Proposed Adjustment to Berserk Bonus Rule for Atomic Chess

Hello everyone,

I wanted to bring up a suggestion regarding the berserk bonus rule in tournaments. As it stands, you only receive the berserk bonus if a game lasts at least 7 moves. While this makes sense for standard chess, I believe this rule is less suitable for atomic chess.

In atomic, it's not uncommon for games to conclude in under 7 moves, especially when there's a significant rating difference between players. This means players who berserk in good faith often miss out on the bonus simply due to the fast-paced nature of the variant.

To address this, I propose omitting the "7-move minimum" rule specifically for atomic chess. Adjusting this would better reflect the unique dynamics of the variant and ensure fairness in tournaments.

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this!

But if the game lasted only 7 moves, did you face any disadvantage at all from berserking? Surely you had more than enough time to think about every move.

No gameplay disadvantage = no points advantage.

@PurpleInferno said in #2:

But if the game lasted only 7 moves, did you face any disadvantage at all from berserking? Surely you had more than enough time to think about every move.

No gameplay disadvantage = no points advantage.

It's about risk in my opinion.

What risk is there really though, in such a massively lopsided matchup?

Especially in games with a huge skill gap, it's usually possible to delay the finishing blow until move 8. Play some additional attacking moves, defend against obvious mate threats, and nuke their king right in time to get your bonus. The way I see it, it's just another skill you have to learn if you care about the extra berserk point ;-)

And even if it isn't possible to drag it out (due to otherwise getting mated yourself), you can always just take the instant win and quickly queue up for a new game.

@PurpleInferno said in #2:

But if the game lasted only 7 moves, did you face any disadvantage at all from berserking? Surely you had more than enough time to think about every move.

No gameplay disadvantage = no points advantage.

When you are berserking you are risking a higher chance of losing the match. I could see however maybe a rule that this rule is only gone if both players are higher than 1500 and not "?" . I myself think the rule is terrible specifically because early games are very important for points, losing out on free points is always terrible and can give another player who got one bonus point in the first game a win. It's very possible for one point to decide who wins.