The psychological side of conditional moves.

The psychological side of conditional moves.

A specific difference that players have to deal with when comparing real vs. online chess, is the nature of conditional moves. Whether you’re comfortable with them or not, this study aims to show you the deeper elements of what seems like a simple way of pre-emptively making moves, which in fact has quite complex ramifications.

The conditional move as time-saver

 This is the simplest way of using it, to make moves in the future in order to hurry the game through predictable stages. But there is much more to it.

 The conditional move as intimidation.

A way of showing your greater control over the game, using conditional moves in this way telegraphs to your opponent, better than any smackspeak through chat, that you are the one in control of the game. You are showing that to such an extent that you have already seen how the game will play out and are prepared for it.

But! There are ways you can look at conditional moves as a response.

CM as validation.

This is a great way of thinking about conditional moves, the fact that if they have already seen your move it is likely that it was the best possible move you could have made. Even in a scenario of limited choice, the fact that they already prepared for your move was based on the assumption that you would do what you did, it being the best thing to do in the situation. There is no other way in chess (short of actually asking your opponent) to find out what they thought of your move.

Unless you fell for a trap, the CM validation is a way of gauging what your opponent thinks of your move.

CM as telegraphing.

If your opponent is conditional moving you, then it may be the case that your plans or playing style are quite open and predictable. The very nature of them knowing what you are going to do before you do it means that likely they will be able to play a better game against you. If you find CMs happening a lot, it might be worthwhile to readdress the nature of your play least you fall into a trap.

CM as trap evasion.

Have they made several conditional moves in a row? (As well as this, depending on how much attention you have paid to how they play in terms of time control, you can also look at how quickly they moved after you did) If so, it may be the case that you are falling into a trap. The fact that they have seen your moves coming means it is likely they have prepared for it, possibly confident that they will be able to respond to you, or trap you.

So tell me what you think, or your own strategies/ use of the CM feature.

And for those of you who don’t believe that this is a complexity of the game worth worrying about, I feel like now is a good time to point out, this is chess. Everything’s a mind game.

XR

forced mate, or long combo and of course time saver

"...in order to hurry the game through predictable stages."

^ This is why I do them. It's difficult for me to assume my opponent is insecure and paranoid

Maybe they have no life and are bored. Premium members can have an unlimited number of lines of CMs, so they could just sit there and put in moves for every possible move you could play. That would be kind of freaky, have they CM every single move you play throughout the entire game...

haha svenfromntbym, that would be madness! Tell me that wouldn't be intimidating? I would love to see how someone responds to it, and it actually sounds almost possible. Maybe if you just started off letting them get a few moves in so you could work out the tone of the game...

The thing about conditional moves is that your opponents moves can still be bad. I once made the mistake of not analyzing as thouroughly as I should and drew a winning position because I forgot that I had put in conditional moves that were bad. I am almost 100% positive that if I had not used CM's in that case that I would have caught my opponents resource, and probably won the game.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that sometimes CM's cause underanalysis.

I dont see how they are any different from any other moves. If there was no conditional move option wouldn't the opponent be making the same moves anyway, just a little slower? It speeds up the game, thats all.

Projection much?

I'm not paranoid

Scientists believe that there are more ways a chess game can unfold than there are atoms in the universe.  Putting in conditional moves for all of this would seemingly take a lot of time away from things like eating and sleeping.  That would probably cause an ironic misuse of the conditional moves, where the conditional moves cause someone to waste their precious time.

I often use conditional moves to save time or to set up a trap, like I did in this game as black.

Hey FirebrandX, thanks for your comments, I appreciate your input.


Tell me more about how you've used it in Blitz... As you can probably guess I'm more into corrospondence at the moment, which probably leads me to spending the three days between moves overanalysing things like this :p

But yeah I agree that they can't actually cost you unless you don't think about them, and in that way any move you make can cost you, CM or not..

Hey Joseph, thanks for the example! I love seeing games like that where you've got some good ideas, and you executed that one nicely.

But think about the CM itself a little deeper. Do you think the fact that all those last few moves were CMs could have lead your opponant to suspect something?

I guess I'm trying to look at them as things that have an effect outside of the simple move itself.

 Good question.  If I were playing white and my opponent did this, I would probably start to worry at about move 16, where he shows that he has actually analyzed my bishop capture and decided how to respond.  Before that move the trades are fairly normal, and I would probably use CMs for them anyway.  By that point, however, it would be too late for me to do anything about it.

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Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I found this...and had something to add that noone has mentioned.

I have used conditional moves in Online Chess to "remember" my plan. Often in the middle of a 3-5 days/move game, I'll forget my long term plan. I'll write notes in the notes tab, but for more obvious lines, I will put them in as a CM while I'm thinking about it, rather than take a chance and forget the plan 3 days later when I get the move again.

Lol, why are you getting ridiculously defensive?
This is a thread created to discuss conditional moves and Estragon is giving his opinion.


I completely agree with him.  I thought they were nifty until this happened to me:

Now I never use them.

If a line is obvious or forced then I'll play it in no time later, there's no rush to save a game that takes weeks to finish a couple of hours while I sleep or go to school.

I think whoever mentioned it above has a valid point.  If you put as much time in conditional moves as you would a normal move, then there's no reason you would blunder any more than normal.  In response to that I have to ask: If you're putting just as much time into a conditional as you are a regular move, what time is being saved?  If anything you've wasted your time analyzing a move that won't even be played!


 

Yeah, sure.  Have a cute picture.

Here is an example of me using condition moves in a match.  My opponent resigned after I had used 3 conditional moves in a row. 

If they are used against me I take it to mean that my opponent has thought I would do the best moves possible.  And I have. 

I've only done conditionals a couple times, and yes, I can imagine there being a psychological effect. But don't psychology & chess go hand in hand? it certainly plays a large role in OTB tournaments. CMs here bring a bit of the otb flavor to the internet.  Imagine playing otb, and you sit there pondering your move, and no matter what move you make, your opponent then immediately slams his next move down before you've barely had time to start his clock again. That doesn't play with your head? I'm pretty sure CMs have a similar effect. the first time I used them here I was being queen raided so I just put in a string of reasonable moves 10 deep that would have ended up giving me a better advantage. he broke out of the string about 5 moves in, so I told him he stole my mojo. he laughed it off, and I played out the rest of the game normally. The second time I used it was against a player who first tried using them on me, but it only went one move deep. so when I used it on him later in the game, they weren't the best moves he had available, because best for him would have been running away with his king to find a hole to hide in. the line I put in was if his king just stayed perfectly still while I queened a pawn and mated him with it. I certainly never expected him to actually just stand there. Perhaps he didnt realize he was sitting in the middle of a mating net on e4, I don't know. But sat there he did while his knight tried to clear a path for his own pawn to promote. I actually felt bad for doing it, but all he had to do was get his king out of there.