i think thats a great idea
Chess by text
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I thought that would be a good idea too so I wrote a program to do it. It just works on texts between two phones. No server required.
http://www.cwgsy.net/private/degnen/PhoneChess/
"This listing (290427347832) has been removed, or this item is not available."
What we need is a message board that hooks people up who want to text chess, kind of how Live Chess here finds random opponents for you. They then exchange phone numbers and text algebraic notations to each other. No downloading, no payments.
I live in new hampshire and my power and internet has been out for several weeks and looks like it might be out for another. I was lucky enough to buy a membership just before this happened so my games were paused, but I had been thinking about what I would have done if they hadnt been. I though of many options for mobile chess and this is the best solution I came up with.
Everyone has txt messaging on thier phones now and it is virtually free. It also almost always includes picture messaging so using txt and not internet is the best mobile solution.
When your opponent makes a move, Chess.com sends you a message with a picture of the game just how you see it on the site. Clearly it would be a smaller image. You would simply reply with your move written out in algebraic form. You could txt "help" for help etc. Of course, you might also have to send a code to let chess.com know on which game to play the move etc.
This could be a member benifit, or a pay per use thing. I think a penny per move would be reasonable, or ten bucks a year for unlimited. Maybe the current memberships could come with complementary moves by phone, 50 or so etc.