9 Questions Every Chess Player Has An Opinion On

If you are a chess player and/or fan, you certainly have some thoughts about the game and your preferences within it.  Who is the greatest chess player of all-time? Would you rather play with bishops or with knights? What time controls do you like the best?

Well, we posed those questions and more to the chess players of Chess.com, and here is what they said. At the end of the article, you too will be able to vote and share your opinion on these questions, both in a form and in the comments.

• Greatest Player Ever?
• Which Minor Piece?
• Best First Move?
• Allow Draw Offers?
• Best Time Control?
• Stalemate A Draw?
• Online Or OTB?
• Open vs. Closed Position?
• Dirty Flagging Legit?
• Conclusion

Who's the greatest player ever?

The answer seems obvious—and, indeed, 60% said GM Magnus Carlsen—but that's also why we have creative people like Francois.

Jeremy: Carlsen, or technically Stockfish.

Sahil: Magnus Carlsen. No explanation needed.

Aquilaungula: Magnus Carlsen. He manages to turn draws into wins against even the top 10, something not even the previous generations dared to try. 

Francois: They are probably just learning how to move the pieces this month but will beat every record in a decade or two.

They are probably just learning how to move the pieces this month but will beat every record in a decade or two.

- Francois

Matthew: Magnus Carlsen is the greatest chess player ever when you judge based on all-round gameplay, career success, off-the-board impact, and sense of character.

Pedro: Mikhail Tal. Not the strongest player but that dude knew how to enjoy life.

Others receiving votes: GM Garry Kasparov, GM Anatoly Karpov, GM Bobby Fischer

Author's take: Carlsen has had many more opportunities to assert his dominance than Kasparov, with online play exponentially increasing the number of games played, as well as rapid and blitz becoming much more serious endeavors. Until Carlsen picks himself over Kasparov, I'll stick with Kasparov.

Bishops or knights?

In the ultimate minor piece battle (people are pretty sure which major piece they prefer... the ROOOOOOK, obviously) the result was 55%–45%... among those who gave a straight answer.

Jeremy: In a vacuum they're about even, but no one ever talks about an advantage of the knight pair.

Mike P.: Bishop! This is the only piece that can "hide" from a position by being too far away. Knights get the attention—bishops are silent assassins.

Jose: Knights, they are sharper in blitz games

Mike K.: We tell the kids bishops but secretly its knights. We just want the adults to beat them for a few more years so we give out false info.

We tell the kids bishops but secretly its knights. We just want the adults to beat them for a few more years so we give out false info.

- Mike K.

Author's take: I... don't actually know on this one. (You: "But I thought everyone had an opinion!?") Hey, I just work here. Two bishops good, blitz knights good, etc.

e4 or d4?

No messing with other first moves, just the two most popular—which do you pick? Our vote was a perfect 50/50 split, with one abstention. But the more interesting answers belonged to the d4 fans... although I may be biased.

Sahil: d4. Once black plays 1.c5 against 1.e4, I run out of ideas.

Once black plays 1.c5 against 1.e4, I run out of ideas.

- Sahil

Mike P.: d4! London System!

Francois: e4. d4 is just preposterous.

Author's take: I feel the same way about e4, Francois!

Should draw offers be allowed?

As you might know, GM Robert Hess would like to see draw offers be abolished at the top level. So we thought we'd ask, what does everyone else think? Another 55%–45% result among the straight-up vote, this time in favor of getting rid of the draws, but it was hard to decipher who was serious and who was kidding. Yes, once again, our staff of comedians had a field day.

Sahil: Yes, but only after move two. We need to protect the game.

Mike K.: Ah yes, the "kissing your sister" of chess. Only allowed if the person offering says "pretty please."

Pedro: Yes, but only if always followed by chessboxing.

Yes, but only if always followed by chessboxing.

- Pedro

Matthew: Draw offers should never be allowed if chess aims to grow as a viewership game. Even dead drawn positions should be played out to a T, as there is a small chance of a slip up by either player as they play toward the draw.

Author's take: Most of our panel took care of the humorous answers, so I'll take a crack at the "serious" one: There's only a narrow rating band where draw offers make sense. There are too many of them at the highest levels, and they are useless for improving at the lower levels. So it's easiest just to ban them altogether... with apologies to all those FMs who just want to go home. (And even in the "acceptable" range you could argue they make it too easy to obtain title norms.)

What is the best time control?

No overall vote here as the open-ended nature of the ballot led to some people simply saying "rapid" or "bullet", while most people had a specific time limit in mind. Of those, which ranged from 1+0 on the fast end to 15+15 on the high end, the average came to seven minutes for the game with a three-second increment. A little weird, but it could work!

Aquilaungula: 15+10. Slow enough to give interesting and high quality chess, fast enough that we're not falling asleep waiting for a move. (Author's note: I like 15+10 if I have the time, but some people definitely fall asleep waiting for moves at that time control!)

Mike P.: 10 minutes. Blitz is fun over learning. Bullet is fun over practicality. Rapid is the right amount of fun and learning.

Simon: For pros, 10+2 online. For amateurs, 5+2.

Pedro: 3+2, everything else is either too long or too fast.

Author's take: I think if push comes to shove, 3+2 is also my favorite time control.

Should stalemate be a draw?

Almost everyone agreed a draw was the fair result of stalemate, but we had a lot of interesting answers for this one.

Mike K.: Stalemate being a draw is the worst outcome in chess but better than all the alternatives.

Mike P.: Stalemate should be a win for the stalemated player—since stalemate can only happen if the person to move doesn't give the opponent a square to reposition.

Francois: Yes, it is showing that one player is not able to checkmate and the other is not able to get dangerous. Looks like an even split. And if you keep asking, I will say that it should be a win for the player who's king is stalemated.

Simon: Yes, 100%. Learn to win!

Yes, 100%. Learn to win!

- Simon

Pedro: Stalemate is one of the best rules ever and I'm glad I'm a part of it (I stalemate a lot).

Author's take: Draw is correct. It keeps games interesting for longer, but giving the stalemated player a win would be too much reward for their efforts.

Online or over the board?

You might be surprised how many people at Chess dot com picked over-the-board for this question—it actually won the vote, 62%–38%! 

Of course, that's not a unanimous result...

Mike K.: Online. I mean, it's my paycheck.

Sahil: Online. At least my face is hidden after I blunder a queen.

Online. At least my face is hidden after I blunder a queen.

- Sahil

Aquilaungula: Over the board. Way more fun to see your opponent and have a personal connection with them, also to offer to analyze the game afterwards. 

Mike P.: Over the board. It's more fun to meet people this way. Online feels more of a fighting game—you win or you lose. Over the board allows the human element and show of emotions.

Pedro: Online, I don't even know how the pieces move OTB. (Author's note: I can attest to this. Pedro always beats me online and never beats me over the board—only a slight exaggeration.)

Author's take: It depends on the context. I haven't played a tournament game since high school and I don't miss it. But I cherish every over-the-board blitz session with my dad whenever I visit. So I'd take online over the former, but not the latter.

Open or closed positions?

If you need a refresher on what this means, see our Chess Terms here on open games and here on closed games. Open games won the vote, 58%–42%.

Simon: Open. Unless your rating starts with a two—and has four digits—always open. You (and me) don't know what you're anyways, so let's play baby!

Unless your rating starts with a 2—and has 4 digits—always open!

- Simon

Aquilaungula: Open allows for far more interesting games and pushes you to constantly find interesting/"best" moves rather than take nine moves to fight over a single pawn push. 

Mike P.: Closed! Closed position makes tempo super crucial. The first one to break a closed position with a tempo usually have a piece up and an advantage.

Author's take: As a d4 player, I'll pick closed. It's also harder to make an obvious blunder!

Is dirty flagging a legitimate strategy?

Ah, yes, the "dirty flag," not to be confused with regular flagging. In the latter, a player simply runs out of time. In dirty flagging, a player is losing or tied but speeds up gameplay trying to force the other player to keep up, and if they don't... oops:

Although a couple people said they were against this, most of them were kidding, and the main consensus was that it is absolutely fine.

Jeremy: It's your job to beat me. If you can't do it fast enough, that's on you.

Sahil: YES PLEASE, DON'T TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME!

Don't take this away from me!

- Sahil

Aquilaungula: Absolutely! The clock is a piece and if you can't play with all of your pieces, then you need to learn to get better at using them. 

Mike K.: Isn't that why we play blitz?

Matthew: Dirty flagging, unfortunately, is a legitimate strategy because there is no way to prove that the executioner of this strategy is not genuinely looking for a conventional win. Trying to delegitimize this strategy is simply projecting an unprovable intention on the executioner of the strategy.

Simon: Not when you do it to me

Romualdo: Only online.

Author's take: As someone who has scored 52% of his bullet wins on time versus only 21% of losses coming via the clock, I must admit to being in favor of the dirty flag. Any means possible.

Conclusion

Now's your chance—assuming you didn't just already click the article, scan the table of contents, and left your thoughts, in which case you're not reading this anyway, so why am I still typing?—to tell us your opinion on all of these questions. First, vote below...

...then let us know in the comments what you think!