Vote chess...Winning while creating your own repertoire of the opening.

Chess.com offers a very innovative learning tool, vote chess to its members. 

Most of the players look at the vote chess as a simple match of one team against another one. But if conducted correctly vote chess can be a great tool for learning chess. 

But first let us see how to win a vote chess.

                    How to win vote chess 

1. Select a coordinator for that particular vote chess match:

The organizer of the vote chess should select one of the players from their team as the coordinator for that vote chess match. This can be done by declaring the name of the coordinator (of course with due consent) or by a electing from the team members. But this declaration must be before the first move of the game.

2. days/move selection:

The creator of the vote chess has a very important decision to make about the number of days to be allotted for each move.

one day per move is too short time.

Many people will not agree with me in this and may favor it. But the very nature of the vote chess needs to be understood. The vote chess is meant to bring out the best move for that position. Now consider that each person has to sleep for 6 to 8 hours. Again 6 to 8 hours are spent in professional duties. So 12 to 16 hours are gone. Generally 2 hours are spent in daily chores. consider that 2 hours are spent for family life, 2 for social life, etc. So how many hours are remaining for participating in discussion and then vote casting?

Now consider the other extreme.

One move per 7 days. In this vote chess game 14 days are taken to complete one move. 2 moves per month and 24 moves at the end of one year. So we enter in middle game at the end of one year! Now imagine this game running for 50 moves!  

In a vote chess match a group of players challenges and play against a group of players. The best move is selected by discussion amongst the players of the particular group.

So I suggest 2 or 3 days per move .

first 24 or 48 hours spent in discussion and voting to be casted in last 24 hours.

3. Duties of the coordinator:

The coordinator has a pivotal role in the vote chess.

A) He/She should run the discussion about every move.

At the end of the discussion period he should declare the common consensus and declare the selected move. everyone should vote accordingly.

B) Keeping the discipline.

If any player is not following the discussion guidelines or voting against the consensus, it is the job of the coordinator to discipline him. He can give a soft reprimand or banish from the game or from the club depending upon the gravity of the offense. 

C) Preventing the sabotage.

I have seen many players sabotaging a vote game. It generally happens in the middle game when participation in the vote chess swindles and only 2 or 3 players are playing. There is no discussion. And when they see an empty discussion board, these sabotagers pounce during last few hours. Generally scene is like this 12 Nxp 1vote, Bxp 1 vote, Rxp 1 vote. When there are equal number of votes, the last vote casted is taken in to account and effected. This is the time these sabotagers make their move and sabotage the game.

The coordinator should always keep discussion going on and keep an eye open and if needed such malafide players should be reported.

D) Never be a dictator:

It is the duty of the coordinator to keep the vote chess discussion healthy. He should not dictate the moves. Moves are always decided by the mejority voting. A coordinator can not order for a particular move to be played. His language should be polite and friendly. I have seen coordinators behaving like a dictator and spoiling the game.   

4. Vote chess as a great learning tool:

Vote chess players should use the vote chess as a great learning tool.

The very first move should be discussed in order to decide the opening to be played. When an opening is decided, then the correct move order, opening traps, etc. should be discussed.  For every move, every variation should be discussed so that when you enter in the middle game, you should be ready with at least a partial repertoire of that particular opening.

You are creating your own book on that particular opening and as you are active part of the discussion, you will not forget it. And as many minds have come together, it will be a great learning.

5) Generous use of diagrams:

At every stage of game and discussion a generous use of the diagrams should be used to explain the ideas and the moves. that will help the discussion.

6) Not compulsory but desirable posts:

Other posts which are not compulsory but desirable should be created. For ex. one of the members can be given the responsibility as theoretician. He will tell the theory behind the opening, basic themes , strategies for black and for white, etc. 

The aim of creating such post is that this player is not telling the moves, but rather telling the philosophy. The moves and blunders are not his responsibility. In this way the team gets one person who will devote full time to learn the theory and will explain it to the team.

I think people will appreciate the vote chess in this new light and use it as a learning tool to better their chess. I always has viewed vote chess as a Synchronized swimming dance.

A note about 10 min/move vote chess:

Some times vote chess creator or your admin may create a 10min per move vote chess. This is in view to get more points for the club by finishing vote chess rapidly. However if moves are not made in time, it may result loss points instead. So a word of caution, do not create 10 min per move vote chess if you don't have at least one player who is online and ready to continue the game till end.

I hope this blog will give you a new perspective on vote chess.

Thanks for the read.