Amici sumus

"Amici sumus" is the motto of the International Correspondence Chess Federation which will host my debute playing for Sweden. I am very excited by this event even though it has to be said that the Team game is open for all members of the Swedish federation for correspondece chess (SSKK). I do like the rythm of "corr chess" but at the same time the influence of Mr Fritz is a cooler.


GM Nigel Davies is suggesting that playing corr on sites where all tools are permitted will be benefitial for your development as all your errors will be punished promptly. True enough, but I can have my punishment by playing Mr Fritz on my home PC.

I might be a naive romantic but I am hoping for a few interesting games vs strong non-engine users and hopefully some nice chit chats with players around the world.

SSKK used to offer medals to players who scored enough points in the friendly team games. I will arrange my own celebrations should I ever score a "non-egg" in the SSKK team games.

You can keep an eye on yours truly at the ICCF Webchess server

Here is the fine print:





"Please find below the start list for the new event Sweden - USA board 40. The short name of the event is SWEUS.


The TD is IA Lahdenmäki, Leo.


The following rules apply for this event:
This is a server event.
The start date is 1 May 2012.
There is no end date.
ICCF standard time control 10 moves in 50 days with duplication after 20 days is used.
30 days of leave per year are available to each player.
Linear conditionals can be entered.
Other participants can see the games live after 0 games are finished in the event. Live transmission is delayed by 0 moves.
The public can see the games live after 0 games are finished in the event. Live transmission is delayed by 0 moves.
The team mates and captain can see the games live after 0 games are finished in the event. Live transmission is delayed by 0 moves.
This event is organized by Lahdenmäki, Leo."

Bragging - Black to move and win

Well, My Dear Chess Friend did blunder badly but I think you can imagine my Joy and Happines when I found the move. Yes, I am a sucker for bragging and neat finishes.

Playing for Sweden

My flirt with retro chess in ongoing. Playing correspondence chess without the distracting bells and whistles have been very fun and amazingly social. I have in just a few games exchanged more interesting tidbits of information than what I have exchanged in my previous carreer as a online player. I suppose the crowd who still hang onto basic email chess are the diehards.

However, after loosing two games due to book keeping errors, I am slowly returning to server based corr games.

The Swedish Federation for correspondence chess is offering a very nice magazine to the members for free! I have decided to join the federation basically because I think the magazine looks interesting. But joining the federation also has a few additional benefits. I get to play Chess for Sweden. Yes, the National team is (sort of) asking for my services. Asking the the sense that all members of the federation is allowed to play in team games against federations from other countries. Anyhow, if I go easy on the fine print I just might get a chance to impress people with my caps for Sweden.

Here is my debut win playing at the ICCF server:

Retro Chess

As a devoted reader of Zen habits I try in my small ways to simplify my life. One attempt is to reduce the noice and distractions from the bell and whistles at the ordinary chess sites. I recently signed up with a charming low tech chess site called: IECC - International E-mail Chess Club

It is a one huge step back towards to ancient postal correspondence games and I like it a lot! It will be some extra work keeping track of time spent and record the results but I find the cost/benefit to be to my favour.

You play the games emailing pgn-files and that is the end of it. No energy draining forum trolls. Just pure chess. Give it a try!

Join the Fun! Get the T-shirt!

Play Chess on Twitter

ChessTweets is pretty cool if you want a game of chess against a "tweet pal" without signing up to yet another chess site. There are also ongoing "vote chess games".

Top marks but room for minor improvements! It would be even better if the pgn-file included your comments during the game.

Turn Based Chess

Scheminingmind is clearly my favorite site for turn based chess. I like the time controls and I like the feature that you can add comments to your PGN file which makes it easy to document your (flawed) thought process. Where Do You Play Turn Based Chess? Care for a game?