Options for takeback in preferences

Those currently are:
- Never
- Always
- Only in casual games

I used to have it on "always" so I could judge it myself as a mouseslip or an inappropriate request. I just wouldn't accept mouseslip takeback in fast chess, because precision in your moves is a part of the whole thing.

But I switched to "only casual" after this opponent used a takeback request to hit my bad connection in time trouble. Then I also realized it could be tricky if I'm willing to accept a draw offer in time trouble and they misleadingly request takeback so I don't have time to read and end up flagging soon after hitting accept.

But now I feel bad if I'm playing a long game and have to "throw it away" due to an obvious mouseslip by either side. Or, even more often, I'm playing someone new at chess960 and they move their king instead of castling (or they premove castles when trying to premove king retakes) and I cannot offer takeback anymore.

So each option has a big downside, it seems. So I was considering what if there was a fourth option. Is it a decent idea and what could it be?
- Only casual and long games? (with "long" referring to rapid and longer, or classical and correspondence only)
- Only when my clock is over x? (seconds or a minute)
- Only when my opponent's clock is over x?
- Only when both clocks are over x?

Sorry in advance if you think this is a stupid idea.

Simple:
Rated games ... Never
Casual games, coaching ... of course.
You simply can not "judge" what is a mouse slip with any certainty. It will be a tool open for abuse if left on. Can't ever feel guilty about not giving takebacks in rated games. It ALWAYS has been proper etiquette OTB to never give one. Online is no different. As stated, mouse skills are part of the game. Doesn't take long to master them. When it happens, MAN UP, lose the points and move on.

So, the choice in place suffices. Yes/No. Can't be making exceptions for this case or that one.
Has anyone EVER seen top players, following their games, EVER ask for a takeback? Never.
Carlsen is playing penguin now, going on 150+ games a match 45 secs. / 0 . They make the rare mouseslip. Think they ask for a takeback? LOL

@mdinnerspace
He's saying that in a long time control, a game that takes some time to play, he laments not being able to allow a takeback and thereby having to "waste" an interesting game that he's invested in.

It's not a simple as you say. Of course nobody's getting takebacks in 45 second games. That's not the point.

It's got nothing to do with "manning up". Sheesh man, check your ego. It's not about "the points", it's about chess.

Longer games it's very simple.
Enable move confirmation, the issue will never come up.
It's not about "allowing" a take back is it? A player who has it enabled can always give it when the opponent asks. It's about asking for a take back and being rejected. That's what these take back threads are about. The OP was complaining about not being able to offer a take back when the option is turned off. Well ... turn it on for that game. His suggestion of having multiple options, covering his particular cases, isn't really practical. What of yours or mine ? Do more options need being created whereby the setting has 10+ different settings? On/Off seems to work just fine.
Rapid/Standard games become blitz games at the end. The OP wanted a setting to suddenly enable a take back (after having it set to off) after x amount of time expired. He asked if this is a stupid idea?
How long does it take to change the setting? But easier, is to enable move confirmation for the longer games.

Yes, I think the biggest problem is having too many different settings for each issue. You gotta make it simple.

But, if you play all time controls like me, you would want to visit settings very often. My move confirmation is on "correspondence and no-limit", I can't use "always" because it's time-trouble suicide.

A similar problem is AUTOQUEEN, which I set to "only when premoving" because there are cases I might want a minor piece (and no time to change settings during the game), but will sacrifice precious bullet seconds when I know I want a queen but shouldn't really premove the pawn.

If you wanna keep user experience simple, a sensible suggestion is to make the 30s thing a option in all of those issues, like it currently is for 3-fold auto draw. I would use:

Auto draw - Only when remaining time is under 30s (already available)
Autoqueen - Same as above
Takeback requests - Only when remaining time is over 30s

I think the options above would be PERFECT, except that I would personally prefer 20 or 10s instead.

Allow takebacks always
Opponent requests takeback.
Use your discretion to allow or deny it.

@Oscillations
If you may read again, my 3rd paragraph in the original post explains the problem with that, which is how players can abuse (and have abused) takeback requests.

Then I propose something that prevents such abuse, so I can safely allow takeback requests again.

I'm not sure what "hit my bad connection" means. Did his offering of a takeback somehow impact your connection?

I think @Spartako 's suggestions are good ideas. Time remaining on the clock is a big factor.

@Spartako

I think you need to restate your original idea as worded in post #1. Your intentions may be in the right direction ... but your wording says:
- Only when my clock is over x? (seconds or a minute)
- Only when my opponent's clock is over x?
- Only when both clocks are over x?

This can only be interpreted to mean that when your clock is over a given time, meaning the closer to the end of the game when time is short; would the setting allow for a take back request.

This is exactly the time NOT to allow take backs. Making requests short on time is the situation where the feature can be abused, used as a distraction and should be disabled, not enabled. Maybe you're intent was different, but that is the way you proposed the suggestion.

Disabling take backs in the last 2 minutes of every game sounds reasonable, but I doubt this added feature would be popular. People either "believe" in them or not.