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By Junior Tay
Among the online correspondence chess clubs, I find IECC the friendliest one, especially with the people (Chuck Ventimiglia among others) manning the orientation program. They were very patient in teaching how to use pgn notation properly and even explained why certain formats are not allowed. My first IECC tournament was Class Event C1-2006 which was paired about two weeks after I sent in my entry. One of my opponents even attempted to trace my genealogy through my Chinese sir-name "Zheng" (hanyu-pinyin version of Tay) . I eventually won the tournament with 3.5/4 after he misplayed his move order and gave me an exchange instead of liquidating to a drawish endgame. The following game is my favourite one in the tournament. In the ICCF Email Team Tournament, I failed to get any advantage against Klaus Wrba (ICCF 2423) of Germany in a highly theoretical French Winawer Poisoned Pawn and we had to agree to a draw. I thus decided to avoid the sharp lines of the Poisoned pawn in favour of the positional 7.a4. My novelty 18.Qg4!? encouraged my opponent to sacrifice a pawn for Kingside pressure and we reached a position with both sides hard pressed to improve their positions. Finally, he made the inaccurate 24…f6? in an attempt to free his position. Unfortunately for him, it allowed me to improve the scope of my dark squared bishop and after some regrouping, it caused so much havoc that he had to ditch the exchange, and in good time, the game as well.
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7
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I have been playing 7.Qg4 in my last 3 French Winawer games and scored 1 win and 2 draws without making any headway in the opening. Thus, I decided on the text move, a favourite of British GMs John Nunn and Murray Chandler among others.
7.a4 Nbc6 8.Nf3 Qc7
[The active 8...Qa5 is more popular and can be considered the main line. 9.Bd2 Bd7 10.Bb5 f6 11.exf6 gxf6 12.0-0 0-0-0 13.c4 Qc7 14.cxd5 Nxd5 15.c3 Rhg8 "unclear" according to NCO and the beginning of a Kingside vs Queenside attack onslaught.]
9.Ba3 b6 10.Bd3 h6 11.0-0 c4
[11...0-0 12.Re1 Na5 13.Nh4 Bd7 14.Qh5 f5 15.exf6 Rxf6 16.Re2 Raf8 17.Rae1 Qc8 18.dxc5 bxc5 19.c4 Bxa4 20.Bb2 Be8 21.Qg4 d4 22.c3 Nb3 23.cxd4 Nxd4 24.Bxd4 cxd4 25.Qxd4 Qd7 26.Nf3 Nc6 27.Qxd7 Bxd7 28.c5 Rc8 29.Bc4 Na5 30.Rc2 Nxc4 31.Rxc4 Chudinovskih Alexander-Kobalija Mihail/Ch Moscow (open) 1996/0-1 (44)]
12.Be2 Bb7!?
Personally, I would prefer the d7 square for the light square Bishop. There, it forces White to keep an eye on the a4 pawn as well as overprotects e6 in the event of a future f6 break. I'm not sure about the merits of 12...Bb7 though.
13.Re1 0-0-0 14.Bf1 Qd7 15.g3 Rde8 16.Nh4 Kb8 17.f4 Nc8 18.Qg4!? N
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played to avoid the theoretical 18.Bh3 and hopefully probing the Black Kingside for dark square weaknesses. If Black does not play g6 at all, White can venture f5 without making too many weaknesses via g2-g4, Bh3. [18.Bh3 g6 19.Rf1 Reg8 20.Bg2 a5 21.Qe1 Ka7 22.g4 and a draw was agreed between two great GMs, Mecking-Bronstein, Petropolis Interzonals 1973 despite the game reaching its most interesting stage.]
18...Rhg8?!
[18...g6 19.Ng2 with the idea of Ng4-f6 followed by a general Kingside advance. If Black plays for h7-h5, the White N will head for g5.; 18...Reg8 the hasty 19.f5?! results in 19...g5 20.fxg6 fxg6 =]
19.Qh5!+=
and now f5 is threatened as the h6 pawn will hang if Black attempts g6. Black decides to lash out with
19...g5
which will cost him a pawn for some Kingside pressure.
20.fxg5 hxg5 21.Nf3 g4 22.Ng5 Rg6 23.Qxg4 Reg8
this position almost resembles a mirror image Benko Gambit with a closed centre. Had the f pawn been on f5, I would prefer Black's chances as the White King is not particularly well placed.
24.h4 f6?
This error allows White to activate the dark square Bishop along the dangerous h2-b8 diagonal
25.exf6 Rxf6 26.Bc1! N8e7 27.Bf4+ Ka8 28.Bh3 Bc8
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The maxim "improving the placement of the worst placed piece" comes in handy here. My pieces are almost optimally placed, except for the Qg4 so some rerouting is necessary.
29.Qf3 Rgg6 30.Qg2 Qe8
All my pieces are at optimal strength now and I felt it is time to look for a breakthrough blow so
31.a5!
naturally comes into mind
31...Nxa5
losing control of e5, allowing White a small combination to net the exchange [31...bxa5 32.Rab1+- followed by the doubling of the rooks.; 31...b5 32.a6+-]
32.h5 Rg7
[32...Rh6 33.Nxe6 Rxe6 34.Bxh6+-]
33.Be5 Rxg5 34.Bxf6 Rxh5 35.Bxe6 Qg6 36.Bxc8 Qxf6 37.Ba6 Nac6 38.Re3
it's all over...
38...Qg5 39.Rae1 Kb8 40.g4! Rh4 41.Qg3+ Ka8 42.Rf1 Rh8 43.Qf4 Qh4 44.Qc7
and the only way Black can avoid mate is to trade Queens, leading to a lost ending. 1-0
