A correspondence chess server is arguably the most convenient form of correspondence chess. Instead of players directly emailing moves to each other, the game is played on a clickable board on a web page, which keeps track of all the moves. The web server emails each player when it is his or her turn. This helps ensure email privacy, and avoids the potential pitfalls of using email clients, such as viruses. It also eliminates the need for players to maintain their own chessboards.
Most correspondence servers have move validation and check for stalemate and checkmate. This eliminates the sending of illegal moves, which would then have to be corrected.
One of the drawbacks of a correspondence server is downtime. If the server is unavailable for any reason, the games it is serving cannot be played.
There are several good and reliable correspondence chess servers. These all have play all tournaments, knockout tournaments, rest of world matches, annotated games facility, and other social facilities and features.
Famous quotes containing the word chess:
“What have we achieved in mowing down mountain ranges, harnessing the energy of mighty rivers, or moving whole populations about like chess pieces, if we ourselves remain the same restless, miserable, frustrated creatures we were before? To call such activity progress is utter delusion. We may succeed in altering the face of the earth until it is unrecognizable even to the Creator, but if we are unaffected wherein lies the meaning?”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)