What is daily chess?

Very good points. I do understand novelties are going to happen eventually just as in any chess game but it still sort of feels like with the database, cheating is allowed until the novelty shows up.  Maybe that is a bad way to look at it. Maybe a better way is just to think of it as training for live games. Because it does help if you really stare a position down for a while, obviously. But then that should start to quicken you calculation speed just from really working your brain over when a position seems lost or won.

You made me realize another thing too. Daily games do tend to be dry and not that exciting. You just have too much time to calculate (both players do). So there are hardly any sneaky traps or nice combos you can pull off because there is no excuse for not seeing it (at your respective level) when you have literal hours to consider a position.