Correspondence Chess Tournaments

This year is my third year playing in the Chess.com annual correspondence tournament, and I believe everywhere year has surpassed the previous iteration as the largest correspondence chess tournament in history. A remarkable 16831 players registered for the 2020 edition, and at the time of writing, 3634 of those players remain, with myself amongst their number. For the past two years I’ve failed to make it past my first group (the format is quite brutal, with groups of 12 players yielding only a single one who will advance to the next round), despite being very close both times, and so this year I’m happy to report that I’ve finally broke my streak of poor form and made it through to round two, acquiring 21 wins and one loss in the process. It’s been a pleasant experience, both to feel part of something so big and also to feel relatively competent compared to others playing in the tournament, and while I think it is very unlikely I will progress any further as the standard will increase dramatically, I am nonetheless hopeful that numerous rabbits can be pulled out of hats and I’ll be able to cause some big upsets to make it to round three.