Feature suggestion
Consider this situation:
You are playing correspondence chess. You make a move creating a situation where there is exactly one legal move the opponent can make (usually because there is a check and only one way to get out of it). As your opponent is not actively playing at the moment, you still need to wait (possibly for days) until you can make the next move.
This can be mildly annoying. In most such situations, the annoyance can be mitigated by pre-moving. But if the game is essentially over (only a series of forced moves remain for the opponent until mate), then you still have to wait for the opponent to play before the game can finish (so you can get those lovely rating points and move on to analysing the game).
So what if he opponent had enabled a feature (opt-in) where forced moves in correspondence games are made automatically by the server (like if it was a pre-move) and they just get a notification that the move has been made on their behalf? Then you could go on with the next move right away and if there are only forced moves left in the game for the opponent, then you could finish the game at once.
I would find it useful if my correspondence opponents had this enabled, and I would enable it myself so my opponents wouldn't have to wait for me when there is no decision for me to make. Would others find it useful? Could it be harmful in any way?
Why optional?
- some may find a sudden auto-move confusing
- some may want the opportunity to resign, offer a draw or accept (or retract) an existing draw offer instead of making the only legal move
Why only for correspondence?
- in non-correspondence, that wait for the opponent to move is never that long anyway
- an unexpected auto-move could be really confusing in a fast paced game
- the time spent by a human player to realise that the move is forced affects the clock, so it is part of the game
Consider this situation:
You are playing correspondence chess. You make a move creating a situation where there is exactly one legal move the opponent can make (usually because there is a check and only one way to get out of it). As your opponent is not actively playing at the moment, you still need to wait (possibly for days) until you can make the next move.
This can be mildly annoying. In most such situations, the annoyance can be mitigated by pre-moving. But if the game is essentially over (only a series of forced moves remain for the opponent until mate), then you still have to wait for the opponent to play before the game can finish (so you can get those lovely rating points and move on to analysing the game).
So what if he opponent had enabled a feature (opt-in) where forced moves in correspondence games are made automatically by the server (like if it was a pre-move) and they just get a notification that the move has been made on their behalf? Then you could go on with the next move right away and if there are only forced moves left in the game for the opponent, then you could finish the game at once.
I would find it useful if my correspondence opponents had this enabled, and I would enable it myself so my opponents wouldn't have to wait for me when there is no decision for me to make. Would others find it useful? Could it be harmful in any way?
Why optional?
- some may find a sudden auto-move confusing
- some may want the opportunity to resign, offer a draw or accept (or retract) an existing draw offer instead of making the only legal move
Why only for correspondence?
- in non-correspondence, that wait for the opponent to move is never that long anyway
- an unexpected auto-move could be really confusing in a fast paced game
- the time spent by a human player to realise that the move is forced affects the clock, so it is part of the game