• Can I play human players?
• Will I be able to use this system?
• Does my email client support these graphical html messages?
• How many games I can play at one time?
• Can I play from more email addresses (from home, work, etc.)?
• I don't have anybody to play. How can I find an opponent?
• I said hello to the chess server but it didn't understand it.
• Can I challenge anybody?
• Will I able to control how many challenges I receive?
• Will other players or else know my email address to send me spam?
• What about email viruses?
• Is it true that players can't take invalid moves?
• Can I take a pawn en passant? Can I castle? Can I promote pawns?
• How can I talk to my opponents if I don't know their email address?
• How can I play my distant friend?
• Can I use the PGN format?
• Can I use my chess software during my games?
• Who can I talk to about this system?
• I have miswritten a move but the server accepted it as another move. How can this happen?
• The server doesn't reply me at all. What to do?
• Can blind or visually impaired people play chess here?

Yes, playing chess is possible here only between human players. Use of a computer to generate moves is prohibited.

I'm sure you will be. Many players use it without any problems. During the registration you will receive all the information you need to play in the club. There is a good help file that explains all the commands and shows examples, and there are other players who can help you via the Discuss list. There are tips at the bottom of email messages with reminders of important things.

Perhaps. If you use the correct version, edition, patch level of Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Messenger, then it does. Webmail services and older email clients often can't correctly display html messages. In this case you won't be able to see the game diagrams, so you must not turn on the html message format. You may use plain text or PGN format instead.

New players start with 16 simultaneous games as the maximum. This number goes up by 2 with each normally finished game until it reaches an absolute maximum of 100. And it decreases by 3 with each loss by time forfeit.

Yes. First register from one of them, then add the others. After that all addresses will receive the moves and you can use all of them to send in your own moves.

Pairing is for you. You can request pairing at any time and the server will find you a player who is right for you in rating and who also have requested pairing. After a successful pairing you can request another one if you want to play one more game with another opponent.
And of course you can enter for the tournaments.
And the forums are also available to find opponents.

Yes, the server understands only a few commands such as Move, Challenge, Set, Help, Accept, Reject, etc. It is not a human but a computer.

You can challenge any players of the club until you or they reach their limit of games allowed, the limit they have set, or one of you is ignored by the other.

Yes, you can limit the number of incoming challenges, or you can reject any challenge.

No, players are identified by their nickname chosen at the registration. If you don't tell them your email address they won't know it. E4EC does not give out email addresses to anybody.

The situation here is different from the regular correspondence chess clubs. Players send and receive emails to and from only one address, the chess server's. It is not susceptible to viruses and will not send infected emails.

Yes, it is. The chess server verifies each move and takes one only if it's right according to the official chess rules. So, you can't leave your king in check, you can't castle over an attacked space, etc.

Yes, you can. Even, those special rules are also supported like the 3 setups repetition rule, the 50 moves rule and the insufficient mating material rule.

You can send messages to any player of the club with the Message command. You don't need to know their email address. You can also send messages attached to moves, similar to the traditional way, when players wrote messages on the postcards.
Another way is via the forums, where players can talk to each other.

You both needed to register then you can challenge your friend. Be ready to receive challenges from other players or limit your ceiling of challenges.

Yes, PGN is supported. It's used for sending in your moves and receiving your opponents' moves. It's always a complete plain PGN text, with your current move at the end. The Event field is the game number.

No, this is not permitted in the club. See more in the External help page.

If you have already registered use the Discuss list or the Forums to reach other players. If you have a question before registering ask Andras Galos at according to the Contact page.

Yes, unfortunately this can happen.
But here is the strict mode, this is for reducing this chance. In this case the server accepts moves only in a special overdetermined format. The miswritten move will be invalid, and therefore will not be processed.

There can be something wrong in the email transfer somewhere, either here, either there.
First of all let us know the problem. Don't send regular email, it's possible that we can't receive it. Use the Contact page instead. It's possible, that our answer will not reach you, the best thing in this case probably the forum, where we can reply too.

Yes, the system has several features that help to ease reading the messages and continue the games.