Poor Sportsmanship and Internet Chess: Your Thoughts and Stories

If you're not even looking at the chat window, how can it be rude to not respond to any comments there?  Or do some people feel that not viewing the chat window is in and of itself rude?

While I was playing on FICS, quite a few times I was insulted after the game without any reason ( it wasn't even always the game I won ). So, for these cases I just picked the line, consisting of a few very strong words that you usually hear in the action movies and typed it right away. Worked very well, they probably didn't expect it and response was quite miserable, then they shut up. Of course, then I put those people on "censor" list.

i started a 42 minute game the other day and this guy kept telling me to hurry up and then started accusing me of letting the time run out. i kept telling him i was just taking my time thinking, which i was.  after all it is a 42 minute game that he joined.  if he wanted to move fast he could play blitz games.  anyways after i had tried explaining this he kept saying "omg hurry up."   He continued to paly fast and i beat him pretty quickly.  i think i  used up less than 10 minutes of my total time.  he called me a fag like seven times and turned down my rematch request.  i told him he should take his time next time.

Why on earth did you want a rematch?

willismandeville, you need to take screenshots showing the vulgar chat he typed, and send it pasted into an email to abuse@chess.com    he will find himself removed from this site fairly quickly if he does it to more than one person.

I have been playing video games since jr high.

I am a true blue nerd in eveyr since of the word (dont get me started on starcraft)

While the internet will makes idiots out of a lot of people I find that chess.com is very manered.

I sometimes play in an argentinian online site called "Cyberjuegos" where chess has no time control at all. There are 2 things that will make me sick:

1- People who will write "hurry up" as soon as they make their move. And keep saying "You're too slow" or "Zzzz" and so on. Suddenly, when they find themselves in a complicated position they will take all the time in the world to move... and try saying something to them.

2- This is the most crazy of all: There are rooms for each level of play (Novice, veteran and expert) and, in truth, the level of play is prety much the same in each. However the "Novice" room is full of high lvl idiots who go there for an easy win. Sometimes I go to novice when expert and Veteran are full and/or have too few ppl in them.   Half the guys I play there will, sometime in the middlegame, start ranting about me "not being a novice". Those are allways strong players complaining. Just my level or even stronger... but they get absolutely mad if they can't dominate the game and start calling me "abuser, cheater" or whatever. Is that an Hypocrite or what!

It is our secret weapon. We bring to meaning to "killing with kindness"

bbracken, more like "BLESS THOSE CANADIENS ! ! !   love that bacon.

Interesting... did you know that there is no such thing as "Canadian bacon" in Canada?

Yes, I can believe that, but here, in America, we attribute that great Bacon to Canadiens for inventing it.....   sounds more exotic if it comes to us from some other country - and sells - but actually, it is great tasting bacon with 'not a lot' of fat and a lot of good meat.

nope don't know the history of how it got started, but it sure is good.

It was invented by Irish immigrants in New York City!

Up here, it's just called "back bacon".

figures, those clever irishmen.  and they charged more for it than regular bacon too, because it had less fat and more flavor.    (and folks paid more for it.   willingly. hahahahaha)

I used to play at Yahoo and the experience can be maddening.  You get into a game and all of a sudden POOOF, the other player decides to leave, this may be caused by a poor internet connection, but they just never come back.  And I have waited sometimes 20 minutes for them to return.

Today: I only play here at chess.com. I haven't been back to Yahoo and won't. 

To RetGuvvie98

Thanks for checking out my profile, but as you can see you won't find anything there.  I don't post any more information on the web than I have to.

I play on the FICS (and on the ICC at a friends house).  While most of the players are classy and not prone to obnoxious rants during the game, there are a few that abuse the priviledge of commenting during the game.  I don't condemn the players with the jerks, throwing them all in the same sordid bag.  What I do is increase the screen size to full screen, hiding the comments section.  Again, I'm there to play, not socialize.  The effort to think of a comment and type the comment takes away from my game, making me prone to blunders, and so I don't choose to comment.

I have, in the past, left comments for the other player, espiecially after a tough game, and sometimes the other player responds, sometimes not.  I do not care if they do or not.  I take no offense if the other player has nothing to say.  The game was the game, and that is all I care about.

But, in case you are curious, I'm rated 1949 by the USCF.  My first tournament was in Syracuse, NY, in December, 1972.  I had started reading chess books in 1969.  I play mostly on the Internet now, 5 and 10 minute games for fun.

The most I have ever conversed with another player was one from Sweden, one from Canada.  After the games, we had an informal chat, lasting about five minutes, and was suprised to learn that the player from Sweden thought the temperatures and weather here in Binghamton, NY (in January), were worse than that in Sweden!  He was a very good player who missed a strong shot that would have won around move 36 as White in a King's Indian.  The Canadian's defense was just good enough to make me look brilliant, and he thought I was a child prodigy!  I told him, "Yeah, a 45 year-old prodigy."  They were both good people, and the chat occurred after the game, about the game.

I hope this helps.  I don't try to be a jerk, but I do love crushing people when they let me.  Sometimes, that is taken the wrong way.

"rudeness on the internet seems to be endemic, unfortunately."

"But each player is free to respond or not, as their mood strikes them, and not obligated to respond."

"he has that privilege - to ignore any comments or all comments by opponents..."

"I would respond to any opponent who said 'good game' whether to thank them, agree with them(when I lose), or to point out that it was a blunder-filled game and could have been better."

I didn't want to seem like I was arguing with the poster I'm quoting, and it was a while back in the thread. I'm not yet up to speed with the whole thread yet, but I look forward to reading it. This just got me thinking, was all.

Regarding the ideas above, the way I see it is if I met you (the reader) at the board, in a tournament, and I reached out my hand and said "good game", would you dream of anything other than shaking my hand and saying "good game", irrespective of what you really thought of it? After all, is that not the very symbol of sportmanship?

I don't think it should be any different just because someone is not within arms reach. ( To keep up with the yahoo bashing... a lotta people on that site would behave *very* differently if they were so close... lol, deft hands make strong fists! )

Someone astute and determined to shut me up, who has played against me will attempt to undermine me by pointing out that I speak during matches online - and I would not do that in the above situation. But tournaments opponents do *not* come with "disable chat" buttons. It is not an issue not to say "good game" if you cannot, but an issue not to reciprocate if you can!

Conversely, chess.com does not yet include a "Take a moment with opponent to remind ourselves that we are here because we share a common love of a game, and that today we got a chance to play it." button.

polleke,

regarding your post just above:

and maybe he, like dashkee94, felt that was an unnecessary distraction, shutting it off allowed better concentration on just the moves - seeking greater concentration should not be reason for faulting the player, in my opinion.

for instance, in an OTB game, would you think it rude of a player to wear his cap visor low, prop his hands around the sides to block vision of folks walking around, and wear earplugs???  shutting out the world around him in that room, essentially....   or would you think he merely wants to enhance his focus on the game moves - the most important part of his life at that moment???

     having seen that, and having been distracted in a tournament by people arguing at another table (not even playing), I can sympathize with those who wear earplugs and want to shut out visual distractors.    Chat is a visual distractor, in my opinion.

regards,

I prefer not to chat during games as well although I have no problem talking before and after games.

Actually I feel a bit bad but I was recently playing with someone who was extremely chatty during our game in turn-based chess.  He was a nice enough guy but I felt that the chat was making me lose my focus and indeed I lost 3 in a row.  I'm not saying I would have won without the chat as I believe this player was simply better but with all the chat I felt I was getting lulled out of my concentration.  As a result any chance I had of winning was being squandered.

Now, instead of telling this person directly to perhaps stop chatting so much during the game I decided to disable chat.  I just felt bad telling the guy I didn't want to talk to him during our games figuring it would hurt his feelings so I decided I'd much rather have him think I was an a-hole instead.

Anyway I'm now winning the game as my concentration is 100% but I still feel like kind of a jerk...

cry me a river?

Yea to be honest I probably take the game a bit too seriously and perhaps need to lighten up a bit.  I just get extremely competitive when I play chess and this makes it hard for me to have a polite chat during the game.  I certainly never have anything against my opponent though and wouldn't mind chatting up a storm before or after the game.  Oh well, good post Boston12 it's nice to hear both sides of this issue.