"Winning at Correspondence Chess" by Tim Harding, 1996 Henry
Holt & Co., Figurine Algebraic Notation, Softcover, 176pp.,
$25.00

Almost two years ago, when The Chess Cafe was first coming
online, we began to search for chess writers whom we thought
would be of interest to chessplayers worldwide. Over the years, we
had been continually impressed by the books and articles written
by Tim Harding. He was easy to read yet thorough. His analysis
was honest and accurate. In short, his work was professional in
every respect. We were delighted when he agreed to join us.
Readers around the world have made his column at The Chess
Cafe one of the most read columns anywhere.

Harding's latest book "Winning at Correspondence Chess" was
released in Great Britain months ago. For some reason, the book
was not available in the United States until just recently. It has
finally been released here, and it is everything you would expect
from Harding based upon his track record.

Tim Harding has been actively involved in correspondence chess
for the better part of three decades. He currently is the editor and
publisher of "Chess Mail", a monthly publication dedicated to
correspondence play in all its forms (postal, fax and email). He is
known as an opening theoretician, with a tendency toward the
more unusual. His books on the Scotch, Two Knights and Ponziani
(to name but a few) are still regarded as essential reading for
anyone who desires to play these openings, in spite of the fact that
some have been out of print for years.

Thus, it should be no surprise that Harding's latest effort is nothing
short of outstanding. He states in the preface: "This book is
primarily a battle manual for the player who wants to be a winner
at correspondence chess ('CC'). Although I am writing primarily
for people who either already play correspondence chess or are
considering taking it up, I have aimed to make it a good read for
anyone, to give a flavour of this unique form of chess, as well as
offering much advice on conducting your own games."

He succeeds in every respect. The book is divided into seven basic
chapters: (1) The world of correspondence chess; (2) How to get
started; (3) Mastering the rules; (4) The correspondence player's
armoury; (5) Books, databases and the CC opening; (6) Kings and
Queens of CC; and (7) Computers and the future of CC. 

It would not be unreasonable for you to look at the title of this
book, the author, and come to the conclusion that this is probably a
collection of top-level correspondence games, with a bit of history
and some anecdotes added. You would be wrong. Each of these
chapters is subdivided into sections that contain a wealth of
reading material that is both instructive and entertaining. So, for
example, the nineteen-page chapter four (The correspondence
player's armoury) has the following subsections: When and how to
analyse; Two cardinal sins of CC; Conditionals: Good or Bad?;
How fast should you play?; Other aspects of technique; Fantasy;
What to enter and how many games to play?; and Rating systems.
There are of course examples, both full games and positions, but
there is considerable narrative text, explaining and discussing.

We present an excerpt, somewhat longer than usual, that will give
you an excellent idea of the flavor. From Chapter Five, sub-
heading...

Innovations and unfashionable openings

There are two schools of thought about opening innovations in CC
and it partly depends on your playing strength relative to your
opponents. By innovations ! principally mean moves that you have
discovered for yourself, although they may also be other people's
untried suggestions - and frequently a move awarded an 'N' in
"Informator" has actually been played already in CC...

My first advice to most players would be: do not be in too much of
a hurry to introduce 'innovations' in openings regularly played by
OTB professionals (especially if you are White and play
well-established openings like the Queen's Gambit and Ruy
Lopez). Every CC magazine is full of games lost by the player who
tried to improve on the books with a ? ! move - and there are a lot
of points to be picked up from opponents by simply playing down
main lines. Having written these words, I was amused to find an
echo in Fernschach from the Canadian GM and world
championship finalist Jonathan Berry: "My theory about novelties
is that most of the ones you will meet, even at CC grandmaster
level, are not as good as the standard moves".

Nevertheless there are many striking cases of successful CC
innovations. An openings surprise may come at move four or even
earlier or it may be as late as move twenty or even later in some
deeply-analysed openings. Nor is it only in obscure openings that
the CC player can make a contribution to chess theory, scoring
points at the same time. Nevertheless, the more closely you follow
OTB grandmaster fashions, the more likely you will be committed
to some critical line of play in a CC game when an improvement
for your opponent is suddenly published in a chess magazine or
newspaper column seen by your opponent. Any good homework
you do in the main line Open Sicilian is in danger of being
superseded by the next Informator or "ChessBaseMagazine"; this is
as true for OTB as it is for CC but at least OTB the theoretical
assessment is not reversed while a game is in progress. If you are
very familiar with the lines you play, or the line is unfashionable,
this is less likely but can still happen.

It is precisely the sort of opening variations which OTB
grandmasters are not playing that provide the most fruitful field of
investigation for ambitious amateur players, and for CC experts
with limited time or appetite for study, since such discoveries as
they do make are quite likely to pay off against opponents of their
own standard. For such players, the spirit of CC is: 'leave the
Orthodox Queen's Gambits and 4...Nd7 CaroKanns to the OTB
professionals and get our teeth into a lively gambit!' Periodicals
like "Gambit Revue", "Randspringer" and "Myers Opening
Bulletin" cater for this kind of player. Even for those who dislike
gambits, there are certainly a great number of playable moves in
the openings that are ignored by the books, while there are plenty
more which, although they have their flaws, are far from easy to
refute.

Consider the Richter-Veresov, 1 d4 d5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Bg5. Suppose
Black does not fancy learning a defence against this relatively rare
opening, but knows the Classical French against 1 e4. He looks up
a couple of books (e.g. ECO, BC02 and Bellin's 1983 monograph
on the Veresov) which all say that 3...e6 transposes to the French
after 4 e4. No other fourth move for White is mentioned; very
good, he continues 3...e6.

Well, I have tried this several times as Black and I am still waiting
for somebody to reply 4 e4. If White wanted to play e2-e4, he
would have done it at move one! So my opponents have tried 4
Qd2, 4 Qd3 and 4 Nf3. Maybe if Black wants a French he could
play 2...e6 instead of 2...Nf6 but then again White need not play
e2-e4 since both 3 Nf3 and 3 Bf4 come into consideration; if Black
replies ...c5 we have a reversed Chigorin Defence in which his
problem will be developing the c8-bishop that is hemmed in by its
own pawn. After 1 d4 d5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Bg5 e6 the Veresov Attack
book by Ken Smith and John Hall (1994) does discuss 4 Nf3 but
only gives the replies 4...Bb4, 4...h6 and 4...b6. The authors fail to
mention that the perfectly sound 4...Nbd7 transposes to lines
analysed elsewhere in the book under 3...Nbd7.

Harding rounds out the book with a list of CC contact addresses
and indices of topics, players and openings. This book has it all:
spectacular games, solid advice, instructive guidelines and
entertaining anecdotes. In short, whether you are a CC devotee,
have a passing interest or even think CC was never for you, this is
a great book that you should have in your library.