SchemingMind is a privately owned international correspondence chess club founded in 2002. Most games and tournaments are played on a

correspondence chess server Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less common ...

owned by the club for this purpose. Teams representing SchemingMind regularly participate in

ICCF ICCF may stand for: * International Conference on Cold Fusion, also known as "International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science" * International Conservation Caucus Foundation * International Correspondence Chess Federation * Intern ...

events, for example the ICCF Champions League and International Friendly Matches.

History

SchemingMind was created in 2002, initially as a private, invitation-based project. Public registration has been available since April 2003. A few site announcements were posted throughout 2003 to chess newsgroups and forums. SchemingMind was accepted as a member organisation of the British Federation for Correspondence Chess ( BFCC) in 2007. This means that full members of SchemingMind may enter BFCC and

events; BFCC membership also allows the club to play ICCF rated International Friendly Matches against other ICCF federations. Matches have been arranged against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

Site features

SchemingMind is predominantly a correspondence chess club; however, a number of members also enjoy playing chess variants

Chess960 Fischer random chess, also known as Chess960 (often read in this context as 'chess nine-sixty' instead of 'chess nine hundred sixty'), is a variation of the game of chess invented by the former world chess champion Bobby Fischer. Fischer announc ...

Crazyhouse Crazyhouse (also known as drop chess, mad chess, reinforcement chess, turnabout chess and schizo-chess) is a chess variant in which captured enemy pieces can be reintroduced, or ''dropped'', into the game as one's own. The drop rule resembles tha ...

Atomic chess Atomic chess is a chess variant. Standard rules of chess apply, but all captures result in an "explosion" through which all surrounding white and black pieces other than pawns are removed from play. Some variations additionally remove rules conce ...

Shatranj Shatranj ( ar, شطرنج; fa, شترنج; from Middle Persian ''chatrang'' ) is an old form of chess, as played in the Sasanian Empire. Its origins are in the Indian game of chaturaṅga. Modern chess gradually developed from this game, as ...

, Thai Chess and almost 40 other chess

variants Variant may refer to: In arts and entertainment * ''Variant'' (magazine), a former British cultural magazine * Variant cover, an issue of comic books with varying cover art * ''Variant'' (novel), a novel by Robison Wells * "The Variant", 2021 e ...

(se
complete list
, and the site along with its members actively discuss, design and implement many chess variants. The

Fischer clock A chess clock consists of two adjacent clocks with buttons to stop one clock while starting the other, so that the two clocks never run simultaneously. Chess clocks are used in chess and other two-player games where the players move in turn, and ...

is used for

time control A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game cloc ...

. The following clocks are available: * 5d+12h (5 days of initial time, 12 hours increment, 10 days limit) * 10d+1d (10 days of initial time, 1 day increment, 30 days limit) * 30d+1d (30 days of initial time, 1 day increment, 45 days limit) * 30d+3d (30 days of initial time, 3 days increment, 60 days limit) Holiday is available in case of longer absences - up to four weeks a year. Players are able to extend repeated lifelines to opponents rather than force flag. Games are rated using the

Glicko rating system The Glicko rating system and Glicko-2 rating system are methods of assessing a player's strength in games of skill, such as chess and Go. The Glicko rating system was invented by Mark Glickman in 1995 as an improvement on the Elo rating system, a ...

. Competition formats includes free challenges, pyramids, team matches and leagues, as well as private or public mini-tournaments of either knockout, dropout or double round robin tournaments. Dropout is a SchemingMind specific tournament scheme, invented as an intermediate step between knockout and

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internati ...

. Swiss-like pairing is being used. Games are scored, with every loss being worth 3 points and every draw being worth 1 point. Players who get more than a specified limit (six or eight points, depending on tournament) are eliminated. The tournament is won by the sole remaining player, or the player with fewest points, if a few remain.

Access

SchemingMind is mainly used through a web interface, with a JavaScript-based playing board. Some alternatives are offered for standard (non-variant) chess play: * WAP (mobile) website interface,
XFCC
API protocol is supported, so any XFCC client can be used. It is possible to play

International Correspondence Chess Federation International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) was founded on 26 March 1951 as a new appearance of the International Correspondence Chess Association (ICCA), which was founded in 1945, as successor of the Internationaler Fernschachbund (IF ...

games from SchemingMind interface. An annotated database of chess openings, (interactiv
Game Explorer
is available and is under constant revision by an

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combinatio ...

in correspondence chess.

Membership

Full membership of SchemingMind is by payable subscription. However, a limited free membership is also available. Free membership puts limits on the number of simultaneous games and the frequency of tournament entry. Also some advanced site features (like team captaincy or openings database) are not available to free members. Full membership offers access to all site features. The subscription is offered on a yearly basis and may be bought for personal use or in the form of a gift token.

External links

Player resources: * {{Official website, http://www.schemingmind.com/
Documentation site
(free registration required)
Firefox Extension

Frequently Asked Questions
Reviews, notes, etc.
"The Check is in the Mail" March 2007 edition contains SchemingMind review by Alex Dunne (the Correspondence Chess director of USCF)
* SIM John C.Knudse

* [http://www.scca.org.uk Social Correspondence Chess Association
organises some of their tournaments on SchemingMind

WildChess marks SchemingMind as recommendation

* [http://mekk.waw.pl/mk/szachy/art/korespondencyjne/polecane Correspondence servers review in Polish recommends SchemingMind as top choice] Chess websites Internet chess servers

History

Site features

Access

Membership

See also

External links