Thursday 24 January 2019

Mouse slip

Way way back in the day, there were a few things that stood out in Internet Chess. The 2m+12s time control was the first, and takebacks was the second. The reason for such a big increment was due to 'lag', a problem eventually solved by the invention of 'timeseal'.
I remember feeling that the topic of 'takebacks' was kind of divisive in the online chess community. Some players allowed them for obvious mouse slips, while others had a strict 'no take back' policy. While I think the latter choice makes much more sense for everyone, I personally was a bit of a softie. I never asked for them if I made a misclick, but never refused them if asked (as far as I can recall). I'm pretty sure there was the occasional opponent who wanted to fix up a blunder (rather than a mouse slip), but honestly, I wasn't fussed.
At least in online competitions, this is now a thing of the past. Otherwise Black in the following game might have gone 'oops, clicked on the wrong piece', rather than get mated in 2. But his whole position was so horrible at that point, he may have wanted to just get the game over with.


Rohde,M (2358) - Haria,R (2450) [D38]
PRO League Group Stage chess.com INT (2), 15.01.2019



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