Slow
Chess
(not correspondence!):
Online Play
This page is dedicated to helping players find instructional play (and practice) online
Slow
Chess
(not correspondence!):
Slow Chess Leagues (Links updated Jan 2009):
Team 45 45 - many of my students play here. It is regular individual chess, but your score counts toward a team match. Click on "Quick Guide" in the middle to sign up. Contact John Brady or Don Barrus if you want an individual contact or questions. A lot of my students like to play on the friendly "Long Live the King" teams with which they are involved. Over 100 teams from 50+ countries!
How to find slow games on the ICC - important advice!
Slow Chess Organizations:
Here is a link for ICC help and another link for ICC unofficial help.
See the Links page for more online links
Internet
Chess Club
Slow Player List (16 Nov 2009
)
A list of ICC players who are willing to play slow (30 5 or slower, preferably!) games against any challenger if they have the time - you can play nonrated if you don't wish the game to be rated. Please respond to all inquiries (one way or another) and give me the courtesy of letting me know when you change your handle or decide to leave the ICC, or if you find someone below who is no longer an ICC member so I can update the list (last updated 11/16/2009 ). Thanks!
petros-son, alastorx, davidfromphilly, a-ru, notyetagm, goirish, mississippian, softpawn, mrorange, cayo89, tryin, steinwitz, warden (weekends only), gojira, perdix, elnik, barryd, zyme, alpearson, houseofcook, bob-k, straylite, grenadier, receipt, megaskins, wheels, rubacchus, carolinaknight, mantra, bookseller, matthewc, conron, DctSccr, sra66, kevhassell, botspinach, skylab, ferreseft, zepled37, honeycomb, artb, astrochesspilot, fiercehermit, masterntraining, bkeel, giltar.
How to use this list:
1) You can add all/any with to your notify list with "+notify
name" (Use cut and paste with "+notify " to speed this up), or
2) You can check each with "fi name" to see if they are close in rating
to you and only "+notify name" the ones you want.
3) Once they are on your notify list, you can type “z” to see who
is online.
4) To challenge someone, “fi name” to see if they are busy. If they are not,“tell name xxx” where xxx is your request for a game.
5) If they agree, you can use the pull-down menu GAME|Match to challenge them.
Internet
Chess Club
2 5 Player List (16 Nov 2009
)
The following players are willing to play "2 5" on the ICC to practice time management & openings. Please give me the courtesy of letting me know when you change your handle or decide to leave the ICC, or if you find someone below who is no longer an ICC member so I can update the list. Thanks!
mathworker, bmw2002, jlowe, alpearson, zyme, chiefslopgut, grenadier, receipt, megaskins, wheels, softpawn, RHM2005, rubacchus, bookseller, knightshift, chessman123, keaaw, trexx brerrabbit, conron, DctSccr, legal, astrochesspilot, masterntraining.
Note: "2 5" means two minutes for the game with a five second increment. This is helpful practice since US OTB games are usually played with a five second time delay. Suggestions to help augment your learning from these games:
e-mail from John Brady to someone looking for online slow games:
"Perhaps I can help you find good slow games with people that enjoy
the post-game banter and analysis which some of us find very beneficial.
This Slowtimers group is a good one. Virtually everyone there is friendly,
mature and interested in improving. Mike Bachman ("reijo" on ICC)
and Max Mehtio (MaxII on ICC) administer the group very competently. There
are always 2 or 3 tournaments "in flight" (named after the chess pcs.)
and an ongoing ladder. If you will introduce yourself to them I'm sure
they will like to play you a couple of games and invite you to join. I am
cc-ing them on this note.
In a similar vein, but perhaps up a performance notch, Rolf Plattner also
("plattner" on ICC) also runs tournaments. If you introduce
yourself to him he would probably likewise enjoy a couple of game together and
gladly add you to his list of interested players for his next tournament.
Now as far as Team 4545 League goes we have indeed just entered into the
playoffs for tournament 29. They run about 4 - 6 tournaments per year.
I am involved with 2 teams. One is a U1600 that I captain but do not
usually play on, namely Long Live the King and the other is a U1800 that I play
on (but do not captain) called The Tornados. The site, www.teamchess.org
has all the details of the league. You can sign up for T30 now or anytime
between now and the end of February.
If you are interested I will throw you into the mix of players for my team and
you can have yourself added to the "interested players" list when you
fill out your player profile at www.teamchess.org
. I believe you must have a non-provisional rating to play in T4545.
Mike (reijo) runs a slew of teams as well from U1300 to U2200.
There is also the Slow Time Control bunch. They have individual long
running tournaments www.stcbunch.org
[note: currently dormant Apr 2009].
I used to play in these tournaments but they used to be zero increment and I
don't much care for it.
Oh, Max also administers 4-6 game one-on-one matches called the Keres
tournaments which are that he keeps track of the score in and there is also an
improving chess players organization called Lechess club.
I would be glad to answer any questions you might have.
Regards,
John Brady
bmw2002@icc"
Dan's 10 Rules for Internet Newsgroup Postings:
1. Few issues are black and white - sometimes correct answers are grey
2. Everyone is entitled to suggest where the grey lies. An opinion can be based
on bad facts, or misguided, but it is just an opinion, and everyone is entitled
to one.
3. If you disagree with someone, that does not necessarily mean they are
"wrong", unless they have stated a clearly disprovable "fact", such as
misquoting the number of people in Detroit in the 1990 US Census
4. Problems often have many solutions. Some solutions are better than others,
but sometimes it is hard to tell in advance which solutions may be best. And
often good solutions have bad, or unforeseen side effects.
5. If something isn't broke, it does not mean it cannot be improved.
6. Sometimes things that are good for the entire (chess) community may be bad
for a subset of that community - you want to minimize doing these things, but
often they cannot be avoided for the good of the community. A solution equally
as effective that is not bad for anyone is rare but preferable.
7. Open communication is good - a civil exchange of ideas.
8. Consensus ideas can be good, but are sometimes watered down. Often those in
charge need to consider the consensus and come up with a clear position based
upon, but not necessarily identical with, the consensus.
9. If you end up in the minority or something is ruled against you, you can
still continue to support your point, but you should also simultaneously go
along with the ruling, so long as it is not malicious or harmful.
10. A community's long and short term goals change. So to have a good position,
it is necessary to re-examine and change your position over time in order to
serve the best interests of that community.