Game abandonment
You might have noticed that if you take too long to make your first move in a new game, you’ll receive a warning that the game may be abandoned. Similarly, if you take an extended time to move during a game, the same warning might appear. What’s happening here?
No one wants to have to wait around for an opponent who isn’t there, so we have a few ways to prevent players from having to wait for an unresponsive player.
Abandonment timers
First move timer
When a new game begins, you have a limited time to make your first move before the game is considered abandoned. If you don't make a move within the first 5 seconds, a timer will appear.
How much time you have depends on the time controls of the game:
Bullet: 10 seconds to make a move
Blitz: 15 seconds
Rapid: 55 seconds
If you don’t make a move when the timer runs out, the game will be counted as a loss for you by abandonment.
Disconnect timer
A game can also be ruled as abandoned if you disconnect for too long. The amount of time you have to reconnect depends on the time controls of the game.
The rule is that if you disconnect, you have 10% of the base time plus 40 times the increment, with a minimum of 30 seconds and a maximum of 3 minutes to reconnect. If you can't reconnect within this timeframe, the game will end.
The formula for any disconnect timer, where B=base time and i=increment: (B + 40i) x 0.1
Examples
Bullet 1 | 0 -- The base time is 1 minute plus no increment is 1 minute, times 10% equals 6 seconds. Since the minimum is 30 seconds, you’d have 30 seconds to reconnect.
Blitz 5 | 5 -- The base time is 5 minutes (300 seconds), plus 40 x 5 seconds increment is 500 seconds. Multiply by 10% and that’s 50 seconds to reconnect.
Rapid 10 | 0 -- The base time is 10 minutes (600 seconds) plus no increment, times 10% is 60 seconds to reconnect
Rapid 15 | 10 -- The base time is 15 minutes (900 seconds) plus 40 x 10 seconds, which totals 1300 seconds. 10% of that is 2 minutes 10 seconds to reconnect.
📝 If a player disconnects in a completely lost position (say. -5 or worse), the game will be considered abandoned after just 15 seconds, regardless of the time control.
Long move timer
A lesser-known way to time out is by taking too long to make a single move, even if you're still connected.
This rule applies only during the first 10 moves of the game. If you use more than 50% of the main time on one move before reaching 10 moves, the game will be considered abandoned. After the 10th move, you can take as much time as you need for each move.
Examples
Bullet 2 | 1: Half of 2 minutes is 1 minute, so if you took more than 1:00 on a single move before the tenth move, you would be considered to have abandoned the game.
Blitz 5 | 5: Half of 5 minutes is 2:30, so if you took more than 2:30 on a single move before the tenth move, you would be considered to have abandoned the game.
Rapid 15 |10: Half of 15 minutes is 7:30, so if you took more than 7:30 on a single move before the tenth move, you would be considered to have abandoned the game.
📝 If a player in the Poor Sports pool (with a history of frequent disconnections) uses more than 35% of their initial game time on a single move, an 'Are you there?' notification is sent. If they don't respond or make a move, the game will be ruled as abandoned. (This only applies to players in the Poor Sports pool.)