February 05, 2004

ICCF and PlayChess: Looking in the Future

Greetings! I'm new here, but I saw Thomas's call for bloggers and figured I'd try my hand, so... be gentle with me, eh? ;-)

PlayChess.de has made me curious about the broader correspondence chess world, especially the "official" structure under the aegis of the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF). Up to this point the ICCF has specialized in what I'd call "old fashioned e-mail chess" and "really old-fashioned snail-mail chess." Even the e-mail version requires users to e-mail moves according to a text file format, track number of days of think time according to the honor system, etc. Compared to the convenient interface of a site like PlayChess, i'm not terribly interested in this e-mail format. But apparently for a few years now the ICCF has recognized that the future of the correspondence game lies in servers like this one.

(GRATUITOUS OPINION #1: It's a pity they couldn't have just worked a deal with Thomas or other chess site maintainers a few years ago; they could be up and running by now! Sounds like a lot of "reinventing of the wheel" if you ask me.)

In a 2002 article (here) at ChessMail.com, Tim Harding looked into the crystal ball to a CC world oriented around servers instead of loose e-mails. The ICCF official site actually has a November, 2003, announcement (here) about the progress of this project. It also figured quite prominently in the President's Christmas message (here). It seems they've been working with Chess Base GmbH on this project, and, "ChessBase has pledged to support the innovative standards, which we will use," whatever on earth that means.

(GRATUITOUS OPINION #2: My fond hope is that these "innovative standards" involve open-sourcing the code for this server. In my mind all competitors should have the right to inspect the software with which their moves are being recorded. But I'm not terribly hopeful on that front.)

Here's how they assess their progress:

Design and development work is progressing well and the first events should be running on the new system around mid-2004. The ICCF schedule of events will be phased for Webserver tournaments over future months and new types of event will be developed, to exploit technology which will be available.

(GRATUITOUS OPINION #3: I sure hope they're willing to work with sites like this one rather than seeing them as the competition. They could bring huge numbers of CC players "into the fold" of a worldwide tournament structure, if they play their cards right. Or they could further divide the CC world into factions if they play their cards wrong.)

(GRATUITOUS OPINION #4: Ideally they could at least coordinate with this site and the other major CC servers to build a worldwide championship structure.)

Now, i'm a total neophyte to correspondence chess, so I don't claim to have my finger on the pulse of the CC community. So I'm posting this to ask others: What do you think about this direction? Would you have any interest in joining ICCF events if their server worked like PlayChess? Or is it not that important to most people?

Posted by Philip Reed at February 5, 2004 11:03 PM
Comments

Hi,

there are still some very big differences between the ICCF and this site, which will last even when the ICCF is using the same software.
The ICCF maintains a real competition, here we play competion like, but for the fun of the game.
When we encounter a cheater in HCL, we're upset, but it's not serious. Imagine that in real competition..
==> I will stay here in a fun area and I'm very glad about the way Thomas maintains it. All people with higher requirements may play parallel in the ICCF under thighter conditions behind the view.

00-0

Posted by: Nulnulnix at February 6, 2004 08:53 AM

I'm playing both here and in the ICCF. I don't recommend the ancient ICCF system to anyone. The honor system for moves inevitably leads to a situation where an opponent takes about a month for a move and claims to have taken two days. Then when you complain to the tournament director, it turns out that he's been on vacation for six months. I don't know why the ICCF can't bring its play into the 21st Century. It has certainly had plenty of time to do it.
Also, the notation is an annoying numerical system, unique to the ICCF, that has never been used by any other organization in the world. Unless the ICCF updates itself, I don't think I'll play in it again unless I find myself serving time in prison.

As far as cheating goes, there's no problem. There is no rule against computer use, so, of course, most of the games wind up looking like two programs trying to bore each other to death.

Posted by: Reverend_Owen at February 11, 2004 08:15 AM

I played email chess for a long time with moves on agreed days (so thinking time was always the same) and this worked really well, however it would never work over tournament play. So I agree the future of correspondance chess is with sites like this, and I too hope that official bodies will recognise the validity of all the work Thomas has done.

Otherwise fantastic blog

Posted by: Gillrichard at February 11, 2004 04:28 PM

i just want to say something about using chessprograms to assist you in a CC game , if you aren't very good at chess a program won't help you that much , cause most programs still make too many mistakes during a game and if the other players also use them , the best player will still win , not the best program , just my opinion

Posted by: caesar007 at February 12, 2004 05:42 PM

Caesar007 - tosh - A chess programme runs to the power of the machine unless it is designed to deliberately make mistakes. Chess programmes do not play the best move either, they merely play within the context of their ply-depth. That is they will play the best move related to n moves ahead expecting a sequence of moves. If you (like Kasparov recently did) can see one more move than a programme you can beat it. There are of course other ways to beat a PC.

However in the light of what you have said I can not help but feel you have misinterpreted what Programmes do.

Posted by: gillrichard at February 13, 2004 01:40 PM

I have been playing chess for 37 years and during that time I played on ICCF and did all of the correspondence thing. ICCF is a completely different culture and nothing like playchess.de. I play here because it is fun. There is nothing about ICCF play that is fun. ITs strictly serious business and if you like administration and rules with sections and subsections then ICCF is your ticket. When I play a game of chess, I don't want to be hyperviligant about whether I broke an ICCF subsection rule and my opponent will complain and then all your energy in the game is directed to administrative. IF ICCF ever got its tentacles intertwined into playchess, I would jump ship!

Even if you gave ICCF the code to make their server run efficiently, they would find a way to complicate it into a mess. It's what they do.

Posted by: Michael Hansen at February 16, 2004 05:43 PM

Good reading

Posted by: tentacles at August 10, 2004 09:10 AM


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