Chess Rage
ICC tonight, one of my two slow games a week, I got to a dominant position (a rook and two pawns up with a passed pawn). In other words, I had a clear win, not a subtly better position. I was feelin' good.Then my connection dies for one second. Automatic forfeit. Loss. I wanted to throw my computer out the window. It was especially painful because the dude was constantly badgering me to 'Hurry up' as I was thinking during the game (I eventually entered 'set quietplay 2' so as to block out his whining). So, not only did I lose, but I made an asshole happy by losing and giving him an undeserved rating boost.
Sure, I can set it so 'noescape' is off, so people can disconnect safely. Then I have to suffer through the dorks that disconnect when they start losing, or get tired, or just don't feel like playing anymore. Since I play only two slow games a week, each game is important to me, and I don't like dealing with that crap as it throws off my rhythm.
It's the old noescape Catch 22...And of course it isn't new, but was documented brilliantly by chessloser last year.
Alas, I've made my bed. I made the decision long ago that I'd rather lose some rating points in those rare instances when my computer disconnects, than deal with the much more common inconvenience of those that disconnect at their earliest convenience. So, yes, I've made my bed, and tonight I must sleep on one of the lumps and stop complaining.
posted by Blue Devil Knight at 6/26/2009 12:35:00 AM
16 Comments:
Hello BDK,
It's terrible to lose in this way but on the bright side, if you look in the contest at the larger scheme of things, your ratings will sooner or later rise. This game is only but a small blip in your chess history.
As they say, form is temporary but class is permanent.
Ugh...that is painful. I don't get the disconnection thing so much, of course most of my slowplay comes in either STC or T45/45 so people tend to be a bit more commited to seeing the game through.
Indeed a painfull loss. But i would definetly put him on the noplay list for making those tells of hurry up and such.
I know it doesn't help you much but although you got rewarded a loss because of disconnection the mental victory is yours.
Seems ICS really has improved your chess strenght. Or is it because you are just so busy with chess?
tanc: yes, in the big picture it's a very small deal, but at the time it seems more important.
wang: Yes, and in those games you have noescape off, and the nice thing is there are mechanisms in place so people are motivated to come and finish their game ASAP.
chesstiger: He is censored now. It is really hard to tell if I have improved, frankly. I feel I understand more, and drop fewer pieces (though I'm not sure if I drop fewer pieces than before I stopped chess last year, or if I'm back where I was when I stopped).
So sorry to hear about that! That is incredibly frustrating.
You say you play two slow games a week. How long are your slow games? And how do you find people to play slow games every week? I post requests for long games all over the Internet (my blog, chessville forum, STC Bunch forum) and get nary a bite, so I end up playing 30 0 games or something similiar.
Rocky: yes, slow is relative. By "slow" on ICC I mean 30 12 or 40 12. Last night it was 30 20. By 'slow' in a real tournament I mean 75 or longer!
Now that I've tasted 120-minute time controls, 30 20 felt like blitz. :)
1) I don't put too much weight on my online results on ICC, FICS, and Chess. This is merely a means to test new ideas, fight off boredom, or satisfy that urge to feel like I played some chess.
2) What I really focus on is my improvement in OTB events over the long haul.
3) I've made peace with the fact that Ratings ( online or USCF) is not a "day trader" exercise. Otherwise, I would go nuts everytime a kids with 200 points below mine beats me or when my son starts up his online game that bloats our feeble internet connection during an online game.
It sucks. It's frustrating, but thing long term investment. I'm putting money on you with confidence.
BP: good analogy. If anyone uses a day trader attitude they will go crazy, that's for sure. I was at a tournament the other night and a dude fell to a youngster, and I frankly thought the guy was gonna start screaming (at himself, not the youngster). Pretty much what I did last night when I got disconnected. My wife couldn't figure out what happened, so there is no way I can. I may get a new wireless card as I have a crappy cheap one, but frankly I think it will make no difference other than placebo effect.
Maybe you you should start playing at playchess. I've never had any disconnection problems there in over a year.
BDK: I agree with all the other posters. I don't put much energy into what kind of rating I have on the internet. Come to think of it, I don't put much energy into worrying about my OTB rating either. LOL :-)
I'm sure you have improved, but sometimes it's hard to evaluate when playing online. There are too many things that can happen online, that don't happen in live play. I know you don't get a lot of opportunities to play in tournaments, so it's probably hard to see if you're improving or not.
I could never concentrate if I was concerned I was going lose my connection and give some choadlicker a win.
There isn't a way to set a max disconnect time, like 3 minutes? That would seem to be the way to go...it would be possible to give the benefit of the doubt to someone whose computer borked.
Of course, a persistent bugger could just keep disconnecting and reconnecting. Could have a max number of disconnects to counter that.
Polly: partly it's the rating, but mostly it was the losing to this guy, after about an hour of my life thinking about the game. But of course it isn't that big a deal in the long run and I will laugh about it more.
Anon: hell yeah!
LEP: that is a really good idea. It would be sweet to be able to set such parameters. :)
This post hits home because I share that frustration. I want if they disconnect to win but if my connection dies to adjourn.
Noescape is evil. A little bit anyway.
Is there adjudicate on ICC? I remember getting frustrated, setting "noescape" on FICS, etc. then it kind of went away. I just adjudicate, sometimes right away, that's it. in 90% of the cases I get a win, so justice prevails.
Ouch. that hurts. But that's ok. I bet improvements are greater than that. :)
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