Dont Offer a Draw When You're Winning

     One of the things that I love about chess is the many different ways of playing the game. Games can last a minute, five minutes, 15, 45, 120, days, weeks, months, and even years there is something for everyone. One of my favorite is playing correspondence chess, not the daily games that you can get on Chess.com and a few other sites but honest to God correspondence chess (although most a run on servers these days). My OTB rating is nothing stellar and is almost embarrassing (there are not many tournaments in my area and can afford to travel too often to play in larger tournaments) however my Correspondence Chess on ICCF is pretty middle of the road right now 1596, I think. In correspondence games you get to spend many days looking at different positions trying different lines and getting pretty deep into theory. To me, the learning  is the best part of the game, getting deep into a position and trying new ideas (at least new to me) and not having to worry about the clock. I also find that correspondence chess has really helped my visualization and calculations in the OTB and to a lesser extent the online blitz games.  

     This time I wanted to review a CC game that just completed the other day one that I thought I had done well in and was pretty happy with drawing and opponent whom I have dropped 6 points in six games. The game started out pretty boring with an Exchange Slav, which in theory is a very drawish opening, but somewhere in the middle I had a hard time trying to figure out who was better and why. We arrived at a position where the queens and the rooks were about to be traded off I offered a draw and my opponent quickly accepted. I was up a pawn but was not confident in my endgame knowledge and took the easy way out. This turned out to be a big mistake. Had I had a better mindset I would have seen that I was winning and probably could have converted the position,   See the game below and leave me any comments that you may have, as always my annotations are run in before the computer analysis and I don’t change what my thoughts were during the game to reflect. Cheers!

	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

Wright, David 1618 - Jones, Casey 1590

1/2-1/2 (USCF/WS/16WM08 (USA)) 2016.04.23

[#] 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 I like the Slav and use it almost exclusivly against 1. d4 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.Bf4 Bf5 7.e3 up to this point I am content to just mimick what my opponent is doing, postion seems equal. 7...e6 8.Ne5 Nxe5 I didn't see a problem with getting a pair of Knights off the board and thought I might be able to get an edge with moving the Queen to b6 before he could protect the pawn on b2. 9.Bxe5 Nd7 10.Bg3 a6 Lakdawala suggests this move much earlier after the Knights have been developed, but leaves b2 unprotected. 11.a3 Covers b4

[11.Bd3 Bxd3 12.Qxd3 Be7 13.O-O O-O 14.Rfc1 Rc8 15.Qd1 (15.Rc2 Nb6 16.Rac1 Qd7 17.Ne2 Rxc2 18.Rxc2 Rc8 19.b3 (19.Rxc8 Qxc8 20.Qc3 1/2-1/2 (20) Koell,H (2121)-Streiter,G (1971) Hall im Tirol 2009) 19...Bb4 20.f3 Rc6 21.Kf1 Nc8 22.Be1 Bxe1 23.Kxe1 Ne7 24.Rxc6 Nxc6 25.g3 g5 26.Qc3 Qe7 27.Qc5 Qxc5 28.dxc5 Ne5 29.f4 Nd3 Szymczak,Z (2395)-Mokry,K (2420) Karvina 1982 0-1 (52)) 15...b5 (15...Rc4 16.Ne2 Qa5 17.b3 Rc6 18.Rxc6 bxc6 19.Rc1 Rc8 20.f3 Bb4 21.Rc2 h6 22.Qc1 c5 23.dxc5 Rxc5 24.Bf2 e5 25.Qd1 Qb5 26.h3 g6 27.Nc1 Rc3 28.Rxc3 Bxc3 29.Qc2 Ba5 30.Qc8 Spraggett,K (2550)-Jussupow,A (2600) Montpellier 1985 1/2-1/ 2 (34)) 16.Ne2 Qb6 17.Rxc8 Rxc8 18.Rc1 Qb7 19.Rc2 Nb6 20.Qc1 Rxc2 21.Qxc2 Qc8 22.Qxc8 Nxc8 23.Bc7 Kf8 24.Nc1 Ke8 25.Nd3 Kd7 Wais,M (2085) -Bachofner,C (2050) Austria 1998 0-1 (58);

11.Be2 Be7 12.O-O O-O 13.f3 Bg6 14.Qd2 Rc8 15.e4 Nb6 16.Bf2 Bb4 17.Qe3 Nc4 18.Bxc4 Rxc4 19.Ne2 Qd7 20.Nf4 Bd6 21.Rac1 Bxf4 22.Qxf4 Rfc8 23.Rxc4 Rxc4 24.Re1 h6 25.h4 Qc7 Kurbonboeva,S (2212)-Madhurima,S (2000) Pune 2014 0-1 (59)]

11...Rc8 getting the Rook to the open file, cant be too bad i wouldn't think. 12.Bd3 Bxd3 I didn't really want to trade but also did not want to mess up my pawn structure. 13.Qxd3 Qb6 finally get to make this move. 14.Qd2 Bd6 15.Bxd6 Qxd6 Too many trades here I already had a draw as an acceptable and the most probable outcome 16.O-O O-O 17.Rac1 Nb6 18.Nb1 Nc4 I was expecting Qe2 or possibly looking to trade on b4. 19.Qe2 Qb6 Black threatens to win material: Qb6xb2 20.Rc2 Rc6 21.Nd2 I get to win the b2 pawn here, I worked this out for a while to ensure it was correct and if it could work. Trading the Knights seems to give white back the initiative.

[21.Nc3!?⩱ deserves consideration]

21...Nxb2∓ 22.Rxc6

[22.Nb3 Nc4 (22...Qxb3 23.Rxb2 Qxa3 24.Rxb7⩱ ) 23.Nc5 Rfc8∓ ]

22...Qxc6

[22...bxc6?! 23.Rb1 ]

23.Rb1?

[23.Nb3 Nc4 24.Ra1∓ ]

23...Qc2−⁠+ 24.Qe1 Rc8 25.h3

[25.a4 b6−⁠+ ]

25...b5 He gives his king some space and I am prepping to move the knight, with my back rank vulnerable I did not want to give up any counter play on the 7th rank. 26.Ra1 I didn't understand this move, I had my mind made up he was going for Rc8 and trade off all the major pieces. 26...Nd3 27.Qd1

[27.Qe2 does not win a prize 27...Nc1 28.Qe1 Qc3−⁠+ ]

27...Qxd1 28.Rxd1 f6 here i got unnerved with the back rank issues and offered a draw after f6, I am up a pawn but didnt see plan forward.. . . . . After the computer evaluation Houdini had me as up by 3.4. Going to have to study this endgame for a while. [1/2-1/2]

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