Annoying message on Lichess

[Eric Gardiner]

After a game yesterday on Lichess I got a message which said something like “Warning: letting your time run out instead of resigning may result in a temporary ban”. The time control was 3+2 (so fairly fast for me!). I was winning for most of the game and in the final position was the exchange and pawn up . Unfortunately, blitz being blitz, I overlooked a manoeuvre which allowed my opponent to force mate. Trying to find a way out, I lost on time. I’d lost track of how much time I had left and was certainly not running my time down out of spite. When I checked back to see how much time I had left after the last move I had made, the answer was … 9.1 seconds! I find that it takes a couple of seconds to resign a game in any case, as you have to confirm your resignation. It does not seem right to me that Lichess has now put a black mark against me for (presumably) unsporting behaviour or lack of fair play.

I’m aware of the extensive discussions here on the possibility of false positives from the cheating detection methods online chess servers use. My experience suggests that there might also be false positives for “poor behaviour” (for want of a better expression) detection. This may have implications for the ECF, 4NCL and others organising events on online servers if players are banned at short notice. I’ve played in the 4NCL online team event on Lichess and am considering entering the 4NCL online congress next month. If I get the message about letting my time run out again or indeed am issued with a temporary ban then I’m less likely to want to play in the congress or future seasons of the online league.

[Matthew Turner]

Eric,
I really wouldn’t worry about it, it is just an automated system and if it happened 3 times in a short period of time you would get a 10 minute ban.
Matt

[JustinHorton]

Yeah, it's nothing to worry about, you get these messages all the time (also see: aborting games). Nine seconds seems quite a short time to me, though, albeit I don't play anything faster than 7+5 so maybe they really tighten up at shorter time controls. What gets you a warning at bullet?

[Jonathan Rogers]

sometimes I think my opponents are unjustly given these warnings, after positions have suddenly turned against them and they are probably genuinely trying to rescue them. Just shrug it off. We can't really expect automated systems to know much about this sort of (very human) thing.

[JustinHorton]

It's also possible that sometimes it happens when somebody is interrupted, say.

[Eric Gardiner]

Matt, thanks for this information about the length of the ban and how it is generated. Is it publicly available? It does matter to me if the Lichess administrators see a black mark on my profile but from what you and others are saying this should now have disappeared after 24 hours (?).

I don't play bullet so I don't know what generates a warning at this time control. Personally I don't think the warning should be generated for any games shorter than about 5+5. We did have one game in the 4NCL online league at 45+15 where a member of the opposing team ran his time down in a lost position (and said in the chat he was going to do so!) - in that situation a warning would have been appropriate!

[Matthew Turner]

Eric,
This is what Lichess say in their FAQs

If your opponent frequently aborts/leaves games, they get "play banned", which means they're temporarily banned from playing games. This is not publicly indicated on their profile. If this behavior continues, the length of the playban increases - and prolonged behavior of this nature may lead to account closure.

Matt

[JustinHorton]

Although it's hard to know what "prolonged behaviour" is if you don't really know what behaviour is being referred to.

[Reg Clucas]

It seems silly to have these messages at all at fast time controls. It's only really a problem at longer time controls when people sometimes let their clock run down with 10 or 20 minutes left.

[Ian Thompson]

It seems silly to have these messages at all at fast time controls. It's only really a problem at longer time controls when people sometimes let their clock run down with 10 or 20 minutes left.

I disagree. It's irritating when players let their clocks run down for a minute or two in blitz games in completely lost positions. If the game is in an arena tournament, it may reduce your final tally of a games by one or two.

I wonder if lichess detect this behaviour that someone recently said they did - play a good move, usually a sacrifice, that you think your opponent won't have expected; request a take back; if accepted, play the same move again; repeat as often as your opponent lets you.