People who let the clock tick down

I was playing a 30 min game with a player called simondawe. After the tenth move he stopped playing and allowed the clock to tick down to the final few seconds before resigning. Can't there be some control added that means if you haven't made a move in something like five or seven minutes that you forfeit the game or something? I know that it is his time to take, but there should be some limitations. It's not the first time I have played against someone who is content to cease playing and allow the clock to tick down for 25+ minutes.

Chess.com seems to go back and forth on this one.  I actually thought they still had a rule in place that you could only take half the total time of the game for any move or the game would be aborted.   They must have changed it again.

Maybe you should try joining some groups that specialize in slow chess time controls.  I doubt that those members would pull crap like that.  The best known group is the Dan Heisman Learning Center.  I forget if they have 4 or 6 thousand members, but certainly plenty enough to find a game.  They also offer regularly scheduled slow time control tournaments.

Cheers baddogno, it's a thought. But still, I believe Chess.com should have some sort of duty of care to their customers to explore ways to counteract this type of behaviour. Those time rules you mentioned - they simply aren't in place. You could play a 30 minute game, make one pawn move and then sit for half an hour until your clock runs down. And some people do! I'm not going to switch the speed of the games I play just to avoid this type of thing - that would be letting those types win in the long run. It shouldn't be up to me to adapt to them, it should be up to Chess.com to adapt to them - by inserting a reasonable time limit in which a player has to make a move. For a 30 minute game, something like 7.5 minutes - a quarter of your entire time allocation. That's seems reasonable and fair.

The problem of course is then that folks complain that chess.com is changing the rules of chess.  People want to be able to think as long as they want just like OTB.  I think your 1/4 the total time is actually a little short.  I thought the 1/2 your total time for any one move was pretty reasonable, but as you say, it seems to have disappeared.  Oh well, the debate will go on I'm sure.  Oh wait, this is a fourth post bump so your thread will end up on the main list.  Let's see if anyone else has some ideas...

there could be a pop up that apeared every few minutes. If you dont press the button the game ends..... 

Let's stop right there. You signed up for a long time control game.

1. Don't change the rules of the game just because nobody has patience. "Introduce if a player spends more than xx minutes on a move, blah blah..." A player can use their time as they please. They might need a lot of time for their first move even (c.f. Bronstein spent 50 minutes once). Can you see each move in the Kasparov-Topalov game from 1999 with xxx minutes per move thinking time? Change this and ruin the beauty of chess.

2.Expect the game to go the full distance.

3. If you don't wish to sit at the chessboard, turn up your volume to 100% and go cooking in the kitchen. And be thankful you are not playing an OTB match

The probelem with 1/2 your time is if you get down to 5 mins or less. It is common for me, with less than 5 mins left and needing to find a good move, to spend what could easily be 1/2 of my remaining time.

But, does this problem you describe really happen that often? I've played nearly 400 mostly 30/0 games and have never had this happen. I've had people late in the game, where it is certain they will lose, stop moving. But it has only been a few times.

I know it is annoying but you might expend less energy dealing with this rare case than attempting to get chess.com to make changes that would actually, for once, please everyone.

(that last line was not a stab at Chess.com, but rather, a stab at all the people who can only seem to find things wrong on the site.)

In an OTB tournament, one of my opponents thought for 1 hr 20 minutes and then resigned. I didn't care... it was his time to use as he saw fit.

I dont care if someone spends 10 minutes or a day thinking, as long as I know they are still there and we have an ongoing match. Problem is when your opponent have one legal move, you will mate him no matter what and S/he spends 30 minutes "thinking" only to loose on time. 

Guys you are right that it is their time to use as they see fit, and you are right that I signed up for a 30 minute game - that's not the point. I signed up to PLAY a 30 minute game, not to watch a timer tick away for 30 minutes. If I found any entertainment value in that, I wouldn't bother with chess.com, I'd just set a timer on my ipad/phone/cooker/microwave and watch that instead.

And I do have patience. Every time it has happened to me, I have waited it out. I know they employ that tactic in the hopes that you will simply resign and hand them the win but I never do.

I've seen enough complaints about it on here to be satisfied that it is in fact a persistent problem. It could be so easily remedied with a simple shot clock.

I'm not sure it is that common a problem considering how many games are played. Each day, thousands of games are played, but this topic, as common as it may seem, only comes up every couple of weeks or so. And, funny enough, it is usually bullet/blitz players having to wait 2 minutes to finish a game.

Really, be honest now, how many times has it really happened to you? Does it really happen that often? 

It happens alot in the 15/10 matches, but improvmenst were made after they changed how players were matched.

Also remember that the higher your rating the less people who stall the games. Two players with FM tittles have enough respect for the game, a newbe whos loosing his first game is way more likely to just leave the time running. 

kleelof wrote:

dannyp215 wrote:

 I'd just set a timer on my ipad/phone/cooker/microwave and watch that instead.

I've done this before. It is not as much fun as it sounds.

I've seen enough complaints about it on here to be satisfied that it is in fact a persistent problem. It could be so easily remedied with a simple shot clock.

I'm not sure it is that common a problem considering how many games are played. Each day, thousands of games are played, but this topic, as common as it may seem, only comes up every couple of weeks or so. And, funny enough, it is usually bullet/blitz players having to wait 2 minutes to finish a game.

Really, be honest now, how many times has it really happened to you? Does it really happen that often? 

Thrice daily

        I have played over two thousand 30 min. games and abandonment of games and the above running down of the clock have happened to me quite often. Where disconnection has taken place - another vexatious point - the site will now give a set period usually to reconnect. The problem in that case is that you cannot tell if disconnection is deliberate, except where the player involved has a clear history of offending.

Try my suggestion of turning up the volume and going to the kitchen. If they lose on time, you win the game. If the opponent wishes to do this, its their perogative. You could block them from future matches. In a real game at the chess club, the other members would chastise them for their actions, but this is the internet, and people hide behind a screen on a free account to sometimes cause problems. But the mark of a man is not how big his problems are, only how he deals with them.

My point is that no subjective rules are needed for chess, please.  Or it will destroy its beauty. Imagine this rule: "A player is only allowed a maximum of 10 minutes thinking time for one move." Bye bye genius combinations, because the player did not have enough time to calculate his variations.

Or how about allowing arbiters to make a decision on whether a game is won or lost because of "stalling". The game is ONLY between the two players involved, no subjective outsiders.

And perhaps the player's internet has dropped out also. How do you know? We don't. And it does not matter. You still win the game on time.

There is no need to destroy the beauty of the game. It's much easier to do something else if you cannot sit there concentrating while the opponent is to move, and collect your win on time. I hope you understand my point here.

Permitting your clock to time out is a clear violation of the Fair Play Policy, and can result in restriction/suspension/terminatio of one's account.

Try my suggestion of turning up the volume and going to the kitchen. If they lose on time, you win the game. If the opponent wishes to do this, its their perogative. You could block them from future matches. In a real game at the chess club, the other members would chastise them for their actions, but this is the internet, and people hide behind a screen on a free account to sometimes cause problems. But the mark of a man is not how big his problems are, only how he deals with them.

I know, and as the standing is now walking away is the only option. If the player disconects / loose internet a 5 minute timer starts and if the player fails to reconect within the timelimit s/he loses. The other situation is when the player dont disconects but simply let the time run its course. 

I agree with you that limiting the thinking time would be devestating for the game. Imagne going up to Carlsen in the championchip match "sorry sir, you have used your five minutes of thinking tiime, you realy have to do a move now"  :P 

But  I suggest two other aproaches. one being that forced moves should be done by the computer if not  compleated after a few seconds. IE in situations where a player has only one leagal move. 

My second suggestion is a simple popup that appears if no move is made in lets say 5 minutes. You have thirty sekonds or even a minute to press it and if you dont you forfeit. If you truly are sittting there thinking you will have no problem pressing the button, but the duche who left the computer after realizing he was loosing wont.  

Of course a douche is probably sitting there looking at porn or something and would be quite happy to keep clicking the popup just to prove the douche they are.

I've had players who disconnect for 4 mins, connect to move then disconnect for 4 minutes.

I'vs seen people so desperate that they let their clock time down from ten minutes and then move with a minute remaining, in the desperate hope that I'd abandoned the game.

lets say that 90% are stupid enough to sit and keep pressing the button, solving 10% of the problem is better than solving nothing. And for the remaining douches I dont mind waitng if I know they have watch their defeat with me.