Chess is a board game that people have liked for a long time. But it might be hard for people who are new to the game or haven’t played in a while. There are good chess tips and clear answers to nine questions that people ask a lot about the game. Let’s read below about “Free Download 9 Burning Chess Questions And Answers”.

1. Where can I find free chess resources to learn the basics?

You can learn to play chess for free on a lot of great sites. These are some ideas:

• Websites: Chess.com, Lichess.org, and other sites offer easy-to-understand lessons in the form of papers, videos, and fun games. These show you how to play chess and move your pieces.
• Mobile Apps: You can get the chess apps Play Magnus and ChessKid for your phone. They add games and tasks to make learning more fun, and you can even play against AI.
• Videos on YouTube with lessons: A lot of free YouTube channels teach people how to play chess. These are some words you can look for: “chess for beginners,” “chess piece movement,” or “basic chess strategy.”

2. What are the most important chess tactics to learn first?

It’s easy to get good at sticks, forks, and pins. Hit two pieces with a fork at the same time. Catch an enemy piece behind another piece with a pin. Hit two pieces in a row with a stick. These simple rules can be used for many games. They can help you if you know how to use them.

3. How can I improve my chess calculation skills?

Before you play chess, you should picture and think about what could happen. Here are some ideas:

• Practice Tactics Puzzles: This puzzle work will teach you how to quickly find battle lines and chances.
• Play Slow Chess Games: When you play chess, you should move slowly. When the timer is longer, you have more time to plan your moves and figure out what to do in each state.
• Take a look at your games: Think about a game when you’re done with it. Look for chances you didn’t take and think about what else you could have done.

4. What are some good opening principles for beginners?

Quickly get your pieces ready, take over the middle of the board, and then cast your king to protect it. These should be the first things you do. To begin, the Italian Game, the London System, or the Queen’s Gambit are the best choices. This will help you understand these rules.

5. How can I learn from stronger chess players?

To get better at chess, you can do a lot of things, like

• Play against better players: You’ll get better if you play against people with higher scores. These games will help you get better, even if you lose the first time.
• Take a look at these chess games and lessons: An awful lot of chess grandmasters talk and write about games on the internet. These will help you learn how to plan and get better at chess.
• Join a Chess Club: Get together with other chess players. You can learn how to play chess and play against other people in a club. Some people have played for a long time and can teach you.

6. What are some good chess books for beginners?

A lot of chess books are made for people who have never played before. Here are some ideas:

• Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess: Everyone knows that Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess is a book that teaches you how to play chess. Bobby Fischer also wrote it. It was written by the famous American chess player.
• You can read Irving Chernev’s book Logical Chess: Move by Move. It breaks down the rules and strategies of chess with the help of clear examples and marked-up games.
• The Amateur’s Mind: That’s what the book he wrote is called. It breaks down moves so that people who are new to the game can learn how to pick the right ones.

7. How much time does it take to become good at chess?

Chess can be learned in a number of different ways, each of which will take a different amount of time. It’s still very important to stay steady. Do not try to learn something right away. Do not worry about speedy growth; instead, make goals that you can reach.

8. Is chess good for the brain?

Several studies show that chess may help your brain work better, remember things, and figure out how to fix things. You have to guess what will happen, plan ahead, and act in the right way. In general, this might be good for their brain health.

9. Is it too late to learn chess as an adult?

No matter what age, anyone can learn to play chess and have fun with it. Most people are better at planning and thinking, which are very helpful in chess. You might remember moves better from when you were younger.

Read Also :Chess Tactics Boleslavsky Book 1948

Conclusion: Free Download 9 Burning Chess Questions And Answers

You can always get better at chess. Here is where you can begin to learn how to play chess. It’ll give you the tools you need and answer your first questions. Remember that having fun is the most important thing as you learn chess. Do your best and enjoy the win, no matter how big or small it is. I hope you like “Free Download 9 Burning Chess Questions And Answers”.

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Congratulations! You’re going to be Chief Arbiter of your very first FIDE-rated event. It may even be a tournament offering IM or GM norms!

What information do you need to submit? How? And by when?

Remember: National Arbiters (NA) may be Chief Arbiter of FIDE-rated events that do not offer title norms. A FIDE Arbiter (FA) or International Arbiter (IA) must be the Chief of norm events.

Here in Part 1, I’ll talk about pre-event “gotchas.” Part 2 will cover what to do during the tournament. Finally, Part 3 will discuss what to do after the event has ended.

While some info here can be helpful to any arbiter, these posts are aimed at USA arbiters submitting events to the US Chess Federation (USCF, or US Chess).

USCF Responsibilities

You need to email your event’s information to the US Chess FIDE Events Manager (currently, IA Brian Yang) so that he can register your tournament with FIDE. You cannot do this yourself, and must go through US Chess. You can email fide@uschess.0rg.

For a title norm event (you’re an FA or IA, right?), you need to send the info to US Chess at least 33 days before the start date of your event.

For a non-norm event, you can send the info a mere 3 days 6 days before the start. [FIDE needs the info 3 days prior, from US Chess. Thanks to IA Judit Sztaray for this correction!]

Which information to include? Below is the info I sent Brian to register the 2023 New York Winter Invitational – GM A. Feel free to steal this template:

Tournament Name: 2023 New York Winter Invitational – GM A City and State: New York, NY Time Control: 90 minutes with 30 second increment from move 1 Chief Arbiter: Andre Harding (2008335) Chief Organizer: Keith Espinosa (30911044) Note as well that you need to have a Chief Arbiter and Chief Organizer (a person, not an organization) when registering your event. Include their FIDE IDs, as I have done here. The CA and CO can be the same person. When your event is registered, it will be assigned an Event Code and look like this on the FIDE website: If this page doesn’t exist, your tournament doesn’t exist to FIDE!

A Very Important Detail

Two FIDE-rated sections, one USCF rating report.

TDs usually include all event sections in one USCF rating report. You can do that when submitting FIDE events for USCF rating, too.

(I’ll talk more about the rating reports in Part 3.)

When it comes to FIDE-rated events, however, each FIDE-rated section must be registered as a separate tournament! Behold:

Two USCF-rated sections in one USCF rating report become two separate FIDE events!

The email snippet above registering the January 2023 event was actually four times as long, because I had to send essentially the same info four times to register each section: GM A, GM B, IM C, and IM D. Cut and paste is your friend here…

SwissSys

If for some reason you don’t already have a copy of SwissSys, you now need it! That’s because you need to submit your event for FIDE rating using SwissSys files.

This means, even if you use Swiss-Manager as I do, prepare your SwissSys files before the tournament!

Create as many sections in SwissSys as you need for your event as you would for a normal USCF tournament. Enter all of your players (if your event is far in the future, update regularly).

Now, as you register players, the “I.D. number” field should contain their USCF ID. In the “I.D. #2” field, enter their FIDE ID number! Search the players on ratings.fide.com. 

Which rating to use? I enter the players’ current FIDE ratings, but this doesn’t matter UNLESS you’re going to pair a FIDE-rated Swiss tournament with SwissSys. Then it is a must (more on that in Part 2).

[Edit: IA Tom Langland mentioned a combined USCF/FIDE rating database I was unaware of, which should make this process much easier! I found it here: https://www.kingregistration.com/combineddb]

Check that the players have current USCF memberships, as you would for any non-FIDE-rated event. However: any GM/IM/WGM/WIM whose FIDE country is not USA is exempt from having a current membership. They just need a USCF ID number. So get your foreign players a USCF ID if they don’t have one!

[Edit: IA Sztaray reminds us to make sure all players in FIDE-rated sections have FIDE IDs! Get info from the players (federation, gender, birth year) and email fide@uschess.org to get new IDs. When you have them, enter this info manually.]

PGN files

This applies to norm tournaments: GM, IM, WGM, and WIM.

• • For a norm to be valid in a round robin event, a PGN file of all games in the tournament must be submitted to FIDE [in our case, we send them to the US Chess FIDE Events Manager].
  • For a norm to be valid in a Swiss event, PGN files of all games from norm-earners must be included. It’s not required to include all games.

Keep this in mind! If you’re not using DGT boards, you will be entering lots of games into ChessBase! Even if your event doesn’t require the submission of PGN files, strive to collect all game scores.

Order carbonless scoresheets — NOW. Collect the top (white) copy, while the player keeps the bottom (yellow) copy. While you’re at it, order lots of pens.

Final Thoughts

This is more work than you anticipated, am I right? Yes — and you must be very detail-oriented.

Doing all this pre-work, however, will make your life much easier when it comes time to submit your event for FIDE rating.

I would appreciate any questions or comments from other arbiters or prospective arbiters!

Stay tuned for Part 2!

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Understanding the Endgame

The endgame refers to the stage of the game when most pieces have been traded off, kings become active, and the main battle revolves around promoting pawns. Precise calculation, sound strategy, and accurate execution are paramount.

Key things to know:

Goals: The main goals are to promote pawns, control key squares, centralize your king, and deliver checkmate.

Importance: Expert endgame skill leads directly to increased wins, draws from bad positions, better opening play, and overall strategic understanding.

Types: Different types of endgames have distinct strategies like pawn endgames, rook endgames, and minor piece endgames.

Basic Principles: All endgames have fundamental ideas that guide strategic play. Mastering these is the foundation.

King Activity: The king transforms from a liability to a strong piece. Centralize it quickly.

Pawn Promotion: Create passed pawns and advance them. Blockade opponent passed pawns.

Prophylaxis: Take preventative measures to cut off counterplay.

Opposition: Use zugzwang and the opposition of kings to gain tempi.

Key Squares: Identify and control squares that are important for both sides.

Fortresses: Construct impenetrable formations when defending difficult positions.

Study Endgame Theory

While rules of thumb are handy, concrete theoretical knowledge is vital. Mastering common endgame positions you will frequently encounter over the board is a must. Some to start with:

Lucena Position: The most important rook and pawn vs rook endgame technique.

Philidor Position: Essential drawing method when down a pawn in a rook endgame.

Triangulation: Zugzwang technique using a knight to lose a tempo and win pawns.

Vancura Position: Common drawing technique in bishop vs knight endgames.

Rook Pawn: Master basic king, rook, and rook pawn mating patterns.

Effective Practice Methods

Book knowledge must be paired with focused practice to develop skills. Tailor these methods to your level.

Endgame Puzzles: Solve puzzles ranging from basic mates to complex positions daily. Use the Lichess/Chess.com apps.

Endgame Books: Master classics like Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual or Jesus de la Villa’s 100 Endgames You Must Know.

Playing Against Computer: Set up tricky positions against engines to practice calculation and technique.

Theoretical Positions: Have a training partner play common endgame positions out against you.

Analyze Your Games: Review endgames with stronger players or engines to identify mistakes.

Blitz Endgames: Play sharp endgame positions under blitz time controls to improve calculation.

Recommended Resources

Here are some of the best endgame books and online tools to further your learning:

Silman’s Complete Endgame Course: Step-by-step endgame training method for all levels by IM Jeremy Silman.

Chessable Endgame Courses: Practice endgame patterns efficiently using spaced repetition software.

Chess Endgames for Beginners App: Endgame puzzles tailored to improving beginners by GM Alburt, GM Pervakov and GM Razuvaev.

100 Endgames You Must Know: All the most important endgames and how to play them by IM Jesus de la Villa.

Secrets of Pawn Endings: Comprehensive pawn endgame manual by GM Korchnoi. Easy to grasp examples.

Lichess Studies: Hundreds of endgame studies to play out, manually or against computer.

Practical Tips

Lastly, here are some tips to help you apply endgame skills better over-the-board:

Aim to Reach Endgames: Trade pieces to reach endgames with better understanding.

Utilize Endgame Tablebases: Check tricky positions and your analysis with tablebase.

Review Losses: Identify exactly where endgames were lost using engine analysis.

Play Slow Games: Rapid games mask endgame weaknesses. Playing slower time controls exposes them.

Vary Your Practice: Train the basics but also practice complex multi-piece endgames.

Create a Training Plan: Systematically target your weakest areas and measure progress.

The endgame is the final yet most subtle phase of chess. Dedicated, structured practice of its key principles, theories and techniques will rapidly increase understanding and over the board performance for players of all levels. So grab a endgame manual or access an online course and get training! The rewards will come quickly. I sincerely hope you find this “How to Develop Your Chess Endgame Skills In 2024” article helpful.

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This part talks about more advanced ways to write about real-rated chess games and other things you should think about when you write a full report. It adds to parts 1 and 2. What is this “Fide Rated Event Reporting Part 3” thing? Let’s check out “Fide Rated Event Reporting Part 3”.

Advanced Strategies of Fide Rated Event Reporting Part 3

• Analysis of Key Games: Show more than just what you changed. Choose games that are significant because they display key themes in strategy, tactical skill, or major turning points. Notes that explain why important moves were made can be made by smarter people or a chess machine.
• Interviews and Player Profiles: Talk to famous people, up-and-coming artists, or people from the area to make the event feel more familiar. How did they get ready? What did they learn? What did they think of the race? People might understand who a person is and why they play better if they write bios for them.
• Interactive Elements and Multimedia: What if you added playable items like chessboards that can be used over and over? That would make the story more interesting. It might help to see a picture of the players, the venue, and the award presentations. People might be even more interested if you add live chats or short summaries of games.

Additional Considerations:

• Tournament Information: Briefly describe what you know about the other racers. Write down the event’s name, the times, the location, the length of time, the number of players, the type of competition (such as Swiss, round robin, etc.), and any real titles that were given out.
• Tournament Standings:  Make the numbers look good by arranging them in a table-like shape. It would be helpful to know how many games were played, how often people won, and the rules for drawing lots. Big wins, like shocks or work that beats everyone else, should be talked about.
• Pairing Information: If you want to, you can write about the people who played in each round, how they did, and how many points they got. This helps a lot for people who want to follow the game.
• Live Game Videos: At big events, you might want to show live games. Here, you might have to report on the progress of big games in real time on a different website or on social media.

Tailoring the Report:

What and how will be shared will depend on the event and the people who are going to be there.

• Local Events: Bios of players and talks with well-known people from the area can make local events feel more personal. Talk to people in the neighborhood by telling them about good and bad things happening in the area.
• National Events:  It might be smart to pay more attention to the best workers and how they do their jobs during important events. A lot of people want to hear from big names or up-and-coming stars.
• International Events: We need to know more about what’s going on in other countries. Think about news and trends in chess from around the world. People from all over the world can play big plan games.

Additional Tips:

• Proofreading and Editing: Check the report to see if there are any spelling or grammar problems. It’s very important to be right when you write about chess.
• Attribution: If you use someone else’s work, you should let them know and explain why you did so.
• Timeliness: The report should come out as soon as possible after the event. A lot of people want to read new things.
• Distribution Channels: How you talk to the people you want to reach is important. Your neighborhood paper, chess websites, social media sites, and league websites are just a few places where you can do this.
• Promotion: You should post the study on the right websites if you want people to read it and answer the questions.

Read More: My First Chess Tournaments

Tools and Resources:

• Chess Notation Software: With ChessBase or SCID vs. PC, you can show game results and notes in a proper way.
• Image Editing Software: The pictures in the story can look better with an easy picture maker.
• Social Media Platforms: Tweet and post on Facebook to get the word out about the story and meet chess players.
• Chess sites: You can read about events on a lot of chess websites.

Conclusion:

To report on a real event, you need to do more than just write down what was found. If chess players have the right tools and resources, know how to use advanced methods, and have extra things to think about, they can find stories that are both fun and useful. I hope you like reading “Fide Rated Event Reporting Part 3”.

Don’t forget that a good report does more than just list what happened. More people may know that chess is a sport, which is good for the game as a whole.

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The Weight of the Gavel

Being an arbitrator was more of a calling than a job. When we were tiny, our mother identified us with a strange birthmark that resembled a gavel. After that, we spent years training arduously to get ourselves mentally and physically ready for the change. Collaboratively, we improved our abilities to keep things organized, consider all of the possibilities, and settle on fair choices.

Because of its weight, the gavel stood as a symbol of our power. It stood for the tremendous weight of our responsibility to protect harmony, guide lost souls, and end wars that posed a threat to the very fabric of reality.

Trials by Fire

Our training had to be top-notch. Learning magical techniques, ancient literature, and fiery trials took a lot of time. We faced off against explosive monsters, navigated perilous landscapes, and mastered the art of avoiding misleading illusions. Every obstacle we encountered forced us to change for the better.

One of these trials is particularly noteworthy. Reality started to fall apart at every step as I tried to navigate the complex Maze of Deception. It seems as though every urban legend had a hidden reality to it. To escape the trap, I had to rely on my intuition and reasoning, which put my discernment to the test. My calling was further reaffirmed when I emerged from the labyrinth uninjured but victorious.

The Crossroads of Fate

Not long from the beginning’s finish, I came to a crossroads. Three portals shimmered in the mist ahead of me; the strength flowing from each of them was incomprehensible to me. They represented three possible paths for me to take as an arbitrator:

• The Way of the Guardian: Being a watcher who maintains order in a world that is becoming more and more chaotic and who watches over the boundary between realms is the Way of the Guardian.
• The Path of the Weaver: The Weaver’s Way of Subtly Manipulating Fate’s Flows.
• The Walk of the Shepherd: Following lost souls, easing those stranded between worlds, and illuminating the path—that is the Shepherd’s Journey.

There was something unique about every path. Because of the Guardian’s power, I felt a greater sense of responsibility. I became interested in strategy because of Weaver’s knowledge. The shepherd’s demeanor was very touching. Helping the bereaved and providing them with words of encouragement allowed me to put my innate sensitivity to good use.

Read More:- Which Sicilian is Right for You

The Choice and Beyond: My Arbiter Journey End of the Beginning

With a deep breath, I raised my palm-up hand toward the bright gateway that represented the Way of the Shepherd. As I was engulfed by the otherworldly mist, I felt a burst of energy.

Everything in the cosmos was a kaleidoscope of sound and color. Staring up at a sky full of dancing constellations, I woke up on a desolate plain. Before me, shrouded in a fog, stood a lone individual. Could it be that I am rescuing the life of the first lost soul I ever encountered?

Part one of my journey came to a close with The End of the Beginning. Working long hours was the next stage. Finding the uncharted territories of reality and guiding the lost to their eternal resting places was my duty as Shepherd Arbiter.

This is where the true test begins. I am ready to face the challenges and enjoy the rewards that lie ahead because of the wisdom I have gained and the kindness in my heart. No matter how tough things become, I will keep going because I know that nothing I do is ever in vain.

Conclusion

In the ethereal haze between realms, my narrative as an arbiter will unfold through encounters and choices. We are working on adding more material. In fact, rather than drawing to a close, The End of the Beginning ushers in an ocean of potential. I am ready to greet all of them as the Shepherd Arbiter. I hope you like reading “My Arbiter Journey End of the Beginning”.

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What About the Closed Openings?

This is a much broader topic, because it includes basically everything except 1.e4!

Still, there’s an obvious place to start.

1.d4 — Have it Your Way

Generally, you’ll prefer 1.d4 to 1.e4 if you don’t want to play directly for kingside attacks most of the time. 1.d4 tends to lead to White seeking an advantage on the queenside. That doesn’t mean you can’t play aggressively if you choose to! Far from it.

Botvinnik and Keres met in 20 tournament games. Photo: Verendel.com

White can go for the throat against even Black’s most solid options: consider the classic game Botvinnik — Keres, 1952 (given at the end of this post).

The 6th World Champion meets the Queen’s Gambit Declined with the seemingly dry Exchange Variation … and then plays directly for a central and kingside attack! He won in crushing fashion; even now this is considered a model game for the QGD Exchange.

For many club players, it’s the model game.

On the other hand, White can adopt a slower strategy; consider the model game Evans — Opsahl, 1950 which I discussed in an earlier post.

Against the solid Nimzo-Indian (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4) White has many solid approaches, but he can also satisfy his bloodlust with the Sämisch Variation.

When Black tries more double-edged systems like the Modern Benoni Defense (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6), Dutch Defense (1.d4 f5), King’s Indian Defense (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 and 3…Bg7), or Grünfeld Defense (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 and 3…d5), White can play solidly (the first player could choose a quiet kingside fianchetto against each of these, for example) or meet fire with fire.

Even when Black seeks to take control from the get-go with the Benko Gambit, White can throw down the gauntlet.

Efstratios Grivas. Photo: FIDE

If you’re a 1.d4 player looking for several good recommendations against Black’s options in one place, I recommend taking a look at Beating the Fianchetto Defenses by Efstratios Grivas. The esteemed Greek trainer is not always my favorite author, but this offering is very well done.

He chooses sensible systems against the Benoni, Benko, KID, Grünfeld, and Modern Defenses, and then delves into the typical middlegames and endgames that arise from them.

I hope I’ve provided some food for thought. Below is, as I promised, Botvinnik — Keres, 1952. Note that it arises from a Nimzo-Indian move order.

The fun doesn’t stop here. In Part 3, we’ll discuss the Flank Openings — perhaps the most interesting way to open a game! Stay tuned!

The post Which Chess Opening Move is Best? Part 2 | Chess Essentials appeared first on Chess Essentials.

With Magnus Carlsen‘s dominant 7½—3½  title defense against Ian Nepomniachtchi in the Dubai 2021 FIDE World Championship Match, the 31-year-old Norwegian has already amassed one of the best records in title matches … perhaps the best.

I remain heavily critical of Carlsen being declared winner of the 2013 London Candidates Tournament by virtue of having more wins than Vladimir Kramnik, and not through an over-the-board tiebreak. Even blitz or rapid would have been better!

But in the cauldron of a World Championship Match, Carlsen has proven invincible. In late 2013 he convincingly wrested the crown from Vishy Anand, and defeated him again in 2014 when the Indian legend surprisingly won the next Candidates Tournament.

Carlsen drew his next two matches against Sergey Karjakin (New York, 2016) and Fabiano Caruana (London, 2018), eventually subduing his rivals in rapid tiebreaks.

Carlsen wins again. Image: chess24

With this victory, Carlsen has one win as Challenger and four title defenses as Champion; in five World Championship matches he has lost a total of just two games out of 56 played!

In tiebreaks? Carlsen has five wins and two draws in seven games!

Matches are shorter now than in the past, but I don’t think anyone in history can claim better.

I value longevity, so I’ve long said Garry Kasparov is the Greatest of All-Time, for now … but Magnus Carlsen has a an argument that gets stronger every year.

What happened to Ian?

Nepomniachtchi was not widely considered the strongest Challenger this time around, but perhaps he was less afraid of Carlsen than others. How would this dynamic affect the match? While unclear, I predicted a three-point Carlsen victory.

During the first five games, “Nepo” probably played as well as Magnus did.

I really think losing the a3-pawn in Game 6 was his undoing. Even if the engines say the resulting position should be drawn, it was always going to be difficult against a top player, let alone a notorious grinder like Carlsen.

A game behind, Nepomniachtchi had to take on more risk.

A poor Game 8 simply ended the match. There was no coming back down two games against Carlsen with six left. Frankly, I think Magnus would be unlikely to level the match if Ian had a two-game lead.

Nepomniachtchi knew this very well, and I think he simply couldn’t play at his best any longer: doing so would just delay the inevitable. So, I agree with the consensus view that he just collapsed.

Who’s Next?

The next Challenger? Image: Twitter (@AlirezaFirouzja)

Many chess fans expect Alireza Firouzja to be the next Challenger. I think there’s a decent chance of that happening.

The other favorites are Caruana and Ding Liren.

Still, Candidates Tournaments are arguably as grueling as a World Championship Match; but those eight players don’t have to face Carlsen to become Challenger!

The post Carlsen vs. Nepomniachtchi: A Brief Take appeared first on Chess Essentials.

…that is abused by less experienced players

Beware blindly following the output of a chess computer! An engine does not “understand” chess the same way a human does, and we cannot achieve the near-perfection in play that a computer can. When analyzing tactics the computer sees nearly everything, but what if you want to understand a position where pieces aren’t flying everywhere?

Here’s an example. You enter a game into ChessBase (or open one from a database). Then you open your favorite chess engine to analyze it, such as Fritz or Stockfish. How helpful might this be?

Let’s take the classic game Evans—Opsahl from the 1950 Dubrovnik Olympiad.

Evans-Opsahl, 1950, after 17 moves. I have opened Stockfish 11. How helpful is the engine, really?

The screenshot is not easy to see, so I’ll fill you in on some details. I turned on Stockfish 11 after black’s 17th move and let it analyze for awhile.

At 36 ply (half moves) or 18 full moves, it considers white’s best move to be 18.Rb2 for some strange reason, giving an evaluation of +/= 0.68. This suggests white is slightly better. In a real game between humans, I totally disagree!

Situations like this usually arise from the Exchange Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5; other sequences of moves can reach this same position). After both players support their d-pawns, and castle, we get a Karlsbad pawn structure, like this:

Both sides hope to start a minority attack on the flank where they have less pawns! White plays on the queenside, and black on the kingside. The idea is to create weaknesses to attack later. White’s play is quicker and easier, but if black succeeds the reward is a dangerous assault on white’s king.

What the engine can’t tell you

Let’s take another look at the game position:

White is ready to play 18.b5! to break apart black’s queenside. Notice that white’s pieces are in position to pounce. Of course, the future five-time U.S. Champion did just that.

Black has not played in the most accurate manner, and his attack is nowhere near threatening enough to disturb white seriously. Things would look better for him if his knight was on a more threatening post.

But wait, there’s more…

I’d like to mention that if black had the move here, an interesting possibility would be to play 18…b5!? himself. That makes is much harder for white to break through, and black has only one weakness to defend, on c6, though it’s a very serious one. Slowing white’s queenside play would also give black time to organize counterplay against white’s kingside. Either that, or try to land the black knight on c4 where it shields the weak c6-pawn from white’s pieces:

After the computer suggestion 18.Rb2 the move 18…b5 gains even more punch, because if white now follows with 19.axb5 axb5:

You can’t go wrong with this classic by Ludek Pachman.

White’s heavy pieces trip over each other and struggle to fight for the newly-opened a-file!

A chess engine can’t explain all of that to you. You have to either read a middle game textbook (such as Pachman’s Modern Chess Strategy), study well-annotated games from a database, or hire a coach. You can also read this blog regularly!

I could have left the engine on even longer, and maybe it would have chosen 18.b5 after all. It was the second-choice move with an evaluation of +/= 0.63. The point is, the computer couldn’t tell an inexperienced player the ideas behind any moves it suggests!

Evans was more than “slightly better” after 18.b5

The second player had to passively defend a weak structure for the rest of the game. In a practical game, this is a nightmare scenario. Opsahl finally succumbed after 81 moves.

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Screenshot of a completed ICCF correspondence game.

They were traditionally played by postal mail, with each player sending moves to their opponent on a postcard. This is rare nowadays, and most games are played via a webserver — just log in, bring up your game, and enter a move on a chessboard. You can also exchange messages with your opponent if you wish.

Individual correspondence tournaments are round-robins with an odd number of players. You play all of your games simultaneously: half with the white pieces, and half with black. The time control is given as X moves in Y days: for example 10 moves in 50 days. This repeats as long as the game continues and a player has not run out of time.

Many sites offer correspondence chess, and the number grows if we include online servers that offer everything from blitz, to standard, to correspondence-style play. However, there is only one place to play official, FIDE-recognized CC: the ICCF.

The International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF)

The ICCF logo.

Let’s learn a bit about ICCF’s history, from the body itself:

And the key part:

Titles

In addition to World Champion, the ICCF offers the following titles for correspondence play (in descending order):

• Grandmaster (GM)
• Senior International Master (SIM)
• International Master (IM)
• Correspondence Chess Master (CCM)
• Correspondence Chess Expert (CCE)
• Note: the Ladies Grandmaster (LGM) and Ladies International Master (LIM) titles have been phased out, as have Ladies Correspondence World Championships.

Normally, to achieve these titles a player must score two or more norms totalling a total of 24 games, similar to over-the-board GM/IM/WGM/WIM titles (two or more norms totalling 27 or more games).

CCE and CCM were added in the past few years, but I don’t think they’re prestigious, even though I have the CCE title and have a very good chance of completing the CCM title in my current tournament.

What About Computers!?

ICCF does not prohibit outside assistance. Players are allowed to use engines, which I freely admit to doing.

Besides ICCF being officially recognized by FIDE, this is the other main reason I chose ICCF play: they don’t pretend to police computer usage in long games played across the globe.

Now, no one suspects anyone else of anything. It would be much worse if computer assistance was not allowed, and some players used it anyway to cheat. I have no doubt this happens on other servers.

And I’ve got news for you: simply turning on the engine and having it do all the work for you will not get you very far when everyone else can do the same thing! This has made ICCF play very different than it was in the past, but I don’t see a viable alternative in the computer age. The vast majority of games end in draws.

I’m not very skilled in ICCF play, and don’t take it super-seriously. My opening prep is slipshod, and I’m nowhere close to being a computer expert. Still, there is scope for creativity in opening choices, directing the line of play, and steering games to the endgame. I find “centaur” (human plus computer) chess stimulating, and in some ways it has helped my standard chess, too!

Have you ever played correspondence chess before? Would you ever try it? And how do you feel about the ICCF not prohibiting engine assistance?

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