Russell Sherwood

Useful CC Resource

Russell Sherwood  Thursday, July 22, 2021

I have meant to have recorded a number of videos for YouTube over the last few days, but have been put off by only really the sounds of fans being audible!

In the meantime a useful resource for CC players is on Matjaz Pirs, YouTube channel Correspondence Chess Training Pirs - YouTube

It is in German, but you can enable auto translation of subtitles and it will be still be hard work as the translator does not do a good job of technical terms. That said it is worth the effort to work through a number of the recordings.



Tip of the Week #8

Russell Sherwood  Monday, July 19, 2021

Have you ever lost rating points in a draw to a higher rated player?  For those with even a rudimentary knowledge of elo based rating systems this seems a ludicrous suggestion but highlights a situation that an aspiring player should be aware of.

When you see a draw offer, the rating you see on the screen for your opponent (and yourself) is that from the start of the event.  

This can be very different to the current reality, so always ensure you check the current player ratings and consider this information in your evaluation of the draw offer, not the start tournament ratings!

In essence, consider why the opponent has made a draw offer "now" (in calendar terms) - Is there an advantage/disadvantage for either player due to the timing

It is worth stating that this tip is really for those players who are concerned over the loss/gain of a fairly small number of elo!


Tip of the Week #7

Russell Sherwood  Monday, July 12, 2021

Understand the Time Control of the event you are entering!




(b) The nuances of that time control,


(d) Their attitude to time management. 








Tip of the Week #6

Russell Sherwood  Monday, July 5, 2021

Keep up your engines up to date!

More often than you would think,  players continue to use obsolete engines to support their analysis.

Whilst these engines are still very strong compared to the human player (>3000 ELO) they often lag hundreds of ELO behind their contemporaries.

With this in mind, Stockfish 14 was released this week.  Stockfish - Open Source Chess Engine (



Tip of the Week #5

Russell Sherwood  Sunday, June 20, 2021

Many years ago there was a track from the Shamen "Ebeneezer Goode" with the immortal line "Backwards and then forwards, forwards and then backwards" which brings us to this week's tip.

In a position with a low evaluation, a different perspective can be achieved by letting an engine run for a while, moving down the line a move and then immediately moving back to the original position. 

You would think the engine would go back to it's first choice, but occasionally it does not.  Why this is the case is complicated, but it is related to their being a number of near equivalent moves that the engine has to choose between in its search.


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British Solving Championship

Russell Sherwood  Sunday, June 20, 2021

Sometimes a change of pace is nice......

Chess: National solving championship opens for entries from Britain | Chess | The Guardian


Tip of the week #4

Russell Sherwood  Wednesday, June 16, 2021

A setting seen on most chess engines is "Contempt".

This is a slightly misnamed parameter used by the engine to improve its winning chances against weaker engines. 

What this does is to assume that the opposing engine is slightly less likely to find the "best move".

The majority of engines come with a setting of around 20. 

The consensus is that this should be set to zero for Correspondence Chess, although there are some scenarios where different settings can be advantageous! 


Tip of the week #3B

Russell Sherwood  Sunday, June 6, 2021

Correspondence Chess players all have  tendency to take on too many games - just one more tournament.....

In an ideal world you would be able to dedicate as much time as you wanted to each game but the afore mentioned tendency means this is rarely the case, so it is important to know the importance of each and every game and how they impact tournament outcomes.

Therefore, I recommend reviewing either regularly or on a live basis, each game and/or event. From this we can determine our chances for a Norm/Prize/Advancement to the next round or which games are "dead rubbers". Undertaking this will allow us to determine the games which deserve a greater share of our attention.



Tip of the Week#3A

Russell Sherwood  Sunday, June 6, 2021

The default settings of most chess engines are generally sub-optimal for Correspondence Chess.

An important one to set is that the Hash table size. Either too small or too large and the engine will be running below its best. Details on how to do this are in the article below

Goldilocks and the Hash Table (


Tip of the Week #2

Russell Sherwood  Sunday, May 30, 2021

Tip #2

Canyons and Open Plains

When analysing with an Engine, learn the difference between "Canyons" and "Open Plains"!

Canyons are positions where, whilst the moves are not forced and can take place in multiple orders, do tend to lead to the same position - so you may play ABC or BAC or CBA but will still end up in the same position a few moves down the line. Here, after any nuances over move order have been explored, analysis should be undertaken at the end of the canyon.

Open plains are positions where many near equivalent moves are possible in a position. Here width of search should be considered almost as important as depth to increase the chances of finding the best move.

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