In a friendly game my opponent was playing very well until he made a bonehead move to lose his queen.  Since the game is friendly and on any other day he would not made such a simple error, I would like for him to take it back so we can continue at a higher level of play/equality.  Is there a way to do that by mutual agreement on Chess.com?

If no piece was captured, and there were no pawn moves, then by agreement you can just move the pieces back to where they were and continue on. If captures or pawn moves, there is no way that I know of, except to draw and start again. A 'take back' button would be a nice option for future developement. Both sides would need to consent, of course.

Erik wrote:

we are going to create a TRAINING mode for people who want to be able to have undos. but we've talked over this many times: offering undos is basically giving a tool for people to be annoying and rude. it also then makes the person who refuses the UNDO feel like the jerk. we give you a double-confirmation move system. if you blunder after that, then next time maybe you'll take your time? :D    http://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/turn-based-chess-undos

In one game, an opponent of mine made a move that was clearly ridiculous. Maybe a mouse slip? Anyway, I offered to let him take it back. I made a waiting move, such as moving my rook one square to the left, he moved his piece back to where it was, I moved my rook back to where it was, and then he made the move that he had intended. I ended up winning the game about 30 moves later!!!

"double-confirmation move system"  eliminates mouse-slips and gives the last chance to change the move. Personally, I think it's enough. In OTB game nobody will let you to undo your move and by asking for it you develop a very bad habbit. Also, as Erik mentioned, people doing it can be really annoying. Again, mouse-slips are exception which is covered.

 that's cool

i've played against this guy before - panabenja.  he's always making god awful mistakes and always asking me to let him take it back.  one time i made a waiting move to give him a chance to return his piece to its original position - and he put me in check!  after that, i decided to stop playing him or listening to his insane rants altogether.  

we just introduced a new type of game on chess.com called "Takeback". when you create an echess game, you can now choose Rated, Unrated, Takeback. essentially it's an unrated game where either player can take back a move.

Enough Erik!

When are you going to stop trying to make the site betteR?

It is inevitable

Unbelieveable! No fanfare. No fuss. Erik just delivers the goods - and doesn't even wait for a tip.

There is an (optional) setting to submit moves seperately from playing them on the board in online chess. If you remove the setting, you run the risk of making stupid moves. Live chess is a definite no-no for such a setting, for reasons described above. One also not mentioned is that live chess is effectivly OTB and in a OTB match, you can't exactly move the pieces round to analyse.

Erik, thank you for this wonderful site but you aren't allowed to do anything else without asking and showing us how much more sleep time you will miss!

It appears that the TAKEBACK option ceases to be available AFTER checkmate.

I used to play a lot of blitz on yahoo and there was an endless flood of people asking to take back moves.....hello, it´s blitz!  People are going to make mistakes.  Personally, I found it annoying as hell.

I would prefer that someone be allowed to take back a bad move if they notice it immediately after making it and before I make my move. I've offered to accept a draw on the condition that they did notice it before I moved and that we start another game in which we play each move preceding the blunder. I agree that a "request to cancel last move" button and an "agree to opponent cancelling last move" button would put undue pressure on the requestee and could be abused, but perhaps an "offer for opponent to take back last move" button and an "accept offer to take back last move" button could be an alternative, as long as it is understood that the etiquette is not to request a take-back, but only to offer one. Just an idea.