The long-awaited 'timebank' feature is now live! This should be a great assistance to people who would live to play short timeouts such as 3 days but worry that there are some periods where they may need a couple of extra days.
The timebank method allows short timeout periods to be played by giving each a game a limited 'timebank' for each player to use when needed.
Here is the FAQ entry - please let us know if you need any clarification...
Each game has a timeout period, specified in days. If you do not move within this period you will start eating into your 'timebank' period.
Like the timeout period, the timebank period is specified at the start of the game. The main difference is that the timeout period gets reset after each move, whereas the timebank period never gets reset - i.e. once you have used some of your timebank, that part of the timebank has gone forever.
Example:
A game is started with a 3 day timeout period, and a 14 day timebank.
-- White makes a move.
-- Black then takes 3.5 days to make a move. Black has used the timeout period, and 12 hours Black's timebank period has also been used. Black now has only 13.5 days timebank left for the rest of the game.
-- White moves again within the 3 day timeout limit. White's timebank is unused.
-- Black then takes 7 days to make the next move. Another 4 days has been taken from Black's timebank, leaving Black with 9.5 days of timebank.
-- White moves again within the 3 day timeout limit. White's timebank is unused.
-- Black now takes 13 days to move! Black is lucky his opponent did not claim the win because black only had 13.5 days to make the move (3 day timeout plus 9.5 days remaining timebank)
The remaining timebank period for both players in any game can be viewed graphically by clicking the 'info' link next to that game in the 'My Games' view.
