Getting Disconnected and Having It Affect Your Rating

I am relatively new to this forum.  I have been disconnected at least ten times already when playing a match, and I was winning at least seven of those ten matches.  When getting disconnected, it counts as a loss to your head-to-head rating and also greatly impacts your overall rating.  Instead of getting your rating improved for winning, you get penalized for a loss.  I understand that this website is working out bugs, but one thing that should be fixed is that disconnects should have no impact on your rating, whatsoever.  I am not talking about intentional aborts when a player is losing.  I am talking about a disconnect that is beyond the individuals control. 

Right, I agree that unintentional disconnections should not affect a player's rating. This is why Chess.com is working to develop an adjudication/adjournment system so that uncontrolled disconnections do not affect a player's rating. However, it may still be some time before we have this new system ready for the Live Chess.

If disconnects had no impact on your rating people would intentionally unplug their computers from the Internet when losing a game.

You know, I use to get so mad about this issue because, I , like many others, have often had it happen when I was winning and/or secured a victory. however, in the long run, I've decided that it will work for you, as often as against you, so it will probably all just balance out in the end...

What I DO think is cheap though, are players who don't resign when they should and prolong the situation for no good reason when it is CLEAR that they will lose to the superior player (or at least the one who has been playing a superior game) with their ONLY hope being that the winning party gets disconnected somehow.. This is particularly a relevant issue when you can see how strong your oponents connection is - if I am in the red, and my oponent is getting destroyed, they he/she is more likely to keep going in hopes that I get disconnected. Sheer nonsense!

Kupov, that's why disconnects would adjourn a game (for eventual adjudication if necessary) instead of simply ending it as Patzer24 said.  It doesn't get you off the hook, it just defers the eventual impact to your rating.

Also, I notice no-one's ever in here complaining of getting disconnected while losing....

I think the hope is that you walk away from your screen and then they can quietly sneak a move in and make you time out -- I'd love to see a maximum time/move setting added in addition to the current controls to provide the ability to mitigate the impact of this.

Live chess here is buggy, but as Patzer24 points out, they're working on it.

The more games you play, the less damage to your rating one or two unfair losses.

I play out the ending in some games that I know I am eventually going to lose for the purpose of practice and learning.  I am not good at end games and playing agianst others helps me learn.  Once it is CLEARLY evedent I am going to lose I resign but when the other person is only up a few pawns and they are a better player I want to see how they play it... I look at this as a fun learning expereince and if I play enough games my rating will work out itself

If you don't trigger a ratings adjustment then intentional disconnects to avoid taking a ratings hit will be ripe for abuse.  It's not ideal the way it is now, but it's better than the alternative.

The Adjournment and Adjudication functionality Patzer24 referred to earlier in this thread should address both issues.

tornatom, I don't think the gripe was with players who play a losing position out, but rather with players who don't, but also don't resign.

this is from the screen before you can play live chess

"Also, I notice no-one's ever in here complaining of getting disconnected while losing...."

The reason nobody complains about this is because you get penalized either way when you are losing.  If the game continues, you get the loss and the related negative points.  If the game is disconnected, it still counts against you. 

Yes, the comment was meant to be a little tongue in cheek....

My brother and I have had a couple games end unexpectedly from disconnections.  I've always felt a little guilty getting the points, too.  I can't ever remember getting disconnected though.  Out of fear of it happening though, I would like to see some resolution on the matter.  Plus, who likes winning a game because the other player disappeared?  That's like playing a real live game and your little nephew comes up and drags his hands across the board in the middle of the game, just for fun!

I think a good solution would be to activate an set of options for the person who DIDN'T get disconnected to make the decision about the outcome of the match.  Maybe a window would pop up with a couple of different buttons that the player sitting there wondering what happened could choose from.

So, for instance, if someone is winning and they get disconnected, the person who is losing can:

     a) select an option to end the game so that no one's rating is affected,

or

     b) select an option that declares a winner that must also be accepted by the other player.  The message is sent to the opponent who was disconnected, and if they both select the same person as a winner, then that person gets the points.  If they don't both select the same player as the winner than no points are awarded, and no one's rating is affected.

I would imagine that the vast majority of games that get disconnected unintentionally would end in no points being awarded, but if players are playing fairly, then there is a hope that they would recognize when they're getting whipped, and can give credit where it is due.  That may seem a little idealistic, but it's always nice having options.

tarius78: you are right on target. that is my observation also. so for the meantime i consider my average rank sort of pseudo ranking.. plus or minus 40 percent. lol

In Internet Scrabble Club, if a player gets disconnected they have 5 minutes to reconnect or the game is adjudicated.  If you are winning then you get no increase.  If you are losing then you lose and are adjudicated as such.  I know it is much easier to figure out who is winning and losing in scrabble then in Chess, but...

There is a warning about this on this site which is why ratings really don't mean that much. I had a new one yesterday, my opponent abandoned the game on my move and I was unable to stop my clock or execute a move. When I abandoned the game as well (move 3) I lost. As the game was very short no rating points changed hands but I got charged with the loss for whatever that's worth.

why not do the old yahoo way of things: give the disconnected 15 minutes to get back into the game before he is given the L.

 This makes a lot of sense.  Right now, I am being disconnected daily playing on this site.   As it happens, I have been disconnected at least ten times now when winning.  Five times or so, I was a move or two from checkmate and was beating my opponent badly.  Instead of a high point win for a checkmate, I got the loss and negative points.