First suspects to be investigated here should be the rating system, and the fair play enforcement.
I've said this before.... People are fed up with being gaslit by a sandbagged matching algorithm and/or engine moves popping the exact same "openings" and mopping them with embarrassing ease, dragging the games out letting opponents feel they have a chance to gain advantage; just for every intensely calculated plan to crumble before it can even begin. You can blame the players all you want. "Git gud" isn't even a factor when talking about a system that *claims* to match players with other players of most similar skill level-- but it's really half engine users playing at twice their rating, or actual complete noobs that need to be treated with kid gloves, lest they think YOU'RE using engine moves.
Smh. This site is a complete clownshow and I eagerly await the inevitable scandals to be revealed behind the scenes here. Watching supposedly 2300 matches blunder harder than some 300's, watching 300's play better position and accuracy than 2300's?
....lmao there's definitely "levels" to this, and they want people to MOSTLY stay in the place they're put by the algo, period.
This isn't wild eyed conspiracy or nihilism, and everyone with any level of human intuition knows something stinks around here.
Abandoning instead of resigning
I really like the feature that the game ends as abandoned after 15sec when in a losing position, so I hardly lose any time.
Is there another rule in tournaments? Once my opponent blundered a piece and had me waiting for like 7 minutes (was a 10+0 tournament).
@Igor_Vo, unfortunately your opponent is entitled to use their time in whatever way they want, including seven minutes of pointless wait after a mistake. I don't think this is always malicious. Sometimes, psychologically, after we've done something stupid, we just get stuck looking at the situation in disbelief and hoping that if we look at it long enough it will turn out not to be as bad as it obviously is.
It looks like the comment sections on chess sites are no better than anywhere else. So much for this noble game.
Guy I played today suddenly resigned after 23 moves, which surprised me. I had a better position, but the material was still even, and there was plenty of time left on the clock. Maybe he had something else to do. Too bad, as I would have liked to see how well I would have ended up playing the game out.
I think it would be great if those who showed poor sportsmanship were now forced to play others of their same ilk!
I've noticed that many of my opponents abandon the game when they suddenly get into a losing position (. they blundered their queen). My question is what do players gain from abandoning the game instead of resigning? For me it seems that the only difference is that I have to wait a few seconds before playing the next game. If there's no benefit to abandoning the game, why not just resign? I'm going to assume that this happens less among higher rated players...
I'm new to chess.com, and ran into that situation where a player in a losing position lets the time run out. I didn't get why, I didn't even assume it had any intention.
But something I also found confusing is that I've had two games in a row where it said the player "abandoned the game" only after a few moves and the game was still very even (no blunder, nothing special). In that case I assume it is due to their internet connection, but it's impossible to know if there's another motive. Maybe they try an opening and it doesn't pan out as they expected, and they want to move on (but don't wan't to resign as to not admit it). So far I enjoy the win regardless but it's still very new to me.
Most people that I play abandon games rather than resign, and it's what I've begun to call "the chess.com etiquette" these days. I wonder if the resign button wasn't hidden under a menu in the mobile client, would that make a difference?
Then there are the few, but still non-negligible number of people who just sit there after blundering, letting the time run out sulking like a kid who is refusing to eat their vegetables. Ultimately it is their time and they can do what they want with it, but I do also think it's kinda embarrassing to just sit there. Always reminds me of the time Hikaru just sat there crying after losing to Magnus. And no, I'm not tormenting them by promoting all my pawns to different pieces and trying to place them back to their opening positions or anything.
A game is also abandoned when two players use a different version of the app. We discovered this while playing against each other when sitting in the same room. My opponents chess.com app didn't update automatically and at first we thought it was a wifi, nternet connection or server problem.
So it's not always rage quiting.
My most recent opponent "abandoned" but I suspect his Internet connection went rather than it being a conscious choice to abandon the game, which was only in its eighth move or so. The same has happened to me, as recently as two weeks ago.
Just had another one. I had to resign because I wasn't sure the game was won for me, but in retrospect I should have won it if it had continued (the evaluation gave me +3.9 at the last move). It annoys me a bit when this happens, it doesn't seem fair.
Hello, this is my inaugural post on the forum! 👋
After a year of playing the chess.com bots for practice, I've finally bitten the bullet and started playing live chess games. I'm very disappointed with my opponents constantly resigning mid-game and I've just experienced my first "abandonment", which was strange. The person's internet may have disconnected, but I suspect this was a silly stunt because I had gotten into a pretty decent position.
I'm the kind of player who enjoys seeing chess games through to the bitter endgame, whether I'm winning or loosing. It's like watching the credits at the end of a good film at the cinema. Satisfying 😌
So, yes. It would be nice to see more maturity....
(Also, I accepted a draw last week, when I could have won. I need to be far less accommodating).
Well done SuperSuze on taking the plunge! I admit I rarely play the end-game if I've obviously lost. To be honest, I often don't play it if I've obviously won, because I'm a middle-game sort of person, and don't get much fun out of the bit at the end. Maybe there should be a way for people to advertise their style up front, and select players who want the same thing!? Maybe you will inspire me to keep going instead of just resigning or offering a draw when the interesting bit is over.
Yeah, endgames can be fun. Also, I love situations where you might be losing in the middle-game, but then snatch victory back from the jaws of defeat 😄
Imh50, thanks for the encouragement. I might see you on the board (just promise not to resign first!)
A game is also abandoned when two players use a different version of the app. We discovered this while playing against each other when sitting in the same room. My opponents chess.com app didn't update automatically and at first we thought it was a wifi, nternet connection or server problem.
So it's not always rage quiting.
That's a very strange. While I don't doubt what you are saying is true, the apps talk to chess.com servers over the server API and not directly each other, and I'd find it odd that if you can perfectly well start a game and play for a while, the differences in what is essentially a web application then cause an abandonment. I mean yeah, could be? Especially if you folks played on mobile.
For most of the time though it's oddly convenient that the WIFI drops or an unspecified client version issue causes a disconnect right after they blunder a queen or checkmate. 
I resigned a game after 14 moves a few weeks ago when I got unexpected company at my house while I was playing. At the time my opponent and I were in about as even a position as you could get. We both had played with 90 percent accuracy to that point and had a 1,550 game rating. The material was even, but I actually felt I held a slight advantage as I had the bishop pair. But I play 60-minute games and still had 43 minutes left on the clock, so I just resigned the game rather than make my opponent wait out the time. I thought it was the courteous thing to do. Hated to take the loss as it didn't help my low rating, but sometimes that's the way it goes.