I’ve run into this situation a few times in which one player has more time than the other when starting, and the game always is cancelled or ends when the other player doesn’t make a move or I cannot make the opening move. It’s happening in a game I’m playing right now. I set the time for 15 minutes, and my opponent started with 17 minutes. The opponent hasn’t played a single move, and yet below the goban I have the option to move forwards or backwards within the game. When I do that, I have the back to game option. I’ve had this happen when I start as black, and I’ll make a move, but somehow it doesn’t start the game, and inevitably after a minute or two my opponent gets frustrated and concedes. Sometimes this happens and sometimes not, and I don’t understand why. I just cancelled my game but this happens roughly ever third game and it’s quite frustrating.
I don’t fully understand what you mean. When I play 9x9 games (just selecting “Normal” from the autofinder), each player has 5 mins on the clock. However, black will start with something like 7:30. This isn’t their actual game timer, it’s how much time they have to initiate the match before it is automatically cancelled. Once the first move is played both players will have the usual amount of time. I’m not sure if this is what you’re referring to.
When you say it hasn’t started the game, what makes you say that? Is it simply the fact that your opponent does not follow up with a move, or does their timer not start counting down? Or is there some other reason?
Oh, and I should note, I think a lot of people will cancel games with new players on the site. Personally I’ve noticed the overwhelming majority of new players will simply abandon a game when doing poorly rather than playing on or resigning. I almost always cancel games with new players unless they either have some game history where they have lost games and resigned, or if they are willing to chat or say “hi”. I find these players are much less likely to abandon games. But this is just how I decide to cancel games with new players, others may have a personal policy of cancelling games against any new player they encounter, and this could be an issue you are running in to.
The good news is that it is happening often, so we can find out what is it.
Can we have some screenshots please.
Note that black always gets some extra time to arrive at the game before the real clock starts counting.
Could they just be handicap games?