Answers.Body: <p>I see a couple of reasons not to do this:</p>
  <ol>
  <li><p>It's a lot harder to distinguish the pieces. For example, bishops and pawns look really similar, and the black queen and king look similar too.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>When you watch a game as an on-site spectator, you don't view it top-down either. Even better: the players <em>themselves</em> don't view the board top-down, but from an angle.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>Video streams are often accompanied by a live analysis board, which <em>is</em> top-down and offers much more (the remaining time for both players, the evaluation of the current position and the best lines according to a strong engine). A top-down video stream would basically duplicate this.</p>
  <p>They can, as you say, be a little out-of-sync with the video (on a slow connection, the live board can be even faster because of buffering) but that seems (to me) like a better problem to tackle. Maybe the next generation of livestreams will be able to do this?</p>
  </li>
  </ol>
  <p>The lamp standard in your picture would rather annoy me as a player, but hanging from the ceiling (like some other lamps) would bypass that particular problem.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-14T19:05:57.133Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-08-14T19:11:12.767Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2020-06-17T09:59:59.497Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Glorfindel
Body: <p>I don't watch chess tournaments because it is such a poor experience. The live stream of the players showcases the board at an angle and I struggle to see what is going on. </p>
  
  <p>Meanwhile, the digital image of the board that is usually also there is often behind the actual game. In classic, maybe not a big deal, but it's a dealbreaker for blitz and rapid.</p>
  
  <p>Why don't chess tournaments solve this issue by using a top-down camera angle? It's not hard to extend the camera down from a pole attached to the roof, or you can even use a camera connected to a flexible cable which you can extend and then curve downwards, kind of like on a lamp:
  <a href="https://i.sstatic.net/BCIRv.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/BCIRv.png" width="300" /></a></p>
  
  <p>This would then give the following much more clear viewing experience:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/mJwGP.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/mJwGP.png" width="300" /></a></p>
  
  <p>Obviously you'd use a high quality camera, and you also need to use pieces which are more easily distinguishable from a top-down view, which are both minor changes, that could lead to great improvement.</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-10-15T14:35:08.250Z
Comments.Text: see http://wiki.bitplan.com/index.php/Raspberry_PI_Chessboard for a project that follows the top down approach - I'd also be interested to learn how useful this approach is.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Wolfgang Fahl
Tags: <tournament><online>
Title: Why don't chess tournament organisers use top-down camera angles?
ThreadText: # Why don't chess tournament organisers use top-down camera angles?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2019-08-14)
  
  I don't watch chess tournaments because it is such a poor experience. The live stream of the players showcases the board at an angle and I struggle to see what is going on.
  
  Meanwhile, the digital image of the board that is usually also there is often behind the actual game. In classic, maybe not a big deal, but it's a dealbreaker for blitz and rapid.
  
  Why don't chess tournaments solve this issue by using a top-down camera angle? It's not hard to extend the camera down from a pole attached to the roof, or you can even use a camera connected to a flexible cable which you can extend and then curve downwards, kind of like on a lamp:
  [![](https://i.sstatic.net/BCIRv.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/BCIRv.png)
  
  This would then give the following much more clear viewing experience:
  
  [![](https://i.sstatic.net/mJwGP.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/mJwGP.png)
  
  Obviously you'd use a high quality camera, and you also need to use pieces which are more easily distinguishable from a top-down view, which are both minor changes, that could lead to great improvement.
  
  **Tags:** tournament, online
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: see http://wiki.bitplan.com/index.php/Raspberry_PI_Chessboard for a project that follows the top down approach - I'd also be interested to learn how useful this approach is.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2019-08-14. Score: 13
  
  I see a couple of reasons not to do this:
  
  1. It's a lot harder to distinguish the pieces. For example, bishops and pawns look really similar, and the black queen and king look similar too.
  2. When you watch a game as an on-site spectator, you don't view it top-down either. Even better: the players *themselves* don't view the board top-down, but from an angle.
  3. Video streams are often accompanied by a live analysis board, which *is* top-down and offers much more (the remaining time for both players, the evaluation of the current position and the best lines according to a strong engine). A top-down video stream would basically duplicate this.
  
     They can, as you say, be a little out-of-sync with the video (on a slow connection, the live board can be even faster because of buffering) but that seems (to me) like a better problem to tackle. Maybe the next generation of livestreams will be able to do this?
  
  The lamp standard in your picture would rather annoy me as a player, but hanging from the ceiling (like some other lamps) would bypass that particular problem.
  
  
  ---
  
  