vacation time

in chess, either you win lose or draw.

I think that it is terrible that in a 3 day game you can use vacation time.

If you can not finish the game in time for what ever reason you lose.

real simple----

time is another factor that is figured in the game.

we all have problems, and using vacation time especially of 4-5 weeks is totally wrong and chess.com should eliminate it from the rules.

there is no vacation time in the real world of battle

if you are not in shape you lose.

chess is a battle

if you are not able to finishin the time of the match

you lose.

FIX IT-----------FIX IT    JUST FIX IT

I sense your drive and determination for this game, and there are tournaments you can join that do not allow use of vacation. I, for one, could not play in those, as there are occasions when I simply will be away from a computer for more that 3 days. To be deprived on playing Online Chess games - some of which last for months - due to a complete absence of vacation time would be absurd, in my view, and hostile to general play. Yet, there are those who will abuse the privilege. I would not, but some might.

Thanks for your reply---

please note--- I am new with chess.com but I have been playing chess for over 45 years all over the world with the best of the best---- this is just my take on this

but it is not determination---

it is called what's right playing chess---

now lets look at it----

you said-- To be deprived on playing Online Chess games - some of which last for months - due to a complete absence of vacation time would be absurd,---

this is my point----

If you are going to play chess that has a 3 day limit---- then there is a 3 day limit

real simple---

if you do not think you can make the 3 day limit--- then play the game that has no limit---- play the 3 month game with vacation time---------

but a limit is part of the game - the strategy-- the momentum--

winning in chess in many situations comes down to your opponent making a mistake---the wrong move-- under pressure---etc. this is the real chess, the part of the game--- the 6th sence---- where something happens--- do not feel good, need to do something else or what ever----if you are out your out

it is just respect----

either you win lose or draw---- but you can not drag it out and go past the time limit..

Why then have the time limit???????????

if the time limit can be changed them why have it????

Everything in this world is being challenged because of the world wide situation we are in with overall economy and decision that were made by people that were never questions that were total wrong and stupid and now we are all paying for it in one way or another.

in competition--- you play to win

if you are playing just to play then play the games with no time limit

for beginners 

if you are getting the game going in your favor after you been behind for the entire game, then all of a sudden you do not see your opponent make a move for "vacation time" 5-6 weeks--- that blows the excitment of the entire game and the person should just lose and take the loss... time is part of the game when you play with a time frame

3 days to move is plenty of time if you are really playing.

I will never play with a person that takes vacation time

right in the middle of a game for any reason...

In my opinion   and any other serious chess player they lose if they do that

next---

if you do not care enough about the game you are playing--- that is disrespectful to your opponent  and you should either quit or give up and walk away. and lose

The rule is wrong----

ask any person that is a serious chess player

on a 4-5 level on a 1-5 level skill chart with 5 being the very best

if you can not make the move in time you lose

it is real simple

anyway

I am writing to chess.com to express my opinion.

I hate to lose

that is only why this bothers me.

folks that just play to play and really do not care

are the ones that take vacation time.

all the best

it vacation time for me---

note--- the next time your boss say he needs to get the job done right away

tell him --- sorry I am going to take vacation time 5-6 weeks off -

I will see you then

see what happen to you!!!!!!!!11 

1) Not everyone agrees with you

2) If you hate vacation time that much, only play in tournaments that have the "no vacation" stipulation

3) Read more about this wonderful topic here: 

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/vacations-to-avoid-losing-on-time-is-cheating

I agree with most of your arguments.

I just posted few minutes ago simular issue, about components that use the whole period they allowd (e.g 2 days, 3 days) to do only 1 move per time.

I don't want to spend month for one game. This is not a chess game and It really makes me frastrated

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/help-support/blocking-new-components

This slow chess is obviously not your scene. You don't seem to care how you win...as long as you win.

For me, chess is an art to be perfected...I think we should use chess.com to learn: improve our openings, compare our games with heaps of master games & thereby learn like we have never learned before! I do this on a real chess board rather than try to play via the interface.

If there was no vacation time I might have beaten some opponents far quicker, but not learned much at all. I also suspect that many people who are members and therefore have games automatically put on 'hold' through vacation time, would never allow winning positions to be lost through 'timeouts'!

So...did you win those games that went automatically to 'vacation'? If not...it had nothing to do with the vacation time but your inability to handle those positions. If so...you had other games to play so what's the big deal? You still earn the same rating points based on your opponent's rating at the beginning of the game! Don't worry so much...you'll live longer!

 Your profile says you were born in 1968 and yet you say you have been playing 45 years ?  hhmmmmmmm   anyone else see anything wrong with this picture ? 

There are people who play 1000 games or 2000 games or some such very high number.. even 100 games is high for me and for some other 50 might also be high.  The point is people play the maximum number of games that can fit into their "online" time quota.  The effect is, the person playing only 50 games or 10 games or just 1 game, wait for the other person playing 2000 games to return to him who does that only at the fag end of the max days allowed for the game.. say 3 days or 7 days or whatever.  I for one dont subscribe to games (individual or team or tournaments) where the available days is less than 3 because I have suffered time out a few times in 1 day or 2 day games due to not getting to the internet for a couple of days continuously.  But I dont mind the time taken by the person who is playing against me taking 3 full days for each move, because that I what I have agreed to at the beginning.  Now putting this to a whole game that say goes to 50 moves, it will take roughly 150 days in the minimum even if I play each of my move immediately on the move by the opponent.  If I also take my quota of time, it might take 200-300 days.  During this 200 days I would definitely want to go on a long vacation away from email, phones and internet for a week at least to unwind and spend time with family etc.. Sure I dont want to lose all my games in that week just because I am enjoying my holidays.. neither do I want to await and make moves for the online games during that personal time dedicated for the family once a year.. then this vacation comes handy and really sets ourselves free.  I think it is a very sensible and useful thing.  Ofcourse more vacation for people paying (more) is practical such as more foot space for the first class passengers in the flights.. I fully endorse these two concepts though I am myself suffering anxiety to not able to taste "mate in 2 moves" games as well having to wait for another whole week.

Here's an easy simplification for you:-

No vacation = Less paying members = No free site for you, dukehaw!

???

i totally dissagree with this opinion.

Do you know, people have jobs and WORK to do other than staying here playing chess. You cannot force them to stop playing chess here just because you want "fast games"! People have work to do, and many times that jobs forces people to stay away from a computer for more than 3 days.

And remember, people also need some time to rest. Dont you also like to make vacation? Or are u saying that you play chess all the year, 7 days a week, and you dont even take some time to rest? Just put youself in other people position: for example, going to a 1 week vacation to rest from work and stress, and being forced to lose the games just because some guys cant wait or forced to keep playing even if they are in their deserved hollidays?

I personally agree with the use of vacation time.

But i also know that there are a lot of dirty play by some members. Some use vacation to delay games or to gain more time. That´s not correct i know, but we cant just punish everyone because of this players. You will have to accept it...punishing those who play fair just because some use the vacation for dirty reasons is no solution.

"there is no vacation time in the real world of battle" you said. You forget, real world game dont last for MONTHS! so it doesnt make sense at all to say this. Of course a game that finishes in the same day doesnt need vacation time.

And my personal opinion, if you cant wait then simply dont play online chess. Play live chess instead!

It simply irritates me to have people saying that taking some time should be banned. People are not forced to play fast as you want. I talk for myself, i am proud that i can say that i usually wait till the last hours to make my move! I dont care if my oponnent is in a hurry or not...I play at my own pace, even if the other players like it or not. And if my opponent do the same, no problem to me, i´m pacient. The same if they take vacation time. I can easily wait for them to return and continue the game!

 I agree with you, but what do you suggest to stop those dirty players from using this legal facility?

I mean, every now and then you come across an opponent who (when losing) starts to use vacation time. I myself have had such opponents in group matches who have used vacation time just to wait for the results of games played by other team members. 

yes, thats indeed a problem.

But i dont see what can be done to solve that...long games also have the same problem, i mean 14 days per move, players can simply when they start losing play only at the end of the time, making the game last longer, and that cant be consider cheating cause they are playing in time.

About the different time limits, why not, as an option of course. But that wouldnt solve the problem of vacation in my opinion, since for example a game that must finish in 20 days, if someone is 10 away from a computer, means that has less than half of the time to make the moves. So, vacations will still be used in that system, as it is used now even by players who play 1/day per move games, which usually finish faster.

But i repeat, as an option is a great idea.

Also, a system like a game player has 30 days time limit for all moves (for example) would bring some long discussions in cases like this: The game reaches 30 moves in 5 days. Player A realise that the game is lost, and still has 25 days left. Again, the player can make the opponent wait all those days till he resigns. (same as the vacation problem now in some cases).

This is an hard topic, in my opinion the only real solution is waiting in this cases, vacations dont last forever so at some point those players will really lose.

I agree with most people that winning on time, is as good as winning my checkmate, you asked him questions he couldn't answer in time. However, this hardly goes for correspondance chess, where if you win on time, it's because he didn't have acces to a computer. There's a huge difference.

Original poster,

You're preaching to the choir. I couldn't agree more.

about the time per move, i dont think thats the problem.I mean, a player can choose if he plays fast games (1 day per move) or slow games. Nobody is forced to play at a different pace by someone else. Thats a good thing here.

In real tournaments, indeed, the clock starts working at the start of the game, and if a player doesnt appear loses. But remember, we are talking about games that finish in some hours maximum. We are not talking about days or months as here. Thats a big difference.

And you are forgetting something. True that a player that missed a game in a tournament gets a loss, but in the last years players can call "bye" in days that they cant appear in the tournament place!Well, at least it works like this in some i´ve played. The players dont win points, but they dont lose to someone, and so they dont lose any rating and they still can play the rest of the tournament.

In here, as we are talking about months to finish some games, its normal to allow vacation time. Players are not made of iron, many need to get some time without games to relax and stuff like that. I have nothing against it, and i think its unfair that some people ask to make it impossible for this kind of players to take some time to rest from the games, or simply to take out this solution from people who has jobs that can make people being unable to make their moves.

I understand about the cases where people put vacations to avoid/delay loses. But we cant simply ignore the ones who use the vacation system because they need it, just because a group uses it in a dirty way. I mean, cutting off the vacation system would make most of the players leave the site, or at least start playing games 14 days per move, and then the game would take years to finish sometimes. 

I think vacations shouldn't be allowed in tournaments... I'm playing a tournament, and only 9 games are unfinished. 6 of them belong to one player with Premium membership... he is being on vacation for second time, and a hundred of players must wait for him. Isn't that stupid?

 I don't see anything wrong with this picture. I played chess all the time when I was in the uterus. Unfortunately, I wasn't as skilled as dukehaw - while he played chess before he was conceived, I only started playing after. =(

But vacation exists in case you can't access a computer for a while or you go on vacation and don't have a computer. If you couldn't make your moves, you wouldn't want to lose all of your games, would you?

If vacation weren't there, then the game would turn into a battle of attrition - how long can I keep the game going before you have to take a week long vacation?

The law of unintended consequences.

That being said, I'm not particularly a fan of auto-timeout-protection for premium members. But rules are rules and I have faith in Erik and his team.

i agree that vacations are weak.  but chess.com has chosen to use them.  this shows a lot obout the site.  either for good or bad, depending on your opinion.

i think chess.com should lobby with the cinema companies and get vacation time implimented at movie theaters.  i believe that everyone in a cinema should have to wait for me while the movie is "paused" if i ever need to run out to get a refill on my popcorn or to use the loo.

i can't imagine there being anything wrong with forcing hundreds of people to wait.  I HAVE AN EMERGENCY...