Chess Etiquette/Ethics Poll - "Pushing", "Time Playing", "Time Scramble"

Hello all,

The topic for discussion here is the chess ethics and etiquette of using  premoves in online chess, and pressing your clock advantage in a blitz game to win, even if that means making random "nothing" moves just to flag your opponent. 

This etiquette/ethics debate seems to be a never ending struggle  with different opinions.  I propose that a poll of at least 1,000 chess.com member opinions may be a large enough sample to have an idea for what the overall opinion of the entire chess.com community may be.

The purpose of this post is not to argue or debate or even discuss the topic.  The purpose is for users to simply report their opinions in the context presented below!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the rules: 

Respond to this post with your choice of opinion out of the three possible choices below, and once there are enough opinions I will perform an analysis of the results for a conclusion. If you have a different opinion that is not listed below that you think is relevant, please request for an additional option and I'll add it to the list.

If your opinion is:

"The use of premoves in online chess is always good sportsmanship - in any situation.

"The use of premoves in online chess is never good sportsmanship, in any situation.

"The use of premoves in online chess is always good sportsmanship during the beginning of the game, however is never good sportsmanship for use at the end of the game to flag your opponent by making random moves" 

Thank you all!  Lets end this debate for once and for all, and then after hearing what the community thinks, maybe you will or will not adjust your chess playing style to match your chosen online chess etiquette preference 

"The use of premoves in online chess is never good sportsmanship, in any situation.

I'll take the fourth option and tell people who are tired of losing on time to play longer time controls or learn to move faster.

Even titled players try to flag each other. I watched 2 GM's do it last night in a opposite bishop ending. Anyone that thinks it is "bad etiquette" is a moron.

Just because GM's try to flag each other with premoves in online chess doesn't mean that's good or bad sportsmanship.  Grand Master's have been well known to exhibit both good and bad sportsmanship. 

In light of your comment, I'll put you down for "The use of premoves in online chess is always good sportsmanship - in any situation"

This response doesn't answer the question.  This forum is NOT about players who are "tired of losing on time". 

In light of your response I'll put you down for "The use of premoves in online chess is always good sportsmanship - in any situation"

@Morphysrevenges yeah I had a guy do something like that yesterday lol. He premoved 0-0 not expecting me to play Bxf3.... I won a knight and the game easy peasy.

I guess I should say for the record that most of the time I use premoves in blitz chess, and I like using them to play quickly.  However, I am taking an unbiased look into this issue and to answer your question, below are the reasons why I believe some players don't like the premove feature. 

There are reasons to have the opinion that premoves and the use of premoves in certain situations can be bad sportsmanship. The main reasons as I see it, are listed below.

1.)  The online premove feature is an additional feature that can't be used in over the board chess.  In over the board chess you have to move your piece, then hit the clock. Even though there is a minimum amount of time required for a premove, it is still so fast that over the board most players would never be able to play so many moves in a row under pressure.

2.) The premove feature used in excess under the circumstance where your opponent has a winning position while you only have a single pawn or piece left, and your use of the "premove" allows the win of the game, even though in real life that would probably not have happened. 

3.) Some people see that the addition of the premove feature takes away from the realistic atmosphere during online blitz chess, since this feature deviates from over the board blitz chess it can be seen as a con, not a pro. 

4.)  The premove feature creates a situation where you literally "live or die" by the use of the premove feature.  This can be seen as a con, not a pro, if you don't like the use of premoves and the way it affects the game. 

5.) Just because premove is an allowable feature, doesn't mean that making random non sense moves with premoving to win on time is good sportsmanship.  The reason is that in over the board chess it would be much more difficult to win on time in that manner, even though, over the board it does happen.  When winning on time with quick random moves over the board the feel is a bit different since both players have to move the piece and hit the clock, which can be difficult under pressure. 

6.)  The bottom line is that moving a piece and hitting the clock is more difficult under pressure, than using premoves on a computer.  This gives an additional advantage for the losing player, just for playing online. 

There is nothing to discuss lol

blitz chess is Not good chess.

when you understand THAT.

you will quit arguing silly things about the blitz game.

I agree!  The purpose of this forum post is to conduct a poll of chess.com user opinions related to the topic.  NOT to debate or argue.  Therefore, in this post we should not be "discussing", people should just simply report their opinion. 

This is why I only play blitz with increments. Using premove when you are playing with increments is always OK. 

Firstly, You missed the entire point of this forum post.  Sometimes I think that chess.com members read only half of an article, then decide to comment.  The purpose of this forum post is to poll the opinion of chess.com users related to the topic, not to argue or debate the issue. 

Secondly, I disagree with your comments about blitz chess.  Blitz chess can be very dynamic and complicated, the point is to have a good time and throw caution to the wind.  I think blitz chess is indeed "good chess".  Obviously there isn't time to come up with the best ideas or the best lines, but that's not the point, and that fact doesn't take away from the "goodness" of blitz chess.

So, are you recommending we add another option? 

That premove is good sportsmanship only when increment is added?

Remove my vote then.  I do not care about the etiquette regarding premoves.  If people use it, fine, I can't stop them.

Sure!  No vote for you.  Thanks anyway,

I think it's  cool.

I say premove is good sportsmanship if it is available to both players if one simply does not want to use it because of pride then so be it. Most of the move I make with premove and up being nullified because of the other players move won't allow it and other times just puts me in a bad spot. There's been a number of times where I've lost the game with the upper hand in pieces and field position due to time and I'm fine with that because my Blitz rating hold significantly less value than my normal chess play rating. I just like blitz when I need to play a quick game which is actually a lot more often than not. I play my normal games on chess with friends more often.

I was going to give my input on the poll, but then I started reading all the rules for doing so. I quickly realized I am not ready to answer because of the complexity of this particular poll. I am going to stick with something easy and simple, and play a game of chess.

Option 5:  playing chess at bullet speed is no longer chess, so...don't play it.

Option 6:  human reaction time is 0.3 seconds, followed by physical action...so even premoves should remove 0.5 seconds from the clock (I believe it's only 0.1 seconds right now?)