I played a live game with a friend and because he needs to live I used the “Pause game” feature during its turn.
That was ok, until we tried to start game again tonigh.
I clicked on button “Continue game” (or something like that, my ui was in French) while he was not come back into the game (but online) and as it was my opponent turn. I was assuming a notification would be send and he would need to said “ok I’m free to play” or something like that.
But it seems not and its timer restarted.
I reclicked “Pause game” button then when he comes into game, I clicked “Continue game” but he wasn’t having enough time to play and lost by time few seconds later.
Is that normal behavior ? Or more like a bug ?
Because it would imply the fact I could pause any game I want, then when my opponent leave the game I “continue” it and he would lost by time.
Not something I would really do, but it could happening.
This is the intended behavior. Pausing and resuming is pretty much a “code of honor” thing; if you leave the game you have to trust that your opponent won’t unpause it
Note that you can still play while the game is paused, you don’t have to resume it beforehand.
Either player can resume the game at any point, so you should always let your opponent know the reason for the pause and let them know how long you intend to pause for, as they may not allow the pause and thus resume the game.
So to be sure I understand it well, when I ask for a game pause, my opponent has a “Your opponent want to pause the game” request ?
Also, even if it is the intended behavior, that could end in some case the game is lost (like mine) only because we were not synchronized. What about a button “Your opponent want to continue game - Accept ?” ?
No, clicking the pause button pauses the game instantly. Both players see the “Resume” button, and both players can click it whenever they want. There’s no asking either way.
There are already a few suggestions regarding pausing and resuming on https://ogs.uservoice.com/, you can vote on them if you like them or create your own suggestion there.
Oh, I was so happy to find this helpful explanation of Pause. It’s old and I wondered if anything has changed about it in the intervening 2 years. As it was, it’s a totally meaningless function if either player can re-enable it at will, most particularly when it’s the one who did not initiate it.
Nope, this is still the current behavior, and in my opinion is totally reasonable. As mentioned, it’s more of a “gentleman’s agreement” than anything else. If you need to leave for a period of time in such a manner that you don’t want opponents to resume, this is what vacation time is for. (For correspondence games, of course.)
For live games, irrevocable pauses would end up being a good way for sore losers to troll their way into wins. Pauses are designed for situations like “hey, I gotta go pull food out of the oven before my house burns down, hang on a sec?” or “This game’s really interesting but something came up and I need to go, would you mind picking it up later?”
In the former example, most reasonable opponents will have no problem with this and wait. Of course, if it takes you 20 minutes to get back and you made it sound like a 5 minute task, your opponent may decide you’re taking too long and resume. This is fair. You both entered a game with known time constraints and implicitly agreed to be bound as such. A lack of planning on the part of one player should not interfere with the anticipated schedule of another player.
In the latter example, it’s similar. One player is asking to pause and resume later because they did not plan to be available for the full duration of a game. If the other player is amenable to the idea of picking it back up, great! However, there’s no obligation for them to agree to this.
In both of these cases, allowing either player to resume from a paused state allows a recourse against forced pauses.
That differs from tournament to tournament…
Also that’s why you have the option to “override” your opponent’s pause if you feel it was unjustified. Thus it depends on mutual agreement which - in my opinion - is the way to go and is totally fair.
When you play a tournament in-person (or online realtime) you visit the head before you sit down to play; after that you exercise control, your clock runs down, you wear a diaper, use your coffee cup or sit in a conspicuous puddle. In correspondence mode, there ought to be more than enough time to take a break; otherwise one of the preceding options are available.
Since you only consider the bladder, may your colon reveal your erroneous ways to you!
If the purpose is to guarantee a fair break from play, maybe a Pause should have a minimum duration before it can be cancelled; for instance, 15, 30, 60 minutes?
@Aten, you forgot another option: a permanent catheter!
I’m just babbling here (NOTE: I only play correspondence games online):
There have been times when I needed to use the pause function b/c my accumulated vacation wasn’t enough and there were Real Life issues (some of them “just” within my psycho-physical system) … I think I always talked to my opponents about this, never had a problem. Has happened to opponents, too, and I tell them to take all the time they need to recover (or whatever).
(Tournament directors please skip this point )
Nowadays I usually only use the pause function when my opponent is running out of time—in tournaments usually only until we’re the last game in the current round, so as not to hinder the proceeding of the tournament for the other players.
So far, I have played in three or four Real Life tournaments … and in EVERY one of them my opponents and I stopped the clock when the other one needed to visit the toilet
Funny, I had decided not to include catheters. I omitted ostomy pouches too. Neither are much fun if one is compelled to use them. There is an almost optimal, comprehensive solution for home or town:
Given the current state of world affairs, esp. in the 4th reich, gentlemanly good sportsmanship did not come to mind.
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