Withdraw Ladder Challenge

While slowly climbing the various ladders, the end of every challenge leaves me eager to line up the next to get another rung underway. More often than not the desirable challenges several spots higher are already defending and i end up making an unfair or undesirable challenge to keep moving. That's my fault, granted. However, the frustration arises when the defender then takes days to play his first move and get the game underway. Even worse, a more desirable challenge presents itself which I'm then unable to take on...
What I propose is the facility to withdraw the challenge if it has not yet started or fewer than 2 moves have been played (as per open invites). Of course this would only be possible for challenge games - not defence games.

This seems like an obvious improvement to me. What I have found is that at least one player takes as much time as possible in the games where they are challenged. I resigned against one player in the 7 day ladder after he had not made a single move for several days, yet continued to move rapidly in the ladder game where he was the challenger. I noticed the same player put out his vacation flag in the 3 day ladder against another player when he faced mate in one, and continued to move in his other games (and delayed the opponent's win for several weeks). Even so I challenged this player in the 3 day ladder and had to wait for him to exhaust all his playing time, timebank etc before I eventually won. You get a good idea about the enthusiasm of the player to accept the challenge by the rapidity of his first move, compared to his moves in other games (including the same ladder). I made the same suggestion myself about a year ago and was shot down. The only valid criticism was that a player could withdraw a challenge if he did not get the colour he wanted. the remaining criticisms were a little silly for my level of play at the time "the player could be researching my previous games". For my level of play that was a waste of time.

I think that if you make a challenge, the other player gets all the time allowed according to the rules. The challengers have no idea what is going on with the other player. As to those who sit on lost positions presumably hoping to bump their ratings by a few vapor points, i agree, they are annoying. Unfortunately, that's how it goes.

Why do people moan about their opponents using the agreed time? 🙄

If the player fails to move within the agreed limits then time them out.

If the player moves within the agreed time limits, albeit slower than what you want them to move, then tough on you.

If you know that a potential opponent is a slow player and they are all that is availble to challenge then DON'T CHALLENGE THEM. A more suitable opponent will appear soon enough.

First of all, I was making a suggestion not moaning. 😛
Second, I don't have a problem with people using the alloted time in which to make their move. There is however a period between issuing a challenge and the game commencing which appears to be in addition to the alloted time. If neither player moves, this is 2 days for tournament games. I assume it's the same for ladders - perhaps the period could be documented in the ladder help pages?
So, to clarify my suggestion - for those whose 'moan radar' obscures the imagination - when the game state is 'Not started' and your opponent's timebank is not depleting, how about having the ability to withdraw the challenge so as to challenge someone else?

Andy

P.S. How likely is it that anyone would:

(a) know who is a 'slow player'?
(b) go ahead and challenge them if all they wanted was a fast game??

But top advice all the same...

Originally posted by Andrew Diniz
First of all, I was making a suggestion not moaning. 😛
Second, I don't have a problem with people using the alloted time in which to make their move. There is however a period between issuing a challenge and the game commencing (if neither player moves) which appears to be [b]in addition to the alloted time. This is 2 days for tournament games. I ng, how about having the ability to withdraw the challenge so as to challenge someone else?[/b]

Originally posted by adramforall
From Help : ladders

All ladder games are played as [b]rated games and cannot be deleted, only resigned.[/b]

Originally posted by Andrew Diniz
Very constructive.

I am aware of the current situation which is why I'm suggesting an enhancement.

Originally posted by adramforall
Why do people moan about their opponents using the agreed time? 🙄

If the player fails to move within the agreed limits then time them out.

If the player moves within the agreed time limits, albeit slower than what you want them to move, then tough on you.

If you know that a potential opponent is a slow player and they are all that is availble ...[text shortened]... challenge then [b]DON'T CHALLENGE THEM. A more suitable opponent will appear soon enough.[/b]

Originally posted by trev33
the two people who put the thumbs down on this post are idiots.

It is taking me years to move up the ladders. Just enjoy the path is the only approach to stay out of frustration.
(I have proposed other solutions in the past, with a wider challenge range outside the top 100 for example.)

What you can do is check the candidate opponents' activity and move cadence through their profile.
You can also wait for other games to finish in order to put a more efficient challenge.
There are ways to look ahead. But once a game is started, it should stand.

Hopping from a started game to more 'desirable' opponents just looks bad to me. Patience is part of the experience here. All in the game yo.