Conditional premoves in non-correspondence games

Premoves are great, but it would be nice to also have conditional premoves available in blitz and bullet games.

A normal premove works when you just move your piece, and then that move is played no matter what your opponent does. A sequence of conditional premoves could be entered if you make your opponent's conditional move prior to your response. In this way, premoves and conditional premoves can be intermixed.

Simple example from White's perspective. White plays 1. d4. While waiting for his opponent's response, White can conditionally premove 1. … d5 2. e3. Since White moved Black's pawn, everything in the sequence after that is predicated on Black moving d5, so White's premove e3 is only played if Black moves d5, otherwise the premove sequence that follows is canceled.

Multiple conditional premoves. White plays 1. d4. While waiting, White premoves 1. … d5 2. e3 Nc6 3. Nf3. If Black plays the moves White indicated, White's responses are played. If Black does something different, then the sequence is canceled at that point.

A conditional premove with conditional and unconditional premoves following. White plays 1. d4. While waiting, White premoves 1. … d5 2. e3 … 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3. In this case, if Black responds d5, e3 is played, otherwise all following premoves are cancelled. If Black does play d5 though, after White's response of e3, White has premoved Nf3 regardless of Black's response. If Black responds to Nf3 with Nf6, only then does White's premove Nc3 get played.

A premove followed by conditional and unconditional premoves following. White plays 1. d4. While waiting, White premoves 1. … … 2. e3 … 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3. Here, White is going to play e3 regardless of Black's response to d4, then Nf3, and finally, Nc3 conditionally if Black plays Nf6 on move 3.

All of the other functionality associated with premoves is still in force, e.g., after entering a sequence of premoves (whether conditional or not), they can be canceled in the normal way, etc. Instead of using red, a conditional premove can be indicated using thin diagonal stripes of red and dark red.

Enabling conditional premoves should be enabled through a separate option than normal premoves, and if both are enabled a warning with a link to documentation should be provided. Only one sequence of premoves should be enterable in non-correspondence chess, i.e., enabling conditional premoves should not allow a player to set up sequences like if 1. … d5 2. e3, but if 1. … g6 2. e4. (Unless there is some intuitive UX that could be created that would allow input directly on the board, as opposed to how it's done in correspondence chess.)

Why do this? Because, if you think about it, this isn't really any more complicated than normal premoves. The only difference is you're entering some premoves as conditional by specifying your opponent's move and the desired response. Like with normal premoves, a little bit of practice and it becomes intuitive.

Another reason to do this: Everyone will want to see Hikaru go to work with both kinds of premove enabled.

Yes, that's exactly right, like the premoves in Daily chess.

I don't play daily chess, but from reading about it, the UX would have to work a little different, and you wouldn't be able to set up multiple conditional premoves, you'd either have to premove as it currently works (regardless of what your opponent does) or conditionally premove, or intermix the two, but you can only premove along a "single branch" of the game, if that makes sense.

I understand that you can set up multiple different conditional premoves for the next move in Daily, and that wouldn't be possible in this approach. But it's probably too complicated for 99% of players to deal with in a rapid game anyway.