lichess.org
Donate

Play by the rules of the game online

To play chess all players must first know the rules of chess
but when you play online chess these rules are not enforced as players cannot brake them
in any way, all illegal moves are removed by developers on all chess websites as far as i know
and i feel this takes away so much from the game if the rules are not used to play
its not playing chess as it should be played ,in my opinion it would be better if the developers could implement
this one day to online chess so that the rules of the game are followed.

All the best.

What is an Illegal Move in Chess?

In Chess, an illegal move is when a piece moves outside of the boundaries of its defined abilities. Illegal moves include ones that are otherwise legal but expose that player’s King to check. It is also an illegal chess move to leave your king in check. There are also chess moves that have to meet certain criteria to be legal. This includes moves such as promotion and castling.
Important Things to Know About Illegal Chess Moves

To delve further into the world of illegal chess moves, and to get a better understanding of the topic, there are some important things to look at. These points include:

Knowing the list of illegal chess moves
Knowing what to do if you make an illegal chess move
Knowing what to do if your opponent makes an illegal chess move
Understanding how many illegal moves are allowed in the game of chess

Understanding these points will help to shed further light on the question about what moves are illegal in chess. Beyond this, it is fascinating to look at real cases of illegal moves being made in the world of competitive, tournament chess.
List of Illegal Moves

As previously noted, the main things that constitute an illegal move in the game of chess are those where pieces are moved in ways that are not within their abilities according to the rules. Some of the most common illegal chess moves include:

Advancing a knight five squares forward on the chessboard
Moving a piece into check
Jumping chess pieces with a bishop
Moving a pawn to its furthest distant rank and then pressing the clock without replacing the pawn with a new piece
Failure to retract an illegal move

What To Do If You or Your Opponent Made an Illegal Move?

Though it might be the case that a player in a chess game will make an illegal move on purpose, it is more often the case that these illegal moves are made unintentionally and have to be called out by the other player or the arbiter who is observing the match. The right thing to do when you have made an illegal move is to retract it It is often considered to be a proper protocol to complete a new move using the piece that was moved illegally. This often falls under the rule known as the touch-move rule. The rule states that a player must move or capture a piece if they have touched it during their turn and it is legal to do so.

It can often be the case that an illegal move can cause a player to immediately lose the game. The arbiter of the game might also decide that the match must be restarted. There are various ways that this can go depending on the event and the arbiter in question who is overseeing it. An illegal move will often result in the other player winning automatically.

While many might think that chess played at the highest level would be free of illegal moves and always played completely above board it does not always work out that way. Though this is often the case, it is not always true. There are plenty of cases of high-level, renowned chess players making illegal moves within tournament play. Many of these cases have been caught on camera.

One of the most infamous and legendary instances of a highly regarded chess player making an illegal move in chess was when Grandmaster Veselin Topalov received a penalty for putting a pawn on the eighth rank without declaring a queen against Grandmaster Garry Kasparov. The commentators of this chess event noted that only a few years prior, this illegal move would have resulted in an immediate forfeiture but the rules had been relaxed since that time.
How Many Illegal Moves are Allowed in Chess?

How many illegal moves are allowed in chess? This is another common question that comes up within this overall topic. The simplest answer to this question is that it depends on whether the illegal moves are caught. Any illegal move that is identified can cause an immediate pause in the game while a determination is made whether to award it to the opposing player or to restart the match again. The bottom line is the fact that illegal chess moves compromise the integrity of that specific game. It can accurately be stated that a chess player who wins a tournament game by utilizing illegal moves has a compromised victory.

The International Chess Federation, also known as FIDE, has some specific guidelines regarding how many illegal chess moves are allowed in a tournament. Under FIDE rules, the first illegal move that is caught results in a time penalty that allows the opponent two extra minutes of time if it is rapid chess or regular chess. In a Blitz game, they are granted an additional minute. The next illegal move that the player makes will result in their immediate forfeiture under FIDE’s set of rules. It should also be noted that a player can retract an illegal move if they have not pressed the clock in a tournament game.
Implementing illegal moves into Lichess would be detrimental for bullet and ultrabullet, where flagging takes priority over analyzing your opponent's moves.
I'm not sure if any online chess site implements touch-move.

That would mean, in the case of online chess, that if you click your mouse on one of your pieces, you'd have to move that piece if it is legal to do so.

Obviously there would never be a need for 'j'adoube' in online chess.

That would be only if you clicked on it with the left mouse button, so streamers can show their lines with right-clicks.

This topic has been archived and can no longer be replied to.