| AICCF TO START SMS-CHESSBy A.Chatterjee<DrAmbar at gmail.com> |
The problem in playing by post nowadays is the increased postal transit time, and the frequent occurrence of lost post cards.
The Post Office is no longer the pillar of communication it used to be. In some cases, postmen are known to deliver to a particular locality only when there are a substantial number of letters that have accumulated.
In the international scenario, CC migrated first to email play and then to webserver. The webserver is an ideal medium for correspondence chess. It takes away the clerical tasks of time keeping and recording the moves.
In AICCF, the number of games being played by post has come down substantially in the past years. The main reason for this is the irregularity of the post. Email is definitely getting more popular, but somehow it has not taken on the dimension one would have expected. The problem with email in India is that not everybody has ready access to the internet. To play CC by email it is essential to have a computer with internet at home. True, one can use a cyber café, or a computer at the work place, but this is not comfortable.
Webserver play for AICCF members is available for ICCF games, and many of our players who have good internet connections are playing this way. Setting up a webserver and maintaining it is an intensive and expensive task. AICCF is unlikely to start its own webserver in the near future.
The AICCF Management Committee has given serious thought to commencing CC by SMS (text messages on cellular phones). At first sight it appears that playing CC by SMS is not possible because of the impossibility of keeping permanent records and sorting out disputes.
An SMS sent over a cell phone, remains available for record only for a limited time. But even in this time, it is impossible to establish proof of having sent a particular move to convince a Tournament Director. For these reasons, CC by SMS has not been taken up internationally.
The problem referred to above is solved if each player sends his move not only to the opponent but also to the TD. The TD would use an appropriate technology (e.g. a CDMA Data Modem) to save incoming SMS messages to his computer. These messages could be sorted; possibly the sorting process could be automated.
Each player would be required to send his move to both opponent and TD in a specified format. It is simple enough to send the same SMS to two phone numbers. For example in a basic NOKIA cell phone, after typing the message, one selects Options followed by Send. Then after inputting the phone number, OK sends the message. However, the message is still showing on the screen and it is possible to send it now to another number.
Most phones, allow you to edit an incoming message and send it back. This would reduce the typing effort. Even better is to prepare a template which can be used each time.
The amount of text that can be sent in an SMS is limited. Sending the full score of a game each time will not be possible. Instead players would be required to strictly follow a specified template as shown in the example below:
Here we see a short message as follows:
4823 Khan Paul
21...Nc5 22.Rd8+
2/9 7/9 5/23
First comes the tournament number, then names of both White and Black. This is followed by repeat of the opponent’s move and the move itself. Finally comes the date of receipt, date of sending, time and total time.
The specific format would have to be enforced strictly. Only then would it be possible for a
filtering program running on the TDs computer to sort the incoming messages. In order to resolve a dispute, the TD would search through the messages stored on his computer.
In order to popularise CC by SMS, AICCF invites comments from members about this method of play. AICCF will take care of the cost of purchase of the hardware (data card with SIM) and the monthly charges to the provider. Of course the players would have to bear the cost of sending SMS to two phone numbers on each move, but at Re 1/- per SMS (and several schemes for free SMS on purchase of a new SIM card) its still quite cheap.
The formal rules of play in this medium will surely evolve with time and experience. AICCF is aware of problems in the scheme outlined above, e.g. a player may send a move to the opponent and a different move to the TD, thereby causing confusion. The rules would be formulated to severely penalise a player who does this on purpose (although it would be hard to establish).
Postal play was never perfect either – far from it. (It is very difficult to expose a person who untruthfully says his opponent’s post cards reach him after a long delay or does not reach him at all). So also, SMS play will not be perfect, but may nevertheless evolve to become a popular method of CC playing.
As an aside, I should mention that there are technologies available to display interactive
touch-screen graphics on cell phones and it is possible to play a (live) game of chess in this way. The machinery could be adapted for correspondence chess. But for this we would have to wait for the technologies to become more commonly available. Instead, our simple method, would work on the most basic of cell phones.
It is envisaged that we will be able to start the first AICCF SMS Chess Tournament quite soon. Please send your entry to me by email on 
