A World on a Disk Correspondence Chess World, CD-ROM computer software, compiled and edited by Tim Harding, 1998 Chess Mail Limited, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, $40.00. Reviewed by Taylor Kingston Ireland's Tim Harding, well known to Chess Cafe readers for his column "The Kibitzer", is one of the driving forces in the world of international correspondence chess, as a player, writer, and advocate for the game. An author of many books, he has recently released a new product on CD-ROM. This product involves a new approach to presenting chess information. While compact disk databases of various kinds (game collections, openings monographs, etc.) have been around for several years now, the innovation here is that the CD is organized and accessed much like an Internet web-site. At first, I wondered if this might be a mere gimmick, an attempt to emphasize techy trendiness, possibly at the expense of substance and content. While computer-related work is both my vocation and a large part of my avocation, I am often skeptical of new-fangled gadgets; for me "cutting-edge information technology" can still mean a well-written hard-bound book. However, once getting past a few early technical bumps, I discovered this to be a carefully designed, well-organized compendium with a tremendous amount of information, highly interesting and useful to chess historians, educators, web-surfers, and of course players (both CC and OTB). I will describe its contents in detail further on; first let's get the technical stuff out of the way. My testing was conducted on an IBM Aptiva, with a 133 MHz Pentium processor, 32 MB RAM, running Windows95B and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0. This met or exceeded the minimum system requirements for CC World, which are at least 16MB RAM, a Pentium (or better) processor, a web-browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Netscape etc.), and Windows95, 98, or NT. However, not everyone knows that there are 3 versions of Windows95: base, A, and, B. The CD contains files with names longer than 8 characters, which the base release and earlier Windows versions such as 3.1, do not read properly. The B release can read them; I do not know if the A release can. The older of my two computers, made in early 1995, has the base release and thus was denied use of some CC World features (exlaining my mention of "technical bumps" in the preceding paragraph). You can check what level of Windows you have by clicking, from your "START" menu, "SETTINGS", then the "SYSTEM" icon. Under the "General" tab will be your Windows level; if it says only "4.00.95" with no "A" or "B" following, you have the base release. The great majority of machines bought from late 1995 on should have the B release and thus satisfy most or all these requirements. Some CC World features also require some form of chess database software, such as ChessBase or Fritz, for full use. Other features require Adobe Acrobat Reader 3, but this is supplied on the CD, and installed with just a few mouse clicks. Other minor features, such as built-in web links, work only when one is connected to the Internet, but this is involved in only a few of the CD's functions. CC World has not been tested on Apple or Unix platforms, but test demos are available from an address we'll give below. Tech specs thus disposed of, let's run the CD. Unlike a program, one does not "install" CC World. Nor, contrary to the erroneous impression given by Alex Dunne in the 1/99 issue of Chess Life, must one be signed on to an online web-page. There are several ways to start it; I'll describe one. (1) Put the CD in the drive. (2) From the main screen double-click the icon labeled "My Computer". (3) In the window that appears, double-click on the icon for your CD (usually the "D") drive. (4) A list of files and folders will appear. Double-click the one labeled "click_me". A screen like that below will appear: ***** Hanon, please insert file "CCWorld1" here. ****** From here it's easy. As on a web-site, different pages pop up at a click of the mouse, but with the enjoyable difference that there's little or no waiting; response time is determined by the speed of your CD drive, not your modem. One merely clicks on different items in the index to access the various features. The major features are: Classic CC tournaments: Results, full crosstables and selected games from over 80 major events spanning several decades, including USA, USSR, and world championships. Profiles of over 300 leading CC players of the past and present, with biographical information, career highlights, photographs, and selected games. 3 databases totaling 57,687 correspondence games, from the early 1800s to present-day Internet games. The games are stored in three formats: cbf, cbh, and pgn. Database software is required to replay them in on-screen viewer mode; lacking that one can still get the game texts from the pgn files. The files can be downloaded to one's hard drive if desired. Chess Mail magazine. Twelve full issues, August 1996 - December 1997, of Tim Harding's CC-devoted magazine. Using the Adobe Acrobat Reader, these can be viewed on- screen, accessed sequentially or randomly, and printed in full or part. These first two features have a delightful adjunct: a Java applet that allows one to play selected games on screen. For example, going through the A-Z index of CC greats, one might stop at, say, "Keres, Paul", choose a game, and play through it on a screen resembling this: ***** Hanon, please insert file "CCWorld2" here. ******** The "classic tournaments" can also be played over in this manner. All together there are about 2,000 games accessible by this method. The largest database starts with an historical curiosity, apparently the oldest known correspondence game, Von Mauvillon - N.N., 1804: 1. e4 e5 2. d3 d6 3. f4 h5 - State-of-the-art theory for the time? - 4. Nf3 f5 5. fxe5 fxe4 6. dxe4 dxe5 7. Bc4 Qxd1+ Kxd1 Nf6 9. Nc3 Ng4 10. Ke2 Bc5 11. h3 Nf2? 12. Rf1 (See Diagram) w________W [rhbdkdw4] [0p0wdw0w] [wdwdwdwd] [dwgw0wdp] [wdBDPdwd] [dwHwdNdP] [P)PDKhPd] [$WGWDRDW] w--------W and somehow Black managed to drag things out to move 45. While this is not a particularly noteworthy example, many of the earlier games on the database are of interest to chess historians, such as the 1824 Edinburgh-London match that introduced the Scotch Game, and the 1834 London-Paris match from which the French Defense got its name. We find technique much improved in the later games, e.g. H. Hofstetter (2500) - M. Frank (2315), Pelikan Memorial 1997 w________W [wdw4w4wi] [dw1wgw0p] [w0wdB0bd] [0w0w0wdw] [PdwDW)wd] [dPDPGW!W] [WDPDWDP)] [DWDW$RIW] w--------W (see diagram), where matters were settled crisply: 23. Qxg6!, 1-0 (23. ... hxg6 24. Rf3 etc.). All together there are nearly two centuries' worth of games here, ranging in quality from masterpieces by such CC greats as Purdy, Ragozin, Estrin, Berliner, O'Kelly, Penrose, Rittner, and Zagorovsky, to Internet games played under such earth-shaking pseudonyms as "Cyberpunk", "Dr. Doom", "Dark Lord" and "Zippy". While the presence of this latter sort of game is questionable, on the whole I consider these databases a representative and worthwhile collection. The best feature of the compendium, though, is in my opinion the 12 issues of Chess Mail. This relatively new (issue #1 was 1/97) magazine, edited by Harding, may become, or perhaps already is, to correspondence chess what New In Chess is for the OTB game. While the emphasis is, naturally, on current CC activity, mostly in the international arena, there is much for players of many persuasions, whether they are seeking current opening theory or decades-old chess history. A random survey of the tables of contents finds the following topics: Correspondence World Championships I-X: the great Database Mystery GM Ulf Andersson conquers the world from his local cafe The Great Computer Debate Is it RIP for the BDG? Crisis for the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit Best Software for E-mail CC The Best CC Game Ever Played Deep Blues for Kasparov Meet the Hero Behind The Week In Chess -- Mark Crowther Interview Does International CC Have a Future? The articles on the whole are well-written and meaty, and as can be seen from the above sample, deal with everything from theoretical minutiae to major issues confronting the CC community. Of particular ongoing concern is the impact of e-mail chess vs. traditional postal play, an area with many unresolved questions. The scope is truly international; a quick scan found articles involving Scandinavian countries, central Europe, the British Isles, Russia, Latin America, the United States, Canada, even Qatar (a small Persian Gulf country). Each Chess Mail issue runs about 64 printed pages, and is visually attractive as well as informative. In monetary terms, the magazines alone are worth more than the price of the CD; an annual subscription (11 issues) runs $46.00 (29), and the single issue price is $4.75. There are also many minor features, such as a couple of essays by Harding, "Why Chess?" and "Why Correspondence Chess?" aimed at educators of children, a theoretical article on the Marshall Gambit, an interview with Hans Berliner, and a set of mailing addresses and Internet-links for various correspondence chess organizations. I am probably doing the CD an injustice by failing to mention other features (for example there are several product demos: DBS Chess, Ectool, IceChess, Chess Mentor, and some freeware utilities), but quite simply there is more here than can reasonably be reviewed without going on at too great a length. This is the point in a review where, traditionally, the reviewer makes the bulk of his negative comments, either minor nit-picks or an objection strong enough to negate whatever good he has found in the product hitherto. Frankly, I have only one cavil: that the diagram font chosen for the game viewer is probably not the best. Perhaps future versions could use a Linares or Zrich font; the jello-ziggurat pawns and garden slug bishops currently employed are unattractive, and the white pieces, especially the knights, tend to melt into the background. A minor quibble, this; interested readers should not be deterred by it. For those who would like a sample of what CC World is like, simply log onto Chess Mail's own web-site www.chessmail.com. What you see there is very similar in format to the CD (though response time is inevitably slower!). The aforementioned demo can be downloaded from there (just add "/cd_demo.zip" to the URL). In sum, Correspondence Chess World is an innovative way of packaging and presenting a large amount of worthwhile chess information in a well-designed and cost-effective format. It has much to offer in the way of games, theoretical analysis and instruction for OTB players, and for those involved in correspondence chess, particularly the international game, it is especially recommended.