Conditional move etiquette

I can not imagine any skilled player of the game being offended by conditional moves. It is a feature expected on any serious chess site.

For me, conditional moves are a must because I just hate the idea of taking two months to finish a match.

A lot of times it just speeds up the game. For example, if my opponent offers me a Queen trade and I accept, I'll throw in a conditional move because his or her next move is obviously to capture my Queen, and I can just make my next move. Rather than having this two-move sequence play out over the course of half a week or so, it can be reduced to one day by the use of conditional moves.

And the better you get, the moves just get more and more obvious. You attack, they defend, and so on and so forth.

I guess someone could possibly be offended by a conditional move checkmate, but if you're playing anyone that's half decent, they would have resigned a long time ago. It's not very often you're just like, "Oh, I had no idea I was about to be mated." Especially in correspondence chess, people study the positions closely, and are able to see 3 and 4 move combos with almost perfect accuracy.

Chess.com live chess is very unstable...

(somewhat relevant to the previous comments, but I was going to say it anyway)

I had an opponent some while ago who only logged in once every 2 days and 20 hours or so to make moves in every game they were playing.  They'd flush the queue of games with moves to make, and then vanish for another 68 hours.

Now, I'm not certain why my opponent disappeared for almost exactly 68 hours at a time, but they would consistently make moves in all of their games until they had no more moves to make.  In fact, when I happened to be online during one of their logins, we played almost a third of the moves of our ongoing game.  As a result, I found that I could effectively cut the length of the game in days into a third or fourth of what it would have been, by making three or four conditional moves ahead.

I didn't always make conditional moves when they had active rooks or bishops likely to immediately move, but combined with another game to guess the behavior of my opponent, I feel I eliminated at least a month of play, simply by letting my opponent have my responses immediately.

If a game is stipulated at 3 (or 14!) days per move, it is fair to take offence if someone moves faster.

*insert resignation arguments*

Actually, an amusing 4-ish move conditional checkmate earned me the congratulations of a player who apparently didn't expect it.  I had originally calculated some easier checkmates from the given position, and set those as conditional moves, but noticed a king escape that took one more step of foresight, but after noticing, I carried that variation out to mate as well.

conditional moves don't bother me in the end game, though I would ignore them completely in the opening.  just because an opening has been in a book or been done before doesn't mean i feel like doing that exact same thing.

The purpose of the correspondence style days/move time control is to give enough time to think in critical positions that need the time. That doesn't mean anyone necessarily wants to take a day or more between every move. But that's what happens when you and your opponent live in different parts of the world and don't log in at the same time. When there are completely forced moves (obvious recaptures, responses to check, etc.) a conditional move or two can eliminate the down time in the game and get right to the critical position.

It never ceases to amaze me the expectations some people have for others in on-line chess.  Usually people grouse and moan about how their opponents move so *SLOWLY* in turn-based chess.  Never mind that you signed up to play a 7 day/move (or whatever) game and your opponent sometimes uses most or all of it to... drum roll... move, instead of moving once or more a day.  Or if you take a break during a tournament lasting months, it's labeled "vacation abuse."  Sheesh...

And people get angry about this and long threads of like-minded folks follow along grousing and moaning along as a great chorus.  I've even heard people assert that their opponent is a bad person for being on-line, making a few moves, and then... stoping and logging off -- like there was some moral obligation to keep playing the game to the end just because you both happen to be there.  Double sheesh...

So now we have a conditional move feature (not great, but useful for simple cases) which reduces move time to... drum roll... *ZERO*. And people get angry because moving instantly is *RUDE*!  Or that using conditional moves is "sending a message" -- and the message, if there is one, is assumed to not be very nice...  Triple sheesh... 

It's just a game.  Relax, have fun, and let your pieces do the talking -- or try the message box...

I've used this feature, but I have never seen my opponent use it so I don't know what it looks like from the other side.

For instance, as White after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 I've entered 3...cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 once. Does my opponent see that whole line as something he can choose, or will my moves automatically be played once he plays 3...cxd4 and 4...Nf6? (I had assumed the latter, but now I'm in doubt).

Your opponent can not see your conditional moves if that is what you were thinking. What happens is after you make a move and trigger a conditional set by your opponent it will stay on the board and let you make a response to that move. Also it will say on some part of the screen conditional move triggered.

It looks exactly the same from the other side. AFTER making your move, you find out that your opponent has made A CONDITIONAL MOVE. He/she may have made more than one conditional move, but you can't find that out UNTIL after you have made your reply.

 You get a message similar to the following;

"Your move has triggered a conditional move on the part of your opponent, it is your move again!"

Thus, your opponent will never know if they make a choice different than the condition you set.

There are other sites where you can see the whole condition and that I do not like as your opponent may see what you are up to (i.e. setting a subtle trap) and avoid all together.

Isaac

LOL.

The 3 posts above were all posted within 2 minutes of each other and basically say the same thing.

Isaac

PerfectGent: I think the main point is that, in positions where the best line seems forced (most applicable in main line openings), conditional moves just help to play out this line. If you see a better move that isn't included in the conditional moves - or as Gonnosuke said, just want to play psychologically by skipping the 'best move' - then all the better. Although, judging by your rating, I'm sure you're well aware of this type of situation.

PerfectGent - I like using conditional moves sometimes, but I don't want to annoy anyone so can you tell me why you don't like them?  I do default to 3 days/move games so I don't have to feel rushed making my moves (or worry about going away for a weekend).  But if I'm winning a good game, or winning one against a higher rated player, I get pretty excited and just can't wait to see what his next move is.  But I'm not rushing anyone - they're still entitled to their 3 days after my conditional move is played.  It really just eliminates the time waiting for me to log back in again.

IF <anybody-else> mentions {Conditional Posts}

THEN discard

ELSE

There obviously needs to be a Conditional Posts facility.

END-IF

HAHA! so who explained it the best?

I'am not offended by conditional moves  , but I play correspondence chess  on line  because  it's closest to having a live oponent . We can talk  on the side . If people want to play faster then 1 move at the time they should play against a computer . If I could know before hand if players will use conditional moves I would choose not to play them , since I think that it takes all the fun out of it .