Russell Sherwood Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Poka-yoke [poka joke] is a Japanese term that means "mistake-proofing" or "inadvertent error prevention". The key word in the second translation, often omitted, is "inadvertent".
Many a Correspondence Chess Player has lost a game by an administrative blunder, either making a one move howler or not entering the move intended.
Following some discussion, it is worth sharing that a piece of software exists which can almost eliminate this issue.
The Software in question is Correspondence Play software which comes as part of the Aquarium software package. Once set up the software downloads your games from the ICCF server. You then can analyse the game (either in place or in the Aquarium package) and then make your move via the interface. This is where the clever bit comes in: An engine can be set up to run for a short period before the move is transmitted to ICCF.com.
If the move drops the engine's evaluation of the position more than a specified threshold, the engine will not transmit the move without an additional "Are you sure" type override.
This will not stop you making deep positional mistakes or errors the engine does not recognise but it will eliminate almost all simple blunders!
