One move in 4 months, and they still play!?

I found today something I don't understand.

French Defense Open tournament started on May 16, four months ago. Time Control 3 days/move. I finished all my game a long ago, qualified for the 2nd round, and now I wait for all games to complete. There are 400 games in the 1st round, 8 still in progress. And today, the first time, I take a look at those games. And I am totally confused with it: Game gbgpa-lecycliste: They both play only one move (2. d4 d5),  and "gbgpa is currently on vacation!
They have 14 days 11 hours of vacation time lef t, but may be back sooner."

Hey - we all have only 40 day on vocation per year, If I am informed correctly? And 120 days pass from the begining - how it is posslibe the game is still in progres??? Can theny play four-five years?

In some other games they played only 10 and 14 moves... Ten moves are on the edge in 120 days, if they both used 3 days for every move and vocation...

The gbgpa games only seems to have started on the 12th of September, so technically could go on for quite some time.

How is it possible? The tournament started on May 16th, his game - three months later? And in addition - he is on vacation 25 days.

One game followed by the other rather than two games simultaneously with each opponent.

I can speculate that there was a perfect storm that included auto-timeout protection, vacation and a player with a high time/move statistic.

Vacations and auto-timeout cannot been avoided but players who need results sooner rather than later can reject tournaments with one game followed by the other and where low activity players are accepted.

Oh yes, I forgot - in this tournament, we play only one game with the same oponent simultaneously! i forgot, for I conlcuded all my games twho months ago... Phu, we need to wait... You are right, thin sort of tournaments need to be avoided!

every tournament seems to take forever to finish. it is kind of annoying to me because i am usually one of the first to finish my games in a round good or bad. i keep joining other tournaments and playing away. the fear that i have is that the handful that i am waiting for the next round on will all start within a couple days of each other and i will have started one of those crazy 11 games at a time tournaments on top of the other games i am playing.

i just think the vacation policy is too long. if someone is going away for a long time there should be some kind of admin timeout or a way to set up tournaments so that vacation is not allowed as an option.

And the survivor will be the winner, after all others dead in old age.

Some sites actually allows these time limits: e.g. iccf - I'd love to play a four-months per move game. I played a couple of them in 1979-1982 (postal chess of course).

Everything alllowed - consulting computers, consulting Ivanchuk, ... :)

For purpose of reaserch into opening and endgame theory.

But in the particular case which lydiablonde is discussing, it wasn't clear to the participants from the beginning, so I agree it is somewhat unfair.

also, once all players who are going through are determined, can the next round start without having to wait for the remaining games (if they can't affect the standings) to finish?

i have played in one tournament and i didn't go past the first round, but this was decided early and I still had a game to play even once it didn't matter (to the tournament) since the remaining game was bottom last versus last (playing for the wooden spoon).

did the others need to wait while we played out our game just for fun (because i clearly would hope they didn't)?

Im the TD of the French Defense Open Tournament. And I would like to say something:

1. I only allowed to join the tournament to player with a Max Avg Time/Move of 1 day

2. I adjusted the tournament so that everyone plays only one game at the time in order to avoid mirrored games from lower rated players (happens to me a few time and it's quite annoying)

3. All the players who joined the tournament were aware of this, everyting was in the tournament settings.

4. I found myself still playing against a very good/very slow move player in that tournament and I don't complain. That is not the only case, I'm also playing in a tournament of 12 days/move and some of the players there actually take nearly the 12 days before make a move and they also used their vacation time. If I join a tournament (any tournament) in chess.com I'm accepting those rules. You must be prepared for any type of delay when joining any tournament in chess.com.

5. If you are a fast player then a) Play live chess or b) create/join a fast tournament with a low time/move allowed.

6. I also believe that vacation time in tournaments should be treated in a different way. Perhaps adding a checkbox in the tournament settings in order to allow/deny vacation time in a tournament?. This can even be a premium feature.

As I mentioned, those games are for research, not about an individual winning or losing.

An real problem is that usually there are a few games last MUCH more then others, and we all need to wait - even if they decide nothing. Look at the 2nd Chess.com Tournament (1801-2000): 1120 games in the 1st round and after more then 4 months only 3 still in progress - 10 days ago the game No 1116 was concluded. Two of them are between some players - one is clearly lost in both of them - and he is now on vocatios and can be on vocation the next 20 days and we all need to wait!

I propposed once the system as it is clasical correspodence chess: a committe of three experts (f.e. >2400 points) is anounced before the begining of a tournament, as like as how long a round can last (Four mont  f.e. if time limit is 3 days per move). After this period, committe  analyse positions in unfinished games and decided results (asking, if necessary, players to submit their analysis of actual position). In an example of 2nd Chess.com Tournament (1801-2000), it's clear at the first glance that Maciek is lost in both games, and only in the 3rd game, fpiantini vs bogdanekifor,  more analysis is necessary.

yes lydia, I agree with you. (I said that in my last post here - my example was different.)

Adjudication for too-long games - with one right to appeal, where the appeal MUST be accompanied by clear analysis countering the decision - I think that is an excellent idea.

Plus, two more ideas:

1. in deliberately prolonged games, if someone takes too much time - say more than a week - on a clearly forced move, there can be a warning after 7 days and then adjudication after 3 more days if the player still doesn't move or does it again.

2. May be in some cases the delaying player's clock time can be cut drastically - to 1 move a day for next 10 moves...

I repeat: in the example of 4 months/move I gave [1979-1982], that WAS the mutually agreed time limit from the beginning. So anyone who played that, they WANTED to play it that way - some for research purposes - some to have a game going in the background while they do other things in life...

I think the TD of a tournament should be able to resign clearly lost positions, if the person clearly lost goes on holiday. The player who had position resigned could have right of appeal by submiting analysis to TD maybe. Maybe this could become one of the options in setting up a tournament, i.e. it could be declared upfront whether or not clearly lost positions would be resigned by TD if go on holiday or not.

There is a setting for Minimum Games completed but not Maximum Games in progress. You can check the registrants yourself. You could request this option be added to tournament settings.

You could restrict yourself to tournaments of Max Avg Time/Move: 3 hours.

if you upgrade to platinum you could run as many as you liked   (I get commision from Erik)

I have been thinking about this. If I understand correctly.

1. You make the (first) move as White in game A
   
2. The lower rated player plays that move as White in game B
   
3. You respond as Black in game B
   
4. The lower rated player makes that move as Black in game A and the sequence repeats from 1
   

Rather than doubling the time it takes to complete a tournament this type of behaviour may be considered antisocial and something for "Report Abuse". If there are enough reports the staff may set an "ABBA" policy. It may warrant removal from a tournament.