My coach wants me to play 100 slow games per year, rated 2000-2100 USCF. I just returned from the NA Open in Vegas, where I got a handful of games, but I can’t afford the time/expense to travel to major tourneys every weekend of course.
I’m in Boulder CO so there aren’t a lot of local players in the proper rating range. I was hoping to find someone online who wanted to play unrated 40/120, SD/30, d10 games with video Skype (to simulate tournament conditions) and I’d even be willing to pay for his/her time. Unfortunately, I can’t find a mailing list for USCF players.
Any suggestions on how to find players? If I could go back in time, I would have passed out flyers at the NA Open, but too late for that now.
You could try for the slow time controls at one of the free online sites [Chess.com, FICS, etc], or you could even do the superslow internet postal play. The site chessworld.net has free access with the usual time control of 1 move every 3 days. It has been a little while since I last played there, but quite often players would actually play 1 move per day. I would imagine the paid portion of the site might have faster time controls, but I don’t pay for online play.
Also, you might try the state web sites in your state and surrounding states in an effort to find players in the correct rating range.
Larry S. Cohen
PS: if you have particular openings in mind that you want to work on that could be an added incentive for some players, as they may want work on the opening as well.
I’ve tried slow games online but the commit rate is low and the cheating rate is high (to my perception). I’m hoping to find someone who wants to do Video Skype attempting to simulate tournament conditions as much as possible.
My main challenge here is finding a way to contact USCF players since player emails are (seemingly) not published or otherwise made available to other players.
FICAS is likely your best bet for non-cheating play of the type that you’re seeking. At least that’s been my experience in the past. You might also try the Chessbase server seeking a long, unrated, game. Chessbase has a free three month premium membership that yyou might use to try it out. Good luck and let us know what you discover, please. BTW, I like the Skype idea.