The International Correspondence Chess Federation has awarded me the title of Correspondence Chess Expert. The certificate says CCE, which is both more compact and rather more useful on a tournament table.
Correspondence Chess, Now With More Computers
Modern correspondence chess is not over-the-board chess conducted very slowly. Games are played on a server with long time controls, which gives both players time to maintain several candidate lines, compare earlier games, test assumptions, and return to a position after the machine has been running for a while.
The ICCF rules expressly permit players to consult public sources, including books, game databases, and chess engines. The player must still decide the move.
That last sentence does considerable work. If both players have strong engines, “let the engine play” is not much of a strategy. The useful work is searching the position, deciding which candidate lines deserve time, comparing conflicting evaluations, recognizing where a numerical score conceals a strategic problem, and choosing the line whose consequences one is prepared to defend several moves later. Computer assistance does not remove the human problem. It changes the human problem into management of a small, opinionated analytical department.
I had been thinking about that problem since I began ICCF play in 2014. My earlier note on chess engines and online play described the basic arrangement; earning the title required getting rather better at living with it.
What the CCE Title Requires
CCE is the first of ICCF’s international player titles. Under the rules in force when this title was awarded, the usual route required at least two CCE results in international title tournaments covering at least 24 games. A sufficiently high overscore could reduce the number of games. The underlying norm standard required a performance rating of 2150 against opposition with an average rating of at least 1950.
My certificate confirms that ICCF conferred the title in 2024. The public materials preserved with this post do not identify the individual qualifying tournaments, so I am not going to reconstruct them from memory and call that a record. The certificate is the documentary fact.
When I first wrote this announcement, I described Correspondence Chess Master as the next goal. That was a statement of intent in 2024, not a prediction smuggled into the future. CCE remains a pleasantly odd achievement: a chess title earned in a form of the game where access to better calculation makes judgment more important, not less.