My Current Thoughts On Daily Chess Format

My Current Thoughts On Daily Chess Format

I am not a fan of Daily Chess (Correspondence Chess) format. I do see some value in it for learning purposes (I’ll list some of those good things later), but I much prefer real-time. I like my chess games to take one sitting. I am flexible to time controls, but the asynchronous nature of Daily Chess format doesn’t feel like a chess game to me; it feels more like puzzles – nothing wrong with that…just not what I’m usually going for.

In the past, I’d usually type back a customized message similar to what I wrote above and I’d decline most challenges in this format. I much prefer unrated real-time chess if we can message each other and find a time we are both available. Most of my Daily games are either from team matches (chess.com clubs) where I play to support my team, or are unique exceptions where I agree to play (such as a last resort when we can’t schedule real-time games (live chess). There were also some chess.com Daily Chess tournaments I was involved in. They were “no vacation” events of 3 Day time control, but the entire tournament ended up lasting like 4 years! I’m not making that mistake again lol

Some Benefits of Daily Chess

I will say that even though I don’t like this format, as I like to simulate in-person chess (when I can’t think for 3 days on a single move xD), Daily Chess format does have some value in it.

Having more time to think is a big factor. It can feel similar to classical time controls in an OTB (over-the-board) event and having almost indefinite time to think things through shouldn’t be underestimated for learning; especially when you compare your calculations and game to the post-game analysis afterwards to see which positions you understood well and which you missed some elements of. It should be mentioned that many players have many ongoing Daily games at once and this indirectly means less time they can invest in a particular game, so if there are too many games ongoing, the player moves at close to blitz speed just to not timeout in other games…and this defeats the benefit of this time control giving more time to think.

Another thing special to this format is the board for variations which let you calculate deeper and more accurately. You aren’t allowed this is a standard game, but in this format it is permitted and it can be a good learning tool. I often like to test my mental calculation ability and board vision, so I won’t use that Daily Analysis Board often…hypothetically, this puts me at a disadvantage to an opponent using this feature, so this is another reason I generally prefer not to play this format.

Similar to the last point, another difference is that in Daily Chess, you are allowed to use chess opening databases and books and similar resources as long as they don’t have engine analysis or evaluations in them. I know a good amount of opening theory for my rating level, so the presence of an opening database also puts me at a potential disadvantage; no use in having a long line of opening theory memorized, only to have the opponent play the best mainline effortlessly because they are following a GM game from an opening database.

Daily/Correspondence Chess both have many potential benefits for learning, but the game doesn’t “flow” at the pace of real-time games (online or in-person) and I play online to improve my real-time chess ability. You play how you practice, so I prefer to not have literally days per move to think if I won’t get this amount of time to think in an OTB tournament game (or real-time game online or in-person). Days later you may also forget some of your calculations and ideas (even if you use Notes section, you also lose the feelings you had days ago) and this disrupts the game pace for me.

Purpose of Writing This

I primarily created this blog post for my own sake of efficiency. I’ve gotten so many Daily challenges over the years and I’ve politely declined most of them with personalized messages talking about the things I mentioned here. It is easier for me to just write a blog post on this and simply copy and paste a hyperlink now that my friend group on chess.com (and indirectly the number of Daily format challenges I get regularly) has slowly grown to the scale where messages and feedback take up a big portion of my chess.com time (time helping others is still time well spent, so keep the messages coming if you want to chat or ask a question, but I’d rather be helping answer new things than retyping the same message in different words each time).

If you’ve recently sent me a Daily Format challenge which I’ve declined, I’m not calling you out. I have several Daily challenges pending even now. This blog post was something I figured I’d have to write eventually; it just so happened to be now, so this isn’t anything personal to any specific members.

Thanks for reading and if you’ve gotten this far down this post, then you are awesome! The people who type TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read), or simply skip out on insights and experience are sadly the people also less likely to improve at chess (or most other things for that matter). Why? If you don’t have the willpower to read through a blog post, or article, or book etc. then why do you think you’ll have any greater motivation to read and study and put in the hard work when it comes to your chess? This has nothing to do with this specific blog post, but just something to consider. Improvement takes lots of time and effort and if you aren’t willing to invest that, then don’t expect amazing results.

If you’ve read all the way to the end, then include a friendly post in this blog comments section for everyone else in the comments. Something like “You all are amazing” or something friendly like this. Include that in your comment and I’ll know (and others reading it) that you have the potential to improve at chess because you have the mindset of learning what you can (like reading this long blog post on a chess site) to help you reach your chess ambitions