Game Load in online chess

Game load in online chess (chess.com)

As many people playing on this (wonderful) site, I'm sometimes involved in more games than I can handle. Of course, I try to keep control, but it's so easy to start a few more games...

I would like chess.com to provide us with a tool that could help us better appreciate our current online chess load.

I think there are four parameters to take into account :

1. the # of ongoing games,
2. the time-control of each game,
3. the strength of the opponent
4. the games from next round tournaments when the player is already qualified 

How could we calculate this game load (L) ?

Well, let's say I play against an oppnent rated 2000 at 3 days/move - I assume the corresponding load is 2000 (my opponent's rating).

Now let's say this is a 1 day/move game - obviously, this will put more pressure on me : I multiply the load by the increased rate of play, here : 2000*3 = 6000. If it was a 15 days/move game, I would divide it accordingly and get L = 2000 / 5 = 400

Ok, now if I have many games running, I would simply add the individual game loads.
For example with :

• game 1 vs. a 2000 rated at 3 days/move
• game 2 vs. a 2200 rated at 3 days/move
• game 3 vs. a 1400 rated at 15 days/move
• game 4 vs. a 2600 rated at 2 days/move

I would get, according to the above formula, an overall game load of : 2000 + 2200 + (1400/5) + (2600*3/2) = 8380

Very good, but what does it say ? Not much, unless I have an idea of what an acceptable game load is for me...

Well, I'd say I can accomodate 7 games at 3 days/move against people of my rating (let's say 2000 to make it simpler), that would be a game load of 7*2000 = 14000. Obviously I can take the 8380.

But then, let's say I start a new tournament with 11 games at 2 days/move against an rating average of 1900 elo... The additional game load would be : 11*1900*3/2 = 31350 ; with the current 8380 running, that's really too much.

If I call AGL the acceptable game load (which could be an individual parameter), and CGL the current game load, then the ratio CGL/AGL gives me a good idea of where I stand. We could say 0 to 1 is no problem (green light), 1 to 1,5 needs caution (orange light) and over 1,5 is too much (red light). I'd be happy to see the ratio and the corresponding light appear in my online chess statistics :-)  

Maybe this could be an optional, premium members-only feature, so as not to overload the servers with unecessary processing.

Note that I haven't taken into account coming tournaments : they could be included with a factor to take into account the time before the starting date (if it's tomorrow, it's 99%, if it's in 3 months, maybe 30%). That could be another step to implement later...

I bet after this gets implemented, there will be a competition to see who has the highest game load

might be

AWARDCHESS is currently lying low. If he came out for this challenge, EpicPwnage, would be a pretty big threat.