26-11-2012, 01:36 PM
I don't understand what all the fuss is about. I played on a live board yesterday afternoon (although I don't think it worked to be honest!) and was perfectly happy to..
a) play on a beautiful wooden board/set
b) have the game transmitted - win/lose or otherwise
c) Give up my opening secrets (i.e. face 1.b4 for the first time in my life and make something up!)
I really don't get some of the arguments outlined above?!
-The pieces are not so different from the normal tournament Staunton pattern (try playing in Slovakia/Russia etc! Little white blobs on the tops of pieces, white on black and vice versa, kings and queens noticeably different from our version).
-The 'preparation' argument has been pretty much refuted by many of the replies given here already. I could just about understand it if there was only one live board and the same person was on it all the time, but this simply isn't the case, and many of the games played at Congresses and elsewhere are available from different sources anyway, as downloads, featured games on blogs/websites/newspaper columns etc etc.
The pluses far outweigh the minuses as far as I am concerned, and trying to introduce bizarre rules to mollify a small minority of people is not really the way forward.
a) play on a beautiful wooden board/set
b) have the game transmitted - win/lose or otherwise
c) Give up my opening secrets (i.e. face 1.b4 for the first time in my life and make something up!)
I really don't get some of the arguments outlined above?!
-The pieces are not so different from the normal tournament Staunton pattern (try playing in Slovakia/Russia etc! Little white blobs on the tops of pieces, white on black and vice versa, kings and queens noticeably different from our version).
-The 'preparation' argument has been pretty much refuted by many of the replies given here already. I could just about understand it if there was only one live board and the same person was on it all the time, but this simply isn't the case, and many of the games played at Congresses and elsewhere are available from different sources anyway, as downloads, featured games on blogs/websites/newspaper columns etc etc.
The pluses far outweigh the minuses as far as I am concerned, and trying to introduce bizarre rules to mollify a small minority of people is not really the way forward.