I was playing a high volume of 5-minute blitz games on ICC (Internet Chess Club). While these were fun, I really didn't find that my game was improving. I also tend to do much better at slower time controls, but rarely have time to sit for a full hour or two over a game. The answer?
Correspondence chess. Correspondence is a great way to play slow chess when you have a choppy schedule. Quite simply, once it's your move, you can commit to as much time as you need to make your move. I typically take a few seconds (if the move is trivial) to as much as 15 minutes if I think a position is novel/deep, or I sense it's a key point in the game. Once I've spent my time and make my move, I can log off, and return in a day or two and check to see if I have a move waiting. All in all, the best situation!
The biggest challenge was where I was playing. I have a subscription to ICC (the Internet Chess Club). ICC has a lot of great chess resources. But unfortunately, the interface for correspondence chess on ICC is rather archaic. It certainly works, but it doesn't match opponents, and you have to type commands in to see your board and to make your moves.
If I was going to play correspondence chess, I wanted something easier to use than ICC. I recently discovered Chess.com as a wonderful alternative. It has a great interface and matching system that makes correspondence chess easy and enjoyable to play. Note, this site calls correspondence chess "Online Chess". The site is really easy to use and most of the best stuff in it is free. The only thing about chess.com that I don't particularly like as much as ICC is the live chess. It just doesn't seem as quick to respond as ICC - and the matching isn't quite as precise.
So, without much further ado, I'll include a referral link below. Disclaimer: I get a free month if you end up signing up and eventually pay for any of their premium services. The link also has my ID if want to challenge me. Currently my rating for Correspondence is 1712. I don't know how these ratings match to live game ratings (USCF, or CFC in my case), but the site says I'm in the top 10 percentile of players by rating, which is pretty good, I think.
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