Chess Mail

an enormous saving of time concerning
analysis: one can reach with a click of a
button the current position, so you avoid
the burdensome setting up of the pieces.
Games develop tidily, tactical oversights
are practically a thing of the past, and
the proportion of draws is undoubtedly
increased. But the fun has definitely
been reduced.
I first played against van Oosterom
about 20 years ago and beat him
with Black in 20 moves. Later he got
computers. The next time we played was
in a little Dutch tournament; I could with
great difficulty hold him to a draw.
The future of CC
In its present form, correspondence
chess has no future. The technique should
be improved so that the exchange of
moves by email becomes compulsory.
The time question is the most important.
Many older players still prefer to
send their move by postcard. Thus in
the current World Championship I am
playing only two games by fax; the rest
of the opponents are sending the good
old postcard.
One way to a prosperous future would
be, to introduce quite young people
to CC. Correspondence chess has a
high training value because you are
forced to deal with opening theory and,
furthermore, it develops your ability to
analyse.
“Schach”
From 1965 to 1990 there were no
changes in the journal “Schach” apart
from its format. We had the very good
regular series, School of Combinations
and Chess Problems.
6
In general, we were not free to choose
the contributions ourselves. The boss of
the publishing house Sportverlag had the
right to allow or forbid every article!
The CC part was longer than it is today.
Furthermore, we published reports of
chess events involving children and
young players. Of course the magazine
carried no advertisements (in the GDR,
there was no advertising at all!).
Older
One can continue in CC longer than
in OTB but the playing strength declines
slowly with age. In CC a border lies at
about 60 years of age.
I no longer follow developments in
chess so intensively. I don’t play OTB
chess any more and I don’t deal with
published games in magazines. In CC
I still trust in my old openings and
keep them up to date with the newest
Informators.
70 & a little bit wiser
“To win a world title in CC, one must
devote at least as much time as is required
for a doctorate,” observed in 1971 the
new World Champion Horst Rittner,
“which is why I have not defended my
title”.
Why then after a further 30 years
has he changed his mind and entered a
strength-stealing world final?
“I might show that I am not yet a spent
force,” explained Rittner, “but above all,
also some defiance to BdF, when they
did not select me for the olympiad team,
despite my record achievement of ten
GM norms”.
Many thanks for the conversation.
1/2001