Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Correspondence chess

What is the value anymore of corr chess? I don't ask this frivolously, as I've just finished my second corr tournament (+3 =2 -1, 2nd place) and am unsure as to whether I should start another one. They are fun in a sense, but there is no practical way to stop cheating and I can't help but feel in some of my games that I'm playing against a computer. As much as I like the analytical practice and the use of very sharp lines, it's very disheartening to think I may be playing Rybka. Since we have the anonymity of the internet, has anyone ever cheated at a corr game, and would you be willing to cop to it? I'm just trying to get a feel for how many people play fair.

4 comments:

rockyrook said...

In all honesty, when I first started playing CC and when I set up CB9 to house all my games, CB9 has this setting where if you grab the piece, CB9 will suggest a move. For what it's worth, I found a lot of those suggestions to be poppy-cock and I ignored them. But there were times when I considered the suggestion and went with it. After completing about half a dozen CC games, I found how to disable the "suggestion setting" and now I look at the board with absolutely no computer help. The only way I use CB9 in my CC play is to house my games and to explore openings and games. And from what I've read, that isn't cheating in CC play.

Nice blog, by the way. I found it via chessloser.

Caeruleum Canis said...

Glad you like the blog. Chessloser was kind enough to give me a link, so anyone who hasn't seen the site should go to it, I have a link.

I also house my games in Chessbase, which isn't cheating, and it's nice to know that at least one other person has gone to some effort to avoid getting computer aid.

Polly said...

Sad to say people cheat at anything online. People cheat at CTS (Chess Tactics Server). I used to play in an online hearts league. People cheated at that too. They had cad counting programs, and some of the sophisticated ones could actual figure out what cards were in the other hands.

My philosophy is why bother to play if you're going to cheat? Does having a high online rating do something for you? If it does then you're pretty pathetic in my opinion.

If you're getting something out of the games even though you feel like you're playing Rybka, then play more. If you can make better use of your chess time then do so.

I hope your fiancee understands chess and what turns you on about it. Don't whip out a pocket set on your honeymoon and ask her if she wants to play. LOL

Welcome to the chess blogosphere.

Caeruleum Canis said...

My fiancee has no problem with chess, in fact she's very supportive, but she prefers I play OTB as opposed to online. Mostly because I get nasty sometimes if I lose a bunch of online games in a row, and sometimes it comes out on her, wish is bad on my part. Thanks for reading.