Has Chess.com ever had a worse idea than Vacations?

You say that now. But when it happens to you...... say a tournament here. Your reply will be off with their heads.

Not everybody abuses vacation. Just a select few.

I have a membership if you didn't notice. That doesn't happen.

Would be interested to see actual screenshots rather than 'this is what I think is happening'.

Ivanchuk sure would benefit from auto-vacation.

and to think how long the blokes on here get to ponder over a move!!

Vacation hurts groups in team matches. Since affordability for becoming a paid member varies from one country to another, in nation based groups, some groups have more Time-Out losses than others. This leads to somewhat non-level playing conditions in matches such as World League. Perhaps WL directors may consider making all matches to be non-vacation.

It happened as i was trying to get back to a game an having a membership at the time auto vacation kicked in. Grrrr As i wanted to say my time for something more important. When i went to resume the game :

In games it was 3 days a move i now had the full 3 days to move. Same for the 5 days a move.... i then had the full 5 days to move. Where i hac hours left to move in those games.

Like i say if i go to much into detail the abuse of Vacation will double maybe even triple across a period of time. A yr maybe?

Lets move on. As i believe if we all knew when the opponent was coming back to make a move it would not as much as an issue. And this could be done by having them enter in the hours or days they will gone when they take a vacation and that is when it will automatically resume the game being played.

That is a leadership issue which start at the lowes level with the Admin.

As an Admin i do not want and players that frequently time out. I will not kick them off the team at first but i will remove them from the TM before it starts if it happens more than once. If i see in their other games they have gone a while without TO ok problem fixed. If they continue i have to think it is an issue with who i let join the team. Now if the Admin has not fixed this then Admin of the league has to do something about that team. I have not been an Admin of league so i will say what to do. But i would consider not having that team back for 1 season until they showed they fixed that issue.

You've completely misunderstood the point royalbishop. He is not complaining about players timing out.

He is talking about how, in certain countries, the membership is far less affordable to your average person. While in countries like the UK or US, people have more disposable income for memberships.

The result being, that when players from more affluent countries TO, their vacation kicks in. When players from less affluent countries TO, they lose the game on time.

As a result, he believes that the World League team matches should be no vacation to make it a level playing field.

I'm sure lots of people have different views on this. I was just pointing out that your response has nothing to do with what he actually said.

If anything, your suggestion just penalises poorer nations further lol (of course based on the previous poster's opinion. I am not saying I agree)

Ahhhh i was going to say that Chess.com says we have auto Vacation when you have a membership but would be what i see for players in my country.

But for me 3 days/move is more than enought time to make a move. Yeah i know i am going to hear some leagues have 1 day/move and sometimes players need the vacation. No vacation would solve the problem in World Leagues. Better if both side in the league agree to have that team match with the Vacation option then it can even better. If the team where they do not have auto Vacation to prevent TO they just do not agree to it and it is a no vacation Team Match. Problem solve... maybe.

Like I said, I would like to see evidence and so would chess.com, as they would fix it. It certainly hasn't happened to me or any of my opponents.

You mention fix. It is not a problem. By the case i have given. It is just that it can be abused and has rarely been abused in that case. It is a clear case of abuse when it goes past 2 weeks and it is 3 days/move and still on the same move when they take the first vacation or i should say auto vacation.

Sure they will devote any time to this unless it becomes more frequent. The user could just end up in vacation they never return from which would defeat the purpose of their unfair tactic.

Note i found this by accident. Hated it as it devoured my vacation time. Then i got dependent and did not come back to sign like i would usually do a certain as i knew i would not time out. I like the sense of urgency. It keeps the mind sharp. 

If i am the only person it happens to on chess.com then good for everybody else. And in no way would i use this against players on purpose. The last couple times i used the vacation option was because i was working on getting my games below 100. Everytime i get them below  80 they climb back up. Then getting them down to 70 was a mental issue after swending weeks working on this.  

I mention fix because if what you describe is happening then it's not working as intended.

Only way to know what chess.com definition of intneded for this auto vacation is ask them. Pretty they did not mean for somebody to use it that way. Plus that should be an automatic restriction on use for vacation for that person.

I do not see anything wrong with it. Just do not double use it on the same move. Or do the same thing the next move and the move after that in a game. For this reason i list their should be 5 types of vacation and the opponent should get to see which was picked and length of the vacation already determined ahead of time. This would reduce the amount of frustrated players by more than half as they would know why the vacation and when the game would resume. This without risk of TO by assuming they will take a long vacation.

You could ask them, or you could read their FAQ which talks about vacation time...

The only time i care about my opponent using a vacation ....  Have to correct this. The only time i care about a player using vacation is in a tournament as it holds up multiple players and the entire tournament. I already posted my comment on this case as it cost me 1st place in a tournament.

Not sure how it could be a problem in a Team Match. In a league that is hard to deal with here. I could think of a couple unfair reasons why a player would use it. The problem then would be did the Admin tell them to do it and etc.

I would tell a person to go and play some unrated games while you wait for their next move. Or play live chess until it is your turn and be prepared for them not to move for say a week. I heard ... play more games .... not a good idea. That is how i ended up with 100 ongoing games, as my opponents were not taking vacations but moving slow. Once i jumped to 50 i kept adding as i was waiting..... big mistake having that many rated games. It is no problem after 1-2 months then by the 4th month blunders start to come that you would not normally make.

There is no possible argument to be (succesfully) made that Player A using Vacation in a tournament affects Player B's ability to win the tournament at all. Anyone who continues to make such a claim will be ignored going forward from me, as it shows a clear lack of understanding of how chess works.

On a related note, anyone who continues to claim that any amount of Vacation use resets your clock will also not get a response from me, until they prove sucessfully that a) this has ever happened, and b) this is not a bug or isolated incident, but instead a widespread issue. Something like that does not make sense, nor does it match up with the dozens of times I have used Vacation and came back to see as little as 2 hours on my clock when I removed Vacation. Either prove that this is what is happening, or stop talking about it.

It would also be nice if a single person arguing that vacation use affects Tournament durations would take the time to respond to my comprehensive analysis that even a 3-month Vacation wouldn't necessarily affect the length of the round at all, let alone by a significant amount. I have taken the time to respond to your arguments, and will likely lose the patience to continue doing so if my points keep being ignored when they disprove your thesis.

What, and deprive us all of your genius? Say it ain't so....

Agreed. Screenshot or it didnt happen.

"  Player A using Vacation in a tournament affects Player B's ability to win the tournament "

Before you open your mout you should check the previous comments and not leave comments just to comment. Think first then comment second. I already left my experience in a tournament where it happended. And the case i left could happen to anybody. But at the same time if you take my case in reverse it could help a player win the tournament. It depends on when the vacation was taken related to that player.

What? any amount of Vacation use resets your clock

:  Who mentioned amount of. And again your not checking details at all. I mention that as Paying Member. As a paying member is the only time you can get auto vacation. Keep up. I also said if i went into specifically how it was done when i did it what would happen. These same abusers would do it and everybody would get angry at me for helping them out. And if it is just something that just happens to me then nobody has anything to worry about in both case. 1st they will not see it happen from their opponents and i have no intent on taking advantage of it.

@Ubik42   If you notice i am no longer have that payed membership where i would the option of auto vacation. Plus that would mean that some player would have to wait 6+ days for me to move in a 3 day/move game ...... just to prove a point. Then want to know why they have to suffer just to prove a point. Again if this is an isolated act then no problem. If it is not then it would be my responsibity to keep the method of it being used under ice.

Royalbishops mouth will never go on vacation.

Well perhaps chess.com would appreciate you doing it and demonstrating the hack that makes it work. What are you using in order to achieve the effect...some kind of worm?

Anyway, I repeat: screen shot or it didn't happen. I have been on vacation lots of times and have never seen it. Make yet another unsubstantiated claim and you will earn the category of "troll". 

As to Mathbandits point that vacation usage does not win tournaments...he is, of course, correct. I would think it obvious but I suppose it bears repeating.