vacation abuse...

I was two moves from checkmating an opponent in a daily game.  He went almost 24 hours without moving... and the time left changed to '3 months vacation remaining.'

A day or two after I posted this my opponent made a move, which put him one move from checkmate. He then waited another 23 hours and some minutes, before going back on vacation. It's hardly ruining my life, but it is a little annoying....

I've seen this happen many times and have reported Vacation Abuse many times. Also have seen players quit the site by going on vacation for weeks and then just losing on time.

I have been asking for a "No Vacation" option when setting up daily games but to no avail. There is a "No Vacation" option when setting up tournaments so it's obviously an option that could be added to daily games.

Three months later, in this particular case. Like I said, it isn't going to ruin my life. But it's definitely a little childish of them....

I agree with you. It's simply poor sportsmanship and infantile behavior.

I bet someone won at the lotery that day in Hiroshima. Best day of their life.

All the tournaments I create are no vacation.

Yes, all I have set up are no vacation too.

The members really appreciate that.

Vacation abuse like this is why I no longer join any tournaments that accept vacation time. I simply filter out all those tournaments!

I recently has to play out a game in which I had 3 connected pawn against his lone king. Yes in would take me maybe 20 moves to promote and then mate his king, but no one could stop this. Conditional moves sent when he had only one move went unanswered in favor of the 23 hours he made me wait. The only possible play he had was stalemate (but my rating in the 99% bracket should have shown him that was not going to happen), or computer issues on my end (think about it, do you really want to win a game that way?).

Is there a way to check the date of the last move in a game where someone has been on vacation for over a month. They show starting membership as 3-12-24. and they have already been out for almost 2 months (I think). If you start with 7 days and get 5 days a month that would be 32 hours total. They started with 45 and have been picking up 5 a month I think. I am a fairly new member so I may be missing something. But I agree that if you can't make one move a day for a week then why not time out. If you are having a life disaster what better than chess to keep your mind off of it?

Ok, I guess it's time to stop thinking mean thoughts about my opponent - he came back and finished the game. And I was wrong; it took me three more moves.

Well. Now my opponent,who started with 13 more vacation days than allowed according to his start date, has gone almost two months without losing on time. They have had their regular premium vacaction time added. They expired once and suddenly had 3 days added. They just expired again and had 16 hours added. What the Heck!! The Vacation policy seems like it needs reform but this looks straight up unethical to me. I saw

Sorry. Continuing the story....

It makes me feel that Chess.com is involved in this abuse? How can a player keep adding time without assistance from the system? I know it is only a game but no one who is enjoying a hobby wants to feel like the game is being rigged. I feel like I am getting Kramniked.

So finally, after the last 16 hrs I got the win. The last 16 didn't show as Vacation and I got the points right away??? That was nice. I vote for a NO VACATION button just like the other buttons on game selection. If it is just a game, then be willing to win or lose. No shame if an unforseen event makes you lose a few points.