Does chess.com actually do anything about stalling?

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Avatar of lmh50

The trouble is that stalling isn't actually against the rules of chess. If you've got 30 min for the game, you are allowed to spend your 30 min however you want. There is no rule that says you have to resign if you're in a lost position, and in any case, although some positions are very obviously lost, there will always be positions where White says "Black has obviously lost", and even be correct, but Black may not see it. It would be hard to make a truly fair judging-system. If stalling were stamped-on too ferociously, we'd have people posting "It's not fair, I was in a really difficult position, down on material, I needed a really long time to think about a critical move, I had 20 min on the clock, and I got banned after only 10 min! That's not fair!"

We can all recognise obvious stalling, but where do you draw the line between this and "desperation-waiting-thinking" where the losing player is genuinely looking at a lost position and trying to see if they've missed something, maybe some swindle, some chance to see if they can get a stalemate ending?

Avatar of Neo_v23
lmh50 έγραψε:

The trouble is that stalling isn't actually against the rules of chess. If you've got 30 min for the game, you are allowed to spend your 30 min however you want. There is no rule that says you have to resign if you're in a lost position, and in any case, although some positions are very obviously lost, there will always be positions where White says "Black has obviously lost", and even be correct, but Black may not see it. It would be hard to make a truly fair judging-system. If stalling were stamped-on too ferociously, we'd have people posting "It's not fair, I was in a really difficult position, down on material, I needed a really long time to think about a critical move, I had 20 min on the clock, and I got banned after only 10 min! That's not fair!"

We can all recognise obvious stalling, but where do you draw the line between this and "desperation-waiting-thinking" where the losing player is genuinely looking at a lost position and trying to see if they've missed something, maybe some swindle, some chance to see if they can get a stalemate ending?

I'm not sure if it's possible for an AI to judge correctly yet, but for humans it's easy. Only temporarily ban stallers if it's obvious to a human that they're doing it on purpose.

I.e. I played a 10-minute rapid and I ended up having Queen and King with 6 minutes left, and opponent had only King with 6 minutes left. He spent over 5 minutes to move his King. That's obviously stalling.

Such cases that are obvious should be banned. The only issue I see is that chess.com can't have a human to check every stalling report, since there must be many. AI could punish mistakenly. So, I can't see what choices chess.com has. Maybe a human checking a staller after he's been reported over 3-5 times?

Avatar of EnemyNexus
lmh50 wrote:

The trouble is that stalling isn't actually against the rules of chess. If you've got 30 min for the game, you are allowed to spend your 30 min however you want. There is no rule that says you have to resign if you're in a lost position, and in any case, although some positions are very obviously lost, there will always be positions where White says "Black has obviously lost", and even be correct, but Black may not see it. It would be hard to make a truly fair judging-system. If stalling were stamped-on too ferociously, we'd have people posting "It's not fair, I was in a really difficult position, down on material, I needed a really long time to think about a critical move, I had 20 min on the clock, and I got banned after only 10 min! That's not fair!"

We can all recognise obvious stalling, but where do you draw the line between this and "desperation-waiting-thinking" where the losing player is genuinely looking at a lost position and trying to see if they've missed something, maybe some swindle, some chance to see if they can get a stalemate ending?

It doesn't happen in OTB chess because you aren't anonymous. Therefor no rules in FIDE. There are rules against it on chess.com. Taking longer to make a move is fine, but when the clock runs out without a single move being made, or even admitting to 'making the other player wait' in chat... Yea poor sportsmanship. FIDE does have a rule that discourtesy can be punished at the discretion of the chief arbiter such as leaving a match instead of forfeiting etc. There are clear cases where it is stalling.

Avatar of rlin537

No they don't. Absolutely nothing. The playerbase keeps complaining about how this issue is growing but they do nothing to automate anti-stalling. In fact all they do is defend this behaviour claiming "some people take longer time for their moves" as an excuse to save them all the work they'll need to fix this.

I've spent more time writing reports for stallers than playing chess, and not even once did I get an answer let alone resolution. Don't bother wasting your time with these thick skulled game mods.

Avatar of lolmax090

https://www.chess.com/game/141446641156

dude stalled for 7 mins

Avatar of ch3ssSlayer3000

so annoying. i stopped playing rapid beacuse of this

Avatar of delcai007
ch3ssSlayer3000 wrote:

so annoying. i stopped playing rapid beacuse of this

I play Rapid games almost exclusively and rarely encounter stallers. When I do, I just report and block them... not a major inconvenience.

But you joined chess.com just yesterday and have played all of one single Rapid game. What's up?

Avatar of lolmax090

Hot take: Stalling is worst than cheating. In cheating you can report and resign. Whereas in stalling you have to wait till your opponent runs out of time. Also in cheating bans are easily given. Whereas for stalling they are just warned and added to a different pool (no bans)

Avatar of MrChatty
lolmax090 wrote:

Stalling is worst than cheating

Nah

Avatar of EnemyNexus
lolmax090 wrote:

Stalling is worst than cheating.

Absolutely not. Stalling isn't even that terrible, it is rude but it isn't as if chess is that active of a game where you can't look away.

Avatar of analist76bis

there is repporting for stalling games

Avatar of delcai007

I usually have a few Daily Games going, so there's that, or I check out the forums or I watch Star Trek reruns

not really

Avatar of analist76bis

i have one stalling for 2 month daily games..even he is online daily bases

Avatar of delcai007

i report and block and move on

Avatar of delcai007
analist76bis wrote:

i have one stalling for 2 month daily games..even he is online daily bases

Daily games, different story, right... it's debated often whether or not too much vacation time is allowed

Avatar of analist76bis

official on official posts..they say is punnishable..but I didnt heard about someone punished for over use of vacation in period that they are playing several live games on daily basis

Avatar of analist76bis
delcai007 wrote:
analist76bis wrote:

i have one stalling for 2 month daily games..even he is online daily bases

Daily games, different story, right... it's debated often whether or not too much vacation time is allowed

there is option in tournament to allow or not timeouts...

Avatar of delcai007

They don't punish it because it's allowed. There have been discussions of whether not it should be... some want to limit Vacation Time and to automatically end a Vacation if you log on, not (as now) only when you make a move in a Daily game.

Avatar of analist76bis

but then why https://support.chess.com/en/articles/8609526-what-is-vacation-abuse

Avatar of analist76bis

https://www.chess.com/member/mark_my_name/games

he has Rapid games almost daily basis and he stall 5 daily games for almost 2 month

I tried to PM him...no succes