I don’t see start date for the various tournaments. When do they start?
Is there any thing in place to ensure people don’t cheat?
Does it affect your rating, is there a separate rating?
Depends. Some tournaments begin when the tournament is full. Example: email quads begin when there are four players signed up.
USCF correspondence is no computer engine assistance, played by the USCF correspondence rules in the rulebook. Alex Dunne or Gary Walters could comment on how cheaters are caught…or if there is any of that anymore. If you want to play correspondence with an engine there is always ICCF (international correspondence chess federation…essentially FIDE of corr).
There is a separate rating for correspondence chess.
The only thing that is in place to prevent people from cheating in engine-prohibited correspondence play is the competitors’ collective sense of honor. That, and playing a postal game against an incarcerated opponent.
The sense of honor is generally enough. I’ve never played in an engine-prohibited event in USCF or CCLA where I have felt I wasn’t playing against carbon-based lifeforms. My perception may have been wrong, but but I am certain that any engine use wasn’t so widespread that it ruined the event for me.
That said, I prefer ICCF play these days, where the key to victory is not to follow one’s engine, but to use one’s engine. (There’s a difference, and the exercise reveals just how poorly all engines play chess).
Gary Walters has posted his views on this topic several times, he’s somewhat more skeptical of the state of correspondence chess.
Online chess is a related but somewhat different issue. Because a computer is already being used, tying it into a playing engine would not be a serious programming challenge for the dedicated hacker. The speed of play may be the best limiting factor. ICC is talking about G/3;d0, for example, and I doubt that even the best engines would be able to offer much assistance at that rapid pace without essentially taking the game over. (And hopefully nobody would find that satisfying.)
To clarify, USCF correspondence chess is a completely separate rating system with no ties to the USCF OTB (over the board) rating systems. It uses ratings formulas similar to those the USCF used for its OTB rating system some 30 years ago, except that we rate the games one at a time as they are completed and reported to the Correspondence Chess director, since an event usually lasts several months if not several years.
Our partnership with ICC and other vendors for USCF-rated online chess will also use separate rating systems (one for online/quick chess, one for online/blitz chess), but existing USCF OTB ratings may be used to initialize someone’s online/quick or online/blitz rating.
I’m with Mr. Price. If you look on the ICCF-US page, http://www.iccfus.com/tourny.htm, you’ll see that most tournaments are started on an “as filled” basis. Some are not, but the entry deadline is very clear in the “TLA”. Note that this page is somewhat out of date, and this page is more up to date, https://www.iccf.com/EventsAnnouncements.aspx, although it doesn’t list U.S.-specific events. Also, note that USCF’s Walter Muir e-Quads are played on the ICCF server, but by USCF rules. They are no longer rated by ICCF.
To answer your other question, take a look at the games in this e-Quad, for example. https://www.iccf.com/event?id=41728 Make sure you look at them with an engine. I picked this tournament more or less at random, but I’ll bet you’ll find a lot of moves that the engine doesn’t suggest.
Alex Relyea