I was thinking about this and I thought it would be a great idea for the USCF to have a website where correspondence chess is possible like it is here on RHP. Correspondence is played regularly between USCF members but it would be much more convienient if it could be played online like it is here. I'm still very new here but this is one of the best chess sites I've been to. It's a lot easier to be creative when you don't have a two minute clock with 12 second increments.

So any other USCF members out there, what do you think?

I'm one. I can see the convenience of doing as such. However, I am a bit of a romantic, and it would somewhat sadden me to see the postcards become extinct. I don't mind taking a year to play a game.

The world is speeding up too much. 9 ball pool, emails, fast food, instant potatoes, and scissors that do the cutting for you. We as a people, not just chess players, should really slow down and take time to enjoy the little moments that make Life worth living.

Originally posted by AlphaAlekhine
I'm one. I can see the convenience of doing as such. However, I am a bit of a romantic, and it would somewhat sadden me to see the postcards become extinct. I don't mind taking a year to play a game.

The world is speeding up too much. 9 ball pool, emails, fast food, instant potatoes, and scissors that do the cutting for you. We as a people, n ...[text shortened]... should really slow down and take time to enjoy the little moments that make Life worth living.

Originally posted by AlphaAlekhine
...scissors that do the cutting for you...

There is a fine line between technology helping mankind, and promoting laziness. But that is a WHOLE other topic 😛

Yeah that isn't really what I was getting into, I just think it would be a lot easier and as was mentioned before it would be better to have a server for "time management" (basically meaning not having to set everything up on a convention board as I do or plug all the moves into chessbase or something like that)

This would be a much easier way to handle it and it would probably promote a greater interest in correspondence chess in my opinion. As for the person that likes to play postal chess I see no reason why that wouldn't still be possible. I appreciate your attachment to the old or nostalgic ways of doing it and I would be as sad as anyone to see that die out. But you know, we don't churn butter anymore but if you wanted to see it done there's always a trip to amish country with your name all over it.

Whether or not laziness is promoted by *any* of these advancements is debatable. Certainly laziness is facilitated through these advancements but I would like to believe that for every individual who is made lazy there's another who uses the additional time they are afforded in productive and creative ways.

I don't know if that's true but as I say I would LIKE to believe it is so. Anyway, thanks for the thoughts. Maybe we can get enough people together and petition USCF to do it. again, just a thought.

Yours in Chess,
Joe

I have been a life member since LM dues were $100 (that's a LONG time). I have a very low opinion of USCF postal chess. I've always considered myself a postal player and played for Chess Review until it merged with the USCF years ago. Currently the BEST correspondence org. is the Correspondence Chess League of America. Their e-mail tmts. are limited, but I think they are looking to expand soon using the ICCF server. I switched to server chess a couple years ago...got tired fiddling with post cards. I actually subscribe at Chessworld.

Originally posted by JDChess
I was thinking about this and I thought it would be a great idea for the USCF to have a website where correspondence chess is possible like it is here on RHP. Correspondence is played regularly between USCF members but it would be much more convienient if it could be played online like it is here. I'm still very new here but this is one of the best chess sit ...[text shortened]... clock with 12 second increments.

So any other USCF members out there, what do you think?

Originally posted by zebano
Interesting thoughts. However I already play my USCF corr. by email. That means that I have to do all my time management which a server would take care of. Chessbase is still better than this sites analysis board (which forgets the variations you just played) so it would need some sort of API or a get pgn method like RHP does. I'm all for it, but frankly I don't know why I play USCF corr at all except that it seems more "official" than RHP does.

Originally posted by Ramiri15
Do you find the quality of USCF correspondence players similar to RHP? I'm not asking about ratings comparison, simply whether or not the top 5%, 10%, 25%, etc. here are comparable to their USCF counterparts.

Originally posted by zebano
From chatting with some of the better players. It seems that the top tier tend to play the Golden Knights tournament (aka USCF championship) and beyond that they play internationally.

Originally posted by Wulebgr
I played the Golden Knights once--in the days before I had databases, though I had ECO--and got clobbered. One opponent, a teenager getting training from Dan Heisman, tore my Sveshnikov to pieces in a way that led me to believe the opening was fundamentally unsound.

Originally posted by masscat
I have been a life member since LM dues were $100 (that's a LONG time). I have a very low opinion of USCF postal chess. I've always considered myself a postal player and played for Chess Review until it merged with the USCF years ago. Currently the BEST correspondence org. is the Correspondence Chess League of America. Their e-mail tmts. are limited, but ...[text shortened]... a couple years ago...got tired fiddling with post cards. I actually subscribe at Chessworld.

Originally posted by tonytiger41
you reminded me that i completed the 1976 golden knights tournament. four rounds of chess via postcards! no computers back then, played some really good games, even one vs alex dunne, where there were two psuedo rook sacs and a long ten move combination worked out over three months or so

robert bryne retired as editor of the NYTimes' chess column recently.