Chessville - An Introduction to Correspondence Chess, Part One

Chessville

Today is

Site Map

If you have disabled Java for your browser, use the Site Map (linked in the header and footer).

Chessville
logo by
ChessPrints

From the
Chessville
Chess Store

Pablo's
Chess
News

Reference
Center

An Introduction to
Correspondence Chess
Part 1

By Steve Ryan

Have you ever had a “Pen-pal” relationship with someone where letters went back and forth to some distant destination? You may have exchanged the latest news, personal information, and similar items. Correspondence Chess acts much like a Pen Pal system except the primary exchange of “news” or “personal information” consists of chess moves and, ideally, a bit of personal comment on the game and who knows, even a joke or two if the players feel so inclined. Many don’t, unfortunately, but I feel a bit of “giving out” enhances the game and adds interest. Your opponent becomes an actual human being this way, not merely someone to beat.

In theory at least you could exchange moves by drum beats, smoke signals, telephone/telegraph, sky writing, semaphore flags, mirror reflections, bouncing lasers off the moon, mental telepathy, messages attached to dirigibles or anything else you can think of. But all of those have some inherent difficulties, so correspondence chess began with what we can loosely call “postal” chess.

Correspondence games by post began a long time ago and many assertions have come forward as to when and where the first one started. The grandiose claims that the first one began in the reign of a particular monarch or between OTB clubs in different cities certainly have their spot in history, but so would a game conducted between two villagers a short distance apart, I believe. No one can say for sure. Such things tend to get lost in the “mists of time.” Those interested in reading about correspondence chess (CC) history as far back as we can reasonably reckon it should consider purchasing the “Gold Book” published by the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF).

While traditional postal matches continue in many clubs CC has switched more and more to e-mail. No more fussing with stamps, envelopes, and postal strikes. Now you just have to deal with cranky hard drives, viruses and Internet service providers that go down at the drop of a hat. Nevertheless, the basic premise remains the same: playing a chess game at a distance by the sequential exchange of moves using some particular method of transmitting the moves and employing a chess “language”, “code” or “notation” to describe them.

Here we must draw a distinction between e-mail correspondence games and “on-line” games. E-mail CC involves sending your opponent a move in an individual e-mail message then waiting some period of time until he answers in another separate e-mail message. You do NOT remain in constant contact with your opponent. Several days may go by before he answers you. An “on-line” (ol) game more closely resembles an “over-the-board” contest where your opponent “sits” directly across from you via the open link. CC games may literally take months to complete but an ol game may take mere hours. Even so, e-mail games go far faster than postal where, if you have an “overseas” opponent it may take years to finish one depending on the reliability of the postal service in the “other” country (and sometimes your own). But then you have the chance to do a little stamp-collecting on the side and many postal players take advantage of this opportunity, or at least pass the stamps on to friends.

This series of articles will not teach you now to play chess, but they will give you some insight into how a CC club operates since the major rules of the game remain the same. The “different” rules merely accommodate the peculiarities encountered in the mode of transmitting the moves and the unique nature of correspondence play. Most CC clubs require you to already know how to play chess. You just then have to learn CC rules. You can learn chess by “distance education” although it involves a slow process doing it that way, and most instructors like to get paid for teaching you. So get Uncle Pete to show you at least how the pieces move and the other basic rules and don’t rely on an established CC organization for this depth of assistance.

In postal chess players use a written note or letter though many clubs provide printed postcards. These cards will have room to include tournament information such as the player’s names, match number, dispatch date (which must match the postmark date), move numbers, date of receipt, individual times and possibly even a miniature chess board to on which you can draw the current position. If you want to get even more elaborate you can use a “stamping” outfit with an outline of the pieces attached to small wooden blocks. You press the outline into an inkpad and then transfer it to the game board. When I say “draw” the current position you simply print P, Q, K, B etc. on the appropriate square using different coloured inks, different sizes of letters for B and W or some other mutually agreeable system. Nobody expects renditions of chessmen that would have done da Vinci proud.

E-mail, by its nature, has no need to send any printed letter or card but an e-mail move must also include such basic information as date of receipt of an opponent’s move, date of your reply, time used for individual moves, tournament number and, in short, all the information you would expect to see on a “postcard.” E-mail has the advantage of automatically time/date stamping outgoing and incoming moves, though a smudged postmark on a traditional postal card can also have its advantages.

Each method of transmitting moves uses letters and numbers indicating what piece has moved to what square, so both postal and e-mail play must use some mutually understandable “notation” (more on that later) to designate the moves. Two primary factors, particularly in postal play, involve the recording of both an accurate game score and a position diagram. Since several days may elapse between the dispatch of a move and your opponent’s reply, unless you have a photographic memory you can use two chessboards, one to keep the current position set up, and the other to study the variations. To further complicate things you will need two boards for EACH GAME unless you want to go through the exercise of re-building each position from the first move. And don’t knock anything over or you won’t have any choice but to go through this whole frustrating exercise, willing or not. To answer problems of this sort the CC community has developed various types of chess “recorders” to take the place of actual chessboards along with a variety of “score sheets” (see below) as well (though any old piece of paper will serve that purpose.) Recorders designed for e-mail play have far more versatility and everything gets done electronically anyway (see the discussion further on).

Postal recorders generally incorporate some kind of mini-chessboards so designed as to allow easy movement of the pieces and pawns. Brand names of such devices (all Trademarked and Patent Protected by their respective manufacturers) include Gilcher Recorders (no longer manufactured I believe), Portland Recorders, and Post-A-Log recorders.

The Gilcher features a flat playing board with coordinates printed on it with 64 narrow slits cut into the surface of each square. Each board incorporates three punched holes along the side for insertion into a three-ring binder. The playing pieces come as plastic “tabs” so designed that each piece fits into the slits allowing you to move them about as the position changes. Unfortunately, since the plastic tabs have too much rigidity they tend to break and become useless for inserting into the board thereby making study of the position by moving the pieces very difficult (one possible reason for the Gilcher’s disappearance).

Portland recorders come as the single or “twin” variety but essentially consist of a piece of folded cardboard with a printed playing surface(s). As with the Gilchers the face of the board has 64 pre-cut slots on each square into which fit the oval-shaped cardboard playing pieces. If you purchase a Portland I recommend the “twin” as it gives you one board to study the variations and the other to keep the position set up. Watch out for the relatively lightweight playing pieces, as a moderate breeze will easily scatter them.

The Post-A-Log comes with a binder. The playing surface incorporates a printed board (front and rear faces are printed this time) and as near as I can describe it some kind of plastic film on each face. The playing pieces feel like small, but strong pieces of cloth or fabric and have a “glue-like” backing on their lower half. You simply stick the little cloth tab on the board and remove it again when it becomes necessary to re-position it. In my experience the glue has always managed to hold the playing piece to the board despite repeated removals and re-applications though I do take the elementary precaution of keeping the face of the board clean with a little detergent and water from time to time.

As for “computerized” recorders the huge variety of them available makes it impractical to do a detailed examination of each one. Every chess engine such as Fritz, Junior, Shredder, and Hiracs will have not only an “analysis function” (the actual “engine” section which will calculate a move for you) but also a secondary function to act as a mere recorder or “secretary”. Then you have programs such as ECTool and Zork, which act primarily as recording/mailing programs and may or may not have some kind of analysis engine associated with them.

You simply cannot underestimate the importance of accurate record keeping by whatever method since, as OTB chess has its “touch-move” rule, CC has the equivalent in that ANY LEGAL MOVE MUST STAND AS SENT. Therefore, if you get your games and positions mixed up and send a move for the wrong game - too bad, so sad. You have to live with it. If you end up sending a wrong move you can at least hope that it will not legally work in the game for which you sent it and blind luck has saved you. So, as well as accurately transferring the moves to your game boards you MUST keep an accurate written record.

In Part 2 we will examine some CC rules such as time keeping, arbitration, ambiguous/impossible moves and related topics.