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I am getting fairly good at checkers. My knowledge and judgment are improving noticeably. That is, of course, part of the reason that I am doing so well in checkers-by-mail. But there are other reasons for my success, more important reasons in my opinion. Here are some of the secrets of the top mail players. I will discuss the most important secrets first:
Time: I spend a great deal of time on my moves. You are allowed three days from the time you receive a move to when you send your reply. I may spend anywhere from 15 minutes to 7 or 8 hours on one move. I don't believe in spending only 2 or 3 minutes on a move; then my games would be no better than my cross-board games, which are weak. Sometimes I may spend only a few seconds on a move. But in that case, I have already put in my time before I ever received the postcard. For example, if my opponent sends me these opening moves: 9-13 23-18 11-16, then the next few moves will be automatic. This is not because I am copying moves out of the book; it is because I am aiming for a specific variation which I have worked on in the past. If I am playing the strong side of an opening, then I have prepared a cook (new move) already (See "Cooks," below). If I am playing the weak side, then I may follow the book, but I spend lots of time verifying the book in that case (See "Defending a weak opening," below). I do not recommend playing 100 or more games simultaneously, which I have done, because it is nearly impossible to put in the time required to create something new.
Cayton's book: Nowadays, Cayton's A Compilation of the Barred Openings is mandatory; you have to use this book in mail play. These are the openings that you will play most, and this book shows you relatively recent analysis of those openings. Of course you must check it for errors, and make corrections as you see them in the ACF Bulletin and in your earlier mail games. Other publications are handy, Fortman's Basic Checkers, and ACF Bulletins mainly.
Your Computer: People may consider computers the most important feature of checkers-by-mail. I consider "time" and "Cayton's book" to be more important. But computers are very important. In most postal chess tournaments, computers are not allowed. Such a rule is recognized as being unenforceable in both chess and checkers. In chess you are on your honor. In checkers, you are allowed to use computers (and get help from other players), but you cannot get advice from Chinook. When playing by mail, I tend to beat these computers and other players, so I am not as concerned about this as some players are. You can set up each position and let the computer make your moves while you sleep. I'm sure that some people do this. But you should beat these people. The computers do not make strong moves consistently, even after hours of thought. You should be aware that there is a trick to using a computer in your mail games. First of all, the computer shows you the simple shots that you might miss. But the actual trick to using a computer is that the computer should not be doing all the work. The computer should help YOU do lots of work. You put in the hours, and the computer checks your ideas. You get some of your ideas from the computer. But you are in charge here; your computer is not in charge. The computer's job is to check the ideas that you want to check. You can get very good at this, much better than your computer alone.
Cooks: As I said, a cook is a new move. Back when I started playing checkers-by-mail, E. Churchill recommended that you play the moves in his book from both the strong and weak side. If your opponent had the same book, you got nothing but draws. If he/she did not have the same book, you won some games. You ended up winning more than you lost. He was giving poor advice. You will never do better than the middle of the pack, because lots of people have his book. You should be playing cooks when you play the strong side of an opening. The cook may not be strong, but you should do something new (and sound) in every game in which you have the strong side. Prepare a few cooks beforehand. And prepare others during the game. We all want to discover the cook that destroys everyone in the tournament. These are very rare, of course. Comb the opening books for corrections. There are typos in every book. You can find them. The most common cooks are just new attacks which are not bad. You can prepare these in advance, although people normally don't. If it took you a week to find the best defense against one of these cooks, how many of your opponents are going to find the same defense when they are allowed three days. Maybe they find a difficult draw anyway. But you tortured them for months because they didn't find the easier draw. That is better than giving them an easy draw in a book line. When I have the strong side, I NEVER want to let my opponent copy a draw out of the book. And I guarantee, anyone can discover a cook.
Check your postcard: Typos take a big toll in mail games. Most of them occur to a player who is already losing. But typos ruin a good match every once in a while. Always check your postcard to make sure that the moves you wrote down are the moves you meant to make. If you are one of those people who tends to be careless, then be extra careful.
No easy games: Rake your opponents over the coals. Don't ever give your opponent an easy draw when you have the strong side. Make your opponent work. You've got the strong side in three games, and you want to spend a lot of time on one game and go easy on the other two. Don't do that. If your opponent draws that one game, then he/she draws all three. You want to win one of them, at least. Also, if your opponent has to struggle with game 3, he/she may lose game 1. Here is an example. I know that game 3 is a draw. But I have a new move which later transposes back to the book. Dead draw. But I have to try that new move, and my opponent has to spend time that he/she would like to spend on other games. It looks like a simple transposition, but is it really? Hopefully, my opponent will spend a lot of time on that draw, and lose some other game. Also, never play dull openings. You may hope for two easy draws (to get a better score, or to allow you time for the tougher games). But don't do it.
Write down your analysis: Most of your ideas can be used in later games in the same opening. So you should be writing them down. And writing down the good stuff will help you keep the analysis straight. You won't think that you busted a variation, when you missed one of the possible defenses. In a certain position, you beat 8-11. Going back over your notes, you see that you never considered 5-9. Thank goodness you wrote it all down, because now you can study 5-9, and maybe beat it, too.
Defending a weak opening: Your job when playing the weak side of an opening is to draw. You may not like that idea, but there it is. That probably means that you will follow the book as long as your opponent will let you. Certainly, diverge from the book if you have a better move. But most of the time, the book is your best chance to draw from the weak side. But never follow the book without checking it. There are typos in the books. Regardless, you are sure to lose games off and on, even if you diligently check the book lines. But don't let that frighten you into playing some offbeat defense. Some people play the 9-14 Octopus (or some other variation that is considered a loss by most people) because they are sure that it draws. It may actually draw. But don't touch it, ever. You will lose many games with it, even if you have some new ideas. And you already know draws in the more usual lines of that opening.
Illegal moves: Illegal moves (and failure to make a move) are dangerous. They are probably typos, and typos may be legal and losing. And your opponent may complain to the tournament director when you send more than one illegal move. The penalty may be the loss of the game. So be very careful.
Ifs: Ifs are conditional moves. You send "1-5 / 24-20. If 5-9 then 32-27." That is opponent's move / your move followed by the "if." You probably write it vertically instead of horizontally. Ifs are a possible source of error (typos are slightly more likely), so be careful. Beware of "If any then ..." as "any" may involve a bizarre move that you didn't consider. Ifs are done for a number of interrelated reasons: (1) to speed up the game in general, (2) to give your opponent less time to think, (3) for purposes of timing (see below), (4) to suggest a losing move, (5) to suggest a good move which you hope your devious opponent will reject. I use ifs for a 6th reason. I send ifs almost every move of the game. There are so many ifs cluttering up my cards that it should be very difficult for my opponents to guess if I had some clever motive for any of my ifs. My ifs are a smoke screen. But sometimes they are more meaningful. Ifs seem to be rare, except in my games. I think there should be some reward for using ifs which speed up the game, like more time on your clock.
Timing: You may not want to worry about timing. But consider the following: Not only do you want to play your opening-busting cook against every one of your opponents, but you would like to play that cook against all of them on the same day. That way, one of them won't write to everyone else saying, "Beware of Jim's cook." I may be paranoid, but that has happened to me. Also, you want your opponent to worry about game 3 when he should be worried about game 1. And you may want to get to a position as Red before you get to the same position as White (or vice versa), because you do (or don't) want to play (or play against) your own (or your opponent's) cook. Got that? Some examples: You want to see if your opponent has a cook, so you rush that game, and then you try the same cook in the other game. Or you may have a cook of your own, and you may want to rush the other game so your opponent will not play the same cook against you. Or you may have a cook of your own, and you want to rush that game, and then play your prepared easy defense in the other game.
Ladders: My aim is to win a national tournament. I have not competed in ladders and friendly games for many years now. I would like to be playing on one of the mail play ladders, but I never find the time. A ladder should be an excellent place to witness the current variations and cooks. Somebody beats you with some innovation, and you can use it against other people, before people start hearing about it.
Published losses: A little trick is to intentionally go into a published loss which you know is a draw. Of course you have to be careful that it really is a draw. But your opponent may spend huge amounts of time pursuing the phantom win, and not spend time on other games. He/she may even follow book draws from the strong side of other games, because he/she thinks that you are lost in this game.
Don't allow cheating: The main way to cheat in checkers-by-mail is to take huge amounts of time. Some people spend a whole week on one move. I have been known to use registered mail when I write to blatant cheaters (or to document slow mail service to certain areas of the country). And I am going to complain hard and long to the tournament director when a player habitually takes a long time to reply. Of course a card may get lost, so don't assume that your opponent is cheating unless it happens again and again. If a postcard gets lost, you want to notice it and send a repeat, fairly soon, so keep some kind of time records (day received, day sent, day postmarked...).
Psych: It is important for me to beat a certain player 6-0, not because I am a better player than he is, but because beating him 6-0 will make it easier to beat him next year. There is a psych going on here. I know he can beat me sometimes (careless as he is) as he is more creative than some of my other opponents. I don't want him to know that.
Don't prolong a game that is really over: Above I advised you to rake your opponent over the coals. And prolonging a drawn game for a year is one way to do that. In general, I do not recommend this. I do not prolong an obvious loss, because I don't want to be reminded of this depressing game day in and day out. And I don't want to win an obvious draw because of a boredom-induced typo either. Some people may enjoy winning that way, but I do not. In mail play, prolonging a game will usually not influence your other games with this same opponent, as those other games are probably all finished. It can only influence future games. In my own case, if someone prolongs an obvious draw to ridiculous lengths, I will be extra careful that I do draw this draw, and I will work extra hard to beat this player the next time. He/she may not realize that I am planning revenge, but that is what I plan.
Trust your own judgement: I guess that if you really believe a well-known loss (like the 9-14 Octopus) is a draw, then trust your judgment. But you should do a lot of work preparing it. Also, when your opponent offers a draw, go ahead and accept the draw, but only if you are sure it is a draw. Keep playing if you want your opponent to show you the draw.
Intentional bad moves: Very rarely, it is smart to make a bad move. One player played a cook against a friend of mine. Soon, my friend saw that he was losing the game. He wanted to play the cook against other players, so he didn't want this game to be a brilliancy which would be published. So he made some terrible moves, making the game ugly, and the cook remained a secret for a while longer.
Also see How To Avoid Errors In Correspondence Chess by International Correspondence Chess Master John C. Knudsen