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Jeez! all these bleeding hearts about a game of chess.

If someone hangs a piece then take it, that's the nature of the game.

 Exactly, I don't find any logic in this. The object of the game is not to make mistakes yourself and take advantage of your opponent's mistakes. Someone has to make a mistake for the other to win.

HAHAH!!! Literaly LOL. Thanks for that insight... but if those mistakes are computer disconnects or mouse slips, what, pray tell, does that have to do with the game? Anyway, clearly you are simply new to Steinitz's theory of equilibrium and trying to fill your need for accomplishment?

P.S. do you not see the tongue and cheek?

"But in era which no longer can relate to Steinitz's statement that "A win by an unsound combination, however showy, fills me with artistic horror", does it not also stand to reason that there should be no reason to not have takebacks."

I think you've misunderstood Steinitz, it filled him with artistic horror, sure -- but if it was his combination, he took the point.

Forgiving on computer disconnects, I understand that. However mercilessly punishing mouse slips are totally fine by the Black Book of Chess Etiquette.

Thanks for all your light hearted comments!

There is an aesthetic dimension in chess, especially in games played by the best practitioners.   But that is not the predominant nature of the game.   Chess is  war. The pieces are various parts of an army.    A chess player at the board is not consciously designing an object of contemplation; he is trying to vanquish an enemy.    The chess player bent on victory cannot limit himself or herself to gambits or combinations that are theoretically sound.   Chess like poker and fencing includes the bluff and the feint.  So long as we stick by the rules and do not cheat, we are admired to the extent we win -- or improve.    Deliberate distractions such as blowing cigar smoke in one's opponent's eyes, are reprehensible because they seek to achieve an advantage by creating conditions adverse to one's opponent in ways having nothing to do with the rules of chess.   That is cheating.   But on the field of battle there is always an element of chance or the unpredictable.  The astute general learns to capitalize on these events.    If the English army in France is tired and hungry and poorly armed, no one faults the French for seizing that moment to attack, before the English can replenish themselves.    The same holds true in chess.   We are and should be alert for weaknesses in our adversary.   If an error is made, we exploit it.   It may be the product of rashness, poor judgment, haste, or a slip of the finger.   It matters not.  In Shakespeare's phrase, "tis but the chance of war."  Our purpose is to win, not to create the Mona Lisa or achieve intellectual immortality. 

When we play online, we know our fingers may slip.  That's a part of the challenge.   Making fewer slips than our adversary is our goal.   Had we only a single game to play in our careers, we might justly regard it as a matter of supreme importance, and consider graciously allowing our opponent to take back an inadvertent mistake for the sake of the maintaining the memorable character of the game.   That would be our legacy.  But when we win --or lose-- a game online that turned on a mere accident, we usually learn something from the experience and take that lesson into tomorrow's battle. 

     Honor, then, does not entail humbly handing one's enemy his sword after he has dropped it.  That is not bushido.  Honor means having the courage and dignity to accept one's defeat, whether we suppose it came from the superior skill of the adversary or the whims of the gods.   The game that really counts is the one we play tomorrow.   

Thanks for that eloquent response soccertease... I really appreciate it. But how about the freedom to choose whether one hand's his opponent his sword or not? Is that not something we could move towards? Anyway, very well said, and I appreciate the grandiose manner in which you said it... somewhat mirroring the humor I intended for this forum.

Oh, by the way... I think we all could afford to converse with a female or three... unless... oh now I'm just confounded! WE need to get a life.

What soccertease said.

And one more more thing, if you add such an option, abuse will surely follow.

Legitimate blunders will be claimed to be slips of the finger. Opponents will demand the right to take back. Many (like me) will refuse. We will get sworn at, posted about in the forums, banned, blocked and generally regarded as the scum of the earth.

If this is ever implemented, I for one will never ask for such a concession, always refuse it when offered, and never grant it.

The TAKEBACK facility exists - for games started in that mode.

A suggestion I made before: if both sides agree, allow the game to be switched into TAKEBACK mode ... BUT it then becomes UNRATED.

Another possibility: take the game to its inevitable conclusion, but have the facility of restarting a WHAT-IF (unrated) game from just before the blunder point. I have done this in the past, but it was necessary for both players to manually make the moves (or use CONDITIONAL MOVES) to reach the pre-blunder point.

Is it perhaps possible to set up a new game using the FEN from the blunder point of the previous game?

Anyone remember this incident?

player A said that he had made an unintended move. Would player B agree to rewinding the board to undo the move?

player B agreed - and made a neutral move which meant that he did not take advantage of player A's slip.

player A then made a different move from the one he had proposed - taking advantage of player B's co-operation.

As a direct result, player B lost a major piece. player B was not best pleased.

help-tracking-down-a-sportsmanship-discussion-please

How do you make a mouseslip here if you use the submit button ?  I think if you are using the submit button and still making mouse slips there is no hope for you. If you make mouse slips and arent using the submit button then I suggest you use the submit button.

It happened to me twice. I am playing on a notebook computer and something went wrong with the touchpad. One of them was we were exchanging the rooks, and my queen stopped a square below his rook while I was intending to take it. It was obvious that wasn't my plan.  After investing all that time into the game, I am sure my opponent wouldn't want it to get ruined like this either. I apologized, and resigned. 

At the end, there is no need to change the current rules, as it would open a new can of worms, as explained. My computers mistake is still the mistake on my side, and even though it probably is not pleasing for the both sides, there is nothing more to do than accepting it, and moving on.