Update

The introductions email went out today to all chess dignitaries who have helped to put this together. We are negotiating the actual start date. CCLA may need a little more time to get the ICCF webserver tournament template setup. Fees, rules, etc. being fine-tuned. It's all good, and necessary to make the Inaugural Match a success.

My copy of Web Expressions (frontpage?) is ordered and I should be able to put the New Met League homepage up soon. When I do, I'll put a link to it up on this blog. Initially the page will be hosted at MetroWest CC. If all goes well, the CCLA Board will accept the Met League proposal, we'll change then name to CCLA Met League, and move the page to CCLA.

If your OTB Club is interested, please let me know.

Amici Sumus!

New Met League - Update and Good News

We're having great discussion with the CCLA President and Vice-President. They have formally distributed the New Met League proposal to the CCLA Board. We are also nailing down the last details to get the 06 August 2007 Punxsutawney CC vs. MetroWest CC match off the ground. Many thanks to Herb Hickman and Richard Vandenburg for making this a reality!

Roster so far -----------------------

Club agrees, players recruited:

• Punxsutawney CC (PA)
• MetroWest CC (MA)
• Sven Brask CC (MA)

Club interested, recruiting members:

• Univ of Conn CC (CT)

Club interested, discussing with members:

• Greater Worcester CC (MA)
• Boylston CC (Boston MA)

Club in process of being recruited:

• Pittsburgh CC
• The MITRE Corporation CC

------------------------------------
An additional consideration is State chess organizations. We've been working with the Mass Chess Association League Coordinator. I can see down the road this may be a vehicle for states to choose OTB Club champions.

If you know of any OTB Club that is interested, please have them contact me. Please ask them to put "New Met League" in the subject line.

Amici Sumus!
Harvey Reed

New Met League - explained!

New Met League

Long ago, it was common to have OTB clubs compete via road trips, “met leagues” and similar venues. The format was simple – several club members pile into a car, go somewhere, play face-to-face against members of another club, a winner was declared – and some “met area” TD announced the results. Weekend chess and other innovations decreased the need for this type of competition, for the purpose of getting more games, and this type of Club vs. Club competition has all but died off.

Fast forward to today, and we see a rich mix of playing opportunities including Club, online, weekend, team, and correspondence. In addition we see the very fast expansion of the US Chess League (USCL) which uses Internet Chess Club (ICC) as the playing hall.

But there is still no widely organized Club vs. Club competition.

New Met League is about to change that!

1^st New Met League Match

Punxsutawney CC vs MetroWest CC

Type of chess

• Webserver
• Fast Correspondence
• No OTB rating risk

Pairing of players

• Teams of 4, one of the players is Captain
• Boards ordered USCF regular ELO high to low (since most will have USCF but no correspondence rating)

Venue

• ICCF webserver, via CCLA affiliation
• CCLA TD, supplemented with one TD from each Club (total 3)

Time controls

• 30 days per 10 moves (fast)
• Adjudicated after 3 months (**) with 2/3 vote on outcome of each game

Advertised

• We need to market this in blogs, Chessbase, TWIC, US Chess Life, etc.

FAQ

What is webserver correspondence chess?
Webserver correspondence chess uses an internet browser to make moves. Each move sends an email to your opponent reminding them it is their turn. Players can make their move whenever they want, at their convenience, within the clock limits. It is fun, fast, and easy to follow with crosstables and completed games available online.

Why use webserver correspondence chess for Club vs. Club Matches?
Webserver correspondence chess is uniquely suited for this type of play. Unlike the USCL where high rated chess celebrities schedule the same block of time to play simultaneously in the same playing hall (ICC via internet); Club vs. Club play happens over time where players make their moves when they have time. The typical clock time is 30 days for each 10 moves, left over time accumulated. This allows them to think deeply about their games, play better chess, and compete without rearranging their regular schedule. You can even continue play during vacation. In addition, the webserver correspondence chess ratings are separate from regular USCF ratings so there is no “rating risk”. This makes Club vs. Club via webserver correspondence chess an ideal venue for the OTB Club player.

Have OTB Clubs done this before?
Yes, but typically via email, and in a “casual” mode (such as IYT – “It’s Your Turn”) or via team email correspondence matches such as those organized by Conrad Goodman of IECC (International Email Chess Club). In the IECC Team Match page you can see games from OTB Clubs such as MetroWest CC and Sven Brask CC, as well as traditional correspondence groups. The MetroWest CC matches can also be seen from the MetroWest CC home page under “Compete” on the right hand side.

Call to Action

Who is interested so far?
This idea is only a few weeks old, but already there is a lot of excitement. OTB Clubs such as MetroWest (MA) CC and Punxsutawney (PA) CC are having their first match. Greater Worcester (MA) CC is signing up players. TDs from Boylston CC and Boston University CC are discussing this with their players, and we are starting discussions with Pittsburgh (PA) CC.

Could this turn into something big?
Absolutely! Once OTB Club players see Club vs. Club play as a viable venue, with a way to determine regional and national champions, this will take off big, similar to USCL.

Get Involved!

If you are interested in commenting, playing, volunteering, or organizing, please contact me using my blog: http://correspondence-chess-in-cyberspace.blogspot.com/

New Met League aquires more brain cells

This weekend was a good one. Ken and I had a chance to discuss New Met League with Bernardo of Boylston CC (BCC blog: http://boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com/ - BCC website: http://world.std.com/~boylston/) as well as Robert Oresick of Boston Univ CC (website: http://buchess.org/). They agreed to work with us to flesh out the concept, and help on rules, in addition to tapping into their membership to gauge interest. Thanks to Bernardo, Robert, Ken and John for adding brain cells to the effort!

A key and interesting point is the difference between head-to-head "live" competition (as in USCL), vs several simultaneous team games via correspondence chess webserver. If you calculate the USCL has a 10 week cycle plus 3 weeks for playoffs, we could get a lot more games under our belt using a correspondence webserver. Plus, the physical coordination is reduced, since players don't have to reserve an exact start time on a webserver, and stay for the duration (effectively using an additional weeknight). More games means more teams and greater OTB Club participation. Of course this isn't for everyone, but interested Clubs should be able to field four players to make a team.

Also Danna Alarie of Greater Worcester CC (website: http://www.chesspals.com/index.html) gave the nod last night to participate in an inaugural match. The full set of folks involved in discussion are:

• Punxsutawney CC - John Caliguire and his team
• MetroWest CC - my Club, and we're recruiting players during July
• Greater Worcester CC - Donna Alarie needs a flyer to help recruit (I'm making a flyer today)
• Pittsburgh CC ? Other Western PA? - John and his team will be talking with these folks next weekend, and they are optimistic. Since Pitt has a working Met League, we could sure use their expertise in scaling this one up.
  
• Boylston CC - Bernardo will help with rules/organization, and start discussing this and see if they want to field a team
• Boston Univ CC - Robert will help with rules/organization, and I think he might try to recruit
• Sven Brask CC - I'm still waiting to hear back from them

I'll be setting up a website using the MetroWest CC infrastructure as soon as I get FrontPage. We'll need this for basic communication, and later for marketing.

That's it for now.

Tapping into Eastern MA Met League Experience...

Tonight I had a great conversation with Ken, a very experienced TD at MetroWest CC to discuss what it means to create OTB Club vs OTB Club competition via webserver correspondence chess. In parallel with getting a Punxsy vs MetroWest match going, we need to think about the long term potential of this form of competition.

Our conversation centered around a few key features of this competition:

• OTB Club vs OTB Club via webserver correspondence chess could leverage the "Met League" concept of the pre-Fischer era...
• Met League died out with weekend chess and people's schedules becoming crazy busy
• Met League expanded to country-wide may be a whole lot of fun!
• OTB Club vs OTB Club "Met League" needs a format to allow for promotion and a "horse race" excitement
• OTB Club vs OTB Club needs a format to allow for an annual championship cycle

We are fortunate that Ken will talk to George M of the Wachusett Chess Club this week. George is a rich resource of chess tradition in Eastern MA. Hopefully we can all start to brainstorm what a USC2L Met League would look like long term. I look forward to hear what they think...

I'm hoping we do a fair amount of discussion on this blog so John Caliguire, President of Punxsy CC can join in!

More on Punxsy vs MetroWest

John Caliguire, President of the Punxsy chess club had questions via email regarding the potential Punxsutawny CC vs MetroWest CC webserver correspondence chess match. I replied with a summary of the details below. I am interested in starting discussion to make sure the first match is a success.

Proposed format for Punxsutawny CC vs MetroWest CC match

• Name of League
• US Chess Club League (USC2L)
• PCC v MCC is first match of USC2L
  
• Type of chess
• Correspondence
• Webserver
  
• Pairing of players
• Teams of 4, one of the players is Captain
  
• Boards ordered USCF regular ELO high to low (since most will have USCF but no correspondence rating)
  
• Venue
• CCLA webserver
• This begs membership in CCLA (*)
• CCLA TD, supplemented with one TD from each Club (total 3)
  
• Time controls
• 30 days per 10 moves (quick)
  
• Adjudicated after 3 months (**) with 2/3 vote on outcome of each game
• Advertised
• We need to market this in blogs, Chessbase, TWIC, US Chess Life, etc.
  

(*) CCLA already offers an "internet only" membership category ($19/yr, magazine in PDF). We should think about testing the waters with an "OTB" category at further reduced rates which is like "internet only" but restricted to "OTB-vs-OTB" competition. This way OTB players can compete in OTB-vs-OTB matches economically, and if they want to further their correspondence chess career, they can upgrade their membership.

(**) Adjudication is necessary if we want to introduce an annual championship cycle, to allow for playoffs, and the Championship itself.

Punxutawny CC vs. MetroWest CC ??

Dan from Punxy CC (PA) and myself from MetroWest CC are considering an OTB Club vs. Club match via webserver correspondence chess. Dan told me today (via a note in a CCLA webserver correspondence chess game) that he might be going to Pittsburgh to meet with the giants at Pittsburgh CC (scholastic/youth tournament?). Could there also be a Pittsburgh CC vs MetroWest CC match in our future?

It's these types of matches that can really energize correspondence chess with fresh vigor from OTB Club players looking for fresh outlets, and a way to play "League" chess (like in the 'old' days?)...

Thoughts?