Tyson et al,
Quite the opposite for me!
I haven’t played correspondence or email chess games for years now,
but my standard of play was terrible. I never found my “natural” self
in email games. My life is too hectic in any case to spend large
amounts of time on studying and thinking about email games.
However, one of my greatest strengths in the game is my defensive
abilities. When I have an inferior position, or importantly, am being
attacked, in OTB chess, I have an excellent record of being able to
defend, defuse the situation and pounce on the subsequent weaknesses
that my opponent leave. I don’t think that is so applicable in CC
chess, as your opponent does not have the psychological, clock-based
pressure of finding a good continuation.
So many times, I’ve “held it together” and then when the momentum of
my opponent’s pressure relents, to counter-attack in devastating
style. The crooks of being a positional player with a sound, if not
superb tactical ability.
Cheers,
Chris
On 4/24/21, mordue andrew <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello Evan et al,
This is a slightly unusual query. Most players of my experience play better
by e-mail/correspondence that they do OTB. I usually take a while over moves
in an e-mail game to the extent that I regularly use much more time than
compared to an OTB game, and by much more I mean several days in some cases.
I have a string of miniatures (wins in 25 moves or less) against people who
have played moves far too casually, including one 1900 rated player who lost
three games to me in a total of 66 moves!
I suppose this is down to looking more deeply into CC/e-mail games than into
OTB games. I'm quite happy to leave a CC/e-mail game overnight so my head
gets cleared and fresh ideas can be taken on board. It might be worth
checking out what the sverage strengths of your oppoonents are for both OTB
and e-mail and whether there is a significant difference.
I'm not sure about Jim Homme's idea of setting a timer. It may or may not
work according to the individual. Personally I always thought the idea of
CC/e-mail chess was to take one's time and analyse deeper than usual. Mind
you I had a game against a CCGM where it took me decades and two chess
engines to establish that my 21st move had been better than his suggestion
made after the game!
Hope this is useful.
Regards,
Tyson
On 24 April 2021 at 16:32 Evan Reese <mentat1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hey Guys,
Maybe it's just me, but I can't seem to play via email at the same level
of my over the board games.
I don't know what the cause is. I know I can take nearly as long as I
want choosing a move in an email game, but maybe it has something to do
with having
to drop the game while waiting for a return move, then having to pick it
up again. Whereas, with an OTB game, my attention is steady and I stay
focused
on it. That's the only reason I can think of for the disparity.
Lately, I've been seriously considering dropping correspondence chess
completely. I just don't seem to be able to play at the same level.
Anyone else have this experience?
Evan
