New suggested feature for V3 - bonus minutes!

I know - me too. Just my last blitz was lost that way - and an extra 3-4 BONUS MINUTES would have saved a winning position against a guy rated about 2160 blitz...

I believe that it can't really be abused, actually - because if someone tries to use it for any purpose other than in an emergency - then whatever they gain through that use (IF they gain it) - will be lost at a time when they will have a REAL emergency with no BONUS MINUTES available. 

"it's a way to protect you from losing a game due to non-chess circumstances of short duration."

If it's just a game, it shouldn't be a big deal to just lose the game if you have to. It's understood that you accept the risk of something happening when you play an online game, e.g., your kid distracting you, having to go to the bathroom, whatever it may be.

On the plus side, you could say that it's an incentive to play more honestly, and that it would increase the amount of honest players. Though, that's pretty speculative, and it's probably a lot more costly to fairly create a system like this than the benefits it could give.

To be honest, I'm not sure I would enjoy using a bonus minute against someone, because it would possibly make the game go longer than my opponent anticipated. I might prefer to just resign or accept the lower amount of time if that's what the circumstances force me into. The circumstance might not necessarily be my fault, but it most certainly wouldn't be my opponent's fault. In other words, I don't personally enjoy "rewards" that make life less convenient for someone else in the process.

Someone else may use the same benefit in their turn. Everybody has 'emergencies' now and then. 

People can understand that someone else has an emergency - and save the aggravation of having to drop a game due to one. 

If you don't like it, that's your right too. Thank you for posting. 

Yeah, just my opinion. I appreciate the thought you are putting into it, though.

:-) !!!

 Sorry but this is not a good idea. There is a good chance of abuse in certain situations.

Say I have not used any of my bonus minutes. I have accumulated 10. I am playing a G15+10 and I am down to 2 minutes while my opponent has 7 minutes. 

I pause my game for 2 minutes to think (you have no way of knowing why I have paused my game). I then unpause and make a move. My opponent (who has a poor internet connection but is good enough to complete games the majority of times) has no minutes and takes 2m 40s to play. We now have 2 minutes and 4 1/2 minutes (respectively) to play. 

I then pause my time again (I had another "emergency") and take 3 minutes to think, unpause and move. My opponent uses 3m 10s to think and then moves. We now have, respectively, 2 minutes and 1 1/2 minutes left.

I do it one more time and after the next 2 plies, I still have 2 minutes left and my opponent has 25 seconds left. Hmmm.

Another thought is - I am playing a tournament. I hate the idea so I have checked that i will never play with some one who has "bonus minutes". I make it to the final game and the other player has bonus minutes. Who gets the win? If you say draw, why am i penalized because i think chess should not have these rules, we should follow the rules of chess. 

And finally, you will have camps that are completely for this and those that are completely against it.  As you state in post #9 - "you will be able to choose to only play people who enable bonus minutes, to only play people who don't - or to play people indifferently of their choice on the matter. "

So the ones against it check that they will not play against people who have them, say it is 20% of players. There are 20% of players who will always use them if available and needed adn only want to play against players who enable bonus minutes. That means that the player pool is smaller for those players, a penalty that means you have less chance of getting a game at any given time (40% of players on the site cannot play against each other) and if I am a paying customer (which i was for a long time), I am not a happy camper with the new 'rule".

I appreciate the time you took to come up with the idea, but not something I could get behind.

Dear Rsava, 

I appreciate your thoughts. 

Please note, that according to your first scenario you paused for seven minutes during the game, in order to think and perhaps win from a position that you would otherwise lose (in your estimate). 

In order to get these seven minutes back, you will need to play 42 consecutive (or seven times six consecutive) games without taking ANY pause, without aborting and without stalling intentionally. 

So obviously the strategy is not valid. 42 games will easily cancel out the benefits of any perceived "advantage" you may have gotten from using the strategy you mention.

It may also happen that in these 42 games you will have a real emergency, and will no longer have those bonus minutes that could save your game - you'll certainly lose any gains you could have gotten by the "abuse" (in case that "abuse" does finally give you an extra point - which is not certain by any means). 

Your second thought only applies to option B in my suggestion , where people can choose whether or not the play against people who use bonus minutes. Obviously, in this scenario the whole tournament will be "with bonus minutes" or "without bonus minutes" so as to avoid the scenario you mention altogether...

And regarding your last point, about a smaller playing field because it is split. So first, this concern only applies to OPTION B in my suggestion, and second, with so many players online, this should never be a concern. You will always have people to play with. You personally never play blitz or bullet (correctly for your level!) and your Rapid rating is below 1000 - so you will always find people to play with. I am rated much higher and there are much fewer players in my rating level - and still I never have a problem finding an opponent. 

Well, the idea itself is interesting, but I'm afraid it would be extremely difficult to implement, as some people have already pointed out.

And then there is the obvious way of exploiting that extra minute advantage. For example, if you are playing 1 min bullet, you play 6 games against a weak opponent (comp easy comes to my mind) then you can use that minute in a game against a better player...

Appreciate your responses - 

1. Yes, I realize that but it is still a possibility. Does not make for a fair, even playing field.

2. Again, yes I realize that. But, if I become a paying customer again and I am excluded from tournaments because I believe that the rules of chess should not give an advantage to people just because they have a good internet connection, well ..... 

3. Regardless of what I play or what my level is, I was not stating it for me in particular, but as a general statement of a problem with the idea. 

<Kingofshedinjas>

I see no special difficulty in implementation...

And by the way - In bullet you need at least fifteen games to get an extra minute... check out my OP (it was updated a few days ago, as someone did point out that I had a problem with bullet)

Now you remind me that there was an additional point that I wanted to include in the OP and forgot... I will hurry up and make the change :-)

<Kingofshedinjas>

Thanks again for the reminder! I had this in the back of my mind for a few days already - but forgot what it was - and now it's IN. 

Here's the paragraph I added (it is now paragraph three in the OP)

In addition, in these six consecutive games you need to play opponents whose rating average is not lower than both (your current rating - 200) AND (your record rating - 400). Your performance in these six games must be at least (your current rating - 200) AND (your record rating - 400) - this is to prevent "easy minutes" being gotten by not caring about your play or about intentionally selecting weak opposition. 

I now suddenly think that this additional measure is not even necessary so long as we're talking RATED games - as someone who would violate it would be willingly shooting down their own rating millions of points... and where's the benefit in doing that exactly? Just to be able to use some "extra minutes" in ONE game later?

<Rsava>

1. I invite you to reconsider this point, in light of my answer from earlier (you get to "abuse" the system in one game, and then need to compensate for it during at least 42 games...)

If you still think that this could be "profitable abuse" of my idea - then obviously our opinions differ... :-) Can't please everybody!

2. I see what you're saying... but I believe that we are entering quite a different argument here :-)

3. I understand what you say - but really don't see this as much of a concern... not to mention that it only applies to option B. 

This definitely can't be in bughouse

No no - it's only for standard chess (all LIVE time controls).

I didn't even BEGIN to think of the implications in chess variants...

Well, I don't mind him taking one extra if he needs it, according to the system I proposed here. 

Haha this would make it a mini game chess site

Didn't understand your comment...

no i mean your feature

I still don't understand what you want to say. 

i will tell you in chat when we play live.