the tournament started) usually advance to the next round. It is not uncommon to see 1401-1600 tournaments that feature only 2400+ players in the final round, for example.

I don't see how premium members get any unfair advantage. I thought you were referring to the automatic vacation time that people get mad about sometimes. They CANNOT join any tournament they want; they have to be within the rating limit imposed by the TD.

Okay, so I actually spent some time looking at a few of the games you posted as "stalled" games in the comments of the 1201-1400 section. I'm actually surprised how fast your tournament has gone so far! I joined the 1601-1800 section and it still has 64 games remaining.

I believe "cryptious" is actually the guy up a queen (that or I'm half-blind). And as for the "draw", I think it's worth playing at least a few more moves. If I were White I would actually try to go for the win. If the Black king were on f8 instead of its current location, it would be an obvious draw. In this case, I think if Black's not careful, he might very well lose the game.

Be sure to read my previous post too. I know how frustrating this stuff is, but it should all be legit (except for the stallers).

EDIT: Think that game's an automatic draw and they're stalling. Check out this one from my section: http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=30672411. I'd say that your section is unusually well-behaved for an official tournament.

Thanks for both the sensible explanations.
PikachuLord, I'm wondering why nobody has reported that game to admins yet.

@repecmps: The reason is because it's not technically illegal. It breaks no rules and plus, how are you going to know who the "staller" is? You can't tell whether one or both of the players are refusing to draw or not. I think letting it go for 50 moves (50 move draw rule) and seeing if a player claims the draw would be the right course of action right now...

oh yes, I had forgotten about the 50 moves rule... you can ignore me

That RvR game is two moves from draw anyway.  Crybabies are a pain to TDs.  Play to win/draw.  Don't play to cry.  The OP is just unhappy because as a non paying member of this site, he can only enter one tournament at a time.  Quit being lazy and pick up some open seeks if you want to play more chess! 

@aquiredtaste: Interesting comment. Non-premium members can only participate in one non-official chess.com tournament at any one time. You can enter as many official ones as long as you fill the requirements. Also, interestingly enough, once you are eliminated from a non-official tournament, you can actually join another one, so the only point in extending a game like that is if you have an insane "win at all costs" mentality and are hoping that your opponent times out.