Outside resources - online chess

I am a recent member. I was very disappointed to learn that some players use outside resources to influence there opening moves and also during the game. I always thought of chess as a mental game between two human contestants, not a contest of who has the best research skills. I think that those who use data bases or computers or reference texts between moves are unfairly representing themselves ( and their ranking ) in online chess games.

I admit I am no expert at chess , but if I wanted to play against a computer that is what I would  opt to do.

Maybe there should be 2 levels of online chess , one for "real people" and one for computer/reference assist play.

From: Bob Williams a "real" yet imperfect human being .

Thanks for all the good competition from other human players.

Just play what they call it here - "Live Chess". It can be anything from 1 minute to 1 hour, so choose what you like. Nobody has a time to make a query in DB if he has 5 minutes to play. For the real OTB play this experience is the most important:  seeing a lot of tactics, playing different openings, getting into different endgames, dealing with the time pressure.

one more thing to consider - as long as you are playing people near your rating level, does it really matter? if you are 1600 and they are 1550 but play more like 1600 because of some opening book help, does that matter?

also, annecdotally, i have been playing a player who is 100 points below me and ALWAYS uses outside opening help and i have consistently beat him over and over and over. and over.

i think people overestimate the amount of help you can get from opening books, etc.

Good comments. Plus, I don't really see the point in blaming people for just following the rules. If the rules allow for opening books/DB consultation, so be it - what's wrong with this? Now if we talk about people using computer assistance or the like, that's a complete different story, of course...

Love and peace! :)

Andrea

If you didn't allow oopening books or an analysis board in CC/on-line chess how would you enforce it? I don't understand how the Staff manages to catch people using chess engines, but they seem to manage to at least some of  the time.

Well, I continue to be disappointed at the number of people here who don't understand the difference between OTB and correspondence chess.  It's certainly your choice as to what you want to play. But refering to people who play a different game than you want to play as not being "real people" is insulting and arrogant. And frankly, it stems from your lack of understanding, not from your superior insight.

If you want to play an online simulation of OTB chess, then Live chess is your only option. If you want to play an online simulation of correspondence chess, then turn-based chess is a pretty good option. You have to decide what you want to do. But you also need to understand that others make different choices. It's not appropriate to insult them for doing so.

Thanks everyone for your comments , for the sensitive types , I apologize if I have offended you. That was not my intent, I was unaware that it was commen practice to use outside resources. Many of you gave very good comments and rational explanations and for that I am thankful.

Bob Williams

Sorry for my newness - what is cot chess

Not really an effective apology when you call me a "sensitive type" and then say you're sorry if you offended me.

From my perspective, there's no need to apologize. You bluntly stated what you felt about others, and I bluntly stated what I felt about your statement. I don't see that either one of us has something to be sorry about.

Agreed ...............

Thanks

I don't know if it was made clear to you or not, but using chess engines is not allowed.

I use opening reference books for almost every game. I play here to learn, not to win. There's no money involved here. These aren't 'real' games for me. I play, I learn. I hopefully get better. I have fun. OTB is the real game.