Thoughts on takebacks?

the sports/competition analogy doesn't really work either i don't think - chess is about thinking of the best moves, and if something goes wrong in the process of actually executing the move then you should be able to do a takeback. it's a much clearer situation than something like mis-kicking a ball because of bad laces or whatever, as you know for certain what the position would be if you'd done the move you intended.

i also think it would be great to have some way of pausing the game for internet disconnects. mouse and internet reliability just doesn't have anything to do with chess skill.

But you have the capability of ensuring that nothing goes wrong in the process of actually executing the move. Why not make sure nothing goes wrong yourself instead of just hoping nothing goes wrong and expecting someone else to clean it up?

@springheeljim hmm yes, you're right, it was wrong to compare chess and competitive sport... oh wait, chess IS a competitive sport!
*bangs head on wall*
Ok this really was my last answer, I can't take it anymore..

hmm i still don't see why it wouldn't be in both players' interests to correct a wrong move caused by a technical glitch. the only reason to deny it would be to get a definite win on your record and increase rating points, but surely the whole point of your rating is to be an accurate measure of how good you are at chess, not of how often your opponents lose their internet connection or have trouble with their mouse.

The point is that I'm not going to try to determine whether or not it was a legitimate entry error or just regret at having blundered. I understand that sometimes it's easier to tell than others, but I'm trying to play chess with a clock on me. It's not my responsibility to fix your errors and it's not your responsibility to fix my errors. It is entirely within your control to eliminate the errors, so just do that and there's no gray area. If you grant some takebacks you have to get into the whole "where do I draw the line" crap and, again, I'm playing timed chess. Ain't nobody got time for that. Further, it encourages people to continue to play sloppily, which is bad for their chess and a bad habit in life in general.

It's just simpler, cleaner, more honest, and better for everyone involved to double-check your moves and decline takebacks.

just to address your post @CafeMorphy - my point wasn't about whether chess is a competitive sport, it was more that i think there is a fundamental difference between chess and physical sports in this case. you can play a game of chess with someone by just saying moves to each other in words - it's not tied to any particular medium like physical sports. plus the original medium invented for it (a physical chessboard) doesn't have the disconnect/mouse slip problem. just adds to the false-ness of winning by a mouse-slip for me.

i don't think it's always possible to make sure you can do it right -- i've had it a couple of times where the mouse button has released without me taking any pressure off it, and then there's just random glitches with track pads. i agree that you probably shouldn't play with a trackpad if you're too bothered about the game though. also i don't play fast time controls. for anything under 3|2 i would probably ignore any takeback requests as well, unless the position was really interesting and obviously a mouse-slip like moving one square short.

As mentioned in this thread numerous times, it is 100% possible. There is an option called move confirmation which makes you click a confirm button after you move and double-check that the move was what you intended before the move is actually sent. You can also type your moves with the keyboard. There is no excuse to not be 100% accurate (and don't say it slows you down, because you can select your time control before the game -- if you want to play a faster game and sacrifice your ability to double-check and therefore your accuracy, that is your decision -- you can't then expect your opponent to clean up after you if you choose that route).

Yeah, and also mentioned before is that there is currently no mechanism by which you can automatically turn move confirmation off for blitz games, making turning it off and on between different time control games sufficiently annoying and easy to forget that I don't think your point is quite fair.