Timeouts make tournaments sad

I'm sure this has been brought up before, so my apologies.

I'm sure I'm not alone in that it makes me sad when a highly rated player in my group in a tournament loses all their games on time.  I hate winning my timeout, and I of course don't claim time victories in non-tournament games, but I feel like there should be an option not to claim time victories in tournament games as well.

I have joined some tournaments with strong players to get a chance to play against them, and the last thing I want is a false victory against one of them.

Does anyone agree with me?

P.s. I also think auto-vacation should be a free feature for the same reason.  I'm a paying member for many reasons, mostly because I support this website and I think it's great, but I hate thinking that it gives me an unfair edge... but I know the admins would never make that feature free, since it is a big reason why people pay.

You know, I'm both on your side and against you on this point. Mostly I dislike the time thing 'cause it doesn't allow me to fully measure myself against other players, but I don't mind winning on time against players I already know I will defeat. But mostly, time is really a bad idea, it puts too much preasure on a player, but it keeps the game to a reasonable time period.

Yeah, if I have a huge advantage, it's not so sad, but I've had a few instances where my opponent ran out of time in a game that was still exciting, or worse yet barely started.

Not claiming the win in a tournament affects all the other players in the tournament as it increases the tournament duration to infinity.

You can join premium-only tournaments.

Firstly, I'm on your side because if your opponent has a huge advantage that you cannot counter, i would feel sorry for the opponent because you really did not win with your mind, instead, you won with your luck, on the other hand, if you do not impose time control, you would really make the duration of the tournament much more longer.

As TadDude wrote: "Not claiming the win in a tournament affects all the other players in the tournament as it increases the tournament duration to infinity."

Yes, that's what he's complaining about. But clearly it wouldn't make sense to have it any other way for tournaments.

Don't worry about it. lol

This is correct, timeouts in tournaments are forced, regardless of your account settings. The reason for this is simple, there are too many other people involved in weather or not that game is finished. We already get a LOT of complaints that tournaments here take too much time. If players could choose to not accept timed out games, they would take MUCH longer. 

Baseballfan,

I guess that's true.  I think correspondence chess is an odd hobby for someone to pick up if they have a need for speed, but...

Maybe there could be a limit on how much extra time you can give your opponent in a tournament, like 1 day, or even that could be set by whoever was creating a tournament.  I think that very few people even have the option checked not to automatically claim time victories anyway.

Winning based on a time out by a superior player is like winning because your opponent scratched on the eight ball.... unfulfilling.

Something to consider here is that even if 1 day extra was allowed, members would then ask for either more time than this, or less time.

Hi guys,

Time controls for chess games are needful.  We figured this out a century ago.  Back then without time controls some players would just sit and sit until their opponents got impatient and played badly or just guit altogether.  We still have those players, even with time controls.  You guys have seen them.  They are the guys that never move till the last hour or a 3+ days time control.  They frequently are on vacation.  They want there games to last as long as possible so other players will quit, allow(offer) a draw, or simply leave.  They get better results.  These guys are out there, I would think most of you have seen them.  Also, we agree to the time controls at the start.  It is a rule we agree on.  We agree on rules ahead of time so we don't argue about them later. 

So, I think time controls are needful and should be enforced. 

Watch your backrank!

rgrizzard I completely disagree with you. I think tournaments, in order to continue w/ some speed of decensy, need to have this timeout feature.  Granted emergencies happen, but the other players need to be considered.  and losing a few games in a tournament aren't going to kill your rating.  and if you keep having these "emergencies" maybe you should look into longer games/tournaments.  or if there are certain times when you are gone for long periods of time, then you shouldn't need auto-vacation.  and of course not only is it common courtesy, but i think it is necessary to explain at the very least when about you expect to be back.

secondly, in personal games i completely agree on the caveat that when this happens, people are given the option of aborting games so people don't abuse the system and due to an emergency people don't lose out.

thirdly, this is hard due to I could have a forced mate in X amount of moves, and instead of playing out you just walk away and let your "auto-vacation" take over.  true, i can wait till you get back and i have the notes section to write down the checkmate. but if i am down then i can abort the b/c this isn't what we agreed to.

MetalK, I agree with you.  Time controls are necessary because of the type of people that you describe. 

But sadly, I also think that people are abusing the vacation time.  I have played against a person that has many games going at once (>60) and always lets the games go down to less than an hour or so before he moves.  Also, he frequently takes vaction when the games are very low on time (all of his games, not just against me) and then miraculously comes back and makes all of the moves on time before any of the games actually time out.   The other thing that I have noticed is that even while he is online and making moves, some of his games still say that he is on vacation.  This seems to me to be an abuse of the vacation time.

Guys!

I know people abuse vacation time.  That is not the issue at all.  I can tell the difference between an opponent that is stalling for time because he knows he is going to lose and someone who is making a good faith effort to play a great game of chess with me.

If my opponent is abusing his vacation time and his time runs out, I would obviously claim a win.

I don't think that tournaments would be very much longer if we allowed players the option of giving their opponents a little extra time.