There are a lot of players who when losing, would just close the browser instead of resigning from the game.
I don't think these are disconnections- they simply get angry and want to have the other player waste some minutes for their victory.
See in example the game below: he was down 7 points and left the game after 45 seconds. I then wasted 2 minutes waiting for his time to expire.
We already have a CLAIM VICTORY feature, so maybe the "CLAIM VICTORY" could be made more "aggressive"? That is, if only 10% or 25% of the player time is passed, and the player is down eg. 3 or 5 points (counting material only; no need to run Stockfish) or more and he "disconnects", then the other player can claim victory immediately?
Strange, your opponent's profile reads:
"Game completion rate: 100%"
I'm confused how they didn't get marked for sitting... EDIT: I was reading the wrong player's profile.
I was about to suggest that an opponent who has never before disconnected should get the full duration to reconnect but for other opponents it should appear sooner.
Well, I was the black player- my completion rate is 100%. The other guy's completion rate is 70%!
How can I see if a guy is marked for sitting?
Yep, I can have a dozen such deppressed leavers a day. Suddenly the opponent has connection issues when they are losing. Disconnection when opponent is not losing happens maybe once a week. I would happily volunteer in assessing leavers' game position and judging if they disconnected just because they felt too bad.
Block them. Let them play alone.
I didn't know you can block players- but anyway, that isn't a perfect solution. Maybe I never saw the guy, or maybe I'd like to play again with him. And anyway, they will play (and behave the same) with other players.
Changing the "Claim Victory" policy is a way to encourage a fairer behaviour to all players-
If they know in case of a losing position the other player can claim victory quicker, then they won't bother doing the closing trick- they would resign instead.
Also, when the guy is closing the window (if he is indeed closing the window); a popup could be shown, proposing to resign.
Another thing to check is, if the guy immediately starts another game, just after closing the first game, which is left hanging (you can do that). And flag that behaviour.
Probably "Claim Victory" should be available earlier against opponents who have a history of disconnecting.
#7 Do like this idea. Maybe some criteria so people with loose connections don't get further harmed.
Quick question: After the warning was implement, should we still report people who do an obviously intentional leave? I'm asking also because the reports would make perfect criteria.
#7 I don't know if you can look at the disconnection history alone-- You want to protect people with a flaky connection. I am actually OK to wait for an opponent who has a genuine connection problem (more so if he is actually winning!).
So you can't simply look at the disconnection rate (over the last N games) or the disconnection count- a guy can have a terrible line but still be a fair player.
You should find out if these disconnections are not "random". That is, if there is any relation between the disconnections and the actual state of the game (winning/losing).
Ot, some other ideas: there could be an instant ban for players who propose a rematch and abort the game when both players are online, and a 5 min ban from seek for players who abort any game when both players are online.
