Using the Vacation facility to irritate opponents !!

There are quite a few users on here who use the Vacation facility purely to irritate their opponent,  has this happened to anyone else?   I have been playing a user called "shankarbabu"   who has only been a member for 24 hours.  He has waited until I am just about to convert a pawn to a queen during the end game and he has gone on vacation.  It is so infuriating, not to mention bad sportsmanship.  People should not be able to go on vacation right at the end of a game especially when they are losing. As if that wasn't bad enough he has been constantly demanding a draw when I want to complete the game. I have been nothing but polite to this user and he responds with this.

I may have to resort to using Microsoft online chess if something isn't done about this.

 is that true?? you only get one draw offer per game?? i am not sure...

Yeah, that is not right. It is really up to the opinion of the tournament director and your opponent. If you are offering a draw after every move then your opponent can call the tournament director over and the tournanebt director can ask you to stop offering repeated draw offers.

However, if you offer a draw to your opponent after repeating the position twice by move 21 and then you do into an equal endgame at move 65 and offer a draw that should be ok.

by erik
Menlo Park, CA United States

tonightonly7 wrote: In OTB games, you can only offer a draw once. If that is not the case here, I think it should be.

 is that true?? you only get one draw offer per game?? i am sure.....

I have not had this happen but it sounds rediculous.  I understand that Eric has a life outside of chess.com and that he cant constantly be monitering these incosiderate poor sports and that is the precise reason there should be low tolerance for it.  These people should understand that being on here is not their right and that even small things like this could get them thrown off.  I have played at two other sites Gameknot and theimmortalgame.com.  Both of these sites are constantly kicking people off and it seems to work.  I feel that I am playing a fair game and that I wont have to deal with any BS at these sites.  Thats not to say that I dont feel that way here.  But I just feel that if someone reports something like this and Eric or another moderator investigates and its true, the person should be kicked off.  Its no lose to all of us.

This is simply not true. How much otb chess have you played? You can be punsihed in otb chess for repeated draw offers but this is up to the TD/arbiter and often requires a complaint from one of the players.

"Or you would "request" vacation, and if the other player was not willing to give it, or if an admin. saw that you were in a lost position, it could be denied."

I don't know why this requesting vacation bit is brought up in every vacation thread. Frankly, it's a really bad idea. If I'm playing a handful of games, I'm bound to be worse off in at least one of them when my vacation comes around. Under this solution, I'm forced to resign that game? (If I can't go on vacation, then my time will expire in all my games.) 

"What if players had to give 24 hours of notice before taking vacation? I think this would be a bit more sporting."

I agree that it's more sporting and considerate to the opponent to give advance notice of vacation (it also reduces the chance they think you're avoiding the game, rather than taking a genuine vacation). However, making it a requirement is too restrictive. Sometimes there are spur of the moment "vacations" like a weekend trip, or what if you get hurt and have to go to the hospital. If you play games with a 24 hour time limit, you'd lose games unfairly.

"How about an option to have games arbitrated (sp?) by an admin if someone goes on vacation in a theoretically lost position?"

I like this idea but it may be hindered by a lack of volunteers willing to arbitrate games. That could be a very time consuming process if every time someone goes on vacation the staff gets a dozen games dropped on them to arbitrate (realistically, people will ask anything to be arbitrated, not just the clear wins). Unfortunately, you probably can't arbitrate anything other than forced mates.

Every time I see a topic like this, I know EXACTLY what is gonna be said, and every time it irritates the @#$@ out of me. I really wish I would stop reading it.

smack smack smack (King_William trying to beat himself senseless with a cricket bat)  

the sportsmanship idea is an excellent one.  I read about this before.  Eric said that rating someone negatively would affect the rater's rating a little bit.  there was some controversy on this but I think thats a good idea.  If we cant trust people to finish a game they are going to lose, we cant trust them to rate someone fairly after they lose. 

As far as the emergency thing goes if there is really some sort of serious emergency that involves more than 24 hours of time, I dont think losing a chess game is a very big deal to that person.  I know if I had to go take care of someone I wouldnt care if I lost a chess game on this site.

"if there is really some sort of serious emergency that involves more than 24 hours of time, I dont think losing a chess game is a very big deal to that person.  I know if I had to go take care of someone I wouldnt care if I lost a chess game on this site."

You are considering the wrong decision maker. Certainly, if the rule was 24 hour notice and I had to take care of a family emergency I would choose to lose the chess games and take care of my family. That's not the decision in question. The decision is question is whether the chess.com admin staff should put you in that position to begin with.