Ramble 11

As I faced yet another defeat brought on by the collision between a competent player (my opponent) and the ‘too often fallible’ (me) I pondered the question of what makes a good correspondence chess player?

Not just a good chess player, but a good ‘correspondence’ chess player. You would think that the answer is simple. A good chess player learns well from experience, has a good memory - especially for pattern recognition but also for variations and their sequencing – can visualise in abstract spaces where the calculation of moves takes place, and all of the above are aided by an innate talent with self belief and the ability to withstand pressure. With the absolutely best players, there is some extra spark we all recognise but find hard to define; call it artistic flair, deep intuition, rapid synthesis, originality, whatever. Other utilitarian skills, such as organising ones thinking, will develop in time even among ordinary players.

Assuming all of the above, what does a CC player also need to have in addition?

First, some clarification: correspondence chess used to mean chess by mail; the kind where you get a scoresheet or card, write your move on it, then stick it an envelope add a stamp then send it to your opponent via some kindly postal worker. I interpret ‘correspondence’ more widely, to embrace all systems whereby a player is given far more time to think, set up and move the pieces around, undertake research and so on; in other words, anything which is not played in real-time.

One important aspect of being a good CC player is often neglected. I have never seen it discussed in the literature. How the chess contest fits into your actual lived life, on a daily, humdrum, basis. Let me explain.

An important difference between cross-board chess and CC is that the former takes place most often at a public venue dedicated to the chess contest, whereas the latter generally takes place in your home with all of its attendant problems: domestic chores, perhaps a spouse demanding that you jolly well stop poring over that stupid board and get on with laying the table, feeding the dogs or putting out the rubbish; children needing help with homework (what are teachers for, you should ask yourself). In other words, the intrusions in your life demanding you do this, that, and the other. Where does chess fit into this scheme?

Thus one of the skills we need in order to be good CC players is the ability to manage our time in a real-life situation in which chess competition and domestic life are inseparably blended. So ask yourself this: do you undertake the analysis required for your game, the preparation and the planning, at a time which best suits your ability to think clearly and energetically? Or does your chess fit into whatever spare time becomes available? Even at a time when mentally you may not be at your best? I know that in my case, I do my best thinking in the morning and as the day goes on I lose energy. I think most players just fit the chess playing in whenever they can. Is it any wonder we get sub-par performance? In CC we have the privilege of so much extra time to think and analyse, yet we waste it by frittering it away in little time-slots here and there around our domestic lives.

I have been so busy at times that my chess analysis has been squeezed into such small packets of time, 10 or 15 minutes here and there, with a decision made and move sent off, only to discover that I have locked myself into a position where I have to struggle for the rest of the game. In fact, I would have had more time if I had been playing cross-board! Because I do get very busy, I probably should take on fewer games. However, chess is also a passion, therefore I will take on more than I can competently handle. So I try and keep notes of ideas (not just moves) so that from time to time I have an understanding of my previous thinking when my opponents replies; if I fail to do this, I quite often wonder what my strategy was earlier in the game, because so much time has passed in my domestic life, let alone in the moves coming and going from my opponent. I go astray because I reinvent a plan when I already had one which was reasonable. There is a well know phenomenon in psychology called ‘retroactive inhibition’. This means that a memory does not become firmly established in your mind, if soon after it registers, other mental evens and memories are bombarding you; overload takes place and you forget. This is what happens to your chess game analysis and planning when domestic events, and even thinking about other games, impinge on your mind.

If you cannot so regulate your chess time that you do the analysis at the time it suits your mental energies best, then at least try and record ideas or plans as well as concrete analysis. If you can well regulate your time then another way to use the ‘extra time’ we have in CC is to consider all the long-shots, the weird, unusual, possible moves. This we do not often have time to do in cross-board, but in CC we can spend the extra time to find that surprising turn in a game. The other issue is endings. We sometimes agree to draws in cross-board games because our clock is ticking down but in CC we can spend the time to try and win an ending. We should consult our endings guides as often as we look at openings.

So I have to come to think that time-management is a skill we must excel in when playing CC. We need our domestic partners to also accept that CC is as valid a form of competition as running around a park chasing a ball while wearing funny coloured shirts and shorts while yelling a lot. How you actually convince your domestic partners to let you have the space to think and analyse when it suits you best, I have to leave for another day.

My wife is calling me to take the rubbish out – again.