chessmail user manual

Site Sections

Lobby

The lobby is the homepage of chessmail after logging in. There you can see which chess friends are online and use the member search.

Correspondence Chess

In the correspondence chess section of chessmail, slow-paced chess can be played. Moves are made asynchronously, with thinking times adjustable from 24 hours to several days per move.

Correspondence Chess - Games

Here your correspondence chess games are displayed and you can start new games.

Correspondence Chess - Completed Games

Here your completed correspondence chess games are displayed.

Correspondence Chess - Bookmarked Games

You can mark individual games as "bookmarked". These games are displayed here.

Correspondence Chess - Tournaments

Chess tournaments are regularly organized on chessmail. Prove your skills in one of the tournaments or organize your own tournaments.

Correspondence Chess - Ranking

The ranking list displays the best correspondence chess players on chessmail.

Live Chess

In the live chess section, you can play rapid chess where both players are online simultaneously.

Mailbox

Personal messages can be sent via the mailbox. If someone has sent you a message, a green number will be displayed on the mailbox icon.

Forum

The chessmail forums serve as a communication platform. You may write about chess and other topics. Various sub-forums correspond to different subject areas, such as chess, tournaments, or small talk.

Chess World

In the Chess World you will find interactive tools, such as an online chess computer and a board to set up positions. You can also solve chess puzzles here and play other chess mini-games. The chessmail shop offers T-shirts and other items.

Chess Clubs / Club

Chess clubs are groups of chessmail members. There are club forums where members can exchange ideas. Clubs can organize tournaments. There is a club ranking and a club page where the club can present itself.

User Menu

Your personal settings and information can be found in the user menu, at the top right under your member name.

My Page

This page is public. You can publish a statement there and see your ratings and your statistics. Every chessmail member has such a page.

Settings

Here you can change your personal data and password, adjust general system settings, and register game breaks for correspondence chess.

Logout

Logging out ends your chessmail session. A manual logout also ends the auto-login.

Using the Chessboards

Moves can be entered using the mouse or keyboard. With the mouse, the move can be executed either by dragging the piece or by clicking on the start and destination squares. For people with visual impairments, the chessboards are also optimized for screen readers.

You can use the following keyboard shortcuts on the chessboard pages:

  • Left and right arrow keys: Move back and move forward
  • Up and down arrow keys: First move and last move
  • F: Flip board
  • Space: Auto-play moves

Conditional Moves

When it is your opponent's turn, you can still enter moves on the board and save them as conditional moves.

The following keyboard shortcuts are available when planning conditional moves:

  • . (dot): Jump to the last move actually made in the game
  • Backspace: Delete move planning from the displayed move to the end
  • Shift+Backspace or "delete": Delete entire move planning

Correspondence Chess Rating System

chessmail has a rating system that makes it easy to find playing partners at your skill level.

New chessmail members must first complete 10 correspondence chess games on chessmail before they receive a rating.

Rated games lead to a recalculation of the rating on both sides after completion. The ratings at the beginning of the game are used as the starting values for the calculation.

The calculation is based on the Elo rating, as described in Wikipedia.

The formula used at chessmail is as follows:

EA = 1 / (1 + 10 ^ [(RB - RA) / 250])

  • EA: Expected probability that player A wins
  • RA: Rating of player A at game start
  • RB: Rating of player B at game start

The rating after the game outcome is calculated using the expected value EA.

R''A = R'A + k * (SA - EA)

  • R'A: Rating of player A at game end
  • k: The k-factor at chessmail is 20, indicating the maximum point gain
  • SA: Game outcome (1 for win, 0.5 for draw, 0 for loss)

The points gained are deducted from the opponent.

Thinking Time

When inviting someone to a correspondence chess game, you can set the thinking time from 24 hours to 30 days per move.

If the thinking time is exceeded, the game is displayed in red in your "My Games" list.

In the detailed view of the game, you can end it in your favor. However, you don't have to – for example, if you know that the opponent cannot make a move for important reasons. In tournaments, games are automatically ended when the thinking time is exceeded.

Holiday Settings

In your settings, you can register game breaks.

During a game break, you can still make chess moves on chessmail, but the time tracking for moves is extended by the break duration.

During the opponent's break, you will see an extended thinking time marked with (P) in your list of ongoing games.

Breaks can be canceled.

Members and Member Names

Member names, the pseudonyms of chessmail users, have different color codings and font styles to display their status. For screen reader users, there is a bracket after the member name showing the status with abbreviations.

  • Online (O): Members who are online are displayed with a blue underline.
  • Opponent (G): Current correspondence chess opponents are displayed in green.
  • Chess Friend (F): Your chess friends ⭐️ are displayed in bold.
  • Same Club (C): Members of your club are displayed in italics.
  • New (N): New members who don't have a rating yet are displayed in gray.

Members who have not been online for 90 days are displayed as inactive.

Adding Chess Friends

You can mark members you enjoy playing chess with as chess friends. This has the following advantages…

  • Your chess friends are always displayed in the "Members online" list on the homepage/lobby.
  • You can filter open invitations by members who are chess friends.
  • You can enable in the settings to only receive personal invitations from chess friends.

A list of your chess friends is displayed under Settings/Member data.

Ignore Function

If you don't want to play with a member, you can put them on the ignore list.

  • Ignored members cannot see or accept your open invitations.
  • Ignored members cannot send you personal invitations.
  • Ignored members cannot send you mailbox messages.
  • This also applies to the live chess section.

A list of members you have ignored is displayed under Settings/Member data.

Chess Clubs

You can found a chess club on chessmail or become a member of one. To found a chess club, you need at least 6 founding members. Club founders must have been chessmail members for at least 30 days and have played at least 30 games on chessmail.

Chess clubs have their own forums where club members can also create club-internal posts.

Club members can be administrators or moderators of the club.

You can only be a member of one club at a time, but a guest in as many clubs as you like. Club guests can write in the public forum of the club, but cannot read club-internal posts.

The public forum of the club is visible to everyone, but only members and guests can write there.

Administrators can

  • create tournaments on chessmail,
  • change the club text and club color,
  • appoint administrators and moderators,
  • activate membership applications, and
  • end memberships.

Moderators can

  • activate guest registrations,
  • delete posts in the club forum,
  • change the visibility of posts to internal.

Club membership can be ended in the settings. Guest memberships can be ended on the respective club pages.

Club Tournaments

Club administrators can start chess tournaments. The number of tournaments a club can have simultaneously depends on the size of the club.

  • Club after founding: 3 tournaments
  • Club with 12 members: 4 tournaments
  • Club with 24 members: 8 tournaments
  • Club with 30 members: 10 tournaments
  • … up to a maximum of 24

Data Deletion

Ongoing chess games in which no move has been made for 90 days are considered abandoned and can be automatically ended or deleted from the database.

Data from members who have not used chessmail for 3 years can be deleted.

Further information on data processing can be found on the privacy policy page.

Ending Membership

Membership can be ended via the settings. When members end their membership, personal data such as the email address are deleted from the database. Games of former members may remain in the database.

To end membership, you must not have any ongoing games.

Terms of Use

To use chessmail, the chessmail terms of use must be accepted.

Further Information

You can find further information about chessmail in our

Help section