The psychological side of conditional moves.

In my game against a team of high rated masters I played a move they were not expecting but after they saw the move they could see a very long and  somewhat forced sequence.  This was a game many were watching via the internet.,

The team I was playing knew they were lost but if they resigned then the public would be left up in the air as it was a very nice sequence that most the public would not see ahead or understand.  So they gave the long forced sequence which I gadly accepted.  After thhat the game only lasted a move or two  So, in this case, the forced sequence by this group of masters had a purpose of showing the public why my move wins. It was a sac of my knight for a pawn in the endgame and most of the public, at first couldn not understand why I would do such a thing as it looked like a losing move.

My use of the conditional move is similar to Ponz111's entry. I will usually see a winning line and will input that line or it is an obvious recapture or something to that regard. i attempt to think things through as much as possible. If a player makes a move differing, then I adjust my plan accordingly.

That is one thing that I attempt to do is create a long range plan and continue on it as long as possible unless my opponent makes a move to threaten in the position, then I will attend to that threat and continue upon my original plan as much as possible. Sometimes it requires shifing priorities as a key piece is gone but then again, so is one of my opponents usually as well.

I think there might be in some minds a thing that plays on them saying, "if he/she is seeing a move that i have played and then another 2 or 3 moves beyond that, I am not gong to get anything past this guy" or something to the effect.

As to real benefit, save a forced continuation of exact play or obvious move, there seems to be little other than a way to speed up the correspondence for one or both players here.

What you mean is there isn't a computer program OTB to enter a series of preset moves into them.  But believe me I have blundered over the board responding to moves as though I was playing an conditional move.  Of course on this website there is the analysis board as well as conditional moves, so you CAN actually see what the board will look like, after a series of conditional moves have been played. 

Insert pic of Boromir in rivendel...

"One doesnot simply use Conditional Moves"

This was a really interesting discussion until people started bickering or trying to use LoTR memes :p

I think learningthemoves articulated it well, so thanks for that. I like the Fischer quote, although I think playing without an awareness of psychology is probably a little blindsighted (in my opinion anyway).

It's all just something I'm interested in. I see conditional moves as the online version of someone playing almost instantaneoulsly otb. Yes you can assume they just play fast or it's a forced line, but outside of this it could be that they've analysed the position, worked out the best move for you and already prepared their response. What is your mental state in response to this? How can it be replicated in the totally different medium of online games? Conditional moves provide one such opportunity :)

Hopefully people enjoy thinking about things like this, and apologies if the notifications are annoying for you, feel free to untick 'tracking comments'.

Maybe a CM could induce an poorly considered response from your opponent, as could taking the maximum time allowed before you respond, hoping your opponent has forgotten his plans.  CM's are best left for totally forced moves.

I don't know about anyone else, but I find it annoying, especially because I have a lot of games going. I just can't get rid of that yellow box and I barely have any vacation time left, I've been trying to reduce it faster so conditional moves are helping, I don't care nearly as much about the game, I just want to get rid of it, so I use CM's to speed it up. 

Whenever my opponent plays conditional moves I think "Seriously? He's that obsessed with online chess" or "umm..creepy, he must be psychic or something". When I asked my opponent on chat why he used so many conditional moves he said "Can't sit around all day waiting for you" or something like that. I'm like "Doesn't he have better things to do like stare at the screen with like, 5 games waiting for his opponents to move? Does he have a life" Not sure if anyone did experience my experience, but hopefully someone can sympathize with this thought...

There is no reason anybody should be annoyed per the 2 situations above and also there are other times "if"moves should not be annoying.

In one game I had a difficult position that required a bit of thought and I finally came up with a move I was happy with...and wholla...I get a CM response.  This kept on happening, move after move.  I didn't think that my moves all that were obvious, but my opponent did.  I thought it was hilarious.

I agree totally there. I have used it against players ranging from 1200-1800 in my games when there are forced or winning continuations but even though my opponent played in one of my last games the moves I figured he would, I missed a forced mate in 3 by exact play on a Knight sac as well. CMs can go both ways for an opponent.

Here is a true experience which happened more than 45 years ago in the era of postal chess:

I played a game where I thought I was doing well but at the end on about the 32nd move I did a tactic which lost.  and I resigned.

Got to play the same player again soon after and I kept giving "if" moves

to follow our previous game and he kept accepting. Finally we arrived at the game position where my tactic has lost before.  This time I played the correct tactic and my opponent had to resign immediately!  So two games exactly the same until about the 32nd move.

I just want to point out the madness of playing a game that is identical 32 moves in. How you did that is beyond me. Nice one.

One thing that could be usefull to add to conditional moves:

"no matter what move he/she does, I will do this"

I may have missed this option, but it is impossible/alot of work to set all lines if you are already sure what you will do and it doesnt matter what your opponent does.

Indeed, if you are particularly bothered or intimidated by a conditional move, then your problems run deeper than chess.

Indeed indeed. If you're not mindful as to every move that is made and the reasons behind in, in chess or outside of it, then you've already lost :)

the LoTR thing was meant to be funny. but I believe there is a psycological side to them. its just not as strong as it seems.

Just faced a conditional move, my response? Checkmate.:D

One thing I've noticed that no one has mentioned is that here on chess.com,  conditional moves allow you to actually see the position, you dont' have to visualize in your head, you know what's coming, and in theory it could be used as an analysis aid.  So unless one is extremely careless, CM's could only improve the quality of your analysis.  let's say you're in a tricky endgame that you assume is kind of simple, and you're CM-ing several moves, when you noticey that hey, there'es more going on than I thought.  If you hadn't been CM-ing, you might have played the first move or so and started down a path that there is no going back on.  By CM-ing you have seen something down the road and that has changed your initial move. Since I'm trying to improve my chess here, I need practice calculating and visualizing, so I only use CM for obvious moves and recaptures, but I hope you see what I mean...

Actually, I just noticed the "analyze" button, which lets u analyze all u want, so nevermind about my last post, LOL

15 months old, but, I just noticed this.  Conditional Moves are a way of speeding the game along for me, also documenting thoughts on how to handle a situation (e.g. from using analysis in the rare instances I do).  I can understand how they come across as an intimdation factor; though they shouldn't unless the game is between people of dispirate rank.  At certain points in a game, there's only so much you can do.  You can document your standard openings and responses, or, as noted, forced checkmate.  One thing I've done to stop the flow of conditional moves, and force the other person to think is simply push a pawn as a waiting move (rather than anything else).