Oxmeister wrote: ↑06 September 2024, 16:23
While I agree that the situation you describe is poor and unfair, I cannot agree with the title that there are zero reasons to skip in a tournament. I've played in some tournaments where the whole round of games need to finish to allow progression, and a single repeat offender falls way behind and times out every game they are involved in, needlessly keeping people waiting. In these cases, skipping is the only remedy.
The games will end on their own when the maximum time set in the tournament options is reached. Yes, this may mean some games run longer than others, and rounds can be delayed waiting on that one game. But the same would be true if every player managed to carefully use their allotted play time (ie. no one goes into the red until right at the end). Having a maximum time for games means that tournaments don't get stuck indefinitely, and having players stuck for a while between rounds is better than having players booted unfairly (and potentially people eliminated almost randomly). Besides, if a game runs to maximum time, the player(s) with the least time remaining will be eliminated - so this has the same result where the person who held up the game the most won't move into the next round anyway.
Oxmeister wrote: ↑06 September 2024, 16:23
In other situations, either real time or near real-time games, a player using additional time will be able to use this advantageously (additional thinking time). We can all agree that some players are
far too keen to skip, and use it to advance in a game they otherwise look like losing (poor form), but there are also circumstances where it's fair game.
They can only take additional thinking time if the other player(s) isn't using all of their thinking time (if all are using just the amount they have, the game will either complete just in time, or perhaps time out just before ending). While it's unlikely that everyone is going to use all of their thinking time, meaning some buffer is available, one assumes a player using less than their allocated thinking time is either a good enough player to figure out their moves in less time, or doesn't care (or know enough) about the quality of their moves - and additional thinking time may not have helped them. Furthermore, there comes a point when additional thinking time doesn't provide any additional benefit.
To be fair, your second point is the only one that MIGHT have a valid point, but I would argue that that could be worked around by allowing skipping in tournaments only for real-time play, and/or where a game has only two players. Where things typically go badly is in turn-based and/or where there are more than two players.
