TCCMB/SchemingMind Exhibition Simultaneous Match

The Correspondence Chess Message Board (TCCMB) has been running since 1998 and is the premier discussion forum for correspondence chess on the Internet.  TCCMB is independent of any correspondence chess organisation and discussions cover all aspects of the game.  Many titled players, including grand masters and world champions, read and post messages daily, as well as officials of many important correspondence chess organisations.

John Knudsen is a Senior International Master at Correspondence Chess.  As well as running TCCMB, John is also the webmaster of correspondencechess.com, a hugely informative web site which is regularly updated and with many sub-domains with something for anyone with an interest in correspondence chess.  In addition to his correspondence chess interests, John is a life member of the American Numismatic Association.

John is an American, currently based in Germany.

John kindly agreed to participate in a simultaneous correspondence chess challenge match against members of SchemingMind Online Correspondence Chess Club.  This match was played over ten boards.

This match was open to any full member of SchemingMind.  We wanted to represent the whole range of SchemingMind members, and so encouraged interest from players of all ratings and abilities; this was the perfect opportunity for SchemingMind.com to test themselves against a titled correspondence chess player, as well as to meet one of the best known personalities in the game.

The games in this simultaneous match were played at standard SchemingMind time controls of thirty days plus a one day increment for each move made.  Games were unrated, however engine use was not allowed.  Games were played under 'real name' conditions, game comments were public (could be read by any observer) and kibitzing was allowed by other SchemingMind.com members.

The ten players facing John were selected to give a wide variety of SchemingMind ratings, these players were:

1. Godfrey, Mark A. ENG (2,118)
2. Strauchler, Sebastian ARG (2,114)
3. Weggen, Rick NED (2,095)
4. Flores Cantu, Hector MEX (1,620)
5. Seibert, Scott USA (1,597)
6. Meehan, Joseph IRL (1,594)
7. Farris, Michael J. USA (1,417)
8. Ritchson, Eric J. USA (1,352)
9. Shuck, Lee G. ENG (1,290)
10. Hess, Doug USA (1,200)

Games started on Monday 9th October 2006 and are linked below:

1. TCCMB Simultaneus Exhibition Match - Board One
2. TCCMB Simultaneus Exhibition Match - Board Two
3. TCCMB Simultaneus Exhibition Match - Board Three
4. TCCMB Simultaneus Exhibition Match - Board Four
5. TCCMB Simultaneus Exhibition Match - Board Five
6. TCCMB Simultaneus Exhibition Match - Board Six
7. TCCMB Simultaneus Exhibition Match - Board Seven
8. TCCMB Simultaneus Exhibition Match - Board Eight
9. TCCMB Simultaneus Exhibition Match - Board Nine
10. TCCMB Simultaneus Exhibition Match - Board Ten

The final game against Rick was completed on Christmas Eve 2006, John scored eight wins and two draws (against Sebastian and Rick).  On behalf of all the members of SchemingMind.com, I would like to thank John for the friendly and sporting way in which all these games were played!

Austin Lockwood, New Year's Day 2007