CORRESPONDENCE

***** CORRESPONDENCE *****

The ICC currently has support for correspondence for 
Android and iOS (iPad/iPhone) devices only.
Please download our app: CHESS AT ICC, from their respective App Stores
in order to download our free app.

Desktop support is only available via commands, so we strongly suggest 
you play via a mobile device, phone or tablet. Only read the below help
file if you are willing to play on a Desktop computer and don't mind using
commands.

A correspondence game can last for many weeks or months.  You can spend
several days planning your move.  The time control for correspondence
games is a minimum of 1 move every 5 days.  You will be sent an email
and message if 4 days pass with no move, letting you know you have less
than 24 hours to make your next move in the game(s) in question.

The two main differences between ICC correspondence chess games and other
games on ICC are:  1) You and your opponent do not need to be logged into ICC
at the same time, and 2) The clocks go up, and you cannot flag your opponent.
Time forfeits can be claimed by you through the use of the "cc-ask" command,
which is explained below, and determined by a tournament director. Typically,
your opponent will receive one warning if they violate the time control and
then the game will be adjudicated by the tournament director. In this case of
two opponents never making a move in a tournament game, the tournament director
will most often abort the correspondence game in question.

Here is a basic description of how to play.  For complete details on each
command, please read the descriptions below.  Let's say you want to play a
game against "Bob".  You want to be White.  To start the game, type:

       cc-start-as-white Bob

This will create a game in your correspondence list and in Bob's list.  You
can see your list of games by typing "cc-list".  Each game has a number.
Your game with Bob might be number #3.  Postal games have a "#" symbol.  You
can abort a game any time before Black's first move is played, as explained
below in the command descriptions.

Let's say you want to make your first move, Nf3, against Bob.  Type:

       cc-move #3 Nf3

ICC will display the position after your move, and ask you if you really want
to make that move.  You MUST reply by typing "yes" or "no".  The move will
not be recorded unless you type "yes".

Each time you make a move, your opponent will get an ICC message, and the
position and clocks will be updated in both players correspondence list.  If
you would like to receive email notification of moves, type "set messmail on".

"cc-list" shows you a list of all your games.  The display shows the amount
of time by each player in DAYS, the last two half-moves played, and a *
if it is your turn to move in that game.  It also displays the tournament
label if the game is part of an official tournament with a director.

"smoves #3" will show you a complete list of all the moves in the game.  It
also shows the date each move was made, the time used to make each move in
days, and the total time used by each player after each move.

"sposition #3" would show you the current position in your game #3.

For privacy, nobody can look at your correspondence games, except for you
and the tournament director.  Admins cannot see your games.

Channel 183 is the Correspondence Channel.  You can look for opponents and
chat about correspondence there.

To send comments or suggestions about correspondence chess to the ICC, please
send email to icc@chessclub.com or send an ICC message to the "suggestion"
account.

The commands below explain how you can offer draws and aborts, resign
a game, delete a completed game, examine a game, display the move list,
and email the move list.

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Commands for playing correspondence chess on the ICC:

cc-start-as-white 
- Example: "cc-start-as-white Bob"
- Creates a correspondence game between you (as White) and the
specified registered ICC member, who need not be present.
This command also sends that player a message.  You can then go
ahead and make the first move with the cc-move command.
Note that in correspondence chess tournaments, the tournament
director will start your game for you, so you needn't use this
command.  You do "set ccopen 0" to avoid having random people
start correspondence games with you.  (The default is 1 for
registered ICC members.)

cc-start-as-black 
- Starts a game with you playing Black.

cc-list
- Lists your correspondence games, with a summary of the state of each one.
(Admins can do cc-list )

cc-move # 
- Example:  "cc-move #3 e4"
- Play a move in a game # on your cc-list.  Actually this
command will display the position after the move, and ask you if
you are sure you want to play it, to which you should respond
"yes" or "no".  Making the move also results in a message being sent.

cc-delete #
- Example: "cc-delete #5"
- Deletes a completed or aborted game from your cc-list.  You can
only have 50 games in your cc-list.  You can save the game to your
library before deleting it, using the libsave command described
in "help libraries".

cc-ask-director # 
- Example:  "cc-ask-director #5 I claim a time forfeit."
- This sends a message to the tournament director for that game,
or to "adjudicate" if there is no TD.  Use this instead of
"message adjudicate", because even admins can't easily access
your correspondence games.  In general, we do NOT adjudicate
correspondence games except in cases of time forfeits in a
tournament with a time control.  Or in the case of an expired
account.

Correspondence games are specified by #, for example #3.  This can be
used in commands such as sposition, libsave, etc.  In some cases this does
something more than you might expect:

smoves #
- Example:  "smoves #3"
- Lists the moves in one of your correspondence games, complete with
information about when each move was played as well as the time used
for that move and total time used by that player (in days).

mailstored #
- Example:  "mailstored #3"
- If you have mailformat=0, mailstored will use the correspondence format;
i.e., it will include the date of each move, etc.

draw #
- Example:  draw #5
- Offer (or claim) a draw in a correspondence game (via a message).  Like
cc-move, this command will require a yes/no confirmation.

abort #
- Example:  abort #3
Ask to abort a correspondence game (via a message), after confirmation.
You can unilaterally abort a game before both players have completed
move one.

resign #
- Example:  resign #3
- Resign a correspondence game, after confirmation.

examine #
- Example:  examine #5
- Examines the game starting at the end.  Examined correspondence
games are private, meaning that no one else can observe them.
Clock values displayed will not make sense.  Use the "cc-list"
or "smoves" command to see the actual clock times in days.

For commands used by correspondence tournament directors, please see
"help corr-tourn".

See also:  corr-tourn, CC-Quads, CC-Events, CC-Rating