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For example, the question I played 2.f3 by accident! How do I save my position? seems to be about an ongoing game ("I almost feel like resigning here"). Consulting other people about a game in progress is against rules of almost all (correspondence) chess sites and clubs. Should we discourage such behaviour by not answering (or closing) these questions?

One can always say that we don't know the exact rules of the game being played, and it's not our business to find out if the OP is breaking rules. Or probably that it is not our business even if we know that the OP is breaking rules. On the other hand, I'd suggest that in these cases the OP should clearly say if he is not breaking any rules, because otherwise it seems very likely that this is cheating. Anyway, I think we should not deliberately encourage cheating.

This was also asked as a side question in Questions about chess.stackexchange.com but newer answered, and I didn't find any other related results.

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    I would also like to know what are the guidelines for this, as discussion of ongoing games is strongly discouraged or outright disallowed (and rightly so in my opinion) on almost all chess forums.
    – GrizzlyRawrz
    Apr 2, 2014 at 18:58
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    Just to make it clear, the guidelines are whatever we (by which I mean the sum total of site users, not the mods or some other body) decide them to be right here in this thread. It's a community-run site, so it's the votes on meta that will set our policy on the matter.
    – ETD
    Apr 2, 2014 at 22:46
  • I don't think that we should close general questions just because a specific game is still in progress. The question might still be useful to other people, and the game will end eventually.
    – WilQu
    Apr 3, 2014 at 10:24
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    @WilQu They could always ask the same question after the game has ended, though. Then it will still have the same use both to the asker and any others reading it, but without providing (very likely unfair) help to one side of an ongoing game.
    – GrizzlyRawrz
    Apr 3, 2014 at 15:01
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    @GrizzyRawrz what about all similar ongoing games? Right now, there may be many players who played 2.f3 in an ongoing game, and we can't prevent them from visiting chess.stackexchange.com. That's why I think it doesn't make sense to close a question because of one specific game. Besides, even if we closed those questions, the asker can omit the fact that his game is still in progress.
    – WilQu
    Apr 4, 2014 at 14:21
  • These types of questions puzzle me. Is the community being complimented? Our collective judgement is better than any of the very powerful, free chess engines out there? When answering questions (usually about games that have finished) requesting analysis I never use an engine. I usually but not always mention this in my answer. It is clear to me that anyone who has access to the necessary computing power to ask a question here has access to powerful engines.
    – Brian Towers Mod
    Mar 20, 2017 at 12:15

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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I'm posting opposing answers for users to vote in support of.

NO, questions about ongoing games are not acceptable. Any questions in which it is indicated the subject is a game in progress should be closed.

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I'm posting opposing answers for users to vote in support of.

YES, questions about ongoing games are acceptable, and it's not for us to decide whether the questioner is abiding by the rules of the particular game.

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This is a tricky subject. It is one thing to ask about a position after the second move. It is another thing to ask about middlegame and endgame positions. Having a bunch of closed questions would not be too great. Perhaps we should discourage these questions as they pop up and in some cases rephrase them to be more useful for the broader audience. Automatically closing such questions can prove itself to be counter-productive. It could also prove itself to be the right way to go...it depends on what sorts of users this site will attract...

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