Please cut down vacation time

Like many other people, I get frustrated when opponents take the full 3 days per move, go on vacation for a fortnight, back for one move, vacation......

3 day per move games are fine because most people play at least one move per day and only use the full 3 days when they need it. Vacation time is great because we all get busy times at work that need our full attention or go off on vacation for a week.

3 suggestions to stop tournaments going on and on and on.

1) Put a maximum game limit per person - 3 days per move subject to a maximum of 90 days (including vacation time)

2) Reduce the maximum vacation time for platinum and diamond members - 90 days is way excessive and unfair to opponents. Even 60 days is too much - limit it to 15 days, 30 days and 45 days per year for each of the membership levels.

3) There is a maximum vacation time allowance per tournament (e.g. 15 days), and you can only go on vacation up to 3 times per tournament.

Plus, I think that automated timeout protection or whatever (where it just clicks you over to vacation time if you are too lazy to move in time/select vacation time when you are actually on vacation) is the stupidest idea ever.  I mean, there is a time limit for a REASON.  It makes me want to vomit in terror...

do i even need to post here!?!

I like our policy right now.  Sometimes, I feel burnt out and need a couple day break, so I use all three days.  This will always be a flawed system, because there is absolutely no way to please everybody.  So while your suggestions may be change, they likely won't be much better than the policies we have in place currently.

One way to help avoid problems is to play people you know to use time in the manner you use time.  Perhaps you can also ask those people for others they know who will use similarly.

Alternatively consider vacation a wierd time control and resign yourself to playing games lasting a year.

Or how about borrowing a page from over the board tournaments and inventing a "sudden death 30" game. 30 days to cram all your moves into!  OR if that is too severe, have a 30/30 format.  USCF for its postal controls uses something like a 30moves in 30 days format.  I am not a big fan of having every move be a time control.  Personally sudden death time controls would be a rush!

The thing is, there is no concievable vacation system that will make everyone happy, we had a tighter system before, and there were lots and lots of complaints that there wasn't enough vacation time. As for your number 2 suggestion, please bear in mind that no one on the site has that much time. Premium members have the ability to build up to that much time, but getting that high takes years. 

Killabeez wrote "I like our policy right now.  Sometimes, I feel burnt out and need a couple day break, so I use all three days."

True, I'm the same, but I don't take 3 days for each and every move - sometimes 4 or 5 a day, sometimes one per day, sometimes the full 3 days - most people are the same. I have no problems with the 3 day time control

Pawnfork wrote "One way to help avoid problems is to play people you know to use time in the manner you use time"

Not really - I want to enter tournaments and there is no control over what sort of people you play in the tournaments. I can't enter 1 move per day tournaments, because I'm often away on business for 48 hours, so will need the full 3 days from time to time. At present I'm avoiding tournaments when certain people enter, but they enter so many tournaments it can be frustrating.

Baseballfan wrote "please bear in mind that no one on the site has that much time"

I didn't realise that - I thought it was a basic 60 days for silver/gold and 90 days for platinum/diamond. But even so, who on earth needs even 60 days vacation if they are playing a number of games they can handle? We all take on too much from time to time and need a bit of time out, no worries there, but my other suggestions might benefit the silent majority rather than catering for the vocal minority. What about a front page tally to see what people think?

Democracy rules!

I don't see why some people complain about players who use the full time allowed.
I am such a player. if we agree on 3 days per move I don't see any reason why I should play faster. If you like faster playing start a tournament of fast players.

It's like someone renting a house and agreeing on a monthly payment of the rent.Can the houseowner who recieves the monthly rent complain that he wants weekly payments? offcourse not.

I want to play a lot of games but I don't want to make hasty moves.

i strongly suggest that there should be no vacation time allowed for tournaments. or at the very least the vacation time should be lowered significantly to maybe 10 to 15 extra days. tournaments affect more than just the one person your playing against and therefore should warrant special considerations.

Providing an option to specify the vacation period for every challenge you create could be a plausible answer.

Some of us have things other than chess.com in our lives .  I need my vacation time.

However, placing a maximum vacation allowance on a tournament would be fine so long as it is clearly stated as an entry condition.

I don't think shortening vacation time would alleviate the problem of people who just take a long time to move.  3/day is usually a reasonable amount of time, but I have played an opponent who would take the full 3 days for *any* move (even forced ones).  It's not a use of vacation time, but it's not really any worse.

Limiting the use of vacation time on a tournament seems fair.  Typically, real vacations are planned in advance, as should be your involvement in a tournament.

Exactly - especially multi-round tournaments. If we have a limit to the amount of tournaments we can enter then this is a real concern.

As for Gert-Jan's comment (post 8) - no worries, as long as it doesn't also include a month of vacation time on and off. When a move is forced it shouldn't require 3 days of thought. It's nothing like a rental contract - it's a game between 2 players with a maximum time allowance, not a "move on the stroke of midnight on the 3rd day or thou shalt be evicted" contract signed with the blood of both players.

We all have other things in our lives, but holding up tournaments is a bit of a drag for most concerned. Not the end of the world of course, but it would be nice to have some level of control.

@jonnyjupiter: you missed my point. I mean that you agree on a certain time per move. When I want to use all the time even for a forced move it is within the rules and agreement we made, so don't complain.

I can imagine that people use all three days to make a forced move. When you're playing a lot of games you  only look at games of which you have to make a move within 24 hours. So then this player will make a move in your game after three days.

I see this sentiment quite frequently in these discussions and frankly, it's short sighted. A tournament can easily last 3-6 months and I would expect many to take quite a bit longer. So the idea that vacations are planned in advance and participation in a tournament should be as well is simply untrue.

Just picking a couple tournaments I've been involved in:

2nd chess.com tournament 1801-2000 started May 6th (6.5 months ago). The tournament is in the 2nd round with 2 more to go. I don't expect this to end any time soon

Rakhmanator's Cup started June 13th (over 5 months ago) and is still in the first round with one more round to go.

More examples like those wouldn't be hard to find in the tournament list. Obviously single round tournaments tend to be quicker, but even those will have games that take months to play. This is especially true if your opponent always takes their full time to make their move.

 your comment about the comment being shortsighted is shortsighted. the reason tournaments tend to last so long is directly due to issues with vacation time. at least that is what this thread is referring to. i do not think the people are complaining about opponents using their full allotted time, but that they are using (or have) too much vacation time.

Ok, no problem. Do you use all the vacation time allowed within the rules too?

 I use all the vacation time I need. So if I need the maximum allowed I will use the maximum. Sometimes I have no possibility to use a pc with internet so then I need my vacation time.

Do you think automatic time out protection is appropriate?

I think it is appropriate but  people can abuse it. When they need more time to think they use vacation time and that is not the purpose of vacation time.  A good sport uses the automatic time out protection only when it is impossible to make the move in time.