Premove

A premove belongs to a platform's interface, not to the rules of chess played on a physical board. While the opponent is thinking, the player selects a piece and destination as though it were already their turn. The move remains pending and does not yet alter the position.

After the opponent moves, the platform examines the new position. If the premove is still legal, it executes automatically; if it has become illegal, it is canceled. Clock cost and the ability to queue several moves depend on the site or application. The exact behavior is therefore not a universal chess rule.

Premoves are used mainly in bullet and blitz, online formats in which each player has very little time. They can save fractions of a second on a predictable recapture, when a piece captures the opponent's piece that just captured, or in a simple ending with few pieces.

The danger is that the opponent chooses an unexpected reply and the queued move remains legal but becomes bad. Legal does not mean safe: a premove can lose a piece or allow immediate checkmate, leaving the king attacked with no legal reply.