Body: <p>I believe chess sites should offer best of 3/5/etc match formats, rather than a one-off game. Basically, if you enter such a game, you don't &quot;win&quot; by just winning 1 game, you have to be the first to win 2 out of 3, or first to 3 out of 5, etc.</p>
  <p>Why don't chess sites offer these formats?</p>
  <p>The thing about chess is that it's a very stylistic game. You can end up playing an opening or a style that just happens to suit your opponent perfectly well, and you end up losing because of that. In these instances, being able to <em>adapt</em> your style to your opponent and win the subsequent games is a vital dispaly of ability that is best measured in best of X types of formats, rather than one-off games where you lose, and then your opponent refuses a rematch and runs away.</p>
  <p>There's a reason why this format is used in chess finals. Yet ironically, no chess sites offer this format, instead its always one-off games with the <em>option to rematch</em>, which is obviously not optimal, since rematches can be declined.</p>
  <p>For example, I recently played against an opponent that <strong>clearly</strong> had a well-prepared opening to the Ruy Lopez... he completely destroyed me, made moves I had never seen in the Ruy Lopez. Does that mean he's better at chess than me? No, it just means he's better at the Ruy Lopez. If it was a best of 3 format, I would play the second game with a very different opening indeed and not fall into the prepared trap.... i did offer a rematch but he ran away. Surprise suprrise.</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-06-30T11:20:17.580Z
Comments.Text: There are many different reasons why someone is not doing something. Impossible to answer without inside knowledge.
Comments.UserDisplayName: fuxia
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-07-01T18:57:18.680Z
Comments.Text: From a practical standpoint, how would you handle a disconnect in a best of X series? Automatically forfeit them all remaining games seems harsh and unwarranted.  But otherwise, you can't really oblige players to commit to a full series.  So players can just quit after 1 game if they choose anyway.  Also, for random match-making purposes, adding series options further segments the player pool, which hinders good match-making.  The rematch option exists if players opt-in.  If you'd like to engage in more series, I'd recommend asking your opponent on move 1 if they're interested first.
Comments.UserDisplayName: DongKy
Tags: <chess-variants>
Title: Why don't chess sites offer best of X match formats?
ThreadText: # Why don't chess sites offer best of X match formats?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2020-06-30)
  
  I believe chess sites should offer best of 3/5/etc match formats, rather than a one-off game. Basically, if you enter such a game, you don't "win" by just winning 1 game, you have to be the first to win 2 out of 3, or first to 3 out of 5, etc.
  
  Why don't chess sites offer these formats?
  
  The thing about chess is that it's a very stylistic game. You can end up playing an opening or a style that just happens to suit your opponent perfectly well, and you end up losing because of that. In these instances, being able to *adapt* your style to your opponent and win the subsequent games is a vital dispaly of ability that is best measured in best of X types of formats, rather than one-off games where you lose, and then your opponent refuses a rematch and runs away.
  
  There's a reason why this format is used in chess finals. Yet ironically, no chess sites offer this format, instead its always one-off games with the *option to rematch*, which is obviously not optimal, since rematches can be declined.
  
  For example, I recently played against an opponent that **clearly** had a well-prepared opening to the Ruy Lopez... he completely destroyed me, made moves I had never seen in the Ruy Lopez. Does that mean he's better at chess than me? No, it just means he's better at the Ruy Lopez. If it was a best of 3 format, I would play the second game with a very different opening indeed and not fall into the prepared trap.... i did offer a rematch but he ran away. Surprise suprrise.
  
  **Tags:** chess-variants
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: There are many different reasons why someone is not doing something. Impossible to answer without inside knowledge.  
  > **username_2**: From a practical standpoint, how would you handle a disconnect in a best of X series? Automatically forfeit them all remaining games seems harsh and unwarranted.  But otherwise, you can't really oblige players to commit to a full series.  So players can just quit after 1 game if they choose anyway.  Also, for random match-making purposes, adding series options further segments the player pool, which hinders good match-making.  The rematch option exists if players opt-in.  If you'd like to engage in more series, I'd recommend asking your opponent on move 1 if they're interested first.  
  
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  ## 0 answers
  
  