Bug: Won by timeout even though my opponent did play their move

Hello,

I recently played a 10s/move lightning game.

My opponent played their move, then I won by timeout.

It seems to me that if they did manage to play their move, they shouldn’t have timed out? We were playing with Japanese byo-yomi, one period of 10s per move.

Link to game: freshgo vs. ArsenLapin1

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It looks like they took 10.1s to play that last move so the result isn’t necessarily wrong but it’s kind of odd to show the move if it came too late. :person_shrugging:

I guess the same thing could happen IRL if you play and then don’t tap the clock fast enough but unfortunately my IRL experiences don’t include a lot of IRL clock play so I’ve never experienced that hypothetical situation.

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Actually it did happen to me once, in a tournament with Canadian byo-yomi and a mechanical clock.

I played my last byo-yomi stone, then hit the clock. The flag dropped just when I hit the clock.

There was a bit of an awkward moment. I could see that my opponent really wanted to tell me I had lost, but felt guilty about it and wasn’t saying it. So I said, don’t take it on yourself, we’ll call the referee and the referee will confirm that I lost.

I thought the referee would tell me that I lost, thus preventing my opponent from feeling guilty about it. But no. The referee told us “It’s up to [my opponent] to decide whether they want to continue playing, or whether [I] lost the game on time.” I thought that was a pretty weird way to handle the matter. My opponent decided that I had lost, then avoided me for the remainder of the tournament. I think the situation would have been less awkward if the referee had taken the decision themselves.

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I agree, but unless it was an important tournament in my opinion what the referee did was not wrong. Your opponent could have felt very guilty for winning in this way. I think it’s fair to let him decide.
For example if I was your opponent I would not have liked to win in that way and I’m sure I wouldn’t be the only one. Sometimes it surprises me how attached people in general (and sometimes me too, unfortunately) are to winning.

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Yes, but the situation was this: my opponent wanted me to lose on time, but felt guilty about it. That is why we actively seeked out the referee.

If my opponent had told me outright “you have lost” then we wouldn’t have called the referee. If they had told me outright “Let’s continue the game” then we wouldn’t have gone to the referee either. It’s because they were feeling conflicted that we went to the referee.

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