Hello,

can anyone please tell me what a takeback game is ?

thx !

unratted and you can take back a move if its a mistake ... not everyones cup of tea!!

You take that back, lostapiece!

ah thx. it would have been a good feature to be able to play a game to the end and then begin the same game again, only from a certain position , just to see how it might end. that would be nice. and if the first game was rated, the second one should be unrated.

cool, i just learnt what a takeback game is too, tq emiab and co.

A bit more detail here ...

Could I direct your attention towards previous topics (e.g. http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/taking-back-a-move) where ideas about undoing or cancelling a move have been discussed, including the logistics, and the pros and cons.

The facility of TAKING BACK has now been introduced within another form of unrated game. From Start New Game, under Show more advanced options, the Rated option offers a dropdown menu now containing THREE items: Rated game, Unrated game and Takeback game.

Within a TAKEBACK game, an extra button "TAKEBACK" is displayed, alongside SUBMIT MOVE, OFFER DRAW, CONDITIONAL MOVES. Both sides can takeback at any time. When it is your move, clicking on TAKEBACK undoes your opponent's previous move - and it becomes their turn again. When it is NOT your move, clicking on TAKEBACK undoes your previous move - and it becomes your turn again. This can be repeated all the way back to the beginning of the game. You can't undo CHECKMATE (or once the game is over).  http://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/new-features--fixes---jan-14-2008

Thx artfizz. Before reading your post and following the link you kindly provided I was under the impression I take my own move back. Which in certain occassions would be great for training . But to take back the opponent's move !   this doesn't sound great.

Both players can do TAKEBACK at any time - including several in a row. If it ISN'T your move now, then the LAST MOVE MADE was YOUR MOVE. Therefore, a TAKEBACK at that point BY EITHER PLAYER - will undo YOUR MOVE.

It only makes good sense to start a TAKEBACK game as as TRAINING/COACHING exercise. It is always UNRATED. You would have to be playing somebody you TRUST; otherwise, the game might never finish!

A further point to note is that takebacks are not recorded in the game history. It is as if those moves never happened. You might want to note them in the Notes - for future discussion.

Again artfizz, thanks for your post. It certainly implies trust. For both parts.

fantastic, just seen the new feature. makes a coaching game much better!

Now if we could just get this feature incorporated into live chess.

Hi guys,

Not my cup of tea.  It is better to 'take the pain' when you blunder.  It is a great learning experience.

That might teach you what not to do - but it's not much use in helping you find out what to do. With TAKEBACK, a beginner can have several goes at identifying the best move. It makes for a richer learning experience, enabling more juice to be squeezed out of each critical position.

Are you confident you could beat someone rated say 400 points below you if you allowed them a large number of takebacks?

It turns out that it doesn't require _that_ much trust.

If the opponent becomes uncooperative, you can always take back all of the moves, and then abort the game. So in that case, the lesson is completely lost.

Why would a takeback game require trust? Considering they're almost always for coaching purposes, and they're all unrated anyway.

Well the opponent could always take back moves, and the game would never end. The only way to end it, other than the way I described, is to just resign the game, which is what I would have done - but there's no resign button when you rewind all the way to the beginning!

Isn't there an abort? Besides, like I said, all takeback games are unrated, so resigning/aborting is not an issue.

I don't think there's an abort unless it's at the beginning.

Yes, it's unrated, but it would be a shame if the ability to take back your opponent's move ended up forcing one of the players to resign out of boredom.

Unless you have pinpointed your blunder and can follow with at least 3 lines of pplay to confirm your better move, would it not be great to have someone guide you and suggest a better move at the blunder move, kind of like a coach to you?

 Art, I have this at heart but have to disagree with you here.

If you platy a takeback game with someone that does not know more than you do at playing chess, then i will agree with you it becomes a poke and see the outcome.

However if you play against a stronger player that has a sound base,and knows chess to any degree superior to you by say 400 points and she/he is a 2000+ player and can give you anywhere from 2 to 4 lines of play at times, not always possible because of the many variations in certain positions, then would it not be worth to play a takeback game?

I have accepted to play a takeback game with a 1926 rating player. So far no comments as he is playing I think the right moves. Why did he ask me for a playback game do you think?

Well he said that he reviewed a few of my games and wanted to play along the lines I did, as he was not familiar with a few of my moves and wanted to explore.