Time Controls on Servers

      I am playing in an event on one server against 6 opponents. The event was started on December 30, 2010…almost 3 months ago. The time limit is 40 days for 10 moves, cumulative. That means your unused time accumulates. So far everybody has been playing quite fast and I’ve completed 4 games. Of the remaining two, one opponent moves almost every day and we’ve played 39 moves so we are moving right along.  The other remaining opponent has not played a move for 26 days and he still has 26 days left. That’s stupid. We aren’t playing for the world CC championship; we’re just a couple of…what was that GM Alex Yermolinsky called us? Tomato cans. We are a couple of tomato cans playing for fun.


      In another event started on October 1, 2010, I qualified for round two but have been waiting for two months for one game that has no bearing on the outcome of qualifiers to finish. These two guys are making a move about every two weeks and judging by the current game position, they will be playing for many months to come.
      If we were IM’s or GM’s trying to qualify for a top level CC event, I’d have no problem with it, but really! This is no fun and it’s been so long since I logged on to the one site, I nearly forgot my name and password. I wanted to tell them what Bobby Fischer once told an opponent in a simultaneous exhibition, “C’mon fella, move! This ain’t postal chess.” But then I remembered…it is.
      Maybe I'm just getting old, cranky and impatient.  Or, maybe I just don't enjoy this form of chess like I used to.  I don't know.