Vacations and Tournaments Don't Mix.

Why should anyone have the ability to go on vacation while the rest of us participants have to wait for "Slow Joe It's All About Me" to come back when he feels like it? I'm in a 1 day per move tournament now where one guy among many decided to take a vacation and the notice said he has ONE MONTH and 11 DAYS to move but may return sooner. What the hell?? I have played chess for years and played in hundreds of tournaments which always ran on a fixed schedule. I have never seen anything like this before. Do you know what happens if somebody suddenly finds the tournament schedule inconvenient and cannot play a round? They either forfeit or they have to withdraw. They don't prolong the tournament to accomodate individuals who decide to go on vacation. That's nuts! Chess.com needs to lose this feature fast!

Sometimes things unexpectedly pop up, life is random, and the person must take leave for a while. You should just stop worrying about vacationers and spend your time playing other games until he/she returns.

In a chess tournament when things "unexpectedly pop up" and you cannot play, guess what? You don't play then. That's life. Extending a chess tournament and making other players wait longer than the schedule we signed up for is silly. Vacations do not belong in chess tournaments.

so what? what difference does it make? do you have money riding on the tournament? (i didnt think so), who cares if it goes a little longer, the rules ur talking about are designed to prevent people from sitting chess clubs for hours with no one to play, online chess is verry diffenent, you can move on to other games and other things

Hi,

I must admit that whilst i do not feel quite as strongly as gbidari about this, I do share his views. If you commit to a tournament you should play within the time controls. If not, you should withdraw or not enter or simply lose your games on time.

I am currently in a tournament with a player on vacation and  it is holding everybody up. Like one bad driver can hold up a whole city (trust me, i live in Dubai!)

Perhaps if you were to become a paying member of chess.com and be able to play in more than one tournament at a time, that would ease your frustration?  That way you could join other tournaments while you waited for this person to come back from vacation...

Internet or live, the principle is the same. This is a tournament with many players involved. Apparently you have no problem with one person being able to hold up many people on a whim. I do. I haven't seen this used anywhere else(and for good reason.) It's stupid.

insead of complaining here, send a polite message to eric (or other staff member) explaining why you think it should be changed

Actually, the more I think of it the more I agree with the opening poster.

I would never use vacation time, i would prefer to lose on time. I am a man of honour, I believe.

Oh, the irony.

Actually, both the USCF and the ICCF allows for up to 30 days of excused time per calendar year in correspondence games. From the USCF's CC rules:

"You may take up to 30 days of excused time a calendar
year. Additional emergency time may be granted at the discretion
of the CCD.You must take excused time for all games in a
section. To take excused time, simply notify your opponents
and the CCD in advance. If you send a move, your excused
time ends immediately. If your opponent takes excused time,
you should respond to unanswered moves normally because
your reflection time is still counted."

I am also playing in a 1 day/move tournament, when I had to use some vacation time over the weekend due to an emergency. Correspondence chess events take months, even years, to complete. It is almost inevitable that during this time, something may come up that would prevent one from having access to a computer for an extended period. Correspondence events simply cannot be run on as rigid a schedule as live/OTB tournaments.

maybe chess.com could add a new feature, when designing a tournament the TD could have a choice to say weather the players allow to have  vacation or not ?

 Or a maximum allowable time.  I do agree that there should be some vacation (or emergency) time....just have a limit on the amount you can take. 

I think that most of the time, vacation time is used in a reasonable way.  However, it would be nice if some players would occasionally examine whether or not their vacation time is interrupting the flow of a tournament, especially when it's being used on a day-to-day basis to increase the days-per-move of the game, instead of a continuous vacation.

This was much the case in a tournament I recently observed.  The one remaining game that kept the tournament from advancing into the 2nd round lasted for months, due to both players timing out and auto-using vacation time.  The game was in a decisive position, in which one player had an overwhelming material advantage, for at least a month of play.  Furthermore, even if the losing player could have miraculously won, the winning player would still advance, and the losing player would not.  In summary, the one game keeping the tournament from advancing was already decisive beyond doubt, yet totally irrelevant to the final standings of the tournament, and still continued for months.

While you can't expect vacations to be entirely banned from tournaments (a 3-day/move tournament should take months even without vacation time), a little empathy from other members could likely alleviate the frustration that some have with tournament-affecting vacation time usage.

How absurd an argument.  You suggest that you should not have to work your schedule around this player when that is precisely what you insist he do for you.  This statement might lead you to suggest that this individual is inconveniencing not only you, but rather every participant of said tournament; however, I don't see these individuals posting outrageous posts suggesting that the rules of chess.com be altered on their behalf, and backing those suggestions up with the argument that "that's stupid." A majority of players obviously remain unaffected by this rule, and overlook the "inconvenience" of it, so that they can enjoy it's convenience when they need it.  I found it hilarious that "lorenjamison" found a direct contradiction in your argument.

So now that your post stands their naked and without cover, perhaps you might have the dignity to rephrase your statement. This however, I doubt.

More simply,

Do these players on vacation alter the outcome of the tournament?

Do these players stop you from enjoying other games?

Do these players stop you from paying the very small membership fee, and enjoying other tournaments?

I believe those that complain on a regular basis about these players, are the same that complain that the sun is too bright on a sunny day, and that it's too wet on a rainy one.

 Well put.

Vacations are  really anoying after  the 1st one  comes back  from  vacation  a second one goes . Almost  6 wks of vacation  maybe is to much .

I agree vacations should not be so long, But, i would hate to lose some good games on time because of some un-foreseen family crisis.

By the response here, I can see I am not alone in my disapproval of the vacancy option for tournaments. I also see there are some that love the idea of throwing agreed upon time schedules out the window and having a tournament drag on indefinitely all with the click of one selfish person's click of the mouse (most likely government workers.) Therefore, a compromise is in order and one should be able to choose to play in a tournament fom hell (vacation option) or you can play in a normal, rational, healthy and free from b.s. environment (no vacation option.) These should be offered when setting up tournament conditions. Thank you.