Can you make it so that if you pre-move a pawn to make a promotion... that you automatically make it a Queen?
I've been screwed before because it takes an extra couple of seconds off my clock for me to hit the "Queen" selection.
I understand that you don't always want a Queen when you promote... but you want one 99.9% of the time, and it saves precious seconds for those end games when I have 7 seconds on my clock and my
opponent has a lone king, and I have a king and a pawn left.
Once I took a knight in order to save the game, but I agree with you about the fact that in 99.9% of the time, you will take a queen.
What you're asking exists on another websites; the "auto-queen" feature, which you can activate or not. But if you're fast enough, you can take a queen without losing any seconds... you only have to
practise :)
yes; premove the pawn to promote, then remember where on the board the box pops up for the queen and have your mouse waiting there
How do you 'make' or set-up a pre-move? Presumably you do this on your opponent's time.
Do a pre-move by commanding a move as if it was your turn to play.
For example, to pre-move short castling, either click the squares e8 then g8 while it's your opponent's turn (and not yours), or click just square e8 then release the click after dragging the cursor
to square e8.
Although I guess that's as self-explanatory as a pre-move design can get here. I can't think of a way to implement pre-move in a way that people on the site could automatically discover without
having to read it existed.
Thanks for the explanation. Despite the advantages, I'll probably not use it, as it seems contrary to the spirit of chess: think on your opponent's time, but you don't move until it's yours -
although technically you don't, you've shaved time .
On thinking about it, isn't it actually against the rules? Under these, a player's move only ends when he stops his clock - thus his opponent's move cannot start until then.
A pre-move, although not apparent at the time, surely involves making part of the move before then - because it involves the elimination of at least one mouse-click, the on-line equivalent of an
element of a physical move (which involves three elements: pick-up, moving through space and drop - not to mention having to move the same had to stop the clock, but that can't be mimicked online).
Or, am I just 30 years behind the times! And should so shut up!
Allowing pre-moves also involves an advantage to those in the know - until reading some of these posts (only in the last few days), I had no idea it was possible/allowed.
Most chess websites have implemented premove, I don't see it as a rule violation.
About people not knowing it exists, you are right, it's a bit unfair. But I just don't know how to inform them without cluttering the game screen.
I think it would violate the 'standard' rules of chess - but, of course, on-line is a whole different medium and you can choose to do as you will to 'improve' matters. Personally, I don't mind people
thinking on my time (they may think incorrectly!), but part-moving as well seems a bit much! I'm antideluvian, slow with a mouse and live in an isolated area with terrible broadband speed - so doing
everything on my time is an extra penalty it seems.
No-one wants a cluttered screen, and the whole matter (plus possibly other things that I haven't come across yet) could be resolved by having an introductory screen for newcomers to familiarize
themseves with (or at least have to view/pass through - if they choose not to, it's up to them, and they then can't complain.)
These are niggles, by the way - it's a great site and works pretty well.
