Jose Capablanca once said when asked how many moves ahead he looked when playing an over the board chess game: – “Only one, but it’s always the right one.” Well, that cannot be entirely true, but perhaps he just knew by experience how to choose a good move. Garry Kasparov, when asked a similar question, said it depended on the position of each piece and said: – “Normally, I would calculate three to five moves. You don’t need more….but I can go much deeper if it is required. In a position involving forced moves, it’s possible to look ahead as many as twelve or thirteen moves.”

Of course, it is not just being able to look ahead three moves of one particular variation, there may be half a dozen possible moves and half a dozen possible replies to each move. So you can see that after looking at each variation for just six different moves and three moves deep you need to visualise some 46,656 positions (6x6x6x6x6x6)! That would be a brute force search and a player needs to be more selective to reduce the number of positions.  Alexander Kotov wrote a whole chapter in his book Think Like a Grandmaster entitled Do you Know how to Analyse? which concluded that three factors guaranteed finding the right move, namely, an accurate analysis of all variations that could be considered, confidence that you had taken account of all the best moves and strict economy in your thinking time. This is easier said than done, and Kotov gives a good method of how to train yourself to do this in his book. On a personal note, I did once organise a simultaneous display with Kotov at Stevenage, England in about 1979 when he visited his publisher. He played 20 boards, winning 19 and losing 1 to a schoolboy I believe. He helped me to map read when I drove him back to London!

Alexander Kotov

So this is what to do with over the board chess, but correspondence chess is a completely different experience. You are allowed to move the pieces between moves, which makes looking ahead much much easier. You are allowed to refer to books, databases and previous games as you play. In most games you are allowed to use computers to analyse positions, to find similar positions in master games and to look through endgame databases. Unfortunately, your opponent also has these at his disposal and I remember a game where my opponent suddenly announced to me that my position was lost, as he had checked it with an online six piece endgame database!! I have read that a recent World Correspondence Champion could spend several weeks on a single move to ensure it was the very best move. Even if you use a computer to analyse a position you should first decide on some candidate moves yourself without any help, then, at least, it is you driving the position rather than the computer. There is no doubt that you need to follow a plan, as well as find the best move to achieve that plan, which may change as the game evolves. Personally, I tend to move very quickly in correspondence chess. If I can see a reasonable move I usually make it and can’t see the point of dragging out games, especially if you are losing. Of course, if the position warrants it I will take longer, even looking some thirty or more moves ahead, but, unfortunately, there are then more positions than atoms in the universe…..!

Chess960, formally Fischer Random Chess, was invented by former World Champion Bobby Fischer and introduced in Argentina in 1996 in a tournament won by Peter Leko. Shuffle Chess, a similar variant, has been played as early as 1842. The first Chess960 World Championship was played between Peter Leko and Michael Adams in 2001, which Leko won with 4.5 to 3.5. Leko was chosen because he had reputedly played Chess960 games against Fischer himself, had introduced many novelties into chess theory and had won the first tournament and Adams was chosen because he was World Blitz Champion and very good in unusual positions. There have been championships and tournaments every year since.

Fischer’s idea was to eliminate what he thought was a complete dominance of openings preparation and replace it with creativity.  He believed that Russians were fixing all international games. With a random starting position it would be impossible to fix every move of a game, as it would be too difficult to devote to memory 960 different starting positions. From the first move both players would have to come up with original moves and could not use theory. Fischer believed that eliminating memorized theoretical moves would level the playing field.

Before a game, one of a possible 960 starting positions is randomly determined and set up, subject to certain special requirements. The game is played in the same way as standard chess except for castling. Pieces and pawns have their normal moves, and the objective of checkmating your opponent is the same.  White’s pawns are placed on the second rank like standard chess. All the remaining white pieces are placed randomly on the first rank, although the bishops must be placed on opposite coloured squares and the king must be placed on a square between the rooks. Black’s pieces are placed equal and opposite to White’s pieces. The king never starts on the a- or h-files as this would leave no space for a rook.  The starting position can be generated before the game by computer program, or chosen by different methods including dice, coins or cards.

If you want to play Chess960 games on a server you can go to websites such as Scheming Mind, where you will find examples of games and useful advice about each of the 960 starting positions. Go to www.schemingmind.com then click on ‘Chess’, ‘Game Explorer’, ‘Chess960′ then a position number between 1 – 960. Amazingly, one of my opponents, a very strong Chess960 player himself from the USA, saw one of my previous articles here and suggested I write about Chess960. I have played only two Chess960 games myself and found them refreshingly different, but very hard to play, as you are thrust into battle from the very first move, and it is almost like playing from a middle game position which you have not created and can have weaknesses which you have to watch out for. Unfortunately, it is not possible to show a game here, but you can view games on the Scheming Mind website.

The 26th World Championship Final, which started in June 2010, has been won by Ron Langeveld from the Netherlands. He leads the category 13 event of 17 players with a score of 10.5 / 15, with one result to come, which cannot be beaten. He has amounted 6 wins with no losses.

Here is one of his shorter wins: -

The New World Champion is also playing in the top rated category 16 Witold Bielecki Memorial Tournament and here is one of his games: -

An English team qualified for the Final of the ICCF Olympiad 16 Postal Tournament in 2009 with a 68% score in Section 2 of the Preliminaries, ahead of the Ukraine with 62% and the Czech Republic with 59%. Our four man team consisted of SIM Keith Kitson who scored 4.5/9 on Board 1 (Category 10), SIM Russell Pegg who scored 4.5/9 on Board 2 (Category 8), myself who scored 7.5/9 on Board 3 (Category 5, SIM norm 6.5) and SIM Mike Nicholson who scored 8/9 on Board 4 (Category 4, SIM norm 7). This was a great performance by all as we were often out rated. I am pleased to say that half the team were from Hertfordshire, being myself and Keith on Board 1. My own SIM norm over score usefully went towards my SIM title as I was technically a game short.

We could not keep the exact team for the Final which started in 2010, although Russell, Board 1 and myself, Board 2 are teamed with Julian Corfield, Board 3 and SIM Ian Pheby, Board 4. We, therefore, have a strong and experienced team, but our opponents this time do out grade us considerably with Board 1 at Category 13, Board 2 at Category 12, Board 3 at Category 11 and Board 4 at Category 9. Russell is up against 8 GMs and 4 SIMs and is holding his own with 4.5/9, being 9 draws and 3 to finish. I have finished with only 4/12, being 8 draws and 4 losses. Julian has finished with 5.5/12, including 1 win and 9 draws. Ian has 3.5/10, including 7 draws with 2 to finish. We are now in 9th position (40%) out of 13 countries with 5 games remaining, although, unfortunately, we do expect to finish lower down as other teams finish their games. Our non-playing captain for the final is Neil Limbert who has been very helpful and inspiring throughout.

In my group, despite my score, I did have some exciting games and met some interesting players, especially the ones who played by post. My world stamp collection has grown considerably! Postal chess does have its merits, even with its increased costs and the occasional delays. There is more personal contact between players, which you do not get so much with email or webserver.

One exciting and extremely complex game, even though I lost, was against the Italian SIM Vincenzo Dell’Isola and has already been featured in one magazine showing a possible ‘save’ for Black. Unfortunately, I believed that after White’s move 25 I was completely lost, with no chance of a draw unless White blundered. The magazine did publish a retraction after seeing my analysis, but it is very unusual to have to prove that a game is lost rather than drawn! I did, of course, play on for the sake of the team until a loss was inevitable. Have a look at the position and decide for yourself. White took full advantage of Black’s weak dark squares and king safety with a very enterprising 25th move.

The Counties & District Correspondence Chess Championship (C&DCCC) failed to start for the 2011/12 season, the first time since 1922 apparently. Perhaps one of the reasons, although I do not know for certain, is that with 20 players needed for each team it was getting harder to fill each year. Fortunately, this year the English Chess Federation (ECF) has handed it over to the British Federation for Correspondence Chess (BFCC) who have re-organised it completely into three sections with teams of 10 players in the Ward-Higgs, 8 players in the Sinclair and 8 players in the Butler-Thomas. The first two sections are by webserver and the last by post. Each player will play two games against his opponent, one with White and one with Black. This is much more sensible than having teams of 20 players playing only one game with White (if you were lucky) or Black (unlucky). I felt like over the years that I played more games with Black pieces than White pieces, or so it seemed when faced with some of the top English players!

Here is one of my games played on Board 1 for Hertfordshire against ICCF GM Peter Coleman (2624) for Essex from the 2009/10 season. After 27 moves of a Sicilian Sveshnikov, White has FIVE pawns for a bishop, but it is difficult for him to effectively mobilise these pawns and White offers a draw on move 42: -

The 2012/13 season begins in October, hopefully, for many years to come!

As it is impossible to cover in a short article every correspondence chess organisation in the world, I will list some that I know about, and most I have experience of, from being based here in England: -

British Federation for Correspondence Chess       http://www.bfcc-online.org.uk
Extracts from their website – “The role of the Federation is to harmonize the efforts of the various British CC bodies, organise and maintain national CC championships, and organise participation in international tournaments and matches.”

British Correspondence Chess Association       http://www.bcca.info
Extracts from their website – “Welcoming All Players Since 1906! For over 100 years BCCA has been meeting the needs of Correspondence Chess Players with a comprehensive range of Tournaments and Competitions. All levels are catered for with Medals, Trophies and Titles available to be won. Play by Webserver, Email or Post at a time and pace that suits you. BCCA members also have the opportunity to play in both home and international team matches.”

National Correspondence Chess Club       http://www.natcor.org.uk
Extracts from their website – “Welcome to the National Correspondence Chess Club, also known as Natcor or NCCC. The cornerstone of our philosophy is to foster friendship between our members by encouraging the correspondence and communication aspects of the game from a brief note of greeting to full-blown discussions on the state of the economy, sports or other interests. We offer a wide range of tournaments catering for all standards of play, ages and circumstances.”

SchemingMind Correspondence Chess Club       http://www.schemingmind.com
Extracts from their website – “Play Online Correspondence Chess at SchemingMind
‘Amberley excelled at chess – one mark, Watson of a scheming mind.’ Conan-Doyle
Welcome to SchemingMind Correspondence Chess Club, where you can play correspondence chess and chess variants against 641 active chess players from all around the world!”

Braille Chess Association       http://www.braillechess.org.uk
Extracts from their website – “Welcome to the BCA! Promoting and supporting visually impaired chess players in the UK, registered charity no. 263049. The Objects of the Association shall be the furtherance of education amongst the blind in relation to the game of chess….”

International Correspondence Chess Federation       http://www.iccf.com
Extracts from their website – “ICCF was founded in 1951 as a new appearance of the ICCA (International Correspondence Chess Association), which was founded in 1945, as successor of the IFSB (Internationaler Fernschachbund), founded in 1928. Aljechin (Alekhine), Keres and Euwe have been well-known enthusiastic correspondence chess players during some periods of their chess career. ICCF organizes all kind of tournaments: individual and team championships, title norm tournaments and promotion tournaments (from Open Class until Master Class). Both in postal and in webserver versions.”

ChessWorld.net       http://www.chessworld.net
Extracts from their website – “Playing Quality Online Chess Since 2001. ChessWorld is one of the very few dedicated correspondence style sites. We focus all our resources on quality correspondence style chess; we do not offer other styles of play or chess variants. Join thousands of active Members from hundreds of Countries around the Globe, celebrating playing chess Games with Chessworld Globe icons! We have Tournaments of all kinds –Thematic, Teams and Leagues, All-play-All, Knockout and Pyramids. We have a wealth of learning resources including Library Games, Forums, Tips, Puzzles, Messages and Free Videos.”

Social Correspondence Chess Association       http://www.scca.org.uk
Extracts from their website – “The SCCA was established in 1940 to provide quality Correspondence, Web Server and Email chess to players of all standards. Within the SCCA you will find like-minded friends who wish to enjoy the game of correspondence chess. The SCCA is a founder member of the British Federation of Correspondence Chess. This allows our members to play in both National Tournaments through the BFCC and International Tournaments through the International Correspondence Chess Federation.”

I hope that you have been able to find an association that suits you. As you are reading this you may already belong to a chess club where over-the-board chess is played and which is likely to be affiliated to a county chess association. Most counties do have a correspondence chess team which, I am quite sure, would welcome new players, which is how I started my correspondence chess career.

I think most readers will have an opinion about Correspondence Chess (CC). I discovered it in the late 1970’s after moving house and having a long commute to London. I was unable to play in the evenings, this being before the internet, so I had to find another way. It was suggested I play for my county’s CC team. I started on bottom board and over the years worked my way to the top board. I had played over-the-board (OTB) chess for my school team, but only took it up seriously after a local weekend chess congress in my mid-twenties. I play CC for the England team in their ‘Friendly Internationals’ and have played in a CC Postal Olympiad. I also play for BCCA, for Scheming Mind, for other CC associations and county matches. Of course, being a pupil of Nigel Davies has helped me improve more than I could have thought possible! I continue to play CC even in retirement, although Nigel has tried to suggest I play more OTB games!

CC is so convenient to play on a webserver, which has revolutionised the way the game is played and recorded. There are no more lost moves in the post, or by email, no more looking at smudged postmarks with a magnifying glass, no more writing down Nc3 instead of Ne3, no more arguments over time used, no more mistakes….well not quite! Recently, one of my opponents played a move in a webserver game which lost instantly. How can this happen? He had missed out a move. Unfortunately, it spoilt the game for both sides, although it gave me a win instead of a draw. So it goes to prove that you need a good routine when making any move, even on a webserver. I always keep the actual game position on a separate board and analyse on another board. I never make any move on the webserver board without comparing the position with my own position board first. This routine has saved me several times!

So why play CC? It is good to try out different openings and any weak moves are more likely to be found out in a CC game rather than an OTB game. There is no real time pressure when you play CC, so blunders should be reduced and you will play at a higher level than OTB games. You can move the pieces about. You can often have a good chat to your opponents as you play. You can fit in games whenever it suits you. Games by email and webserver do not have any postal charges. You can use books, magazines, databases, often computer analysis, whereas OTB games are purely from memory, unless they are adjourned.

What gives CC a bad name? Letting a computer program do all your thinking. There is a high proportion of draws in CC games nowadays, especially with free software available on the internet which would demolish any dedicated chess computer of old. You may reach a certain level by letting your computer play, but you will be beaten by stronger players and players who have faster hardware and a more up to date database. You will not improve your own chess skills if you rely totally on computer analysis. There are some associations where computer assistance for analysis is not allowed, but it is impossible to enforce. Computer programs are also being used by strong OTB players to help them analyse their own games and find new moves, although they are not perfect at all endgames yet, so there is some chance for us humans!

I hope this does not put you off trying out CC for yourself. There is an excellent introduction, by Neil Limbert, at www.bfcc-online.org.uk/images/misc/guidetocc.pdf from the British Federation for Correspondence Chess site at www.bfcc-online.org.uk/ and the British Correspondence Chess Association’s site is at www.bcca.info/ .