The best chess money can buy

 Cash prize money tournaments? Now that's a spectacular idea!!! Count me in when its starting :-)

Seriously. Yeah!

That is not the bloody point. It is the principle of the thing. For the record, I have all wins except for one draw on move 13 against a weak player (1800-ish) where I offered a draw in an absolutely equal position out of sheer boredom - you think I couldn't have created chances against someone 200 points below me (then)?? - and I knowingly dropped 46 points - and dropped below 2000 - by offering that draw.

And my two running games are 15 days/move - one trivial win but opp won't move until last moment, other one I have a clear advantage. These are probably the last two games I'll be playing here. Because of the nature of the clientele that has infested this site since I joined, and because I have since found *civilised* sites - shelled out £1000 for life membership in one of them last week. NOT because of erik, who I have no complaint against so far. Well, except minor ones - which I have not posted and will not.

I agree, an opponent may become a real jerk sometimes and do everything possible not to lose points including waiting for the last moments in certainly lost games!! But I love to crush those opponents slowly and painfully! I would love them to suffer the game till the end!(means months of suffering for them not me!)

Normajean -- Here's hoping you don't get fed up and leave the site altogether.  It will be a less interesting place without your POV 

Don't worry - the only way I'll leave is by being thrown out. I've been taking notes since I have been a member - IF and WHEN I am thrown out, I'll have an article ready for publication pronto :)

Having auto-timeout protection and more vacation time gives you 2 very clear advantages.  (I'm kind of sad to see this post has degenerated like this, but I'll make my point again)

#1 I lost many, many games before I was a subscriber to timing out.  In fact the entire system seems to be designed to time you out - you only get a warning about the game being over 8 hours before it's over.  While some people may check their email twice a day, I'm sure there's lots of people who don't.  Hopefully my suggestion to let the player set a different timer on the reminder will be implemented (or has been already, I don't check up on these things).

#2 It has been proven throughout history that if a player can prolong a game at his whim it gives him a HUGE advantage.  I'm talking HUGE.  There was a famous go game between go seigen and another guy - the other guy could adjourn the game at any time and think about his move for as long as he wanted. The entire match lasted about 5 months or so. 

Here is a scenario:  You're in a very, very complicated position.  Instead of having to move at the end of your 3 day period, you'd rather have a month or so to think it over.  Your opponent, who is not a subscriber, always has 3 days to think over his move.  More time to think over a move = more potential quality to the moves. 

Then again, if non-subscribers also get a lot of vacation time (i think i get something like 1 month + 20 days or something) then I retract my above statement.

Hopefully this thread can stop being about personal attacks ...

Thanks, this *was* the whole point of my starting this thread! Good to see it elaborated so well by a platinum-premium member ...

And no, non-subscribers do *not* get extra vacation time.

I never said there were *no* reasonable people on this site :)

There is only one sentence that I do not agree with, and that one is in zenchess's *earlier* post, *not* the one I quoted in this post. Unlike zenchess, my perception is that this site is *not* constantly improving. (Actually, my perception is stronger - namely - au contraire. )