Board Game Arena

Hi all - please help me understand the clock piece of tournaments and turn-based games. I've "lost" a few games because the overall clock has run out, or my time has drained while sleeping. Thus, I've more recently been losing sleep and playing at all hours just not to get penalized any further. Can someone clarify it for me? And also, is it a strategy that people run others clocks out?

Follow up as I see that this post is timed with UTC/GMT rather than my time zone. Are all tourney playing hours listed for as UTC/GMT ? Maybe this has been my confusion?

The forum timestamps are controlled by an independent user setting: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/ucp.php?i=173

In the rest of the site, the times are in your browser's timezone. For instance, in this game:
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=846652509
I see the playing hours 8:00 to 20:00, but that's in my timezone (GMT+2). If you're in the US, part of that will probably overlap with your sleeping times. The playing hours should have been shown in the tournament when you joined it.

Thank you.

Helpful to see the breakdown.

So, my next question on this is to clarify that clock only runs during the “playing hours”? And if one plays outside the window, it’s okay to do so but the difference is just that the clock doesn’t run?

Context - I have been seeing playing hours of 12a - 12p or 11p - 11a. So, if these are in my timezone, the majority of my clock runs out overnight while sleeping or while waking to get ready and commute to work. These playing hours seem to benefit European time zones, but are not ideal for west coast of the USA.

kind-hedgehog944 wrote: ↑16 May 2026, 14:47 So, my next question on this is to clarify that clock only runs during the “playing hours”? And if one plays outside the window, it’s okay to do so but the difference is just that the clock doesn’t run?

Right. The clock doesn't run and I believe that time is not added either. So, suppose the settings are to add 30 min per turn, and playing hours are 5:00 to 17:00 (sorry, I use 24h format, see below), and you have only 20 min left in your clock.

- You make a move at 8:00: your clock jumps to 50 min and the next player's clock starts running down.
- You make a move at 20:00: your clock stays at 20 min (I'm not 100% sure about this) and the next player's clock doesn't move.

These playing hours seem to benefit European time zones, but are not ideal for west coast of the USA.

Probably because the table creator is active during those times, because they're in Europe or because of their playing habits. It's the table creator, not "some BGA dark power", who sets the playing hours.

ETA: In a tournament, I believe there's no added time per turn anyway.

Jellby wrote: ↑16 May 2026, 15:08 ETA: In a tournament, I believe there's no added time per turn anyway.

I just saw this thread. I was one of the people that kind-hedgehog944 played and ran out of time against. It was for a tournament (the SWISS1 tournament).

Tournament is very different than non-tournament.

In a non-tournament game, the other player has to hit the button that says something like "End game because other player is taking too long". If no one hits that button, then both players can go very negative. I've been in some games against friends where they are 20 days negative, and that is still ok.

For the tournament game with kind-hedgehog that ended this way, I went to bed when it was kind-hedgehog's turn. Shortly after I went to bed, he (or she) took their turn. When I woke up, I saw that I had 17h left on my clock and he also had 17h left. I took my turn.

2 hours later, I had 17h left on my clock, and he had 15h left. An hour later, the game ended, even though I didn't do anything. The game didn't count for ELO, but for the tournament, I got the win, and kind-hedgehog got the loss. Fortunately it wasn't an elimination tournament, so kind-hedgehog wasn't eliminated, but he didn't get points for the tournament round, and I did.

I think it's fair.

It's far more fair than the first tournament I ever entered. In that tournament we had 4p games and 2 would advance. One player never took his turn, and as soon as he went negative the round ended. The scores were all tied at 0, and I probably had more time on my timer than anyone else, but the tournament procedure for games that end this way will first eliminate the player that went negative, followed by the player who had the newest BGA account (which was me). So, I never really even got to play.