Feel like I'm cheating

I admit I love the correspondence or "turn based" chess.  I love the analysis boards this site offers.  The huge ammount of time between moves really allow me to become very very comfortable, or at least as comfortable as I want to be, with the move I select.  But... Is it making me a better player?  How will it affect my Saturday park-bench games?  Or live tournament games?  I don't have the time or analysis board... there's absolutely no way I would play the same caliber of game in each of the circumstances.  So it feels like cheating when I take three days to make a move only after playing out every possible move on an analysis board.  Is this brute force exhaustion of the scenarios actually learning?

Do you normally memorize variation; if so, yes then it might be helpful. Otherwise, no. It will probably not help you at all; and deteriorate... using ones own thoughts and ideas will improve you; as using the best moves that derives from some analyzee thingie; no.

The instinct that you develop to know when you want to reach for the Analysis Board is itself good. If the Analysis Board is not available, you will have had some practice (using it in the past) which should enable you to mentally cycle through your move options. I reckon it should increase your powers of visualisation so that you can program your brain as though it were an Analysis Board.

(These recent discussions

•  http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/a-tally-of-database-users--non-users 
  
• http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/using-books--databases-for-playing-turn-based
  

will not have escaped your attention, I feel sure.)

it can not be denied that we are becoming better by playing chess, it does not matter if it is a one minute game or one move every 15 days. is looking at you move for three days any different from studying a position out of a book? little difference and they both help to improve your skills.

the analysis board really helps you calculate your moves and one could argue that it does not allow you to develop your natural calculating ability as much as calculating every move mentally. The key word is "as much", because using the analysis board does help you with your mental calculating to some degree.

even though you say that you cant play at this caliber in a over the board game, while technically true, in actuality I think it is false. i play much better over the board then i do in correspondence chess or in any other form. I play better because the game has real meaning. I believe this to be true for most people on this site. also, even though we have 3 days to move how much time do people actually spend thinking about there moves? very little compared to the time you spend in a tournament game. So not only is it more important but we most likely spend more time on each move in a tournament game.

Ok, so you made a bunch of calculations that influenced the way you play.  Sounds like maybe you learned something!  Studying books is legal and that takes time too.  Going on your own calculations is a little slipperier because your amateur calculations could overlook things.

Tai Chi is a martial art practiced in slow motion.  Your muscles learn what to do at a rate your body understands and you can focus on doing the postures properly.   Later if you have to vanquish a foe your body will react at lightning speed, your form looking picture perfect as it smoothly transitions from one move to the next.

Once upon a time after a game, a reporter asked Bobby Fischer when he knew the game had turned in his favor.  Fischer replied it was before the first move.  Apparently his opponent had wandered into a line that had been prepared ahead of time.  Our turn based games are about as close to serious study as most of us get on this site.

If your friends notice increased strength over time they should be delighted to have the opportunity to play a higher caliber of player.  Hopefully this will inspire them to work harder to give you a proper challenge.

 First of all these are two different game types- almost two games! TBC is comparable to correspondance chess and if you are really doing what you claim, this should definitely increase your understanding of the game. It is certainly not cheating as long as you are doing it by yourself during the game- ie.no 'external' help.

The same argument was applied to tournament chess and 5 minute chess. But it has been consistantly shown that shorter the game time, better chess is played by the stronger player. One cannot become a rapid chess master without achieving equivalent streangth in the longer game.

Hopefully the time you spend on chess should increase your positional understanding and avoid tactical errors in both types of the game.

Good luck

Tom

I would advice you not to use the analysis board.

Sure, it's easier with it, but without it you will become better in tactics for your sunday bench's games

Playing here on chess.com is helping me a lot for casual games at coffee shop, ...

Hi Dr,

I like to user the correspondence games to look a bit more in depth into situtations and develop tactics.  The more I play the more I see the same or similair situations coming up and I'm able to react to them quicker.

I've found though that it helps me to play some live games in between which forces me to think quickly and try out some of the tactics i've been using in correspondence games without being able to think through everything.

I would like to institute a moritorium on the use of "cheating." It is used way too much on this site. You obviously would not use the analysis board if it were not legal to do so.

We all have to decide why we want to play turn-based chess. If it is to improve our OTB skills, then we really need to think about whether it does or whether it detracts. It's not an easy question, but I think that it definitely can if treated as a serious opportunity to study and learn.

u are cheater...

no open book tests jr.

Analysis for turn based; Live chess for OTB-type chess - they're both useful for improving your skills & neither are cheating.

I play 3 days a move at the fastest for turn based & 5 minutes at the slowest for Live chess - what could be better than that?

Using the analysis board should help in your understanding of positions and what squares to fight for and tactics.  That can only help in OTB games at the park.  The more you play the better you should get, and if you take 3 days to analyze a game, it would be the same as using a book and analyzing positions played by GM's(albeit probably not as accurately played as the GM's)

It's not cheating because the other player can use it, too.

It will help your chess in general.  This is the same thing as becoming skilled at slow chess helps you in speed chess games.

When you take all this time and analyze a game deeply, you are learning about new moves and getting new insights into the game.  Later, those learned insights will be available to you in any time control.

No, of course you will not be able to play the same quality of game over the board in a quick time control as you could if you had 3 days to analyze your moves.  That doesn't mean your time spent doing this analysis is wasted - in fact it may be the best way to improve.  Analysis is strongly encouraged by strong players.

it's certainly not cheating.

as to how much it helps...opinions vary and i'm sure it depends on the individual and which form of study they are best suited.

if it helps you, stick with it until you find something that works better.

i've found game explorer to be a great help, and computer analysis. now i don't lose material near the beginning like i did before. that's taken me from a 1400 to a 1500 player. yes i may have taken longer over the moves while i was studying openings and past games, but now i have more knowledge and more experience i have started to speed up again.

The analysis board is part of the game. Some of your opponents are using it when they play you. If it wasn't allowed I am sure the chess.com team would have removed the option. If it helps you learn, use it.

If you  feel your are cheating you do not have to use the analysis board during  the game. You can always review your games after you finish.

Those are my thoughts. I hope they help:) 

I recently came back to playing after an absense from the game. The person I work with has suggested I pay all my games as if they were face to face. However, as long as you're within the guidelines of the rules, it's ok.

I use the analysis board a lot too, and in my personal experience, I've gotten better playing OTB as well.  I've been playing a friend who used to beat me regularly and I'm up 3 games to 1.  The difference?  I've been playing online a lot and he hasn't.

Trust me, you're not getting any better playing one minute games or anything less than five minutes for that matter - quite the opposite. I know from experience. Most titled coaches consider the minimum effective training time control 15-30 minutes. Although I agree with you on the other aspects and also on the question of meaning affecting performance. I play better OTB too. I see online games as training.

You know.. one thing I've noticed is that if I have a bunch of games going on simultaneously, say as would be the case with multiple tournaments, time to use the analysis board is limited just because I have so many moves to get through.  In this respect, the benefit of the analysis board is limited and the turn based chess becomes something of a different animal.  I can still glean much from the rapid consecutive display of multiple positions.