i have never played any serious chess online, but am thinking i might give it a go. mainly due to more frequent opportunity to play, particularly since in person events are still very slow to be returning.
however there are several questions i have, and i was hoping maybe there is a write-up already out there somewhere that covers questions like these and more.
Q1. how are time controls managed? it seems to me that OTB i can move and hit my clock much faster than i can type a move and hit enter. is this basically a non-issue?
Q2. what happens if you or your opponent lose internet connection or have a computer crash in the middle of a game?
Q3. are there other rules or quirks one must know about before playing online and finding out 'the hard way'?
also, how does online chess competition compare to correspondence (i.e., postcard mail) chess with respect to value as a vehicle to help one improve, or conversely can it erode OTB proficiency? obviously more time devoted to chess in any form -should- be a positive, but anything that makes it easy to fall into mindless/sloppy play would definitely be detrimental.
apologies if questions like this have already been asked ad-nauseum, in which case i hope the wished-for tutorial exists somewhere and i've just not stumbled upon it...
adv-thanks-ance.
1. For Live Chess, as soon as you make your move, the client clock stops and the opponent's clock starts. You can either drag your piece to the destination square or click piece and sware to move: https://support.chess.com/article/331-how-do-i-make-moves-in-live-chess
There is some compensation for transit time and some lag adjustments: https://support.chess.com/article/423-why-did-the-clock-times-suddenly-change-the-clocks-seem-broken
2. Depends on when and what the time controls are: https://support.chess.com/article/338-how-does-game-abandonment-work
3. The site uses automatic triple repetition of position and 50 moves with no captures or pawn move draws; they aren't claimed.
Live chess has pre-moves possible (https://support.chess.com/article/642-what-are-premoves-and-how-do-they-work).
Insufficient material rules on timeout are similar to US Chess rules with some differences; the site only looks at the material the side with time has to determine if it's a loss on time or draw: https://support.chess.com/article/128-what-does-insufficient-mating-material-mean
For Daily chess, the site's version of correspondence, how one approaches the game depends on the person. Some treat it like live, some use all legal resources.
https://support.chess.com/article/648-what-do-i-need-to-know-about-fair-play-on-chess-com
i have never played any serious chess online, but am thinking i might give it a go. mainly due to more frequent opportunity to play, particularly since in person events are still very slow to be returning.
however there are several questions i have, and i was hoping maybe there is a write-up already out there somewhere that covers questions like these and more.
Q1. how are time controls managed? it seems to me that OTB i can move and hit my clock much faster than i can type a move and hit enter. is this basically a non-issue?
Q2. what happens if you or your opponent lose internet connection or have a computer crash in the middle of a game?
Q3. are there other rules or quirks one must know about before playing online and finding out 'the hard way'?
also, how does online chess competition compare to correspondence (i.e., postcard mail) chess with respect to value as a vehicle to help one improve, or conversely can it erode OTB proficiency? obviously more time devoted to chess in any form -should- be a positive, but anything that makes it easy to fall into mindless/sloppy play would definitely be detrimental.
apologies if questions like this have already been asked ad-nauseum, in which case i hope the wished-for tutorial exists somewhere and i've just not stumbled upon it...
adv-thanks-ance.