Swiss Classical Tournaments: Please make absent users lose rating or shorten forfeit period

Shortening the forfeit time is a double-edged sword, especially considering the above. Also, the next round wouldn't start any earlier, while in Arenas you would get the next game usually pretty soon.

Rating doesn't work as a punishment - I tend to agree. And it is consistent with how it is handled OTB. As it does count in Arena (and as such happens quite frequently), it doesn't seem to be a problem for the system - and I don't see a point why the "worse offense" doesn't get it. I guess it is because it's easier to time out by accident as written above, but that's pure speculation on my part.

One problem with Swiss is that you usually do not know when the next round starts, so it is quite easy to miss. I consider myself quite a diligent player, but it has happened to me as well. You have an early win or a bye... you just don't know if you have 5 minutes or an hour to kill. Shortening the forfeit time is a double-edged sword, especially considering the above. Also, the next round wouldn't start any earlier, while in Arenas you would get the next game usually pretty soon. Rating doesn't work as a punishment - I tend to agree. And it is consistent with how it is handled OTB. As it does count in Arena (and as such happens quite frequently), it doesn't seem to be a problem for the system - and I don't see a point why the "worse offense" doesn't get it. I guess it is because it's easier to time out by accident as written above, but that's pure speculation on my part.

borninthesixties

#12

@nadjarostowa said in #11:

One problem with Swiss is that you usually do not know when the next round starts, so it is quite easy to miss. I consider myself quite a diligent player, but it has happened to me as well. You have an early win or a bye... you just don't know if you have 5 minutes or an hour to kill.

I've done that also, once or twice. But if you regularly participate in these events, what you notice is that a LOT of the afk type games occur right in the first round. I think a big part of the problem is that players can sign up for these tournaments hours or even days in advance - then they forget and a first round opponent is left sitting at the computer wasting their time.

Couple of easy fixes - (1) reduce the amount of time in advance that players can sign up. I believe it is 1 hour on chess.com (plus missed games there are counted as losses, and in my experience the problem is much less common there), and (2) check if players are not on line right before pairing and don't pair anyone who is absent. That would not eliminate all the missed games, but would make a sizeable dent and markedly improve swiss tournaments. Every round should be checked and any players who've left but not withdrawn should not be paired.

@nadjarostowa said in #11: > One problem with Swiss is that you usually do not know when the next round starts, so it is quite easy to miss. I consider myself quite a diligent player, but it has happened to me as well. You have an early win or a bye... you just don't know if you have 5 minutes or an hour to kill. I've done that also, once or twice. But if you regularly participate in these events, what you notice is that a LOT of the afk type games occur right in the first round. I think a big part of the problem is that players can sign up for these tournaments hours or even days in advance - then they forget and a first round opponent is left sitting at the computer wasting their time. Couple of easy fixes - (1) reduce the amount of time in advance that players can sign up. I believe it is 1 hour on chess.com (plus missed games there are counted as losses, and in my experience the problem is much less common there), and (2) check if players are not on line right before pairing and don't pair anyone who is absent. That would not eliminate all the missed games, but would make a sizeable dent and markedly improve swiss tournaments. Every round should be checked and any players who've left but not withdrawn should not be paired.

nadjarostowa

#13

Those are reasonable suggestions. The early signups wouldn't matter much if they still need to be online when the game starts.

Another way of handling things would be to request to actively click some "pair me next round" button that is available between rounds, and some time before the first round (5 minutes or so)).

Those are reasonable suggestions. The early signups wouldn't matter much if they still need to be online when the game starts. Another way of handling things would be to request to actively click some "pair me next round" button that is available between rounds, and some time before the first round (5 minutes or so)).

mkubecek

edited

#14

@nadjarostowa said in #11:

One problem with Swiss is that you usually do not know when the next round starts, so it is quite easy to miss.

Lichess also supports swiss tournaments with fixed schedule, certainly one round per day and one round per week (not sure if there are other frequencies). But those have their own drawbacks, of course. Their organizers usually recommend to pause yourself ("leave") after each round and only unpause ("join") shortly before next round when you are ready to play but unfortunately there is no way to enforce it.

@borninthesixties said in #12:

(1) reduce the amount of time in advance that players can sign up.

Some organizers emulate this by creating the tournament as restricted and only changing it to open an hour or two before the start of first round. A support for automating it would be helpful for sure.

@nadjarostowa said in #11: > One problem with Swiss is that you usually do not know when the next round starts, so it is quite easy to miss. Lichess also supports swiss tournaments with fixed schedule, certainly one round per day and one round per week (not sure if there are other frequencies). But those have their own drawbacks, of course. Their organizers usually recommend to pause yourself ("leave") after each round and only unpause ("join") shortly before next round when you are ready to play but unfortunately there is no way to enforce it. @borninthesixties said in #12: > (1) reduce the amount of time in advance that players can sign up. Some organizers emulate this by creating the tournament as restricted and only changing it to open an hour or two before the start of first round. A support for automating it would be helpful for sure.