FICGS correspondence chess.

FICGS is the Free Internet Correspondence Games Server.    http://www.ficgs.com/

It allows people to play Go and Poker on-line but is best known as one of the leading on-line correspondence chess servers.  As the name implies it is FREE to use.   It is also a polite and friendly place to play.

You can enter tournaments at different rates of play.   "Standard" is 10 moves in 40 days.   "Rapid" is 30 days for all your moves plus a 1 day increment each time you make your move.   "Blitz" is one hour plus one minute increment per move.   "Lightning" is 20 minutes plus 30 seconds per move.   You enter a waiting list for a tournament and when there are enough players the tournament starts.   You receive an email notification when the tournament starts and each time your opponent moves, though you can also just stay logged in and see your games through your browser any time you like.  Personally I really like the Rapid rate of play but may try the Standard in the near future.

Use of computers to help analyse games is allowed (and indeed encouraged) in most tournaments, though there are some "no engines" tournaments for the purists.

FICGS operates an ELO style rating systems and as your rating progresses you are eligable to enter stronger tournaments.

FICGS runs a world championship which is open to everyone, regardless of strength and including new members.   It is a 5 stage event, so despite being played at the Rapid speed each world championship cycle takes several years.   The current champion is the well known and extremely strong Italian correspondence player Riccio Eros.   

The next FICGS world championship is scheduled to start on 1st March 2014 and the waiting list to enter will be open for a few weeks before that.

More details on FICGS are here http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html
and specificallly its Chess World Championship rules here http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#chess_wch

Details of previous FICGS championship results are here https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=afb49fe3a5961d46#cid=AFB49FE3A5961D46&id=AFB49FE3A5961D46!231