Looks at Books / Correspondence Chess
An Absolute History
“The players may be weaker, but the chess is better.” By FM ALEX DUNNE, USCF CORRESPONDENCE CHESS DIRECTOR
studies. And opening theory evolved before my eyes as I progressed through the 30+ Absolute years. I included all the games that I thought were outstanding and of historical importance or that I thought illustrated a particular player’s style. Most of the 305 games are analyzed, and most of them are instructive, hard-fought games with a decisive result. The following game is a sample of what the reader can expect.
Scheveningen Variation (B81) Daniel Fleetwood (2359) Stephen Barbre (2419) 1993 Absolute
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. g4
The Keres Attack has been quite success-
The Absolute Correspondence Championship of the United States Chess Federation by Alex Dunne. 330 pages (MacFarland & Company, North Carolina, 2012). $44.95 from
uscfsales.com (catalog number B0014MF).
THE ABSOLUTE CHAMPIONSHIP of the United States Chess Federation 1976- 2010 is a book about correspondence chess, but it is more than that. This is a col- lection of the best games of most of the best correspondence players the United States has produced. Does that mean anything to the non-correspondence player? Maybe. Cecil Purdy once said that in correspon- dence chess the players may be weaker but the chess is better. It was to preserve those better games that I decided to write this book. I was fortunate that I had been writing
about these champions for 30-plus years in “The Check Is in the Mail” (in Chess Life until 2006 and now on
uschess.org) and therefore knew many of them. Playing over those 2000+ games in search of the best of the best was exciting enough. There were some truly spectacular games; gems of attack and defense. There were endgames that could easily be made into
12 July 2013 | Chess Life
ful in Absolute play, scoring +5 -1 =7. 6. ... Be7 The most common response to the Keres
in the Absolutes has been 6. ... h6 7. h4 as in Horwitz-Concha 2008 Absolute. This is also the most common response now as in Smeets-Anand, Wijk aan Zee 2010, which continued 6. ... h6 7. h4 Nc6 8. Rg1 d5 9. exd5. Barbre’s 6. ... Be7 is rarely seen at the grandmaster level.
7. g5 Nfd7 8. h4 Nc6 9. Be3 0-0 10. Qd2 Sax-Ehlvest, Reggio Emilia 1988, saw
10. Qh5 d5 11. 0-0-0 with an edge to White.
10. ... a6 11. 0-0-0 Nxd4 12. Qxd4 b5 13. Rg1 Rb8 14. h5 b4 15. Ne2 e5 16. Qd2 Nc5 17. f3 Be6 18. Kb1
Sicilian Defense,
Up to this point, theory. Handel- Anderson, SSKK-50, 1988, saw 18. ... Qc7 19. b3?! which slows down Black’s attack but leaves permanent damage. Hellers-Martens, Amsterdam 1990, saw the saner 18. ... Qc7 19. Nc1 with about even chances.
18. ... f5?! Barbre is too ambitious and he pays
the price. This attacking move weakens his kingside and center.
19. gxf6 e.p. Rxf6 20. Nc1 Qe8 Of course 20. ... Rxf3 is met with 21.
Bxc5! dxc5 22. Rxg7+ and Black is folding.
21. Be2 Rf7 22. Bxc5 dxc5 23. Nd3 And Black is left with unsolvable
problems.
23. ... Rd8 24. Qe3 a5 25. Nxe5 Rxd1+ 26. Rxd1 Rf6 27. f4 Kh8 28. f5 Bf7 29. Ng6+ Bxg6 30. hxg6 h6 31. Qf4 Qf8 32. Qc7 Rd6
Black cannot allow Rd7.
33. Rxd6 Bxd6 34. Qxa5 Qb8 35. Qa6 Bf8 36. Qd3 Be7 37. Qd5 Qd8 38. Qxd8+ Bxd8 39. Bc4
The black king is in an iron cage.
White wins with a passed pawn on the a- and e-file.
39. ... h5 40. e5 h4 41. a4, Black resigned. The history of U.S. Correspondence
chess is rich but largely unknown or at least not emphasized. Older over-the- board players of course know the names of Donald and Robert Byrne, Hans Berliner, James Sherwin, Robert Steinmeyer, and, Bobby Fischer. What they seldom know, however, is that these great players started out in cor- respondence play. In The Absolute Correspondence Championship of the United States Chess Federation 1976- 2010 you will have the chance to meet the ones who made their correspon- dence chess play a career. This book is their story.
Read FM Alex Dunne’s monthly correspondence chess column “The Check is in the Mail” on Chess Life Online at
uschess.org.
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