English Chess Forum

Although I don't always agree with Justin I have to say I feel he is completely in the right in this case - resignation rather then timeout means the player chose to end the game at that point because they had not got the advantage they felt their "theory" entitled them to .

Here is a fresh one today - no doubt in my mind that this player threw his toys out of the pram after failing to hack a win with this opening and stormed off.

https://lichess.org/69kTlWSQh8uf

Check this one out

I can almost guarantee that he was expecting you to play Nb6, pre moved his queen in anticipation and then was so angry at losing a tempo he just couldnt face playing on.

Plausibly it's slightly different - that they were using the occasion for opening practice and having made the error in move order they decided the exercise no longer had any value.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 3:25 pm

Plausibly it's slightly different - that they were using the occasion for opening practice and having made the error in move order they decided the exercise no longer had any value.

That could be it, especially as it was a casual game. No damage to rating and then just move on to another opponent who may play the line they were hoping to face.

I remember on one server that any aborts before move three for White was played didnt count for rating (a player could just hit "abort").

A common tactic became 1.d4 g6; 2.Bh6 - hoping for a pre-moved Bg7 ... and if Black didnt pre-move Bg7 just abort and start again

Paul Dargan wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 6:41 pm

A common tactic became 1.d4 g6; 2.Bh6 - hoping for a pre-moved Bg7 ... and if Black didnt pre-move Bg7 just abort and start again

This is the sort of anecdote which convinces me that online games really should be FIDE rated.

Eyebrow-raising profile in which the grading for each discipline is one point higher than the previous one. No, I have no idea why anybody might wish to do this and it might very well be legitimate.

That is weird, and surely it cannot be easy to fix that?

I played an arena last week, where I reached 2/2 in one move. My first opponent (400 below me) failed to move as white, and the second one (170 below me) failed to move as black, realising that 1.e4 is very strong. Of course, they might have wandered away from the computer, or the phone rang, or the dog wanted to go out, but one or both might have decided to wait for an easier game, (which they might have got from me anyway.)

It is only this thread which makes me wonder whether I am wrong to maintain my abstinence from the pleasures of online rated chess.

"It is only this thread which makes me wonder whether I am wrong to maintain my abstinence from the pleasures of online rated chess."

I don't think it's a pleasure - it's just better than nothing. The only benefits are (a) that if you lose, it doesn't matter, (b) if you win you can laugh openly at your opponent, and (c) you can play different openings, see (a). I suppose there's a (d), it's something else to complain about. Oh, and (e), you can try to defend against a violent pawn-storm from Bogdan Lalic, which is something rarely experienced in normal chess.

To reply to Nick and Kevin, I agree that it has been better than no chess for the past 22 months, but for me it has given a much broader range of opponents than I would normally have got. For example, as a modest rated club player, I got to play against 3 former British champions, numerous other GMs/IMs and other extremely strong players, who I would never get near with my usual club/county/4NCL boards. Predictable results, of course, but I would probably say a unique experience in the context of my lifetime chess ‘career’.

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 29, 2022 9:45 am

I don't think it's a pleasure - it's just better than nothing.

I am much more positive than that. I thoroughly enjoy the two ECF online events on Thursday and Friday evenings. (Kevin plays in the Friday one.) On those evenings I won't be giving them up for OTB on a regular basis.

Since OTB started up again, I have played three games in County matches, won one County match game by default, and played GM Nikita Vitiugov in a simul.

I have found two things difficult. I expected the first, but not the second.

The first is that I have had to remember that if I pick up a piece and put it back, I cannot then move something else.

The second is that I have had trouble keeping score.

Maybe I was a bit gloomy as I didn't feel I was playing well, although that didn't seem to affect the results much. I have produced some truly awesome swindles online, including several in the last 72 hours. David and I have had some entertaining games, and I am enjoying my match with Nigel Towers, 76 games so far... It is actually fun and most opponents are pleasant. And it's revealed a few holes in my opening knowledge, which I must fix before I play real games again.

I never really liked online chess, but now even if I were playing normally, I would probably join a random arena at times, so I will try to be more positive!