Austin Lockwood Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Starting a new event, my opponent greeted me, "It's an honour to represent my country in such a high-powered tournament." This took me aback. Before 2018 my annual forays into correspondence play were for Nottinghamshire in the Counties Competition. My captain in 2012, without asking, registered me, and the rest of our team as English. In 2018 I corrected this and transferred my allegiance. Since then the Welsh Association, under Russell and since, has supported my development and offered a host of opportunities to play in international friendly and tournament events.
County Correspondence play now seems lost. My motivations for playing correspondence have changed. I remain an active, modest and declining OTB player. Initially I relished CC as an opportunity to play down the best lines of my OTB openings. That went out of the window. I switched to playing entirely different openings in the search to find initially drawing lines as Black, and now winning lines with both colours.
I've seen strong CC players throw in the towel, seeing no point in continuing the contest between engines. I ask myself the same question. A good percentage of games, especially in the most common openings, barely leave theory. Games can be played through from our opening databases. This feels like painting by numbers. It requires care, but offers little creative satisfaction.
A small minority of games, usually in less used openings, can still provide the interest and stimulation to want to research further, and the enjoyment of finding, with engine assistance, improvements to known lines. The challenge of the search for winning lines remains greater than ever. The engines of course are credited for our wins, rating gains and titles.
In 2018 and 2019, I played friendly matches for Wales. In 2020 I played in the EU Team Cup Quarter Final. It took my opponent's greeting to remind me that the honour of representing my country, or the Celtic Nations, still counts for something.
Phil Morgan
