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Interview
of Reimund Lutzenberger (GER)
by J. Franklin Campbell
(posted 27 February 2003)
First could you provide a few details about yourself? For instance, are you married, where do you live, how old are you, do you have other special interests, etc.?
Reimund Lutzenberger
with wife Carmen
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My name is Reimund Lutzenberger.
I'm 36 years old, married with Carmen since 1996. We live
in Illertissen, a small town with about 17.000 inhabitants
in Germany (Bavaria). I'm an IT-consultant (SAP-HR www.sap.com)
by profession. My hobbies are chess since over 20 years and
playing tennis. I also like fast cars, soccer (Bayern Munich)
and science-fiction.
How about your correspondence chess career? I note in the ICCF Eloquery that your latest ICCF rating is 2458, a quite impressive number. Which cc organizations do you play in? How many cc games do you normally have going at any specific time?
I started playing CC in
1996. The idea was to improve my OTB play by playing chess
day by day at a higher level. I wouldn't have started if there
would not have been the possibility to play email chess. I
prefer email chess but sometimes I play a few postal games
in our national team championships too. My ICCF rating is
now 2458, my IECG 2418 and the FIDE rating is about 2170.
ICCF ELO could be much higher (about 2500) when I would have
not played Email jubilee open (although 9,5 out of 10). The
reason was that I had not 30 games before the start of this
tournament and due to the ICCF rating rules the 1800 players
(some players are much stronger) lowered the ELO-average of
my opponents. This is correct according to the rules, but
I learned not to play in such tournaments when you have not
30 games already rated. I play in BDF (2. Bundesliga 1st Board),
IECG and ICCF. I enjoy playing in all these organizations.
But sometimes I had too much games and therefore some results
were not so good. Now I try not to have not more than 20 games
at the same time. Currently I enjoy having fewer games. I
will use this time to annotate my cc games up to now for our
DB with annotated cc games.
Have you had any special successes in your cc career? Do you have any particularly interesting stories about your cc experiences?
I've reached the Candidates
finals at IECG and ICCF. I have now 5,5 points in the -final
of WC XX and made the 2nd and final IM-Norm and have good
chances to get an SIM-Norm here too. Unfortunately, I no longer
have any chances to reach the final. There are too many good
players in our group! Another good result is that I've reached
the IECG 1998 Cup Final. I have many good friends among the
players I think. Some of them helped me in the development
of the idea of CFC. One interesting story is my game with
the older Austrian Master Otto Vodep (over 80, I think)
in ICCF EM/M/GT/A009, my first great international tournament
which I've won with 10,5 out of 14 games. We followed a line
in the Scandinavian. At this time my friend GM Matthias
Wahls published a very good book on this opening. We played
the main line and I found an error in the analysis of Matthias.
Otto found the error only when it was too late and he lost
the game. After the game he blamed the sloppy analysis of
GM Wahls for his loss. I was very amused when I told this
story to Matthias later. The game was also published in the
Chessbase opening CD about the Scandinavian by GM Curt Hansen
later.
Many cc players are also involved in correspondence chess in other ways. For instance, I direct a few tournaments, maintain some web sites and on-line crosstables, write a magazine column and perform a number of other non-playing activities (such as publishing interviews). Not counting your extensive work in developing a chess server, have you been involved in other non-playing cc activities?
As I have a wife, a job
(or two, with the server activities) and I still play OTB
chess there is not much time left for such activities. For
CFC I'm now publishing the CFC magazine and I am the tournament
director for many of our CFC tournaments
Do you also play OTB chess?
Yes I still play OTB chess
and I like it. I play in a German and an Austrian team and
sometimes I enjoy playing in an open tournament. In 2000 I
managed to beat my first GM (Kupreichik Bad Woerishofen 2000)
but now I play much weaker, because in the last year I concentrated
on the development and organization of the server. At maximum
I could perhaps play 2400 at OTB. Mostly I play about 2000
- 2200.
Reimund Lutzenberger
signing an agreement
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Many people have heard about you recently
based on your new chess server, the ChessFriend site, also known
as CFC (http://www.chessfriend.com).
What motivated you to create this new chess server? Is it strictly
a commercial enterprise or does it also serve another purpose
for you?
I had the idea in 2001
I think. The idea itself was quite simple: Combine the well
established OTB open tournaments model with the new technology
of cc server chess. I've studied the existing server concepts,
played some games on these servers and then had the ideal
server in my mind which would combine the advantages of all
these servers. I also discussed a lot with my cc friends what
features a server should offer the players. For me this project
is a perfect combination of hobby and job. Of course, the
enterprise is commercial. It would not have been possible
on a volunteer basis. In the end we intend to earn money with
our services. The whole concept should be very good for cc.
More tournaments mean more possibilities for the players.
Another thing is that we intend to attract many OTB players
to CC. This week the first Russian GM signed up, and others
are expected to join soon.
Could you describe your experience in creating the CFC chess server? Who are the main people involved in creating it and who owns the server? Some have commented on the official address of your company (the Channel Islands) implying that people should have no confidence in your company based on this. Comments?
Developing the concept
and the realization of the software was not an easy task.
Very time consuming and expensive. I did the concept, the
organisation of the project and the PR. For the programing
I've hired some guys from the company of my brother. I also
found some investors to make such a project possible. I'm
one of the owners, the others are these investors. The reason
of choosing Jersey for the official address of the company
were quiet easy:
- easy founding of the company with low costs compared to Germany
- acceptable tax laws
which don't require us to take more than 25% from the winners
and pay it directly to the tax office
Jersey is a well known financial center
in Europe, an hour away from London or Paris. Many banks and
securities have an office there. The law is the same as in
UK. The British queen has some of her properties there. So
what is the problem? The only people who have problems with
Jersey are EU tax ministers! But even here Jersey offered
cooperation and tolerates no illegal activities.
One thing you are doing that has captured the attention of many people is offering huge prizes. Could you briefly describe these events and the prizes? Is there any particular financial arrangements that you have made to give people confidence that the money for the large prizes will be available at the end of the competitions? There have been a few terrible examples of prizes not being paid by other organizations.
Our top tournament is
the CFC championship. Players have to play 3 rounds of 14
game sections in a sort of swiss system. The guaranteed prize
fund for 2003 is 80.000 Euros. 1st prize will be 30.000 Euro
for the player with the maximum points after 42 games. SIM
John Timm even predicted that the final group of the CFC championship
will be stronger than the ICCF WC final.
There are also high rating
prizes for players from 1800 to 2200 (1st 2.500 Euro) and
below 1800 (1st 1.500 Euro). Our other tournaments are class
tournaments where single entries are possible starting with
10 Euro.
13-player class tournaments
| Bronze entry |
Prizes 50 / 35 / 15 Euro |
13 players |
entry fee = 10 Euro |
| Silver entry |
Prizes 100 / 65 / 35 Euro |
13 players |
entry fee = 18 Euro |
| Gold entry |
Prizes 200 / 125 / 75 Euro |
13 players |
entry fee = 33 Euro
(included in full membership 1st option) |
| Platinum entry |
Prizes 500 / 250 / 125 Euro |
13 players |
entry fee = 70 Euro |
7-player class tournaments
| Silver entry |
Prizes 70 / 30 Euro |
7 players |
entry fee = 18 Euro |
| Gold entry |
Prizes 130 / 75 Euro |
7 players |
entry fee = 33 Euro
(included in full membership 2nd option) |
| Platinum entry |
Prizes 200 / 120 Euro |
7 players |
entry fee = 50 Euro |
The prizes of the class
tournament are paid to the winners direct at the end of the
tournament. The concerns may be about the CFC championship.
Here we will transfer the prize fund to a trustee at the beginning
of the tournament. In the agreement with the trustee it is
declared that he has to pay the prizes to the winners of the
tournaments from this money.
Another thing that has provoked a lot of public discussion is your full membership fee of 120 Euros. Some predict that CFC will fail because few would pay such a high fee. Others seem actually offended by this fee. Could you comment on these issues?
We know that this is a
lot of money. A friend of me said that it would not matter
if the fee is 120 Euros or 60 Euros. Some guys would always
be offended.
Many people caclulate what the offer includes:
- free entry to the CFC championship
- free entry to a Gold class tournament
- free entry to the CFC OTB open
- free subscription of the PDF-copy of Chess
Mail by Tim Harding
- free CFC magazine
- better conditions for our annotated games database
- etc.
When someone doesn't want
this full package he could choose the single tournaments mentioned
above. Another way to play in CFC tournaments is the sponsoring
of players. Here we thought of players from poor countries
where 120 Euro means a month salary. They could register and
ask for sponsoring. If we find a sponsor they are treated
like full members, but have to give 50% of their prize money
to the sponsor. Some players have already found a sponsor.
Some of these players announced they intend to pay their membership fee for the
following year from the prize money they win or from the earnings
for their annotated games.
Other thoughts are that,
for example, a postal player pays more money just for the
stamps in a postal tournament.
Or that a player offering
10 games in our annotated games DB needs fewer than 300 downloads
/ game to recover his membership fee. Some say that the entry
fees for our single tournaments are like the ones for ICCF
World tournaments. But in the CFC tournaments there are money
prizes for the players.
I think everyone has to decide for himself if the services are worth the entry fee. We think it is a fair offer.
Another issue often discussed in the public forums is your "business model". I've seen many detailed calculations about how many full members would be required to make your server business successful. In fact, every posting seems to have different numbers (there's a lot of confusion). I'm not asking for a detailed financial analysis, but some have expressed the opinion that CFC can't survive offering such large prizes. Do you have any comments on this? People want to feel confident that CFC will survive financially if they get involved in lengthy prize tournaments. One stated fear is that CFC will not make money, the financial backers will go away, and CFC will disappear, adversely affecting any competitions taking place on CFC.
SIM John Timm wrote
a good posting at TCCMB
about our business model:
"There are a number of threads on this board which seem to assume that CFC has invented some sort of new model for chess tournaments, especially the CFC Championship: relatively high entry fees, large prizes for the top places, little or no chance for the "average" player to win a top prize, and relatively smaller class prizes. There are also a number of assumptions/predictions that such a model will never work in CC, because players aren't stupid, and the average player would have to be some sort of rube, sucker or "cannon fodder" to enter such a tournament. Both assumptions seem wrong to me.
- The "CFC model" is exactly the structure used by thousands of OTB Swiss Opens every year throughout the world. Hundreds of thousands of "average" players enter, have fun, enjoy the competition, and occasionally get to play a GM or other strong player they would otherwise never get to play.
- The "CFC model" has been used before, and successfully, in CC. For example, the US [OTB] Chess Federation has for decades organized an annual postal "Golden Knights" tournament (3 rounds, 6 opponents each round, 4 points or more to advance). Players enter for the same reasons they enter OTB Swisses. More or less the same model as the CFC Championship, except national versus international, postal versus server and significantly smaller entry fees/prizes (but also far fewer games for the entry fee).
- I expect that both "average" and strong chess players will enter the CFC Championship for exactly the same reasons they enter OTB Swisses and CC tournaments such as the "Golden Knights". "
So we think we have an
previously well proven business model. In addition we generate
additional income:
- from our single class tournaments
- from the hosting of tournaments for national federations
- some % from the sales of each of our partners
- interest for our money
In addition I predict
that the earnings from our project with the annotated games
will be even higher than the other income. It will be possible
for all cc players to offer and to buy annotated games at
CFC. A membership is not required, but being a member includes
some discounts here.
SIM John Timm stated at TCCMB:
"P.S. I trust it was clear from my post that I am in no sense a spokesperson for CFC, and I was not attempting to vouch for its financial resources, integrity, or technical expertise (about all of which I simply lack information). I will say, however, that as a lawyer I have seen hundreds of proposed business plans, and that CFC's public statements about its plans seem to make good business sense (for example, realistic statements such as "we expect to lose money the first few years" at least give me the feeling that the plan is in touch with reality).
P.P.S. Twenty or so years ago, when I was an active OTB player with a peak FIDE ELO of (I think) 2325, I willingly parted with my hard-earned money to play in tournaments such as the World Open in New York City. Those tournaments were run by a private businessman, not by any national or local federation. I remember those tournaments fondly, even though I was well aware that I didn't have the slighest chance to win a top prize (or any prize). I don't remember the exact entry fee, but I am quite sure that, especially inflation-adjusted, it was well in excess of 120 Euros, which was a substantial amount of money for me in those days (and remember, this tournament lasted a week, not years). So, my predictions about what an "average" player, with a more or less average income and no hope of winning a prize, might be willing to pay to play in an attractive tournament are to some extent based on my own personal experiences, not just theoretical projections."
I don't want to dwell on disputes but there has been a lot of public (and private) discussion concerning the CFC site. Some accuse you of stealing code, specifically from the Kingchess server. One of your programmers admitted publicly that he had made a mistake by using some chessboard graphics that originated at Kingchess, which resulted in an accusation of stealing the code for the play page. Could you comment?
Our "chief programer"
Michael Wallner gave a good statement here at the
IECG board:
"There was some point at the project where we first needed figures for our chessboard. I was sent these figures we initially used per E-Mail by some person not of public interest. But indeed, I did not verify the source of these figures, and (to be honest) I didn't care.
And I can still not tell you whether these figures were copies from kingchess or whether they where derived from the same (commercial?) font kingchess uses. Just in case they where originally taken from kingchess (and, btw., resized after that and thereby changed in shape),
I personally apologise to Mr. Ramlow. If it were so, it was a big mistake and not intended at all: Later in the project, I was browsing over the fonts at enpassant.dk and found a font called "Chess Merida" and found it to be the font set we were using. Unfortunately, I did not recognise that there were slight differences at the white rook and queen. I was not aware of that until Mr. Ramlow began to complain and Mr. Lutzenberger begged me to verify that we were really using
Chess Merida. And we changed the tiles the same day. Please note, Mr. Ramlow has -until now- never requested CFC change the tiles, he has not even notified (as far as I know)
Mr. Lutzenberger that he saw his rights violated. He preferred posting his "theft theft theft" story at least into this forum. So far the tiles. But not enough (and this is why I write), he contends that the "play board is a illegal copy of the kingchess-board", that CFC is using "same code and colour for viewing a chess board". Furtheremore, he is "owner and developper of kingchess.de and therefore I know functionality of CFC very good".
All of that (except him being owner and
developer of KC) ist not true. CFC was developed (trust
me, I did it by myself) from scratch. We started the design
with a white sheet of paper. Not a single line of code from
kingchess was used, last but not least because we do not
have access to the KC code. Of course not.
But let's take a little
look at the facts:
- kingchess is using MS Internet Information Server 5.0
- chessfriend is using the Apache web server
- kingchess is using Microsofts Active Server Pages (ASP)
- chessfriend is using the open source PHP technology
- kingchess is unuseable with Netscape < 4.8
- chessfriend works with Netscape 4.x
- kingchess is unuseable without JavaScript
- chessfriend works (though limited) without JavaScript, but
you can play your games.
- kingchess is unuseable without Cookies
- chessfriend works without Cookies
- kingchess is German only
- chessfriend is multi-language (currently German and English)
I could continue that little list a while, but I do not want to offend somebody or list features the one site has and the other not or vice versa, but you need not to be an IT expert to see that
these two sites do not share the same codebase.
And the chessboard, yes, it looks similar to KC's chessboard. It has 8 rows and 8 columns, initially with 16 figures and 16 pawns on it, doesn't it! And the figures/pawns are white and
black. As a matter of fact.
But I am no thief, and I do not like to be accused of theft, neither directly nor indirectly, at least not without the slightest proof. Particularly not in a public forum! And I will not tolerate being called a thief and demand from everybody not to do so!"
I think this explains all. One of our competitors makes a fast shot. And since then nothing was heard of him anymore. It it perhaps interesting that it is the same person who jumped out of the deal with ICCF last year. The reasons were never published.
How is the server business going? Are you attracting full members at an acceptable rate? How many full members do you now have (that paid for membership themselves)?
Sorry the exact numbers
will not be published due to an agreement with our investors.
What I can say is that our player list inludes now about 200
players. And that there are 12 player over ICCF ELO 2500 inlcuding
players like GM Mikhail Umansky, GM Hans-Marcus
Elwert and GM Tunc Hamarat. GM Umansky was the
13th Worldchampion and GM Tunc Hamarat will be the next Worldchampion.
We are very proud of this
and we have just seen with Petr Kiriakov (FIDE ELO
2553) and Christopher Lutz (FIDE ELO 2640) the first
FIDE-GM's signing up! So we very content with the first two
months of CFC.
You have announced new projects at CFC. You plan to provide the largest collection of annotated cc games at your server and will be conducting a simul by GM Mikhail Umansky. Can you briefly describe these projects? Also, do you plan to add more features like these to your server in the future? Do you have any specific features in mind at this time?
The project with the largest collection of annotated cc games is very important for CFC. We want to offer not only prize tournaments, but other useful and valuable services to the cc players. The idea is to provide high quality annotated cc games. When you check existing databases you will see that less than 5% of the games are annotated and less than 1% is annotated in high quality. In my eyes only annotated games are useful for the serious players. And the best annoations are from the players of the game themselves.
Why are these games are not available yet? Many players of course have ready games in their Databases. But they don't provide them for free to the public. So we give them a chance to get some money with these games. The price structure look like this:
Full members:
pay 0,05 Euro / game for download
get 0,03 Euro / download of their
annotated game
(download
by a full member or single tournament member)
get 0,06 Euro / download of their
annotated game
(download
by a non member)
So a member who offers
10 games for download needs
250 members and 125 non members who download his games to
recover his membership fee. (The real numbers will be much
higher)
Single tournament members:
pay 0,05 Euro / game for download
get 0,03 Euro / download of their annotated game
(download
by a full member or single tournament member)
get 0,05 Euro / download of their annotated game
(download
by a non member)
Non members:
pay 0,10 Euro / game for download
get 0,03 Euro / download of their annotated game
(download
by a full member or single tournament member)
get 0,03 Euro / download of their annotated game
(download
by a non member)
The advantages of our system are:
- high quality annotated games (we check each game before publishing) in CBV or PGN
- "living" annotations
(the authors have to correct errors, the buyers get the
uodates of their games without charge)
- all transactions are performed on the server
- different ways of selecting games you need
The system will start working in April/May. With this service we hope to attract many new players.
The cc simul with GM Mikhail
Umansky is another of our new services. We give players a
chance to play this top player, someone they would never have
a chance to play otherwise. GM Umansky will exchange annotations
after the game and will answer questions about the game. The
service is offered to all players. They don't have to be members
at CFC. One game costs 45 Euro. GM Hertel says at a German
board: "Not much when you compare the time he needs to play
and makes the annotations." We will offer this service with
other top players in the future.
You recently announced an agreement with the Norwegian Correspondence Chess Federation (NPSF). Could you tell us about this arrangement?
I know some of the Norwegian
players from our games and so I've made them the first offer
of hosting their server tournaments. They pay a certain fee
for that and will get a free membership as a prize for their
tournaments. This helps them to offer server chess at once
and if they want to cancel the agreement it is always possible.
Of course, we allow them in this case to play the tournaments
to the end without problems.
In a TCCMB posting you stated, "CFC will contact other national federations and will offer them cooperation too." Could you comment on your goals with this new program? Are you contacting only affiliates of ICCF or are you offering your services to other cc organizations as well?
Our goal is simply to make some additional income for CFC. We offer good quality of service at low prices (about 20 - 25 Euro/tournament). Players don't have to be members at CFC and we will not use player data for spaming or reselling. The playing environment will be the same as for IECG or for our members.
Of course we would also offer this service to other organizations and clubs too with the same conditions. We've not done this so far, because we proceed step by step.
Some claim that first you attempted to deal with ICCF and when that failed you started trying to work with individual member organizations. This has been characterized as an attempt to destroy ICCF or as a "hostile takeover" attempt. I'm sure you have something to say about this.
That's not correct. Fact
is that there is currently no ICCF server available. It is
also correct that we offered ICCF cooperation and they refused.
The real reasons were never published or told to us.
But was anything said
by these persons about BDF starting a server project in January
with another server? No one said anything about that. Why?
Or that last year ICCF
failed with an agreement with the commercial Kingchess server?
What is the difference to our offer?
On TCCMB, ICCF President Alan Borwell stated, "It
is sad Norway has 'broken rank', but those responsible will
have to live with that - other federations will be more perceptive
about the dangers of making similar decisions." What do you
make of that?
He wrote the same and
other bad things in emails to the federations. The main point
is: Why did he say nothing when BDF started it's own server
project? Is it easier to blame a small nation for "breaking
rank"? Why did he not mention his try to use the kingchess
server?
He gave no answers to
these questions on TCCMB.
One more question about this. Some people feel that CFC is attempting to replace ICCF as the international cc organization. Do you actually have any ambitions in this direction? Will you be creating your own rating system, awarding titles such as IM and GM, or doing any other functions that are normally performed by such official organizations?
No, of course not. If
we had intended this we would have not offered cooperation.
Our intention was/is to use ICCF rating and titles and to
pay for it. In exchange we would take a fee for hosting the
ICCF tournaments. In this way both sides would prosper from
cooperation. Why would we create our own rating systems or
titles when everything is available and no one needs another
system?
We currently use the rating
system and the titles of IECG. We've made a deal with them
to host their tournaments for free in exchange for this service.
So far this cooperation is very good. We've started many tournaments
and the players like the server and our services.
Before leaving this general area I have a comment and a question. I have noticed that whenever you announce a new feature at CFC there are usually a number of quite negative responses. It must be discouraging to be constantly criticized in this fashion. Do you find this depressing? I've noticed your responses are always positive and upbeat. You never respond "in kind" to the negative, sometimes even vicious, responses. I am amazed at your restraint and self control.
Some of these people seemed
to be hired to write negative responses whatever we do. As
one player wrote to me this weekend:
"Most of the players are
able to think and judge for themselves. The more some adherents
of ICCF make their ridiculous critics the more they encourage
intelligent players to join CFC!"
I try to react calmy
with logical arguments. In the end our good work will show
its results. Interesting was that they had no answer to our
project with the annotated games.
There are a number of cc organizations. I sometimes note some friction between them, based on feelings of competition, I guess. I suppose some competition is good, since it inspires the organizations to improve their service. However, I often feel that there is too much competition and not enough cooperation. Everyone should be working towards promoting cc, in my opinion, which should lead to greater cooperation. What are your views on this subject? As a commercial enterprise, does CFC necessarily have to look at the question of cooperation in a different way?
In my ideal word ICCF
would allow the other organizations to join as member federations
and that all decisions are made in a democratic way. This
would be the best solution to promote cc. Then there would
be one rating system and unique titles. But we are far away
from this dream. It's the same as with other sports: The functionaries
have too much control of the organizations and the players
are not represented like it should be. And these people will
do everything to keep alive their positions.
What is your vision for the future of correspondence chess? Do you, like some, see the computer as the death of cc? Do you see postal chess completely dying out? Do you see email chess as being totally replaced by server chess within a few years?
Technically it's server
chess. Perhaps in a few years with voice control and video
input. It's very important to attract more players to cc,
especially OTB players. I don't think that computer programs
are the death of cc. Ok, they are strong now. But now the
resources to get a ply deeper need to be exponentially improved.
Quality of the games is now much better than 10 years before.
Today it is very important to have a deep understanding of
the positions and use the slightest (strategical) errors of
your opponent.
Postal chess will live
as long as there are postal players. Some of them will never
change this in their whole life, I think. But email chess
will be replaced by server chess soon. Server chess is the
logical evolution of email chess. The player has many advantages
(time administration done by the server, no clerical errors,
always up-to-date infos) by using the server. So why not use
it?
Do you have any additional comments to make on the cc world, the status of chess servers, the impact of technology on our game, or on any other cc issue?
I miss sometimes the "AMICI
SUMUS" in the current cc world. Some people say it but don't
live it. We try to bring something new to cc. Established
authorities, of course, don't like that. This process always
repeats in history. Some 100 years ago you were killed when
you dared to say that the earth is a sphere. Or that the sun
doesn't circle round earth. In the end the new ideas always
win. But it's a long way.
Thank you Franklin, for
giving me the chance for this interview. I hope that some
of the mysteries about CFC are now clearer.
Thank you for participating in this interview,
Reimund. I wish you the best of luck with your ambitious chess
server project ChessFriend.Com
and with your personal enjoyment of the wonderful art/sport/science
that is called correspondence chess.
©
2003 J. Franklin Campbell, All Rights Reserved.
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