Using "Explorer" in Online Games

What are your guys view on this. Do you encourage the use of it in correspondance games. In my opinion I think it is fine and just qives you an idea of the variety of responces you can reply with in a certain opening. I believe it also helps you learn openings as well.

It's always been a part of correspondence chess.  The old joke back in the postcard era was that the player with the largest library would win.  All we've done is digitize that library.

Good to know, I'll keep using it then. Good practise for when I play on the live server, although I find myself enjoying correspondance more and more.

I disagree. I think that relying too heavily on an opening explorer hinders your ability to think of positional imbalances by yourself.

I only use it to check the first few (maybe 4) moves I make are "theoretically" correct.

I think it depends on how you use it.

If you just use it blindly, meaning without knowing why the moves are made, then you probably are not doing much to help yourself.

However, if you have some idea of the plans for the opening and are able to sort out WHY the move is the best move, then I believe it is going to help you in the long run.

Here is a blog I wrote about learning openings for lower rated players like us.

Oh, in that case, for sure! 

Every month or two we have this debate in the forums.  I appreciate the civil tone of everyone in this one.  Usually someone who has never heard of correspondence chess complains bitterly that his opponents have been "cheating" and demands that the practice of using books and databases  stop immediately!  

I've used the term "training wheels chess" to describe correspondence and I think it's a good analogy.  I'm not in any way trying to be demeaning, just point out that with the aid of books, videos, and databases, you can play at a higher level than you otherwise could.  Obviously you need to play some live chess as well to test yourself, but correspondence allows you to get deep into real chess positions.  Some would rather not take advantage of the legal resources available and that's fine too.  You can sure learn a lot of chess though if you take advantage of them and really research your moves.  It's all good.

Yeah, no doubt some blitz or bullet player will come along soon and start talking about how CC is not real chess, it's full of cheaters and only blitz/bullet ratings count.

I play both and my live/cc are similar, I don't see it as a massive set back when not using explorer in cc I just feel it helps me understand why I should be making those moves.

I definitely agree with it being a helpful resource for chess students. I think though, that as kleelof said, following moves past the 4th or 5th move in an opening database (unless you understand the ideas behind it, of course) which were made by master chess players is not going to help you understand those ideas, or what imbalances lead to that choice. This changes, I guess, the stronger you become at positional understanding, where I can see great benefit from using such a resource.

 I don't doubt it.

For me online chess is first of all the means of studying. I use a lot of resources including:

1. explorer and database to find similar games

2. then I read about the opening moves (in order to choose move I understand well and the one that 'suits' the way I'd like to play - I don't play the moves I'd never played without finding it in the resources) and annotations on these similar games (if they are available)

3. I read about strategic concepts that arise

Simply speaking nearly everything apart from the engines, obviously. I hope it's okey and I am sure it improves my understanding of chess.

Do you really understand why the moves are made? Not saying you don't. But it is easy in chess to THINK we know why moves are made and actually be completely wrong.

I used to think like you. There's a guy at my local club who is expert level, and when I told him that I played correspondence chess but that I didn't use databases he encouraged me to do it. As a result, there has been an improvement in the openings of my OTB games: more variety, more lines and better understanding of the ideas behind them. As kleelof says in the message above, there's a risk: when you play some strange line you may not understand what you're doing, but you even learn from that.

I use it to see what kind of option I have, but I don't worry about statistics if it hinders my creativity.

Wow, I never really thought about it like that. I dont play cc that often ( I think i have played like 10 games in total) but it does seem like a great way to learn and improve. I think i might start a few games now lol

I have always used explorer=tried the others= find explorer best