Ufffff....................

I play Correspondence for understanding. I feel that the chess player passes through several layers of understanding during his or her journey through the game. One starts out in the beginner phase, where material predominates. One often plays very directly, but the tactics are often superficial and easily refutable. The beginner also often hangs pieces, often not taking the whole board into account. Then comes the (beginning) intermediate phase, where one takes the every component of the game into account. This is the beginning of exchange sacrifices in search of control or initiative(i.e. one might consider taking a protected knight with a rook if that knight happens to control a key square that could lead to a win). The (beginning) intermediate player is the kind of player I see myself as. I have problems thinking through positions that are complicated, and I often misplace my pieces in more quiet positions. I believe that playing correspondence chess "takes the pressure off." I have time to think through the position (or positions) I'm presented with, and I can come up with better responses and ideas. I feel that this will help me break through that (beginning) intermediate phase and help me understand chess better.

A very thoughtful responce to the question especially in terms of CC elevating our games.

I play both Online and Live Chess. If I should name a single reason why I like the Online one I would say it is easier to make friends there. People seem to be chattier there and they don`t lose their temper so much - Live Chess (mainly fast games) are played under a lot of pressure and more players go ballistic when they lose which is one of the reasons I play the computers a lot when it comes to Live Chess (another one is games vs a computer has to be won "regularly" and it is never "beat the clock" although I won a single game vs a computer on time for it got disconnected).

I play Online Chess becuase there are tournaments and team matches.

Well partly because I suck OTB and partly because I like to mull things over more carefully than I can OTB. And partly because I like using Tactics Trainer, Chess Mentor and reading articles/books when I'm not playing CC as opposed to spending all my chess time either playing CC or OTB.

Online chess improves you in the chess.

I like it too, but some rounds lasts forever!

forever = 15 months! :)