Online Chess VS OTB Chess: What's the difference?

Hello everyone, I am Bid and I'm back on Bid's Things, today we're gonna be exploring the topic: Online Chess V.S OTB Chess, What's the difference? Continue reading to find out!

So, I'm sure many people on this site got into chess after the rise of chess in 2020 during the pandemic. Because of twitch streamers, YouTubers, etc. All of them were playing chess online, but have you ever heard of OTB Chess?

It stands for Over The Board Chess, and many people don't play it. But it's where chess originated and one of the many vital steps to becoming a top player! Today we're exploring the difference between online chess vs OTB chess and potentially finding out: Which one is better?

Which one was first?

Interesting question I would say, but of course, OTB chess came first. OTB chess is the core of chess itself, I bet if one of your family members plays chess, they have an IRL chess board.

OTB Chess (or in this case, chess itself) originated in India and could be dated back to the 6th century! It then came to Iran where Checkmate/Shahmat (which literally means, the king is frozen) was invented.

An image of two men playing shatranj, a prototype of modern chess.

Meanwhile, Online Chess first came to life when the website Caissa.com was created in 1995.

Cheating in Online VS OTB: What's the difference?

Let's talk about cheating for a moment here. We all know about cheating online, methods of doing so are by using a chess engine like Stockfish, Komodo, Lc0 and maybe even Mittens...

But what about cheating in OTB? How do you cheat against an opponent in real life? certainly can't copy moves from an engine right..?

You'd be wrong on that one, you can do it with an accomplice most definitely (But don't cheat in chess online or OTB, you could get banned on the website you're playing chess online on and OTB you can get banned from playing chess for a few years, especially as a titled player!

How would you use an accomplice to your advantage you might ask, It might sound easy but it's really complicated. You know the Hans Niemann-Magnus Carlsen case? He was suspected of using beads to share moves with an accomplice that plays the move on an engine. but I'm not gonna share my opinion or who I am sided with for this blog.

Stock Image from Google, Searched: Man Looking at Laptop

Basically, the cheater has a device to communicate with their accomplice, and the cheater tells what the position is, and their accomplice uses stockfish or another strong chess engine to analyse the position for the best move (I don't actually know if this is how it works so correct me if I am wrong, I don't have any experience with cheating OTB lol)

Which one is more important and why?

It depends, the average chess player has never played OTB and discovered chess online. I myself have never played in an OTB tournament, but I admit that OTB is 10x more important than online if you're an expert. There is no way to get Grandmaster or World Champion by just playing chess.com online tournaments and arenas.

Titles and Ratings play a huge part in it, statistics say your chess.com blitz/rapid rating is usually 200 - 300 rating points more than what your actual FIDE rating would be. If you've never heard of the concept of titles, It's basically like NM, (National Master) CM, (Candidate Master) FM, (Fide Master) IM, (International Master) and GM.

Analyzing Games

So, we've all analyzed a game we've played on chess.com, using the big Game Review feature.

It gives you analytics on your accuracy using an algorithm called CAPS or now, CAPS2. And if you are in chess.com Beta testing, you can look at what rating you played as during the game!

But what about over the board? How would you analyze a game if there is no computer, or the big green Game Review button?

A great way to do so is while playing the game, write down all moves from you and your opponent, and after the game have a session with your opponent to look through the game, tell your thought process and find out what happened that won/lost you the game, so you and your opponent both can improve.

The Differences

As we see from this blog, there are many clear differences between the 2 ways of playing chess.

Like how you need internet to play online chess, but you just need a board to play OTB

Analysis is not at easy OTB as Online Chess, etc.

Pros and Cons of Online Chess:

Pros: The Board is clearer, Many People found out about chess online, You don't have to travel, There are many more resources to learn chess online, etc.

Cons: Rating is very easy to lose leading to tilts, Huge Waves of Cheaters.

Pros and cons of OTB Chess:

Pros: Rating is harder to lose, It is more fun to play in person, etc.

Cons: You have to travel often.

Conclusion

Both ways to play chess are equally as good and are equal in almost every way. There is still the beauty of chess in both ways.

What do you prefer? Do you agree both are equal?

Let me know in the comments below what you would like to see next from me, I'll end this post here.

See you all next time!

- Bid