What do you do if your opponent makes an obvious mouse slip in an online blitz game and asks for a takeback? By obvious, I mean when there is not a difference of more than a square and there are not many logical ideas. For example, assume you have the d7 square controlled throughly and a rook on d8. If your opponent moves his rook to d7 instead of capturing on d8, would you allow a takeback? I just had a situation where something like this occurred and I'm just curious what people's stances are.

I would take the extra rating, I don't have enough feelings to care what those points come from.

how can u take bk a move?

It's quite simple. My profile says, " 3: * No takebacks asked or granted." That also avoids any ethical or rating inflation / deflation issues. I think you will find most experienced Internet players do not ask for or grant takebacks.

See http://dk-transformation.blogspot.com/2008/08/no-takebacks.html

dwaxe wrote:

I would take the extra rating, I don't have enough feelings to care what those points come from.

I hope you mean within the rules. One can obviously cheat and get a lot of pretty unearned points which mean absolutely nohing and simply hurt the game. This would of course be highly immoral but if you don't care where the points came from...

Anyway, my stance on mouse slips is more lenient. If it's an obvious slip, I don't want a cheap win on a move that was never really made so I accept takebacks in these cases. After all, they're just online blitz games. They don't affect my OTB rating or matter much except for my own fun and measure of progress. However, since most people seem against it, I may change this stance. In the end, everything will probably even out.

As a player I will not ask for any favour like taking a move back in any sort of game as it is essential to drill it like a habit.

Similarly what is the point in allowing your opponent to take a move back?

If slipping of mouse is a problem, then one can change the settings in Move preferences by checking Submit option so as to be doubly sure of the move made by moving the mouse. Only then clicking 'Submit Move Button' will register the move.

For me, my philosophy is that I'll only let it go if the game is extremely interesting, and I want to see what happens.  Usually, I try to follow tourney rules even while online (if I click on a piece, I move it, no takebacks for either side, usually no chatting until after the game).  I find that this helps me prepare for a tournament setting.

Of course, if you don't play in OTB tournaments, preparing for it is silly.  Personal preference, either way.

sujaman wrote:

As a player I will not ask for any favour like taking a move back in any sort of game as it is essential to drill it like a habit.

Similarly what is the point in allowing your opponent to take a move back?

If slipping of mouse is a problem, then one can change the settings in Move preferences by checking Submit option so as to be doubly sure of the move made by moving the mouse. Only then clicking 'Submit Move Button' will register the move.

Like I mentioned, I'm talking about online blitz games where time makes such caution impractical.

Hey I commend you for your sportsmanship and have had the same problems and they do have the opportunity on yahoo. Some people have enough class while others just want the points that they clearly haven't earned. If it is a mouse slip then I give it back but really hate it when people ask for a move back b/c I never ask unless it it is a clearly a slip. 

When people ask for undos b/c they made a bad move it bums me out as I play by the rules - "once you moved a  piece then that is it." Someone recently got pissed off b/c I refused the undo and they didn't take into account a move I had made that I would have liked to take back but didn't ask. 

regardless of the points - it feels good to do the right thing and I appreciate it when others do the same. 

best

I did not know there was an option for takeback. How do you do it?

I never grant takeback for mouseslips. It isn't necessary imo. For every mouseslip I make there will be an opponent who makes one as well so overall I don't thin it will affect your rating. Besides, it's just a part of playing blitz chess. Everything has to happen fast so mouse slips are bound to happen.

Most annoying mouse slip: when castling only move the king 1 square to the side :( Rook and king in an awfull position in one move.

I call mouse slips "mouse droppings".  It sums up what you have done more appropriately!

"I did not know there was an option for takeback. How do you do it?"

That is on that crappy yahoo

I don't use a mouse and just had my puter repaired as the tracking pad was jacked up

"mouse droppings"

I call it something else when the queen is dropped #@$!#%$%$!^%$^@$%&

No take backs, if you did that it would be cheating. :P

a mouse slip indicates the player was playing too fast for his skill level. I see no difference to dropping material or making strategic errors by moving too quickly. he took a risk, instead of taking the minimum required amount of time to move safely without slipping, and pays for it. he took the risk because saving time gives advantage, it was no accident. the mouse nor the interface did not malfunction.

I stalemated my opponent instead of mating yesterday, because of a 'mouse slip'. it's obvious it wasn't deliberate. should I get another try? of course not. I rushed the move because of my poor self-control in blitz, and paid for it. my fault, nobody else's.

Once I did a mouse slip though lol, but I didn't complain !

wormstar wrote:

a mouse slip indicates the player was playing too fast for his skill level. I see no difference to dropping material or making strategic errors by moving too quickly. he took a risk, instead of taking the minimum required amount of time to move safely without slipping, and pays for it. he took the risk because saving time gives advantage, it was no accident. the mouse nor the interface did not malfunction.

I stalemated my opponent instead of mating yesterday, because of a 'mouse slip'. it's obvious it wasn't deliberate. should I get another try? of course not. I rushed the move because of my poor self-control in blitz, and paid for it. my fault, nobody else's.

It's a random but rare occurrence for anyone regardless of level and time. Sometimes it's a dirty or malfunctioning mouse, sometimes it may be a disorder like Parkinson's and most times it's just an accident precipitated by time trouble. It has nothing to do with chess skill like a strategic error since the move was never intended and is simply a symptom of the less precise medium in live online chess as well as the blitz time controls. Although I agree that with more care and time, mouse slips are less likely, this is often not practical in time controls of <5 0. Still, an error is no less severe because of intentions and there is no rule against punishing mouse slips like any other mistake.

> Sometimes it's a dirty or malfunctioning mouse,

If you have the kind of mouse that gets dirty (the ones with a roll-ball on the bottom), try to upgrade to an infrared. I've been using a $12 Logitech for years and it's never been the cause of a 'mouse slip'... a great investment I guess.  :)

> most times it's just an accident precipitated by time trouble.

Right, most adults have enough hand-eye coordination to make an obvious move within 1 second. If you try to make a move in 0.33s you (or rarely your mouse) may err. You can either (a) spend 1s / move and not make errors, (b) spend .33s / move and accept some errors, (c) buy a laser mouse and practice moving in .33s without errors, or (d) play with a small increment so hand-eye coordination is never a factor in the outcome of the game.

No takebacks.

Time is a factor, if they moved so quickly they 'slipped' with their mouse they were just trying to gain as much time as possible (fair play) but it didn't work, so the consequences were a duff move.

exigentsky wrote:

It's a random but rare occurrence for anyone regardless of level and time. Sometimes it's a dirty or malfunctioning mouse, sometimes it may be a disorder like Parkinson's and most times it's just an accident precipitated by time trouble. It has nothing to do with chess skill like a strategic error since the move was never intended and is simply a symptom of the less precise medium in live online chess as well as the blitz time controls. Although I agree that with more care and time, mouse slips are less likely, this is often not practical in time controls of <5 0. Still, an error is no less severe because of intentions and there is no rule against punishing mouse slips like any other mistake.

I've never had a mouse slip in a slow game, and never will. on CTS I used to get them all the time when I was doing 67% accuracy (ie. rushing it), but almost never since I started doing 90-95% (ie. taking my time).