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Chess Life Online Archives January Check is in the Mail
Chess Life Online Archives January Check is in the Mail | January Check is in the Mail |
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| By Alex Dunne | |||||||||||||||||||
| January 9, 2013 | |||||||||||||||||||
 TSENG AND GOTAY SPLIT 10P03Wilbur Tseng and Alfredo Gotay dominated the field in the 2010 Victor Palciauskas Tournament 10P03. Sharing only the draw between the two of them, Tseng and Gotay shut out the rest of the field to finish with 5 ½- ½. Tseng is a medical researcher in Chicago and the winner of the 2008 Electronic Knights . Gotay is a professional photographer from Puerto Rico. NIMZOINDIAN DEFENSE (E13) 6634 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 b6 5.Bg5 This treatment of the Nimzoindian utilizing rapid development was played by such OTB players as Alekhine, Botvinnik, Tal, Spassky, and Kasparov, among others. 5...Bb7 6.e3 Bxc3+ Black parts with this Bishop in order to exploit the doubled c-Pawns, but this plan never materializes. In hindsight then, better may be 6...h6 and ...00. 7.bxc3 Qe7 8.Bd3 d6 9.0-0 h6 Janowski-Nimzovich, Marienbad 1925, saw 9...e5, but Vaughan's 9...h6 is better. 10.Bh4 Nbd7 11.a4 g5 12.Bg3 Be4 Schiller-Scharf, ICCF 2008 had 12...a5 with a += for White, but 12....Be4 seems more natural. 13.a5 a6?! Black's solution to his queenside problems is to establish a passed a-Pawn, but it leaves his position passive. If White's center pressure fails, the a-Pawn may become a game changer. 14.axb6 cxb6 15.Be2 White regroups to drive Black off the e4 square. 15...0-0 16.Nd2 e5 17.f4! Tseng finds the can opener -- Black can't afford to take the f-Pawn as that would open the e-file for the White pieces. 17...Bh7 18.fxg5 hxg5 19.Bf3 Ra7 20.e4 Re8 21.Bf2 Qf8 Black declines the unfavorable endgame that results after 21...exd4 22. cxd4 Nxe4 23. Nxe4 Bxe4 24. Bxe4 Qxe4 25. Re1 Qa8 26. Qg4 Rxe1+ 27. Rxe1 Qd8 28. Be3 f6 29. Qe6+ Kg7 30. Qxd6 22.Qe2 a5 The a-Pawn moves, but it leaves a weak b5 square in its wake. 23.Rfb1 Qh6 24.Rb5 Raa8 25.Be3 Qg7 26.h3 Qg6 27.dxe5 White decides it is time to resolve the center tension. Black can't play the desired 27...dxe5 as 28 Bxb6 is too easy for White so the d6 Pawn must remain a target. 27...Rxe5 28.Qd3 g4! This is Black's best chance. The Pawn on d6 is abandoned, but Black gains needed activity for his pieces. 29.hxg4 Nxg4 30.Bxg4 Qxg4 31.Qxd6 Rxb5 32.cxb5 Re8 33.Rf1 Bxe4 34.Nxe4 Qxe4 35.Bd4 An immediate 35. Bxb6 should also win and seems surer-- 35...Nxb6 36. Qxb6 a4 37. Qf6! Qe6 38. Qxe6 Rxe6 39. Ra1 Re3 40. Rxa4 Rxc3 41. Rb4 Rc7 42. b6. 35...Qe6 36.Qg3+ Qg6 37.Qc7 Qe6 38.Rf3 This is what Tseng had in mind with 35. Bd4 -- the forced advance of the f-Pawn leaves Black's King with precious little dignity. 38...f6 39.Re3 Qf7 40.Rg3+ Kf8 41.c4 And even now Tseng is reluctant to trade that strong Bishop for an inactive Knight. 41...Re1+ 42.Kh2 Re7 43.Rh3 Qg6 44.Bxb6 The Bishop finally captures the b6 Pawn when Black's pieces are all at a defensive posture. 44...Ne5!? One last try --Black seeks counterplay against the White King. 45.Qd8+ Kf7 46.Qd5+ Kg7 47.Kh1 Rd7 48.Qa8! Rd1+ 49.Bg1 Nf7 1-0 Adjudicated a win for White. White will relocate his Queen to e3 and the passed Pawns will win. The game might continue 50. Kh2 Qb1 51. Qa7 Kg6 52. Qe3 Ne5 53. Qg3+ Kf7 54. Rh8 Rxg1 55. Qg8+ Ke7 56. Rh7+ Kd6 57. Qd5 mate Jiri Kovats 2012 Colorado Correspondence Champ! Jiri Kovats repeated as Colorado State Champion with an unblemished 5-0 score this year reprising his 2011 win. The key win is this win against Baffo who gambitted a Pawn after which Kovats relentlessly simplified to a won endgame. DUNST OPENING (A00) 6635 DECEMBER RESULTS Trophy Quad Jack Shaw 10Q13 6-0 Colorado State Championship Jiri Kovats 12COf01 5-0 Palciauskas Wilbur Tseng 10P03 5 ½- ½ Alfredo Gotay 10P03 5 ½- ½ John Collins Logan Ripley 10C14 5-1 Thomas Breuers 11C16 6-0 Walter Muir Eliza Eggert 12W06 6-0 David Stone 12W28 4 ½-1 ½ Fletcher Penney 12W28 4 ½-1 ½ Jaun le Roux 12W17 5-1 Paul Gomez 12W33 5 ½-½ Bernard Miller 11W39 4 ½-1 ½ Wade Reaves 11W39 4 ½-1 ½ Mark Rose 12W27 6-0 Swift Quad Juraj Beres 12SQ12 5 ½-½ OBITUARY: Stephen Swanson of Smyrna, Georgia, an Expert level CC player, born on January 14, 1947, died April 15, 2012. Stephen finished tied for third to fourth in the 1984 Golden Squires and qualified for the semifinal round of the 2007 Golden Knights but had to withdraw. LEARN CHESS BY MAIL ! Lessons given by mail, telephone, ICC - many different ways. I specialize in players rated 800-2100 who would like to improve their game. Contact me for information. Alex Dunne, 324 West Lockhart St., Sayre, PA 18840 or [email protected] Chess booklet for sale: 2004 Golden Knights Championship -- booklet of the 57th USCF CC Championship -- $10.00 postage paid. 35 pages, 90+ games THE ABSOLUTE CORRESPONDENCE CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE UNITED STATES CHESS FEDERATION 1976-2010 is now available at McFarland Publishers and Amazon for $45.00 NEW! 2006 Electronic Knights Championship ebook. 190 games some annotated, all the crosstables, bios of the top three, list of all the finalists, ChessBase format, .pgn notation and Microsoft .pdf format. $4.00 postage paid for the disk, $2.00 sent to you via email. Quote: if anyone tells you he is playing a correspondence game against Capablanca with the aid of a ouija board, edge quietly toward the nearest exit. == Malpass, Bluff Your Way in Chess HOW STRONG ARE WORLD CHAMPION CC PLAYERS ? Recent statistics published on RedHotPawn.com by Jerry Honn in a discussion of computer cheating also revealed an interesting comparison between correspondence World Champions and World OTB Champions. Using the "Top 3" match of comparing the player's choice of moves - that is, was the move played by the human in the Top 3 choices of Fritz 11? - it was determined that in the Alekhine-Capablanca match of 1927, Alekhine's moves matched Fritz 80% of the time, that is, Alekhine's move was either Fritz's first, second, or third choice 4 out of 5 times. Capablanca produced a Top 3 agreement 82 % of the time. In the Fischer-Spassky match of 1972, Fischer brought home an 86% Top 3 agreement. Spassky produced an 80% pairing. Finally the article looked at Kramnik-Topalov 2006 where Kramnik scored 83.5 % and Topalov 80.5%. By these limited statistics I can project that OTB World Champions agree with Fritz's top three choices 80% or more of the time. The article went on to look at some correspondence World Champions in the pre-computer era. Jacob Estrin (in 9 games) from 1972-1975 scored 82%. Runner-up Josef Boey produced agreement 84% of the time. In 1978-1981, World Champion Victor Palciauskas scored 82% While runner-up Juan Morgado made an 84% result. It would appear from the statistics that the best of OTB play are equal to the best at CC. ANGELS WANTED ! The 2013 Absolute Championship will be starting soon. Help donate money to the prize fund to make this a notable event. Send your clearly marked donation to USCF, PO Box 3967, Crossville, TN 38557 Brandhorst Sets Absolute Record Ted Brandhorst has just surpassed Ron Lifson's Absolute record of 156 games. Ted scored a win against Harry Ingersol in the 2012 Absolute to go to 157 games, with two more remaining to claim the title of the most prolific Absolute player ever. USCF TOP 25 RATED CC PLAYERS (as of December 2012) 1. John Menke 2486 2. Steven Van Enk 2452 3. Wesley Brandhorst 2440 4. Michael Buss 2415 5. James Tracz 2411 6. Hugo Concha 2404 7. Harry Ingersol 2400 8. Wilbur Tseng 2390 9. Gary Adams 2384 10. Walter Brower 2373 11. Gary Walters 2371 12. Daniel Woodard 2367 13. Peter Swan 2366 14. Keith Rodriguez 2365 15. Thomas Langland 2352 16. Robert Rizzo 2351 Robert Fass 2351 18. Joel Levine 2350 Stephen McGregor 2350 20. Abe Wilson 2330 21. John Ballow 2324 22. Dana Daves 2319 23. Laurence Bonsack 2315 24. Sanford Greene 2312 25. Anthony Kain 2311 6637 As Black's pieces slide toward the kingside in attack they bring White's over to defend. KING'S INDIAN ATTACK (A07) 6636 A neat execution by the stronger player. DUNST OPENING (A00) 6635 The philosophy of the two combatants in this game seems to be, "You send me knives, I'll send you daggers". It's a fight to the end when a draw is perhaps a surprise to both players. DUTCH DEFENSE (A80) 6638 A game in which Knights show themselves better than Bishops RUY LOPEZ (C68) 6639 |
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