Our Bullet Chess Philosophy

As the action in the Bullet Chess Championship heats up, so does everyone's itch to throw down in a game (or 36 ) of 1|0!

Bullet chess is fun. Bullet chess is crazy. Bullet, more than any other time control, truly represents the online sporting aspect of modern-day chess. 

But bullet chess is still, well, chess, and just like any game played since the early 1800s (take a moment to read this awesome article, The Chess Clock -- A History), time, and how much you take of it, matters. I'm often asked why a user loses a minimum of 0.1 seconds on a pre-move, so with this blog I'll tell you why we do things the way we do when it comes bullet chess timing.

Chess.com's goal has always been to blend the timeless (ironic pun? ) experience of over-the-board competition with the convenience of online connectivity. We believe that every aspect of an online chess game should mirror the nuances of live -- or as the kids say, IRL ("in real life"; I know, we're getting old) -- games. This includes the amount of time it may take for a person, even the fastest, to press their button (hit the clock). 

I remember when we first launched bullet as a possible option for our users in Chess.com/live (roughly 10 years ago. There were many discussions surrounding whether we believed someone should even be allowed to "pre-move." What old-school fuddy-duddies we were!  

The ability to play infinite chess moves has never been possible in serious events. Even tournaments with adjournments had time limitations! It's hard to imagine an over-the-board experience where someone writing down the move ahead of time somehow excluded the player from the required aspect of physically making the move on the board.

Yet at the risk of calling us too purist for the game, you could argue we're still a little old-school. We do not believe that online chess should be a "video game" or become something that rewards every time scramble to the fastest mouse or craftiest pre-move trickery. Every time scramble takes time. Period.

So what did we decide (and hold to) so long ago? That the ICC (Internet Chess Club) had it right: Yes, the fastest players in the world do have the ability to make moves and only lose microseconds. (Here's one of my favorite time scrambles sponsored by our own Fins0905, but please save your #TeamScandi references for the comments section ):

But 0.1 second is the fastest any human can make a move.

It is our belief that a player must win a chess game in the allotted time that you and your opponent started with. While you may be able to anticipate your opponent's move (as John Bartholomew does often in the video above), you must still answer for the time it took you to play this move.

Could we change it so that a pre-move loses no time? Of course we could! But we haven't for a reason, and we don't plan to do so as long as I'm helping to guide the "chess product" of this crazy chess ship (my made-up title of chief chess officer has to give me some kind of say, right? ).

Losing on time is part of the battle. Winning your chess games before you do so should be required of any chess player. For some, that's not even enough "classical over-the-board" flavor, and this is why even today we believe in giving our users the option to play with or without pre-moves:

Yes, we're an online-based chess company offering ways for people to play and learn chess online, but Chess.com is about chess as it's played by the world's best:

Would I have loved for pre-moves over the board to NOT lose me ANY time...and ultimately allow me to (maybe? ) beat Magnus in that crushing attack on the kingside? You're darn right I would! But the failed-frustrated-chess-champion in me still knows what's right: Chess is a game played with the clock, and you have limited time to win those games, or suffer the consequences of not being able to do so.

#Storyofmylife.

While I'm only the CCO, our CEO Erik lives by the mantra: Ride 'til I die, 'cause 2Pac lives...

But he also says: "We are here to delight our users." And he's right! Everything I do, I do it for you (thank you Bryan Adams... thank you...).

But seriously, we do our best to always tweak experiences, tools, events, designs and rules to keep them (you!) happy, and we always will.

I'd love to hear the thoughts of our community after reading my point of view on why we maintain this approach to the fastest version of chess.