Do you set up a real board , when playing online chess ?

Especially long time controls

I practiced passive studying for years.  Now i use active studying, playing correspondance chess, and study using a real board, and pieces.  I will use the 2D online board for reviewing basics.  

My question is not for studying chess, but playing it(live).

JackpotJohny wrote:

Thought about it, but don't do it yet. Takes too long to set it up and keep track

Depends what time limit you play I guess

I tried that and discarded the idea, puts you at a time disadvantage whatever the time control....caught fiddling around with the pieces, really doesn't help much.

It's borderline illegal as well.  Borderline because there is no way to enforce it, but illegal in the same way that bringing a little travel set to an OTB game and working out combinations  on it is illegal.  I'm sure there are other opinions....

Sometimes I use a real board for 960 correspondence chess to experiment with different set-ups and ideas in the opening.

Using a real chessboard during a live online game is just wrong guys. You know you shouldn't be doing that. I'm sure it's also against the "Fair Play Policy" as well.

I don't do it in live games, just correspondence. 

Oh I know you don't Vic. I was talking about live games. 

of course I don't.

But you could set up your board and only move your pieces when you have played. The aim being to improve your over the board calculation.

I wonder how many players actually use a second chess board just to calculate all variations in live games. I don't do it personally because I think it's more fun and better for spatial awareness to play it out in your head, but I really don't see why people have anything against it. After all, someone playing with board will still have an accurate rating that represents his game strength and the opponent won't really notice. I feel like people are against it just because someone playing with board doesn't "deserve" to be at a certain rating level which is a stupid way of thinking. If it were competitive chess, then that would make sense, but this is just online chess for fun, so I really don't see the harm in it.

I don't do it but I wouldn't be upset to find out my opponent was. It's not a big deal, not like we are playing in an interview or something.

This is from the site rules:

 You cannot receive ANY outside assistance on Live Chess games.

A second chess board is considered outside assistance IMHO.

. . . and besides, players that use a second board to calculate moves will never learn how to calculate in their minds. I took up playing chess last year and I know I play a terrible game but I really want to learn as much about this game as my ability will allow me to. If I were to use a second board I would be cheating myself out of the fun of learning and the satisfaction that comes from earning every single little rating point.

Not a bad idea for longer-time controls, but as specified on posts #4 & #6....... Keeping track of both boards and the time...... not worth the effort..... 

Maybe for very special games like online instruction or playing against a friend or something; otherwise, I think that'd defeat the main purpose of playing online: convenience.  A real board takes up space, and I just can't imagine keeping a board set up like that for any online stranger.

Why is it wrong?

Is it about using the board to visualise future positions instead of picturing it in your head?

I asked a similar question in this thread yesterday but nobody had any strong opinions on the idea one way or the other.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/help-support/experiment-with-responses-to-opponent-s-anticipated-moves

The 'analysis' button in daily chess seems to provide the facility to play out future scenarios which makes it easier to decide on moves than having to picture it in your head.

Is that cheating or not?

I both maintain duplicate boards (to glance at the board before moving and see how the board looks after a variation plays out) and leave myself notes on when I *must* move in any game. This is for online chess as I haven't the time to play live chess, working third shift. The recordkeeping's never been an inconvenience.