There was never any suggestion that the rules had been broken - just that the rules were ridiculous. If somebody wants to play 700 games concurrently that's fine, but by my calculations that's about 11 1/2 hours per day to make one move in each game - if it takes 1 minute per move. I agree with Grenv - I'm happy playing 20-30 games, remembering the thread of the game and any accompanying chat, and maintaining some semblence of "interactive sociability."

When I sign up for a tournament I like to feel that it will be played reasonably quickly - which is why I sign up for "fast start - 3 day" tournaments. I'd like to know that when a tournament starts it has a chance of finishing within a reasonable time.

I have no particular axe to grind about Arpa's general play, and have found him to play quickly - when we are both on line simultaneously. I suspect that he orders his VAST array of games to be played by selecting "next game with an on-line player", which means that should he be playing somebody on the other side of the world who only logs on for an hour a day, the chances of finding the opponent on line are very slim, and so the game never gets started.

I'd be more than happy to sign up for tournaments with the following characteristics, and wonder whether there are others out there in BK land who think these suggestions might have merit:

1. 1 or 2, or perhaps a maximum of 3 days per move. (excluding vacation and weekend)
2. No automatic vacation days.
3. No vacation days of any type allowed in the first 30 running days of ANY tournament.
4. Vacation days Cancelled for tournaments if the player has played ANY move in ANY game on the day in question.
5. No vacation days AT ALL in some tournaments - such as those limited to 5 players.

(Exceptions for BK breakdown, family emergency, ISP problems, Power cut etc to be granted by the game-owner on a case by case basis.)

People who want to play in a zillion tournaments concurrently can still do so under the existing tournament structure.