Start times & game lengths

There seems to be a little confusion regarding when these games will take place and how long they will last.

At 10-minutes/turn, each team will make 3 moves per hour.  This means that an average game (21-30 moves) will last only 7-10 hours.  Granted, it is possible for someone to timeout in the first hour or two.  It is also possible that a game could drag on for 60 moves or so (which would take 20 hours).

But no one will be playing for the entire weekend (unless the game lasts for 288 moves).  ;-)

The idea is that you have a total of 96 hours in which to play this game.  It does not matter if you play the game on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday (or even Thursday or Monday depending on your time zone), as long as the game is completed sometime within those 96 hours (12am Friday (GMT+14) thru 12am Monday (GMT-10).

It is always the same time, but different days, in time zomes +14 and -10.  When it is Midnight there (the International Date Line), it is 6am here in Detroit (Eastern Daylight Savings Time).  That means that the weekend in my time zone lasts from 6am Thursday thru 6am Monday.

If you live in London (British Summer Time), then the weekend will run from 11am Thursday thru 11am Monday.

Every time my group has played a Speed Vote Game, I have been online from start to finish, as have many other players.  Obviously no one is required to be online for the whole 7-10 hours, as long as there is one person willing to keep the game from timing out, but it's not out of the question either.

This is where communication is going to be VERY IMPORTANT, and why I am posting contact info for each group.  If, for example, Chess Unlimited is scheduled to play Chess Empire, then Jaller435718 or Falling-upwards will have to arrange a mutually agreeable start time with Kacparov or Chuzzlechamp, and both sides will need to inform their respective groups as to when this game will start.

I'm sure that some games will be played on Friday, some on Saturday, and some on Sunday.  Some will start early in the morning, and some will start late at night (depending on your time zone).  If you're in more than one group, it's possible that you could be playing with The Dark Knights on Saturday and The Chess Nuts on Sunday (as long as they're not playing each other of course).

Every game will be completed in less than one day (unless it lasts for more than 72 moves), and it is very possible for any given individual to be present for the entire game.

Here is a SAMPLE time grid to give you an idea of what time it will be in each time zone at various points in the game.  This grid has a start time of Midnight on the International Date Line to also help you see what time that is in your time zone, but as I said, the start time can be whatever time and day the two teams decide upon.

I'm sorry this post was so long, but I wanted to try and clear this up for everyone.  Any questions?

Totally understood! :)

Thanks!

(Anyway... for an individual...unless you have breakfast, lunch, dinner... get the computer to the bath room and so on... a move every 20 minutes doesn't let you to play a whole long game... :) )

It must be really coordinated on the group to avoid losing on time... (except for those groups already used to play this kind of quick games...)

 I'm not sure I understand the question.

The games can start at any time that the 2 administrators decide upon.  If those 2 live in different time zones, they would need to make sure they are clear about when that is.

I see that you are a member of 3 groups who will be competing in this, so you will need to ask the administraors in those groups for clarification if there is any uncertainty.

Who has to start discussing about the best time for the game?  (I can start the discussion in both games for both of my teams... but it is unfair I have to keep chasing everyone, all the time ... I know this will happen next weekend again..)

I would say that there should be a challenger group (maybe the ones you placed on the left side) with a time proposal which has to be accepted by the defender... otherwise the second will propose a different time until the agreement is reached...

And what will happen in case there is no agreement on the time?

It's unrealistic to assume that there won't be any problems with this, but I'm hoping we can all be adults and work thru whatever we encounter.

We are now technically into our first weekend (it looks like it was officially Friday in GMT+14 almost 6 hours ago).  So the games may begin at any moment, and yet I have not heard back from the other group (or even members of my own group) either.

I know the Chess Nuts have selected a time for their game, but I don't believe they have confirmed it with their opponent yet.  This is going to be the trickiest part of this league, and it will probably take a few weeks to iron out the kinks.  I'm certainly open to any and all suggestions.

How is everyone else doing in this area?  Has ANYONE coordinated a start time with their group and opponent yet?

The point is, that I have no answer yet... and one of my opponents is a regional group... with limited timetable (I am sure) and the other... well, I guess that for them should be ok...

Let's see how everything go this first weekend to start raising proposals... but as I mentioned in my previous post... I would try to reduce the wide procedure... making clear who has to do what... and when.... (for instance... the time of the game must be agreed at least 5 days before the game...and the challenger group has to propose one time and has to be accepted by the defender... otherwise the defender will issue a contrapropose... and in case of no agreement... to define an standard starting time... for instance... 01:00PM to 04:00PM UTC makes that most of the users of chess.com might be able to connect in "normal" hours...(not forcing them to connect on early AM time)

And in other term of facts... ok, who has to issue the challenge?

And making everything more difficult (sorry, but I can anticipate it will happen)

Let's suppose we agree with my opponent to start at 01.00PM UTC and I issue the challenge 15 minutes earlier (let's say) and then, no admin. from my opponents is connected and I keep waiting, and waiting... finally I disconnect (because I am not going to be the whole day waiting for it) and then the challenge is accepted by 7 or 8 PM UTC (that it is not the time we agreed...)

So, what should I do in that case? Should I cancel the challenge if my opponent doesn't accept it, let's say in +1 hour from the pre.scheduled time? And should I consider that forfeit??

All very good questions.  Let's see how week one plays out, and then we'll have a more concrete handle on exactly what's likely to happen and how best to deal with it.

The larger groups with multiple administrators are much more likely to have someone online who can accept the challenge if the smaller group is ready to go.  It is more important to the smaller group that things start according to their schedule, as they don't have the members to cover other time zones.  So my first inclination is, whenever there is a schedule dispute, the smaller group has priority.

Now that we are into the weekend, if the smaller group is online and ready to go, send the challenge to the larger group and tell one of the admins to accept it.  You can see who's online and who's not.