For many years I've been reading occasional suggestions in chess publicans and even on this site that correspondence chess is somehow an inferior chess format, sorry, but I object to this. Time control and access chess literature is allowed in CC, but I think correspondence players work just as hard, and accomplish just as much as their OTB counterparts. In addition, I've found the additional time to analyze the positions deeper can make one a stronger player, which is why my OTB rating was roughly the same as my CC rating. This will no doubt be a subject of debate for many years to come, but I just cannot convince myself that because one travels to an OTB event and plays with shorter time controls that this somehow qualifies as a superior brand of chess.
@mchill saidI think most would agree that playing OTB takes more skill than playing on here.
For many years I've been reading occasional suggestions in chess publicans and even on this site that correspondence chess is somehow an inferior chess format, sorry, but I object to this. Time control and access chess literature is allowed in CC, but I think correspondence players work just as hard, and accomplish just as much as their OTB counterparts. In addition, I've foun ...[text shortened]... event and plays with shorter time controls that this somehow qualifies as a superior brand of chess.
One example would be the analyze board facility here which allows us to "work out" moves several moves in advance without having to visualise them mentally.
In theory, although I suspect few us of us ever do you can "try" every possible realistic possible continuation(thousands of continuations are obviously no good so can be discounted immediately).
Therefor it should be impossible for any of us to make a silly error on here although Greenpawns blogs show that we often do!!
I find I make most mistakes when playing games similar to OTB conditions i.e. when a player is online at the same time and we are moving quickly.
If I sit at the computer for hours analyzing each move exhaustively I'm sure I'd have more success.
The truth of the matter is I play on here for enjoyment and relaxation so I'm never going to do that.
In short CC chess is for fun, OTB is for competition
@venda saidThe skills are different. Correspondence chess is like an open-book test. In OTB you must rely on memory and calculate everything in your head.
I think most would agree that playing OTB takes more skill than playing on here.
One example would be the analyze board facility here which allows us to "work out" moves several moves in advance without having to visualise them mentally.
In theory, although I suspect few us of us ever do you can "try" every possible realistic possible continuation(thousands of continuations a ...[text shortened]... and relaxation so I'm never going to do that.
In short CC chess is for fun, OTB is for competition
Either can be played as seriously, or casually, as the players wish.
@mchill
Thanks for your post, I agree with you.
By the way, I got a highest rating OTB (in the US chess federation) of 1820.
How would that compare with CC chess? I guess it depends on the effort you make checking opening books and analyzing. I am relatively new at CC chess...
@Rowin-Side
thank you
yes I was 1820, my highest rating, in OTB tournaments in New York but soon went into 1750's; it was difficult to keep it up
@sonhouse saidDon't even go there, unless you brought enough to share with everyone.
@Paul-Leggett
Alcohol or shrooms😉
@paul-leggett saidI guess it depends on what you mean by “real.” CC requires different skills than OTB, but not less strenuous. If one is going to play serious CC, one does research, needs either a good working private library or access to one (bricks and mortar or online databases), one has the opportunity to replay previous master game strategies and try out exotic opening variations one would never remember OTB. Certainly OTB came first, just as Socrates posing questions out loud came before Plato’s written treatises; they are both legitimate forms of philosophizing.
@mchill
I think OTB HAS to be real chess, because the game almost certainly began life and took form with two guys, a board, and some pieces.
There may or may not have been alcohol present.
The books, postage stamps, databases, and email all came later. Much later, in some cases.
@mchill
I've played OTB for over 40 years and have never heard an OTB player describe correspondance chess as inferior.
I think perhaps that came about since some correspondance chess allows computer analysis.
Not sure if this site allows it. I only recently joined, and didn't realise it was a correspondance chess website.
-I had googled for a chess forum, and got a link directly to the forum section, and I signed up from there.
So its the first time for me to play correspondence chess.