The Webserver is the new way to play correspondence chess. An introductory article about ICCF’s webserver was already presented (The ICCF Webserver, P.S.Dabholkar, the AICCF Bulletin, February 2005, pg. 42).

In the meantime, webserver play has come of age, so to speak. Over 1,000 of ICCF members have begun playing on the webserver and started to enjoy the experience.

The webserver presents a graphical display of the chess board on the user’s computer screen and the move to be played can be entered by moving your piece with the mouse. All clerical work, like keeping a record of the time are completely eliminated. One need not even maintain a separate record of the game score (though I prefer to do so). Clerical book-keeping have kept some people away from CC in the past, and in any case has never been the most desirable of undertakings. The webserver changes all this.

ICCF’s webserver has entered Phase 2 of its development. Phase 1 saw the implementation of important and basic functions so that the games could be started. This phase was managed by Iain Mackintosh with system programming by Martin Bennedik and Javascript programming by myself. After the initial debugging tests, the system has been running quite nicely.

The ICCF webserver currently has about 1275 users. The number of users increased near the end of 2004 with the starting of the open tournament. (Our member, Shri P.S.Dabholkar became the first player from India to play in an ICCF webserver tournament when he joined the Webchess Open Tournament Group 01 Section 1). Subsequently, the webserver has seen about 100 new users every month and the number of ongoing games is currently in the range of 6,000 – 7,000.

The webserver rules also underwent slight changes. In Dabholkar’s article (mentioned above), the webserver’s system of transmitting blind conditional moves is discussed. However, the present rules do not allow conditional moves to be transmitted. Some players liked the idea of sending conditional moves because it is a sort of trademark of CC as distinct from OTB. However, since it is so easy to despatch your move and get a reply, the rules have evolved into doing away with conditional moves altogether.

While all the existing features of the webserver are indeed quite extensive, some faciliteis are not yet implemented.

These points (Phase 2 plans) were discussed during the Mumbai Congress. Further discussions took place in a meeting of the Webserver Development Steering Committee (WSDC) held on Saturday, 7th May 2005 at Juelich, Germany. The meeting was attended by (L to R in photo below) Ambar Chatterjee, Gerhard Binder, Alan Borwell, Chairman (center), Martin Bennedik and Med Samraoui.

The major tasks to be implemented in Phase 2 will allow the administration of non-webserver tournaments (postal and email) on the webserver and the automatic computation of ICCF ratings. The later task is actually connected with the first one. There are now three types of tournaments in ICCF: postal, email and webserver. The present webserver (Phase 1) has no knowledge of tournaments being played by other means of transmission. Therefore calculation of ratings (which depend on all the games) is not yet possible. Phase 2 will see methods by which Tournament Directors will be able to input cross table data directly into the webserver. After that, it will be possible to implement the computation of ratings within the webserver.

There is one interesting feature of the existing webserver which was not emphasised in Dabholkar’s article. It is possible for anyone to login to the webserver and view ongoing games with a 3-move lag. That means you can go to www.iccf-webchess.com and even if you do not posses a login ID/password, you can click on “Tables and Results”. This brings up a list of all on-going tournaments. Now if you click on (for example) 1st Webchess Open Tournament and select Group 01 you will see that Shri P.S.Dabholkar is the 5th player. A click in the cross table for a game in progress shows the position with a 3-move delay and the game score upto that move (you can scroll through the game). For finished games, the full game is visible.

A number of promotional events are being run on the webserver. One is the 2-game match GM Hamarat vs. the World started in February 2005. It is possible for members to enlist themselves into the Rest of the World Team. (I joined the team, the only player from India, after the games were already underway). GM Hamarat is White in both the games. You can follow these games on www.iccf-webchess .com. Here are the positions at the time of writing:

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.f3 b5 8.g4 h6 9.Qd2 Nbd7 10.O-O-O Bb7 11.h4 b4 12.Na4 Qa5 13.b3 Nc5 14.a3 Nxa4 15.axb4 Qc7 16.bxa4

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 dxc4 5.Nf3 Be7 6.O-O O-O 7.Qc2 a6 8.a4 Bd7 9.Qxc4 Bc6 10.Bg5 Bd5 11.Qc2 Be4 12.Qc1 h6 13.Bxf6 Bxf6 14.Rd1 a5 15.Nbd2 Bxf3 16.Bxf3