Why isn't there touch move online?

With the amount of loadshedding in my country it's a good thing I don't play OTB... it would be 50/50!

The use of a 2nd board is not regarded as violating fair play rules - but for many reasons (including this topic) it is highly discouraged. What is against FP is the moving about of the pieces on the 2nd board during live play trying out various moves. This is clearly analysis. But then so it is on the live board - 1/2 move analysis deciding on any number of possibilities has forever been accepted practice online.

What was the original purpose of the touch rule? I think to avoid any kind of cheating, like picking up a piece, holding it in the air while thinking about where to place it, then saying "No, I'll move a different piece" and placing the original back in a different square and hoping the opponent did not notice. This is not a problem with computer chess.

It's probably that and a whole bunch of things.

Imagine playing OTB and trying to calculate and your opponent is holding a piece or even two in his hands without there being a rule that he has to play them... that would be complete chaos. I think that is the biggest reason for the rule.

Say what??  Online you can pick up any piece and place it on any square and visualize the position. The move is not made official until it is “dropped”... only when it is released is the move officially made. It can be returned to the original square and another piece selected to move. This is totally in opposition to the OTB touch move rule.

For OTB - picking up a piece and placing it on a new square to better visualize the position...

is against the rules primarily because the practice is of assistance- players can better visualize and perhaps calculate further. Sure- it would be annoying  to opponents permitting take-backs. But that is not the reason behind the rule.(annoyance)

I don't get who you are talking to. Like I don't think anyone disagrees with that.

Because no one cares enough to complain about it. 

because it's not otb?

I think it's for two reasons mainly: 1) so if a player picks up a piece and holds it mid-air (with or without the intention of playing it), the opponent could have a visible reaction in body language or shift his eyes and give the other player a psychological advantage, and 2) picking up pieces randomly and putting them back on the original square obviously would interfere with the opponent's concentration and calculations.

They say the only stupid question is the one you don't ask, but now I'm not so sure.

wheeze

Agreed. All of these considerations don’t apply to online play as neither player can see what the other is doing so having the one touch rule is arbitrary in this case. In fact you could argue that not having the rule can also benefit the opponent as the other player has a much higher likelihood of mouse slips.

Because it is arbitrary, it would be interesting to have the option to enforce the one touch rule as part of game matching and tournament setups, same as with the “no vacation” option in daily games. Personally I don’t think having the one touch rule would have much impact on games. Probably more annoying than anything else. 

The problem is that if you play by phone or tablet that it will select moves and squares that you did not touch or hover over. Also I tried to legally queen a pawn, and my tablet froze. I lost on time. So to make a program that would sense that you touched a piece would just cause problems.

The reason for the touch move t

i mean i have to click to move and yes, i still misclick sometimes because of lagspikes on my computer so yes maybe that is a reason

The reason for the touch move rule in OTB play is simple. Usually one person touches a piece and sees that if he moves it that harm will come to him. So he does not want to move that piece, but he has to. If you did not have the rule, you wind up with what I see in club play in which a player touches and temov

"Like if you touch a piece OTB you have to move it, but why doesn't the same principle apply online?"

Not sure what aspect you are asking. Unless you have a motor deficiency like with Parkinson's, your ability to pick up a piece OTB is not the same as online. While we are at it, I have had it where I pointed my mouse on a square, say e7, and instead of Nf6 it automatically played Ne7 after my opponent moved. I was only "ghosting" around thinking on their time.

My view on this is that online chess should mimic OTB chess, not the other way around. Any improvement to go in this direction would be great.

I think there are 2 things that can be done. In daily you can confirm moves. In live I don't see a way. If this is true, then I think they should allow for confirming moves. This is not practical in bullet or blitz, but in rapid or longer I think it would give both sides the opportunity to evaluate the position in an OTB aspect.

The reason being, when you pick up a piece OTB you can see it as it hovers or is in between eyesight and the square you may want to put it on. In OTB, you are allowed to move it to another square if it has not been released. An equivalent action online would be 1-3 second delay (not in overall time). If you accept the move, you just click it a second time. This would be like someone releasing the piece from the board. I am sure you could designate another way like the spacebar, so you could click it faster. It woouldn't cost you any time and your opponent wouldn't see the move until you actually did this.

It is a safety measure to make sure the move you intended was the move you wanted. In an educational sense it allows you to get a second look just like in OTB tournament where you can in fact see a piece hovering over a square in 3D form.

"Why aren't there mouseslips OTB?"

The direction should go from OTB to online where online mimics OTB chess. I don't agree we should apply bi-directional rules. Mouseslips are non-existent lierally OTB, and we should take measures online to make sure mouseslips are not the reason for making mistakes. I think it was Christopher Yoo that did this in an online game last year. It states, "The players still had ample time on their clocks when this happened." at
https://www.chess.com/news/view/us-championship-online-qualifier-tiebreaker

If this is true, then why aren't measures in place to allow for confirmation then?

If you argue that it takes time away from the play, then what about OTB where you have to write the moves down? Somewhere your attention is not placed on the game, either thinking on your opponent's clock time or confirming a move.

I feel cons of this get canceled out.

"As picking up a piece with the mouse ... hovering over a square (visualizing the position) then returning the piece to it’s original square and playing another move-

Violates the OTB touch move rule."

No it doesn't. Wen you pick up a piece OTB, as stated before in this post you can see it over any intended square in a 3D fashion. Online, you are only seeing it in 2D. That doesn't even address the OP which talks about a mouseslip not indecisiveness over a move.

In OTB you are allowed to move it to another square.

"In OTB play, if the power goes out in the playing hall, do the players who are on the move automatically lose?"

Well, if the power goes out and you were winning, then it gives the losing side more time to think while the winning side reconnects. If you are losing and you lose power, then it at least rewards the person winning.

"The problem is that if you play by phone or tablet that it will select moves and squares that you did not touch or hover over."

That's why there should be a confirmation option. Possibly put in a 1-3 second delay before the move is sent (like email). If you don't want to wait those 1-3 seconds you press the spacebar after releasing the piece from your mouse.

damn who here has lag spikes like me

removes many pieces, his opponent gets confused and they wind up with illegal positions. If with the rule, some famous players have lied that they never touched the piece. We need the rule.