I've been in a few tournaments and some of them have really dragged on.

8th Chess.com Tournament (1601-1800) 

This tournament started on 1st September 2009.  I was eliminated quite early on, but today (21st December 2010) a mere 15 months later, I decided to see who had won the tournament.  The tournament is only 97% complete and has not progressed past round 2.  From what I can see one game is holding the whole thing up. The game began on 18 May 2010 and black is in a lost position but still playing on.

I've suffered similar, but less extreme, problems in a tournament that I've run.  I know some players are genuinely in no hurry, and would say that it is entirely within the rules to take lots of vacation and use the maximum allowed time on any or every move.  But this simply ruins tournaments.

So I have some suggestions.

• A maximum number of days spent thinking per game. (eg 3 days per move, maximum 50 per game)
• The tournament director should have the power to end silly games, and send them to computer adjudication

Maybe one day I'll live to see who wins the 8th Chess.com Tournnament (1601-1800).