Days-per-move clocks
Choose 1, 3, 5, 7, or 15 days per move. The clock only ticks down on your turn, so you control the pace.
Correspondence chess
What is correspondence chess?
Correspondence chess is a form of chess where each player has hours, days, or even weeks to make a single move. Instead of racing a clock, you think deeply, study the position carefully, and play your best move whenever you're ready — just like the great masters did when chess was played by post.
Days
Per move, not minutes per game.
Many
Run several games at once.
Anywhere
Phone, laptop, on the go.
Anytime
Move when it suits you.
Why play correspondence chess
Chess that fits your life, not the other way around.
Live chess is a sprint. Correspondence chess is a marathon, a puzzle, and a study session all at once. You don't need to set aside an uninterrupted hour. You play one move on the morning train, another after dinner, another before bed. The board waits for you.
Because you have time, you can analyze deeply, calculate variations carefully, and try ideas you'd never risk in a five-minute blitz. It's how serious players sharpen their understanding — and it's how a lot of beautiful chess gets played.
Live chess vs. correspondence chess
Same game, very different experience.
| Live chess | Correspondence chess | |
|---|---|---|
| Time per move | Seconds to a few minutes. | Hours, days, sometimes longer. |
| Game length | Minutes from start to finish. | Days to weeks/months per game. |
| Pace | Sit down, focus, finish. | A move at a time, around your day. |
| Multiple games | One at a time. | Run dozens at once. |
| Style of thinking | Quick pattern recognition. | Deep calculation and study. |
| Best for | Quick fun, focused practice. | Deep improvement, busy schedules, real long-form chess. |
A short history
From the postal service to your pocket.
Correspondence chess is older than the chess clock. Players in different cities, and later in different countries, would write their moves on postcards and mail them to opponents. A single game could take a year or more. World championships were played this way long before the internet existed.
Online correspondence chess keeps the spirit of those games — deep, considered, played around the rest of life — but cuts the wait from weeks to seconds. Your move arrives the moment you make it, the board is always with you on your phone, and a single notification tells you when it's your turn.
On ChessHere
Correspondence chess, the way it should work.
Most platforms treat correspondence chess as an afterthought. We treat it like the heart of the game. Here's everything you get when you play a correspondence game on ChessHere.
Conditional moves
Plan ahead. Set "if my opponent plays X, I play Y" and we'll play it for you the moment the position arrives. Save days of waiting in forced lines.
Vacation mode
Going away? Sick? Pause every one of your games at once with a single tap. Your clocks stop until you come back.
Reminders that fit you
Email, web, or phone — pick how we let you know it's your turn. Never miss a move just because life got busy.
My-turn dashboard
Every active game at a glance. See whose turn it is, how much time is left, and what's about to time out.
Tournaments
Real tournaments at a correspondence pace. Standings, fair pairings, real winners — events that actually finish.
Separate rating
Your correspondence rating is tracked separately from your bullet, blitz, rapid, and classical ratings. Slow and fast skill aren't the same thing.
Phone-friendly
Our mobile app means your games are always with you. Move on the train, on a break, before bed.
Save your games
Download your finished games to study, share, or keep forever. Your chess history is yours.
Why correspondence makes you better
The thinking time you wish you had in your live games.
You actually calculate.
In a five-minute blitz you guess. With a day to think, you can play out variations five and ten moves deep, the way the position deserves.
You can learn between moves.
Time to look up an opening, study a similar middlegame, work through an endgame technique. Every game becomes a study session.
You play more games at once.
A handful of correspondence games running in parallel gives you more chess in less of your day than any single live session ever could.
No tilt, no time scrambles.
When you play badly in a flag, the next game still hangs over your head. In correspondence, every move gets your full attention, calmly.
Getting started
New to correspondence chess? Start here.
-
1
Start with three days per move.
It's the sweet spot — long enough to think carefully, short enough that games actually progress.
-
2
Run two or three games at first.
Don't sign up for ten games at once until you know how it feels. Two or three running in parallel is plenty for your first month.
-
3
Treat every move like it's the only move.
If you're going to spend three days, spend it. Look at the candidate moves, calculate forcing lines, check for tactics. The whole point is the depth.
-
4
Use conditional moves in forced lines.
When you can already see two or three moves of a forcing sequence, set them as conditional moves. The game will play itself through the obvious part and bring the position back to you when there's a real choice.
-
5
Set vacation before you travel.
Heading away for a week? Turn on vacation mode. Every game you have pauses at once. Come back, turn it off, the games resume from exactly where they were.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about correspondence chess.
How is correspondence chess different from daily chess?
They're the same thing. "Daily chess" is the term some platforms use for the format where you have a day or more to make each move. "Correspondence chess" is the older, more formal name — rooted in the postal-game tradition.
How long does a correspondence game take?
A typical game runs two to four weeks at three days per move, depending on how many moves it takes and whether either player uses their full thinking time. Faster time controls (one day per move) can finish in a week. Slower games (five days per move) can run a month or more.
Can I play many correspondence games at once?
Yes — that's a big part of the appeal. Most serious correspondence players run between five and twenty games at once. The my-turn dashboard on ChessHere keeps everything organized so you always know whose turn it is in each game.
What happens if I run out of time on my move?
The same as in any timed chess game — you lose on time. We send you reminders before your clock runs out, so as long as your notifications are on, you'll know when the time is getting tight.
What if I need to take a break?
Use vacation mode. It pauses every active correspondence game at once — the clocks stop until you come back and turn it off. Use it for travel, illness, or any time you can't keep up with your games.
Are correspondence games rated?
Yes. Correspondence games on ChessHere have their own Glicko-2 rating, completely separate from your bullet, blitz, rapid, and classical ratings. Read more about how rating works.
Is correspondence chess good for improving?
Many strong players say it's the single best format for improvement. The long thinking time forces you to actually calculate instead of guessing, builds your endgame and middlegame understanding, and lets you study positions you'd never have time to look at in a live game. Whether you're at 1200 or 2200, deep thinking is what makes you stronger.
Try correspondence chess.
Free account, ten seconds to set up. Start a game at three days per move and see why so many players never go back to anything else.