I have had a number of opponents lose games that have a blitz timer, and then whine about how stupid the timer was and how it is my fault for choosing such a stupid timer. I have lost my fair share of blitz games by timeout, and I think it just comes with the territory.
My first instinct is to say “You accepted the terms of the game ” but I try to resist that urge. Even when I try to share why I like playing blitz games, some get mad and continue to tell me how ridiculous blitz games are.
I really enjoy playing blitz games. They test my instinct and help me to see which parts of the game are becoming natural, and which skills are lacking. That said, I still play more correspondence and live games than I do blitz games, so it is by no means the only type of game I play.
Have other people had similar experience with people getting upset after losing on a timeout? How do you usually deal with it? I am wondering if I should state at the very beginning, “This is a blitz game. Are you okay with that?”
I have also wondered if people are getting so upset because a blitz game has the same negative effect on rating that a correspondence game would. Maybe this seems unfair to people who are really worried about their rating who lose a game simply because they did not pay close enough attention to the clock. Would it make sense to make blitz games worth less in terms of rating calculation?
(If there is a better tag for this post let me know. I put it here because I am interested more in how people deal with this situation than I am in suggesting a change to the website.)
I don’t see any issues here, neither from your part nor from the site’s part. Just as you said, if someone accepts the game terms, there’s no valid complaint. Maybe adding Blitz to the game name can avoid someone accepting the game without knowing it’s going to be a fast game, but that’s the only thing, and it’s not even an obligation, just an advice. If someone gets mad, just keep cool and let it go. He/She will think twice the next time to accept a game.
I’ll second what @mlopezviedma stated… they only have themselves to blame. We’ve considered in the future having a pop up warning before starting the game to make sure they agree with the time controls.
As an aside, I’m very much enjoying the correspondence game we are playing at the moment, cheers.
On the Free Internet Chess Server, games are grouped into threes “divisions” based on time. There is a separate rating for each division. However, the slowest they go is still Live by our standards.
Mostly, I think folks get too caught up with the rating.
I completely agree. About one-third of all the blitz games I have played have ended in me timing out. I just laugh about it and move on. Over the course of a week my rating will average out to be a reasonable reflection of my strength, and it will help to pair me with similar players. I guess some people are more focused on gaining a high rank than they are on actually becoming a better player.
I agree. However, I think a more favorable outcome would be for the person to realize from the beginning that they don’t want to play the game on those terms and step out. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth when my opponent walks away mad, even if it is not my fault. I am perfectly okay with people accepting my challenge and then saying “Oops. Didn’t realize it was a blitz game,” and cancelling the game.
As I mentioned, I’m not saying that there is a problem with the current system. I am just looking for suggestions to prevent having people getting upset. I am going to start putting “blitz” in the title of my blitz games, and also give a friendly warning in the chat.
One idea that I had was for the server to put a message in the chat at the beginning of any blitz game warning the players that the game is on a short timer, and that they can back out with no consequence. This is fairly innocuous, since it does not require any additional action by the userbut could serve as a helpful way of avoiding problems.
I don’t mind playing blitz games in theory. What is frustrating is if I often am getting messages that I am disconnected from the server, and by the time I manage to reconnect, I have little or no time left.
That, of course, is not the other player’s fault. I may be in an area with bad wireless service, playing on a mobile device which is slow to register my moves, get interrupted by important phone call, or various other reasons.
But I will sometimes express my frustration aloud to my opponent, explaining why I ran out of time. I guess that could be construed as whining. If so, I apologize.
” but I try to resist that urge. Even when I try to share why I like playing blitz games, some get mad and continue to tell me how ridiculous blitz games are.