"Abandoned" Games

I was playing a 30 minute game and there was an internet interruption that was not my fault. It lasted only a few minutes. When it was over and I was returned to my game, a message said that I had "Abandoned" my game and as a result I lost it. I did not abandon the game and why am I being punished because Verizon $uck$?

I agree that this is an issue. While a 1 min (is this the cutting off point?) disconnection might be an issue in a 3 or perhaps even a 5 min game, it is not so much so in a 10+ minute game where any particular move might call for about a minute or more of thought.

I think a sliding scale would serve better for different length games, a long game should not be cut off by chess.com because of a ISP (unintentional disconnection) issue that both players might be willing to play through. 2-3 minutes in a 30 minute game (especially with a move increment) might be well within an acceptable range for continuing a game for both players in my view.

I very much agree.  It is actually 2 Minutes before the game is considered abandoned.  Everyday when my internet provider calculates my daily usage my connection severs and I must restart my computer.  I can usually get back on in about 2 min 20 seconds but still I get the loss due to abandonment.  My philosophy is that if you commit to 15 minute game, whether your opponent makes a move or not, and annoying as it is you commit to that time frame.  I think the abandonment rule needs a change as their are abundance of complaints..  I know their is alot of immature sorts that just disconnect when they get beat or lose a queen rathen then resign so while useful the abandon feature seems to be punishing a lot of people.  in live tournaments since my connection is weak everytime a game finishes in the tournament I get a 10-20 second interuption so if it is a large tournament that is significant handycap in a 10 min tourney.  I have had to stop playing live because because of all the glitches..  I wish they could do something maybe make it optional to play games where abandonment counts as a loss.  Add it to the seek feature maybe?

Is it two minutes for all timed games, I recall 5 and 10 minute games where it seemed that the game was considered "abandoned" before two minutes had passed.

I agree that those who regularly quit games should be punished for this, and that the actual rules (how long before a game is considered abandoned, what is done to those who regularly abandon/quit games, etc.) should be clearly posted and enforced if they are not already.

It seems to me that in a 30 min game a person could take a considerable time to figure out his move. If I take 10 minutes to work out a plan, will my game be considered abandoned? In a live tournament if you walk out of the room and your clock is running the game is not considered over until your time runs out completely. There are alternatives to this site, FICS for example, I may just start playing there. But I did send chess.com what for me is a lot of money $99 and I want to get my money's worth.

Frank, agree.

Hi guys,

I did want to just clarify quickly.  When someone disconnects from the game, they have one minute to reconnect before the game is automatically decided as abandoned. This was fairly recently changed after feedback we were getting from members. 

That being said, I'll forward your suggestions and criticisms onto our team for review. We appreciate the feedback.

60 seconds is not much time to restart your computer in case of a server disconnection.  I feel if you commit to a game then you should be prepared to be there for the time presets of the game.  Maybe 3 or 5 minutes to qualify as abandonment if you must have the feature.  I can't imagine how the staff was pressured into a 1 minute and done scenario..  

There is a setting in online chess where you can auto give more time if your opponent runs out of time.  In live could you have a setting option to allow for people to play in the case of disconnection,,; a "win by abandonment" ticket box.   maybe all us with less then perfect connections can wind up playing together ;)

I have felt the frustration on both sides of this:

- I have been disconnect and "lost" my game (this is worst in a live tournament when you accidentally close chess.com whilst browsing in between games).

- I have had people waste the clock down because they are immature chess trolls who refuse to resign a lost game or move a piece

The unfortunate thing is that if you fix one of these problems, it seems to make the other worse. So does anyone have a real solution to this? I'm sure that the staff would listen as Seraphimity pointed out, there are an abundance of complaints about this issue here.

It seems to me that the "troll" issue (defined above as quitting lost games instead of resigning) could be dealt with by sending games like this to computer analysis. For example, if person A reaches a lost postion against person B and "disconnects", there should be a simple way (a button would be nice) to report person A for bad behavior, and have this person warned, banned, or temp-banned if it is shown that they are abandoning lost games instead of resigning them on a regular or semi-regular basis.

It shouldn't take too much time for a decent computer program to figure out if a game is lost, especially for the lower-rated games in which this is more of an issue.

Combined with the situation where one person swears at or trash talks another player (using spacing or mispellings to get around any filters), I think a "report bad behavor box with check-boxes for each of these issues would be a good addition. I contend that such behavior is detrimental to chess.com and its well-behaving members overall, and that having this dealt with would be an worthwhile improvement.

Amen.

Amen to you too brother...

Re. how to structure things such as this (abandoned games, dealing with trolls, etc.), I'm thinking a poll of members would be a good idea, might make things clearer than a combination of the (much smaller number of) admin plus complaints.

Re. ideas (via jac1yn), I would definately suggest different criteria for considering games as abandoned for different lenths of games, a 1 minute standard for a 10+ minute game may be much too short, and could hurt both players if they are looking to play through a higher-quality game and are thinking more deeply (including on their oppontent's moves). Again, I think a poll would be a good way of determining appropriate guidelines.