Welcome to the Tournaments Discussion Forum

I signed up quite a while ago but am just now getting into this forum.  It rocks!

I just saw a list of cheaters.  How is it possible to cheat in chess?

There is a problem with knockout tournaments (i.e. groups of 2) that requires a technical fix. Where neither player in the group makes a move, each wins a game on time and apparently both players progress, which seems very unfair. For common sense to prevail, it relies on the tournament director to spot this happening and remove both players, but sometimes this gets missed or the tournament director is no longer active.

An example is Group #9 here:
 http://www.chess.com/tournaments/pairings.html?id=26129&round=3

Please could a staff member comment on this? Thanks.

The TD was the one who set the tournament up to be in groups of 2 before it started.

From experience, groups of 2 where both timeout on 1 each hasn't been that common.

A TD can't remove players while they still have current games.

If this "win 1 each" has only occured once in the three rounds, what makes  you feel something untoward may be happening that would warrant both player removal?

I'm not suggesting that the players pre-arranged it if that's what you meant, far from it. People can fail to show up, particularly in later rounds of tournaments, it happens. Sometimes other things take prority over chess. What I am saying is that if someone fails to show up for a round, there should be no possibility of them returning later in the tournament as it isn't fair on the other players. In this case the TD has rightly removed them, however I think it should be done automatically. You are correct in that it doesn't happen all that frequently, but when it does happen it is a problem.

I agree

hi,expiration date of my diamond membership is at 29 november,,,,,

can i play tournaments online without any payment

When I join a tournament, when it starts will the games automatically show up in my online games?

Yes the tournament games auto appear for you in your current games list.

I think you should let basic members paly as many tournamens as you want like the premium members and the gold members tell me if you agee with me

Thanks.

yeah, I somehow got into two tournoments, (don't take me out of one, I will finish as soon as possible).  But my game list went from like 6 to 60 in 5 minutes

I'm new to Chess.com.  Having a blast so far.  I just started a tournament.  I was wondering if someone could tell me where to find basic rules (e.g. how tie break points are assigned). There was a "help" link on this tournament site, but it only took you to a finished tournament site.

Thanks

If you look on this page http://www.chess.com/tournaments/help.html

look down the bulletted listing, find the question there you want the answer for. All of those are linked so as soon as you click on the question itself the page takes you further down that page to show you the answer.

Is there a forum posting for post-mortem analysis seperate of the Game Analysis forum and if so, where? If not, would it be acceptable to post a forum specifically dedicated to PM analysis of ALL tournament games on the site (open and restricted) on all time controls? Such a posting would be a plus to casual and subscription players in that we could see how the thinking of players at different ratings as well as how the player analyzes his thinking based on faster vs. slower time controls. 

My reason for this is that in the 15/10 tournaments, I find players frequently overlooking simple captures and moves that should be obvious given the fact that the time control allows for more calculation than say 3/0 or 1/0 controls. Oftentimes, i also question whether the indivual might be sandbagging their ratings, but that is a side issue not pertinent to the forum proposed.

Any ideas on this would be appreciated. If anything, I may simply start a new open thread and see where it goes.

To Eric, jay and the rest of the chess.com staff, kudos on the success of the tournaments and thank you for providing an appropriateforum for same.

i`ve been observing set up and i appreciate all efforts the officials of this organization do that help those who have time to learn more on chess.

I'm 'playing' in the semi-slav thematic tournament. It's the first tournament I've been part of and I feel strongly that tournaments are badly broken.

The tournament started on 1 August, 2011. Now, approaching Christmas, one or two games continue to be played in the initial round. A round shouldn't take 4 months to complete. None of the players in the games that are on-going can proceed in the tournament. There has been only a handful of games pending in the tournament for the last month or two.

There is a general apathy and antipathy developing in the tournament against the players who continue to play, and against the tournament in general.

There are a bunch of potential solutions: overall game time limits, limiting number of vacation days a player can take, some sort of good-will ranking system rolled-out across the site, chaninging tournament rules to iteratively determine subsequent groups and allowing rounds to happen simultaneously... there are plenty of solutions. At least some of them should be seriously considered, and something done to fix the current broken state of these big tournaments.

Is it common for a player's rating to jump by over 600 points during the first round in a low rating range tournament?

If it really looks like sandbagging can the TD disqualify him?

In a low rating range, it's very possible. Beginners improve quickly.

A TD has the right to disqualify a player, however that won't affect any ongoing games, it will bar the player from playing in the next round.

DANG!!!

I just lost 11 of my 15 unfinished tournament records.  Chess.com has reprogrammed the record keeping for "My Completed Tournaments".  I lost all the records of tournaments where I had been eliminated, had accumulated tournament points but the tournaments were not yet completed.  Now, I can't keep track of them to see where they are and in what stage of completion they are in.  Any suggestions on how to get or find this information without sifting thru hundreds of pages of stuff?

What are common chess clock times for local club tournaments? 

I just got a clock, but am not sure of a good time setting to practice getting used to.

I just tried to create my first tournament but don't see it in the list of upcoming tournaments. Is there a time gap before tournaments appear? If so, how long?