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Correspondence Chess Starter Kit |
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March 29, 2003 |
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This piece is intended to be a short introduction for novice cc players. Please feel free to pass it along to someone you know who may be interested in correspondence chess. If you do this, however, please keep the copyright notice/by-line intact. So you want to give serious international correspondence chess a try - good for you! The problem is that there is so much information out there that it is hard to know what choices to make. This article will give you tips on how to get started with a minimum of fuss. Which organization should I join first? I have two recommendations for players with no serious correspondence chess tournament experience: International Email Chess Club (IECC) and International Email Chess Group (IECG), in no particular order of preference. You can opt for either of these organizations to play email cc at no cost, i.e., there are no dues or entry fees required at all. If you want to jump right into officially rated and organized tournament games, visit the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) site and send a direct entry inquiry off - understanding that the ICCF is the FIDE-recognized organization for international correspondence chess, that it is made up of national federations, and does require modest entry fees to tournaments. You do not, however, have to be a member of a national federation entity to give ICCF play a try. I would therefore recommend that you start off with one of the first two organizations mentioned above, and, after finding that you enjoy tournament play via email, graduating to the ICCF, where you will have an opportunity to compete for an official rating and an official title. If you feel strongly against computer engine use in correspondence chess games, you should consider that both ICCF and IECG have no rules in place which prohibit engine use. This is the practical approach as there is no way to detect such use anyway. If you are concerned about it, IECC does prohibit engine use in games. What tools are allowed to be used in correspondence chess? The basic answer is everything - chess engines (except as noted above), endgame tablebases, reference books, databases, etc. Correspondence chess is all about research. Consultation is a hot topic in cc circles, but I surely would not recommend consulting with anyone about your correspondence chess games - you'll learn more faster by playing your own games, to be sure. What are the minimum essential tools to get started in serious correspondence chess? Only two things are absolutely essential - a good email client program (such as Outlook Express) and access to the internet via an internet service provider. Beyond that, I would recommend two things: |
ECTOOL (Email Chess Tool) is Andres Valverde's excellent email chess facilitation software. The registered version costs a mere 17 Euros, and there is a freeware version that you can try out before you decide on the full version. ECTOOL will help you greatly to keep track of your email games, prevent notation errors (clerical errors) and keep yourself organized - I highly recommend this software. ChessBase is the well-known database program which will help you in your game research and in many other ways. The latest version can be quite expensive, but you can usually pick up an earlier version for very little. In addition, if you are on a really tight budget, you can visit the ChessBase site and download ChessBase Lite for free. Once you become comfortable with it, you can then get the full version. There are other database programs out there, of course, but I recommend ChessBase as it is the one that I am most familiar with, and also the one which is most widely used. If you are an over the board player, you are probably already familiar with it. Next steps? Start collecting correspondence chess games! This will aid you greatly in your research. Visit the IECC, IECG, and ICCF sites again and you will be able to download tens of thousands of games for free. To get many hundreds of thousands of correspondence chess games, obtain Tim Harding's excellent MegaCorr data CD - besides the games there are tons of other interesting things on it. Be sure to get the latest available version... Preparing for that first tournament. You've joined one of the organizations I have recommended, signed up for a tournament, and are waiting to receive the assignment sheet. Use this time wisely - the absolute first step is to read and become familiar with the playing rules of your chosen organization. You will be expected to know the rules, and they will answer most of your initial questions. Then prepare the openings that you will play - play what you are comfortable with! A few tips. Don't carry too many games at once - start out with one or two small tournaments until you are comfortable with your game load. Above all, understand that you will make some mistakes along the way - this is perfectly normal and you should endeavor to learn from them. Have fun with correspondence chess, and with the nice people you will meet! Have more questions? The fastest way that I know of to get an answer is to post a query on The Correspondence Chess Message Board (TCCMB). Don't be shy - there are lots of folks out there who will give you good advice. I hope that this information has been helpful to you, and I wish you great success on your correspondence chess journey! |
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