Restructured Argument

Hello -
I'd like to revisit a topic I found archived after having experienced the same outcome as discussed before.

Please see the study I created surrounding this event.

Comments starting at Move 11

Thank you for your time and please let me know where my logic dips off.

To be clear, you're referring to

What's important about premoves is that you can make any move in advance. It's totally possible that you were anticipating Qd7 and wanted to play Qd4 nonetheless. Now, the premove Qd4 would be completely impossible if the "pre-capture," as you call it, would not be executed after Qd7, and so it would not be possible to make this premove at all.

What you have to realize is that premoves are something made for short time controls like bullet and ultrabullet. In such time controls, one might have to make a lot of moves in a short amount of time and so every move has to be premoveable. In classical chess, premoves aren't nearly as useful and I would even recommend against them.

Another argument against your idea is consistency. Premoves have always worked like this across all servers that I know of, and it would be incredibly inconsistent for lichess to change it to something different. Of course, it would also cause a lot of confusion among players who are used to premoves like they are now.

You wanted Qd4 - you got Qd4. What’s all the fuss about?

@Toadofsky - Yes. I pre-captured queen with queen on d4. Instead they moved Qd7, resulting in my questionable Qd4 move to counter.

@MessyAnswer I feel like you're blending "pre-move" and "pre-capture" in the crux of your argument, though.

To your first point, you're correct. It's entire I was anticipating Qd7 and did want to play Qd4 nonetheless, but that's exactly what I'm asking for - a distinction to be made between pre-moves and pre-captures.

My argument rests in the fact that the notation of the game changes. Qxd4 changes to Qd4.

Do pre-moves ever result in a capture? For example, can you pre-move a bishop to an open file and have it result in the capturing of whatever piece ends up on that square? (Really, really hard to do with the computer, so I need some insight)

If the answer to that question is no, then why is the answer to "Does a pre-capture ever result in a pre-move?" yes?
I understand that pre-captures, at their core, are pre-moves, but pre-captures are distinct in that they are "if and only if" moves. Well, they should be anyway. It should be that when clicking a pre-capture will result in that pre-capture move if and only if the piece remains on that square and is able to be captured in the exact fashion that you have pre-selected. If any bit of that situation changes, the pre-capture selection and the execution of any pre-move should be null and void and a new decision should be forced on the player.

Rebuttal?

@Sarg0n I had a free queen and ended up having to trade mine for it instead.

Well, on this planet there‘s probably only one to blame for that. It‘s not me, mate.

PS: the mighty Informator and other sources have the same notation for moving and capturing. It doesn’t matter whether the target is occupied or not.

@Sarg0n can you provide any insight into pre-moves becoming pre-captures in any circumstance - keeping my premise of distinguishing between pre-moves and pre-captures in mind?

Aha! Well, now that's good information.
No distinction between occupying and capturing. I can see how it works just the same as distinguishing.
Does that, however, lay to rest the argument that a pre-capture should be an if and only if execution?

Never heard of pre-captures. You wanna catch something but don‘t know the square? And how should the computer know?