Fair Play Policy?

Hey,

I just signed up and have played a few games, but all of a sudden I get an error message saying I have to wait 5 minutes, saying I didn't follow the Fair Play Policy. But I HAVEN'T stalled, abandoned, or aborted a single game. 

I wait 5 minutes play a game, then rematch, and it says the same thing again.

I may have to go to a different chess site...

Edit: I may have aborted a some games before I realized how to set the rating limit but that was because I was playing really low rated players... regardless of that, I think you should be able to abort ANY game... this is quite ridiculous actually

We are sorry you've encountered difficulties so soon. We as a community have had an extensive debate and discussion on the merits and faults of aborting games. I encourage you to research those discussions, as they will shed more light on the reasons why aborting is limited in Live Chess.

To overcome this inconvenience, all you have to do is play more games "fairly," as described in the Fair Play Policy.

Nevertheless, thanks for joining Chess.com! If you are willing to ride out this matter, I think you'll find this to be the best chess site on the web.

Perhaps that's a harsh assessment.  The staff don't want to get rid of players who abort many games; to the contrary, they want them to stay and play more fairly.

you are not alone man, it happened to me as well and even recieved rude remarks from the staff, i now play at a different site and just visit here for updates on tournaments and read some news... try chessfriends.com

in my case, i always get disconnected while  in the middle of the game, and they said rude things about the kind of connection i have, well it does not happen on the other chess site im playing right now... anyways all's well that ends well

I aborted two games today because of the lack of response from my opponents. I had two open seeks accepted on Saturday, I proceeded with my opening move, and then nothing. My opponents were both online, and neither one of them attempted to make a move, so I aborted the games today. Hope I don't have any problems.

@SafariQueen: If these games were in Live Chess, then you don't need to abort the games. After a sufficiently long pause (of several seconds, so not very long), the server will abort the game for you. This is more desirable for you.

If the server aborts the game, the abortion will be charged to your unresponsive opponent. But if you abort the game as described, it will be charged to you. Since you're the one trying to play fairly, you shouldn't have to do this. Next time, just wait a while longer. Otherwise, you may be punished by the policy for aborting too many times.

I'm put on the fair play list because obviously I don't feel like waiting 15-30 seconds for people to make a move on every single game.  So now I try and play the other person disconnects and I have to wait a whole new  5 minutes.  Does chess.com want me here?  Do they expect me to wait 30minutes between games?  I've played here a while and now i'm on the edge of going back to instantchess.com or friendschess or somewhere else that doesn't penalize me for having a faster computer than 90 percent of the people who I try and play against.

You're not being penalized at all. If your opponent does not move within 20 seconds of your move, the servers aborts the game for you. If you can't wait 20 seconds for your opponent to make a move, chess is not for you.

Ive never experienced 20 secs. Whether it is the start of the game or during. Its always 2 to 3 mins before the server aborts.

Why would someone be opposed to waiting 15 to 30 seconds before an opponent's first move (and only the first move)? It's only 15 to 30 seconds! This is not an unreasonable amount of time. I would think that someone would welcome the brief break between the flurry of moves in multiple successive games being played. Such a very short amount of time is the perfect chance to catch one's breath.

We all seem to have different facts and figures on this issue. im going on other posts i have read as well. I agree with IMDeviate, take points away. have a sliding scale where the higher the frequency of aborts the more points you lose. Start off with a resonable amount, the same amount as if you lost to that opponent. Become a serial aborter and lose heaps. I dont see the big deal anyway. Someone aborts the next game is about  a few seconds away.

During the game you have no right to expect an abort; if an opponent has 15 minutes on their clock, they are perfectly entitled to use 14 of them on their next move.

Before the game, I have never had to wait longer than 30 seconds for the server to abort my opponent since the Fair Play policy was implemented.

@hijak: I disagree that this a viable solution. Losing rating points under any circumstance is not a punishment. It's simply a consequence of losing a game, or drawing a game against a lower-rated opponent. Your proposed idea would affect one's rating so that it would no longer represent his actual chess-playing ability.

I am currently rated about 1550 in Live Chess. If I were a serial aborter, then under your suggestion I would lose, say, 100 points, dropping my rating to 1450. But 1450 would not represent how I play chess. I am a 1550-player, not a 1450-player.

Now, if I lose eight games in a row and my rating drops to 1450, then I am not being punished for losing those games. My rating is simply being adjusted to calculate how well I play; nothing more. Rating points are not money or prizes. A rating is merely a measurement. Hence, the premise of the suggestion is faulty.

You end by defeating your own argument. You say that serially aborting is "[no] big deal anyway." If this is no big deal, then why propose a punishment at all?

I see your point as far as maybe then a high rated aborter would then have low rated sheild to dupe people into thinking they were not as good as they actually were. Rating points are a prize in some peoples heads. Quite a big prize. I would suggest that people who are serial aborters and deliberate disconnectors have a skewed image of the essence of the game, and would say ( without any pysch evidence to back it up) but just on my own experience with these type of people over many sites and years, the things that they say on discussion before copping out would be that they are exactly the type of people that would hold ratings dear to them. Just a suggestion.  Personally if someone cops out of a game I dont get angry or frustrated as I seem to get points and move on quickly to another game. The thing that I would like to know is why does everyone have the experience of 15 to 30 sec server aborts and Im waiting at least 2 -3 mins. Even when my connection is bugging out i can still see the opponents clock ticking down this amount of time. Every single time. My situation is Im new to the site and in the last 2 weeks ive experienced about 6 times being disconected out of my control or had to abort matches that contradicted my seeks for online. How many times will this go on over the next 3 mths before im considered unfair?

Sensfan33 I only saw your post after i wrote the last one. Maybe im getting abort mixed up with disconnection. All i know is whenever the server aborts the game for me for whatever reason the average wait is 2-3 mins. Like i said doesnt bother me. Just new and curious.

When I first came here,I honestly wasn't aware of aborting games being a no no, (honestly I didn't read the rules completely, I didn't think they would require more than common sense)as long as the game hadn't been started yet. I found this out too, after aborting several games in a row because I kept getting paired with someone I didn't want to play ( rating too high or low) and/or I kept being forced to play with black. I was wanting to try something particular with white.

Now I know it is frowned upon. I also now know, you should select a rating range and color preference to help avoid this. My initial impression was this seemed unfair to force people to play random opponents, that didn't end up suiting the fancy of the player. I thought about it more and realized it is better for the rating system here for having people play various levels of opponent with both colors equally. If some people only played with one color all of the time. The assessment of their rating will be askewed a bit. So I agree with them having an abort button, but for us to use it judiciously.

I also am very happy they have a feature to find me a game, instead of me having to. I don't want to bog it down either. It would make for unsatisfactory conditions for others. I wanted to personally apologize to anyone who was offended by me unwittingly aborting a game against them.

Before the game starts? You're dead wrong.

We are not dead wrong as that is what we experience. You may experience whatever time that you do, however before an opponent has even made a move, before even I have made a move,  or any other combination that I have experienced and the game gets aborted, it is 100 percent of the time, in the 3 wks Ive been a member, at least 2 mins. Why would we bother making this up? Do you think that we are incapable of measuring the time that is passing? Is IMDeviate and myself experiencing some sort of time warp anomaly that affects only the 2 of us even though we live opposite sides of the world? Maybe we are colluding to manifest the worlds greatest internet chess time conspiracy? I just dont understand that  "Your dead wrong" is the first thing that comes to mind for you to say.

Because the server doesn't pick names out of a hat. There are clear rules about how long it takes for the server to auto-abort. It works perfectly as written for me, and for other people I have personally witnessed. I see no reason that it shouldn't work for everyone.