Top ICCF-US Players

If you don't like the thread ponz then why keep coming here ?  I don't intend to delete it , why should I ?  

Once again I tell you I dont want to take anything away from anyone . I just don't think the titles should be the same for OTB and Correspondence and Centaur chess .  There is no harm in adding one letter to Correspondence and/or  Centaur chess titles so that they are distinguishable from one another . Maybe  ICCFGM and ICCFIM ?  

You should email ICCF with your suggestion, I'm sure they'll jump right on it.

I'm going to try for the correspondence GM title. I need to upgrade my computer though.

It certainly seems like Reb has much less respect for ICCF players when compared to FIDE players, however his personal tastes make no difference to the fact that ICCF play is very different from FIDE OTB play. I see no reason to object to changing the title if only for future title holders... even though I'm sure they wouldn't.

A bit off topic, but I believe Russia offers a national GM title. They don't call it RGM (Russian grandmaster). Which is why you'll sometimes see people specify that they are an IGM, or international grandmaster.

I object to National "Masters" using the word "master".  This word should be reserved for proper titles such as "Grand Master" and "International Master".  Why are these titles being devalued?!?

One who plays OTB and earns a national master title is playing the same game, and is only slightly less strong, than a player who earns a FIDE master title.

I.e. it may devalue the title, but at least it's the same game, and the title holders have comparable skills.

You should email the national federations that award the NM title with your complaint , I'm sure they will jump right on it .  

lol

The point I am making is that one can get high ratings and titles ( in otb chess )  even if they are not strong chess players .

Even so, I'd love to earn the NM title. Which I'd do, BTW, by playing chess, not some variant of chess

postal chess or correspondence chess as played per ICCF is not a "variant of chess". It is chess.  [look it up]

imo correspondance chess is a waste of time. using engines to play chess is just plain dumb, its not really even a game anymore.

It's true that ICCF play is not a variant in the usual sense.

I used the word variant purposefully, to make the point that present day ICCF play is very different from OTB play.

Just call it snail mail we'll understand.

I used to play postal chess by snail mail ... now I think that way of playing is all but extinct but I dont know .  I have a bunch of post-a-logs now that I have no use for ... 

Tell me, would you tell players who have achieved their success mostly from games played without chess engines that they must change their hardearned titles to something indicating that they earned their titles per centaur chess?

No.

leiph 18  Thank you for your answer.

I agree with you that present day ICCF play is different from over-the-board play [I would not say "very"]

But one point I have been trying to make is that there are players who earned their titles with NO chess engine help or have won championships of a whole country with NO chess engine help and by changing their accomplishments to indicate that they made their achievements with ONLY engine help would be disengenious.

There are also players who played years and decades to earn their titles without chess engine help and then when chess engines started to be used [and this was legal] used chess engines themselves to keep up with chess engine users.  They should not have their titles changed to a title indicating that all their playing for years and decades was with chess engine help.  That would also be disengenious.

Both sides are correct here, but the timing is off. Eventually all the players who earned their titles before chess engines, (Note, Alik Zilberberg was already an ICCF IM when he emigrated. I recall now it was 1979 as a friend of mine defeated him in his first USA tournament) will retire or pass away. Then the pool of players active will be exclusively from the Centaur era. That's the time to push for a change in title names, but not now! Too many exclusively human players are with us!

I agree that it wouldn't be fair to change someone's title that way.

If I had been born 50 years earlier, I would have been a huge fan of correspondence chess. Although this age has its benefits too. I can play and talk online whenever I want.