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A.Chatterjee, Rakesh Agrawal and Sailesh Chandra

AIWCF Server Update

NEW MEMBERS

AIWCF coninues with our policy of offering free membership to players from India for 1 year and subsequently renewable for Rs. 615/- (2 years) or Rs. 1540/- (Lifetime). Overseas players may join for a lifetime entirely free of cost.

We welcome the following players who joined after the publication of the previous AIWCF bulletin:

SrNoFull NameFromToFlag
718Azzoug, Samir 26-02-2025Life IND
719Perez Pupo, Rafael 03-03-2025Life CUB
720Donthi, Sai Krishna 03-03-202503-03-2026IND
721Cruz Ramirez, Eliecer 03-03-2025Life CUB
722Rodriguez Rodriguez, Mariano Danilo 09-03-2025Life CUB
723Harish, Sai Narayan 17-03-202517-03-2026IND
724Upadhyay, Rajesh 31-03-202531-03-2026IND
725Baltar, Antoni 11-04-2025Life ESP
726Nilla, Sudheer 19-05-202519-05-2026IND
727Dittmer, Lutz Michael 06-06-2025Life GER
728Suarez Rodriguez, Pedro Julio 06-06-2025Life CUB
729Keshri, Siddharth Kumar 12-07-202512-07-2026IND
730Sarkaraiappan, Kannan 05-08-202505-08-2026IND
731Wagh, Suyog 08-08-2025Life IND
732Potu, Gnana Revanth 08-08-202508-08-2026IND
733Vellakadayil Nabeel, Faizan Nabeel Mohamed 16-08-2025Life UAE

Country key: CUB=Cuba, ESP=Spain, GER=Germany, UAE=United Arab Emirates

NEW AIWCF TOURNAMENTS (Feb 2025 to Aug 2025)

21 Engine Allowed and 19 Engine Forbidden Tournaments were started in the 6-month period 1st February 2025 - 1st August 2025.

Engine Allowed:

NoTNoFromSpeedTheme
 1479303-02-2025Normal
 2479503-02-2025NormalThematic:Latvian Gambit
 3479602-02-2025Rapid
 4479721-02-2025Rapid
 5479806-03-2025Normal
 6479927-02-2025Blitz
 7480012-03-2025Rapid
 8480118-03-2025Blitz
 9480225-03-2025Normal
10480308-04-2025NormalThematic:Jacob Murey Gambit
11480408-04-2025Normal
12480505-05-2025NormalThematic:Jacob Murey Gambit
13480605-05-2025Normal
14480711-06-2025Normal
15480820-06-2025Blitz
16480930-06-2025Normal
17481004-07-2025Rapid
18481120-07-2025NormalThematic:Jacob Murey Gambit
19481224-07-2025Normal
20481319-07-2025Rapid
21481417-07-2025Blitz

Engine Forbidden:

NoTNoFromSpeedTheme
 1N01619-02-2025Blitz
 2M19003-02-2025NormalThematic:Anderssen's Opening
 3M19116-02-2025Normal
 4M19226-02-2025Normal
 5M19321-02-2025Rapid
 6M19406-03-2025Normal
 7M19506-03-2025Rapid
 8M19610-03-2025Blitz
 9M19717-03-2025NormalThematic:Anderssen's Opening
10M19825-03-2025Normal
11M19903-04-2025Rapid
12M20005-05-2025Normal
13M20105-05-2025NormalThematic:Anderssen's Opening
14M20206-06-2025Rapid
15M20330-06-2025Normal
16M20420-07-2025Normal
17M20513-07-2025Blitz
18M20620-07-2025NormalThematic:Anderssen's Opening
19M20724-07-2025Rapid

AIWCF CHAMPIONSHIP

The Engine Allowed AIWCF Championship, 1521 has only 1 unfinished game. We are finalising the next AIWCF Championship. From now on, AICCF Championships will be played on ICCF server in order to meet compilance issues.

INTERFACE FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED

At present, it is not possible for persions without vision to play on AIWCF server or ICCF server. It may be of interest to know that blind persons can play chess and develop their game, even though they have to calculate everything in their mind without relying on anything. It would be ideal to present AIWCF server for visually impaired persons, so that they too can enjoy the game.

Blind people can use a computer, visit websites, read and prepare documents with the help of screen-readers. We have been in touch with blind persons in the past who were interested to play on AIWCF server, but we fell short of understanding the steps to implement a working interface for visually challenged players.

Recently Siddharth Keshari, a blind chess player joined AIWCF and offered his help in taking AIWCF towards developing the required interface. A long dialogue commenced over email. Despite not being able to see, Siddharth can read and respond to emails. He is also conversant with computer, internet and servers. My correspondence with Siddharth has identified the following:
  1. There are several screen readers available, but the best one called NVDA (Non-Visual Desktop Access) is free
  2. With the help of screen readers the text content of websites becomes accessible, but not images/diagrams
  4. The position on the board should be provided in text so that the screen reader can read it out to the visually impaired player
  5. The player now visualises the board position in his maind and decides on his next move
  6. Apparently no good interfaces are available for engine based analysis for blind persons, so to start with, we will consider blind persons to be playing only in engine forbidden games
  7. The player types his move into the move-box in the server
  8. The server checks that the move is legal and records it
Accordingly an interface for visually impaired members is being prepared. The software for the interface is in its final stages of completion and testing will start shortly

CHESS 960

Correspondence chess with Chess 960 rules provides a new avenue for correspondence chess for those who are looking for something slightly different from conventional chess. Many chess players, myself included are not in favour of playing chess variants because it takes us away from the real game. But Chess960 (also called FRC=Fischer Random Chess or Freestyle Chess) is not different from conventional chess except for the start position and castling. The movement of the pieces, mate, stalemate, check etc are unchanged. Castling becomes different because the bank rank pieces including the King and Rooks are now on different squares.

Chess960 was created by Bobby Fischer in 1996 to reduce the emphasis on memorized opening theory. The pieces on the back rank are shuffled into one of 960 pre-defined random positions, which are mirrored for both players. The purpose is to encourage creativity, skill, and strategic thinking instead of memorization of opening lines. Since Fischer (at least during his early active years) was himself well versed in theory, we realize that it was the increasing use of computers that must have been a cintributing factor in seeking to change chess slightly so that a players native skill and perception would play a greater role.

Correspondence chess, especially computer allowed correspondence chess has come to a point where the percentage of draws is 80 to 90 perecent. In view of this many players are becoming increasingly interested in Chess960. ICCF introduced Chess960 in 2011. Now following requests from many members, AIWCF is also likely to introduce Chess960 soon. One important point to note is that computer chess engines such as Stockfish also play Chess960, hence it is decided to have both engine-allowed and engine-forbidden Chess960 in AIWCF.

FIDE included Chess960 within its purview by appending Chess960 rules in the Laws of Chess in 2008. In 2009 FIDE formally adopted the rules for Chess960. The first FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship 2019, was won by Wesley So, where he defeated Magnus Carlsen in the final. The second FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship, held in 2022, was won by Hikaru Nakamura.

The eight-player Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge (Germany 2024) was the first major Chess960 tournament that used classical chess time controls. The winner was Magnus Carlsen. Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour of 2025, comprises five Grand Slam tournaments and one open tournament.

Given the rising popularity of Chess960 and its official recognition, AIWCF will soon be including it.

For suggestions regarding AIWCF Server and Activities please contact us:

Ambar Chatterjee
Software Developer
DrAmbar@gmail.com		 Rakesh Agrawal
Web Master
quizrakesh@gmail.com		 Sailesh Chandra
Secretary-cum-Treasurer