Probably a strange suggestion, but I think there's some merit in suggesting that in Online Chess, in positions in which there's only one legal move, the move should be played automatically in the same way that Conditional Moves are played.

If I'm in the middle of a forced line, I'm really not interested in waiting for potentially days for the opponent to make the only legal response and let me continue. I feel this would speed up the ends of Online games by removing unneccesary 'downtime', as it were.

Yes good idea...but clearly only one legal move scenarios would apply, which are few and far between. A good idea nevertheless.

There is never a position where there is only one legal move.  There is always the option to resign.  I, for one, would not like to have that option taken away from me in the middle of an otherwise forced line.

Is resigning a move?

If there is only one legal move... why can't you just enter the response as conditional moves?

Yes, it may still takes days for your opponent to play, but you don't have to be waiting for that to continue, your game will continue automatically whenever your opponent plays.

Resigning is often done in lieu of a move, so I would consider it to be a move in itself.  It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine when someone moves and then resigns on my move instead of waiting to see how I respond; I never resign when it is my opponent's turn to move.

I'm waiting on an opponent to make his one legal move right now, so this idea occurred to me and I found this thread. 

In the end, I think you're right omnipaul.  Sometimes in a community like this we just have to wait a little extra time for the sake of good form and mutual respect.  So much for my first ever idea to "improve" the site!

I think they should have the time to move so they can think about the game as a whole instead of immediately being forced to move.

when my opponent has one legal move (or even a few legal moves - like 3 or less), i just set up conditional moves for each one. then who cares how long it takes him/her to move. my next move is all ready to go.

If chess software in online chess prevents you from making illegal moves ( i.e. moving into Check) then surely if there is only one LEGAL move your opponent can make, There is nothing to think about, that move should be made AUTOMATICALLY by the software ! waiting 3/7 days for somebody to make the ONLY legal move on the board is ABSURD !!  BUT not for two consecutive forced legal moves because we don't want the software doing FORCED mates     !

Online chess is not supposed to be fast. Maybe you want to use all the time you have to think, so even if you have one legal move, you prefer to still use the remaining time to calculate ahead.

I don't like this idea, there is nothing absurd about waiting 3 days for your opponent to make his move, is what you agree when you play online chess.

Some people play online chess like blitz, other people actually play it like correspondence chess.

I suppose this idea involves extra programming the site would rather not be bothered with, especially since there is already a "conditional moves" option. 

I doubt if this suggestion would do much to speed games up since it's not a common situation and it wouldn't be much help when playing slowpokes like me.

I personally prefer that one legal move not be automatically played for me.

Such a feature could possibly confuse less-skilled players or those new to the game. They may ask "What just happened?" and indignantly question the forums or Help & Support with the argument that they don't want moves played for them.

Besides, the Conditional Moves feature essentially does this very thing. Even better, both players still input the moves themselves, allowing them to stay involved in the game.

In my opinion, resignation is an option, but not a move. The fact that one may resign during one's opponent's move bolsters this view.

After your only LEGAL move is automatically played and your opponent responds you have 3/7 DAYS to reply that is plenty of time ! That software surely will become common on many of these Popular sites in the not to distant future !

I agree. I have at times enjoyed the luxury of having, essentially, six days to think about a particular difficult position instead of three, because I was afforded the opportunity to play my only legal move toward the end of the time control. This did not unethically delay the game, because I used the time rightly allotted to me, and I really needed the extra time to think and analyze.

This situation was not unfair in the least, because I was bestowed this extra time as a result of simply following the rules of Chess.

How about you can set that as an option before the game?

Actually not a bad idea in that it eliminates one annoying scenario - when you have mate-in-1 and your opponent refuses to move.

AGREED : Because you can really make a good argument for both sides of this issue, leave it up to the participants !

I don't see any problem with this, as long as it isn't on by default.