Should opening books be allowed?

So an effective strategy would be to play themed tournament games against stronger opponents first - then recycle those move against weaker opponents.

Or, play slowly and wait for all of the other participants to complete their games. Then copy the winning game lines.

 Or just look what strong players did in the past. With, say, a database...

azure9, have you ever heard about sarcasm?

Are you familiar with the song: There's_a_Hole_in_My_Bucket ?

I wasn't, thanks :-)

if think books should be allowed in coraspondance chess the idea is you analyse a position as far as you can go it is totally diferent game from otb and live chess how can u guess if someones useing a book i play against fritz 10 on 2640 level and 10 moves in i am never worse than -0.07  on move 20 never more than -1.45 never win however

 Of course you're not going to, you already have. So far in this thread you have called almost everyone on this site dishonest and a cheater.

So you're following the main line for 20 moves as well without using "opening resources"?

Twenty moves in impressive! In my three minute blitz games, 8-12 moves of book is typical, even in offbeat transpositions such as this game:

That was a fun game to watch, Ziryab. Azure9's bad luck in having half his opponents using "opening resources", though, is lamentable You could just see his frustration: "e4? Another cheater!"

I almost think that a brain developed well enough to remember chess positions gives its host an unfair advantage. Perhaps these players should be banned from rated games against mere mortals.

I teach college and give open book exams. Students tell me that these exams are far more difficult than the closed book exams they take in other courses.

You make a good point that facile understanding of openings (or a subject is school) requires tests (games) with the book closed, but real knowledge (skill) goes far beyond the information that one can access in a database.

Wow... I return to this thread after weeks to see 4 new pages of comments since yesterday. I'm not sure if I should grab some popcorn or a flak jacket.

A few comments:

Artfizz, you forgot a smiley face at the end of your long post as an aid for the sarcasm impaired (like azure9, apparently).

Chess_kebabs, saying that you shouldn't use books or databases because you can't in OTB games is like saying that American Football coaches shouldn't be allowed to have a written playbook with them on the sidelines during a game, because you can't use written notes during OTB chess. THEY'RE TWO DIFFERENT GAMES!!!

Real time chess and correspondence chess may have a lot in common, but they're not the same game. Correspondence is a game of research as much as of thought and pre-existing knowledge. That's why correspondence chess exists. If that's not what you want to play, then why are you playing it? If you want to avoid research during the game, then go play real time chess, either OTB or on the internet.

--Fromper

I've seen something like this occur OTB. Two games, four players, both in the Flick Knife variation of the Benoni. Both pairs sitting at the same table--their boards separated by eight inches. One white player was stronger than his opponent; the other, in a game progressing more slowly, the white player was weaker than his.

On the weaker player's board, the white player only became aware that the adjacent game was identical after he failed to copy the better move. A few chuckles from spectators cause the commotion that brought the coincidence to his attention.

Needless to say, the chuckling spectators were banned from the tournament hall for life.

An amusing example of this:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8a6st_derren-brown-beats-9-chess-players_videogames

(i have to admit that i did not read all of the 115 posts before i posted this one)

i just don't get the original posters argument. it's almost like saying "why isn't correspondence chess the same as OTB chess?" the answer, i would think, is pretty self explanatory.

... called what? I was thinking of starting a new group named

Circle Of Inner Trust - Unassisted Style

(or something).

CHEATER! i just played that in my game!

Tsk! Tsk! You seem to be adopting an OTB-approach to posting.