Yes.
welcome games -- loss on time

I've had five or six welcome games assigned to me since I decided to click that box in my profile a few weeks ago, and every single one of them has timed out. And that's fine -- I don't expect that everyone who says "yeah ok" to that option when they sign up actually wants to play or understands at that point what they've just agreed to play, for that matter. My issue is when I get white and make the first move (or in one case, when my opponent actually played the first move but nothing else, apparently under the impression it was a live game), only to have the other player never show. At that point I can no longer abort the game and don't particularly feel like resigning even if it is unrated, so I've been hitting the claim win on time button. Is that the right thing to do?
The choice is yours. But some things to note are;
Greeter games don't affect or show in your stats
They are unrated (as you know)
If you leave the game as is, it will remain in your current games list for 60 days (or until your opponent returns to move before then) before the system auto declares 'won on time' - thats if you don't use the 'auto claim win on time' option.
I'm not concerned about stats or ratings, only the possible effect on the new players as regards future participation in tournaments. Shortly after I joined the site, I played a couple of unrated "learn chess" games with a friend of mine, and the second one I let run out on time after it became clear we wouldn't have sufficient time online together to continue the way we wanted to. A couple of months down the road I had started playing here for real, and that time-out on my record wound up making it so that I couldn't join tournaments for a few weeks after I wanted to. (I had to finish enough games so that my time-out percentage dropped below 10%, or wait out the 90 days, whichever came first.) It bothers me a little that I might be making the same thing happen to some of these new players, down the road.

I guess the annoying thing in leaving those games as they are is that they would clutter up one's games list. I wonder if it would be ok to just resign them. As they are unrated, nobody would get hurt or unduly benefit from that.

I'm not concerned about stats or ratings, only the possible effect on the new players as regards future participation in tournaments. Shortly after I joined the site, I played a couple of unrated "learn chess" games with a friend of mine, and the second one I let run out on time after it became clear we wouldn't have sufficient time online together to continue the way we wanted to. A couple of months down the road I had started playing here for real, and that time-out on my record wound up making it so that I couldn't join tournaments for a few weeks after I wanted to. (I had to finish enough games so that my time-out percentage dropped below 10%, or wait out the 90 days, whichever came first.) It bothers me a little that I might be making the same thing happen to some of these new players, down the road.
The timeout losses in unrated games do not appear in your opponents stats.
http://www.chess.com/echess/profile/mona1992
All Games
Total Games: | 0 |
In Progress: | 0 |
Timeouts: | 0% (last 90 days) |
Time/Move: | 2 mins 38 secs |
http://www.chess.com/echess/profile/hepezal
All Games
Total Games: | 0 |
In Progress: | 0 |
Timeouts: | 0% (last 90 days) |
Time/Move: | few min |
.
Huh, interesting. I wonder why the difference from what I experienced -- something to do with it only being move 1 or 2? The game I timed out of was definitely unrated ...
Anyway thanks for the responses and I won't obsess too much about it.

Huh, interesting. I wonder why the difference from what I experienced -- something to do with it only being move 1 or 2? The game I timed out of was definitely unrated ...
Anyway thanks for the responses and I won't obsess too much about it.
Looks like unrated game timeouts do count.
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/suggestions/100--win-rate-14--time-out
Stats
see full stats
Standard
Current: | 1814 |
Highest: | 1814 (22 Mar 2012) |
Avg. Opp.: | 1519 |
Best Win: | 1747 (staaar) |
Today's Rank: | #13609 of 250,586 (94.6%) |
Total Games: | 10 |
Won: | 10 (100%) |
Lost: | 0 (0%) |
Drawn: | 0 (0%) |
All Games
Total Games: | 10 |
In Progress: | 14 |
Timeouts: | 14% (last 90 days) |
Time/Move: | 6 hrs 17 mins |
I can only speculate it was due to the games being more than three moves.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
1-0 (lost) | 2 days | 7 | 1/29/2012 | view | |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
1-0 (lost) | 1 day | 9 | 1/28/2012 | view | |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
1-0 (lost) | 1 day | 8 | 1/28/2012 | view | |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
1-0 (lost) | 2 days | 4 | 1/25/2012 | view |
I suggest this not how it should be.
I've had five or six welcome games assigned to me since I decided to click that box in my profile a few weeks ago, and every single one of them has timed out. And that's fine -- I don't expect that everyone who says "yeah ok" to that option when they sign up actually wants to play or understands at that point what they've just agreed to play, for that matter. My issue is when I get white and make the first move (or in one case, when my opponent actually played the first move but nothing else, apparently under the impression it was a live game), only to have the other player never show. At that point I can no longer abort the game and don't particularly feel like resigning even if it is unrated, so I've been hitting the claim win on time button. Is that the right thing to do?