SchemingMind

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SchemingMind
URL http://www.schemingmind.com/
Commercial? yes
Type of site Correspondence chess server
Available language(s) English
Owner Austin Lockwood
Created by Austin Lockwood
Launched 2002
Current status active

SchemingMind is a global correspondence chess server founded in 2002 by Austin Lockwood.

Contents

[edit] Features

SchemingMind supports not only standard Chess, but also Chess960, CrazyHouse, Atomic chess, Shatranj and almost 40 other chess variants (see complete list).

Fischer clock is used for time control. The following clocks are available:

  • 5d+12h (5 days of initial time, 12 hours increment, 10 days limit)
  • 10d+1d (10 days of initial time, 1 day increment, 30 days limit),
  • 30d+1d (30 days of initial time, 1 day increment, 45 days limit),
  • 30d+3d (30 days of initial time, 3 days increment, 60 days limit).

Holiday is available in case of longer absences - up to four weeks a year.

Games are rated using Glicko rating system. Separate rating is used for every variant.

Competition format:

  • free challenges,
  • double round robin tournaments,
  • knockout tournaments,
  • pyramids,
  • dropouts (see below),
  • friendly team matches,
  • team leagues.

Dropout is a SchemingMind specific tournament scheme invented as intermediate step between knockout and Swiss. Swiss-like pairing is being used, every loss is worth 3 points, every draw is worth 1 point, players who gets more than a specified limit (depending on tournament 6 or 8) are eliminated, the tournament is won by the sole remaining player, or the player with least points if a few remained.

SchemingMind is mainly used through the web interface with JavaScript-based playing board, but there are alternatives:

  • WAP (mobile) interface (reviewing games in progress, making moves),
  • XFCC is supported, so any XFCC client can be used (for the same purpose).

It is possible to play International_Correspondence_Chess_Federation games from SchemingMind interface.

Annotated opening database (so called Game Explorer) is available.

[edit] Affiliations

SchemingMind is a member organisation of the British Federation for Correspondence Chess (BFCC).

[edit] Membership

SchemingMind offers limited free membership and payable subscription.

Free membership is limited to 15 simultaneous games and one tournement entry every 6 weeks. Also some advanced site features (like team captaincy or openings database) are not available to free members.

Full membership offers unlimited access to all site features.

The subscription is offered on yearly basis and may be bought for personal use or in the form of a gift token.

[edit] History

SchemingMind was created in 2002, initially as private, invitation-based project.

Public registration is available since April 2003. A few site announcements were posted thorough 2003 to chess newsgroups and forums. All critical site features (including most variant games) were already available at this time.

[edit] External links

Player resources:

Reviews, notes, etc