CCI Current

Due to current events, the board feels compelled to address a topic that has increasingly influenced correspondence chess worldwide in recent years. It is about the use of chess programs, often referred to by the English term ‘engines’. Since the battle between Kasparov and the IBM machine ‘Deep Blue’ in the 1990s, many people have dealt with this issue and often ‘cut their teeth’ on it. Because there seems to be no simple solution for dealing with it. It is especially difficult when two FS partners meet, one of whom uses an engine, but the other does not. This naturally creates an inequality that is comparable to the use of doping substances in competitive sports.
However, at CCI we do not practice competitive sports, but we want to correspond with each other in a friendly way besides our chess games. As a special option we have at CCI our SoCU and Nostalgia tournaments. For both forms we assume that the tournament participants do not resort to the help of chess programs. We simply consider it a code of honor that chess is played without computer assistance, as the name SoCU (= chess without computer assistance) already expresses. This includes nostalgia tournaments as well, because their basic idea is based on the tournament before the computer era, i.e. in principle by mail. However, we consider it acceptable if the playing partners agree to send their moves by e-mail.
The board is well aware of this problem. However, we must clearly state that we cannot control whether someone uses a computer aid.
What do you think about this issue? Please write us your opinion about it!