Are Conditional Moves Really Necessary?

fonix, thanks for bringing this up.  i use conditional moves and was a bit concerned about what some of my opponents think of it.  overall, i think it's polite to use them, especially in tournament games against opponents who already have many games (like what pegrin was referring to - all well said, pegrin!) or who don't login often, when not only you are waiting, but possibly many other players are waiting as well.  i don't use them with malice but to keep things moving.  also, in the case i forget, this helps me put the line of thought into action.

I sometimes use them in the opening and middlegame, but not to end games with. I don't setup conditional moves for say a forced mate in four because it feels like rubbing it in. Except, of course, if I feel my opponent should have resigned a while ago, then it's fun to setup conditionals as much in advance as possible :-)

However, no-one should take offense to them.  There's little to no difference between a conditional move and my actually being on-line and responding to an opponent's move.

I think where people may get unduly frustrated is when they're notified and the game stays up as the active one.  Perhaps people should be given an option to override this and simply move on to the next game whether there was a conditional move triggered or not.

I agree 100%.

Sometimes I do them as I bit of a joke, like to see if I can guess the opponent's opening. Twice, however, that actually happened- at least 8 moves deep, if not more! I was accused of cheating, which I thought was kind of funny.

It is good to have an exelent conditinal line.

If I use the analyze function and find a killer line, then I'm using the conditional moves. I'm playing way to many games at once to remember every single thing in every single game.

I most like to use them for forced moves.  If the opponent only has one option for their next move then why not follow up by setting a conditional move.  When I am in that situation and on the receiving end of the conditional move I am more upset with myself for getting into that position than I am with my opponent for programming a conditional move.

In fact I am on the opposite end of the spectrum from many of the people on this thread.  I think that if you are in the end game and you have a series of forced moves that lead to CM, I want the software to be advanced enough to recognize that all of the opponents possible moves are forced and covered by the conditional line and end the game without additional action by the loosing opponent.  I am sure we have all been in games where it was clear that we would win but the opponent slow played to avoid the loss.  Think about all of the games that had a quick opening and middle game but the end game took one week or more per move.

I agree it would be good, but only as an optional feature that could be turned on if the player wished for his forced moves to be made for him.  I would certainly do so, but I'm not sure everyone would.

I use conditional moves on occasion - normally when my opponent is in a clearly lost position but doesn't resign or to get through 20 moves of theory.

It's part of the package, is within the rules and is perfectly reasonable.

2 caveats:

1) Be careful - more than once I wish I hadn't setup that conditional move line as I notice the killer combo too late.

2) Sometimes you can use it as a psychological tool against your opponent. This may be good or bad, depending on your perspective. I'm a competitive soul, so you can guess my position.

 I use conditionals for that exact same reason.

In response to "TheGrobe's" last post:

Your comment just triggered additional thought that takes me on a tangent from the discussion of conditional moves...what if forced moves were automatically made even if a conditional line isn't defined?

This could also be an optional feature who's default is set to automatically move and as an incentive to join Chess.com....could only be turned off if you were a premium member.  (Although if I were King I wouldn't make it an option. Automatic forced moves would be the rule of the land)

I agree with you Reb; many many times this is useful and very difficult to program.  Foremost I see this as combating the 'stalling' technique of playing. 

I also LIKE that conditional moves prevent people from using vacation time.  It's hard to put in the time for conditional moves, and I think again, it combats those stallers.  I think for people who pay for the site, the option could be available to turn on vacation after you move and thus circumventing an obligated response.  But then again, paid subscribers can just walk away and let the auto-vacation engage. 

And if chess is a game of leisure, is a week for a move not enough time for you? Or however much time you get, a conditional move still gives you just as much time to reply.

Some people have many games going on at once, so a week per move per game may actually end up being many moves per day.  I think the vacation setup as currently implemented is flawed and unfair, and that the same principle could be more fairly achieved with the minor change I suggested above.

Funny, I misread your original post and actually thought this is exactly what you were suggesting initially.

Thank you all so much for posting. You definitely helped shed light on a slightly foggy issue for me. I used to use them, but worried about my opponents getting upset, so I stopped. 

It was nice to read that conditionals were used in correspondence. 

Very interesting. 

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to respond :)

I use conditional moves in my live games..especially when low on time...