As I mentioned last time I am
playing slower time controls as well as playing many more correspondence chess
games while studying more tactics and opening theory. I had a terrible month or
two of playing blitz while I managed to take my 1450 rating all the way down to
975!!!! Absolutely terrible, this was the point where I had to make some
changes, started playing slower games and made the decision to enter at least one
correspondence event every month. Correspondence allows me to delve into positions
and to better understand the theory and the available tactics in a particular position.
This forces me to refer to my many chess books and databases that I have
purchased over the last two years. I think I have admitted to the fact that I am
a chess book whore, I love them and have a hard time not buying new items. Last
month, as an example, I purchased the Chess Openings Encyclopedia 2016 and I have
to say if I never buy another product I will never get through all of the
material that is present in this product. I love CB Magazine and Chess
Informants the all the CB magazines come in the Encyclopedia up to February of
this year, great product. I also get all
Informants, the occasional New in Chess Yearbook, and my Chess Life
subscription this turns out to be information overload in standard OTB games
and I have a hard time remembering the ideas, however in correspondence I am
allowed to refer to my notes and my analysis which has helped my actually learn
positions and to transfer this knowledge to my OTB chess and to the tactics
training on Chess24 which I have raised over 500 points in the last month.
Anyway enough about my chess habits
and on to a game that I recently played in a USCF correspondence game. In the
game, I played my standard English Opening 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. d4
exd4 5. Nxd4. I really like this opening
and it is very versatile and can be played against 1… Nf6, e5, c5. In this game, my opponent got me out of my
prep pretty quickly. I eventually miss calculated in the middle game, which
cost me my bishop for two pawns, however my opponent allowed me to trade all
the minor pieces minus his DS bishop and we each had two rooks. His rook would
eventually get trapped behind his pawns to protect them and I was able to not blunder
until he offered a draw and I accepted. All in all, I was very happy with this
draw as opposed to our last game where I offered a draw with a won position. The game is below enjoy and as always feel
free to leave me a constructive comment about the game or the blog.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | ||
| 8 | 8 | ||||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 1 | 1 | ||||||||
 |
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H |
| Jones, Casey 1590 - Wright, David 1618 |
| 1/2-1/2 (USCF/WS/16WM08 (USA)) 2016.04.23 |
[7...Qa5
8.Bh4
(8.Bxf6
Bxf6
9.Qd2
(9.Be2
Nxd4
10.exd4
Qb6
11.Nb5
a6
12.Qa4
Rb8
13.Na3
Qxb2
14.Rb1
Qc3
15.Kf1
Qxd4
0-1 (15) Buechle,R (2020)-Grinfeld,A (2230) Prague 1992) 9...Nxd4
10.exd4
O-O
11.a3
Qd8
12.f4
b6
13.Be2
Ba6
14.Bf3
Rc8
15.b3
Qc7
16.Ne4
Be7
17.Kf2
Bb7
18.Rhc1
a6
19.b4
f5
20.Ng3
Bh4
21.Bxb7
Qxb7
22.Kg1
b5
Krasenkow,M (2614)-Ragger,M (2688) Austria 2015 1/2-1/2 (60)) 8...Ne4
9.Bxe7
Nxc3
10.Qd2
Nxe7
11.Nb5
O-O
12.Qxc3
Qxc3
13.Nxc3
b6
14.O-O-O
Rd8
15.Be2
Bb7
16.e4
f5
17.exf5
Nxf5
18.Rhg1
Rac8
19.Rd2
Kf8
20.g3
Ke7
21.Re1
Nd6
22.b3
Kramnik,V (2772)-Leko,P (2738) Miskolc 2007 1/2-1/2]
8.Qxd4
a6
9.Be2
O-O
Black castles and improves king safety 10.O-O
h6
11.Bh4
b6
12.Bf3
Rb8
13.Bg3
love these bishops 13...d6
14.Rfd1
e5
Here he has managed to make my DS biship weaker attacking the pawn chain. 15.Qd3
Bg4
16.Bxg4
Nxg4
17.Qe2
Nf6
Here is where i misscalulated, saw a nice way of picking up the pawn on e5 giving him a very large weekness on d6. 18.Bxe5!
Deflection: d6 18...Qc7
Here i got greedy thinking i would come out the better end if i went Nd5 attacking both f6 and c7 but i overlooked the most obvious of replies NxN.
[18...dxe5
19.Rxd8
Deflection Pinning]
19.Nd5??
ruins a very nice position
[19.Bxf6
White clearly has the better chances 19...Bxf6
20.Nd5+−
]
19...Nxd5
20.Bxg7
I had to get "something" for the bishop so after the trades i essentually endup with the e6 and g7 pawns for the DS bishiop the four pawn islands will end up helping me draw this game in the end. so while not ideal it i manged to make the most of the error. I would have been happy if this would have happend while playing black. 20...Kxg7
21.Qg4
Kh7
22.Rxd5
Rg8
23.Qf5
Kg7
no perpetuals in this postion 24.Rd4
Qc8
25.Qf4
Qe6
26.Rad1
Rbd8
27.Re4
Qf6
28.b3
almost overlooked this 28...Qxf4
29.Rxf4
Bf6
30.Rg4
Kh7
my only chance is to exchange pieces and hope for a better endgame with the better pawns 31.Rxg8
Kxg8
32.Rd5
I wanted my rook on the fith rank to keep his king on that side of the board and help push up my pawns. my other goal is to get all of my pawns into postions where the DS bishop cannot do anything. 32...Kg7
33.g4
Kg6
34.Kg2
Be7
35.f4
Rb8
36.a4
Rd8
37.Kg3
a5
38.Rb5
this is such a nice home for the Rook, away from the DS bishop and his rook has no good entry points while his DS bishop or rook must guard b6 at all times 38...Rb8
39.b4
I wasnt sure of the response I was going to get, i wasnt sure about the following...
[39.Kf3
Kf6⩱
]
39...axb4
40.a5
Bd8
41.Rxb4
Bc7
42.a6
Pushes the passed pawn 42...Ra8
Black threatens to win material: Ra8xa6 43.Ra4
f6
44.e4
Bb8
45.f5
White gains space 45...Kg7
46.Kh4
Random king move to get off the diagonal with the bishop, d5+ would have been bad, i am more than willing to trade a h pawn for his d pawn 46...Kf7
we agreed to a draw at this point.
[1/2-1/2] 
