Two big matches

The Correspondence Chess League of Australia (CCLA) often holds friendly matches between Australia and other countries. Sometimes we enlist the help of out friends from New Zealand, and in the past we have played  countries like Scotland, Turkey or The Netherlands. Normally the matches are over 20 to 30 boards, which is normally determined by the size of the respective federations.
However, there are also opportunities to play bigger matches against larger federations. New Director of International Chess, FM Brian Jones, decided that both the USA and Germany would make good opponents. As both of these countries have a large player base, both matches are larger, with the match against Germany over 50 boards, and against the USA, 55 boards. As they are friendly matches the strength of both teams are quite even, so hopefully the matches will be both close and exciting. The match against Germany is scheduled to start on the 1st of November, but as the team lists have been announced, some games are already underway (including my own). You can follow the progress of the match here (NB there may be a delay in transmission of the games). The match against the USA will begin soon after that, and I will try and post the link to that match as well.

**Update: This is the link to the USA match