Correspondence Chess / 2009 Electronic Knights / 2011 Absolute White has three pawns for the piece
and a potential kingside attack either via a pawn storm or a rook lift. With a four to one pawn majority on the kingside, he may have a won ending if he can get there. I am feeling sick. My options seem limited. My first priority is to prevent getting mated. I tried to force a queen trade or a retreat.
19. ... Qf6 The computer likes several moves
better: 19. ... Re6, 19. ... Qd6 or 19. ... d4.
20. f4 Qg6 21. Qf3 White keeps the queens on the
board and prepares a pawn storm. Black’s strat egy is to survive. It would be hard to get my rooks to bear on the kingside without exposing my king more. Therefore to attack I would have to open a file in the center or the queenside. Besides the pin on the bishop at b7 Black cannot afford to push either c- or d-pawn without a
forced pawn trade guarantee. White would love to permanently lock up the queenside reduc ing Black’s chances. Black can’t force anything: 21. ... Rab8? 22. f5 Qh7 23. Qg4 and White is close to winning. De fense against the pawn storm is necessary.
21. ... Bc8 Deja vu. I thought that if White tries
to win the pawn that I would get it back in a better position. For example 22. Qxd5 Bf5 23. d4 Rad8 24. Qf3 cxd4 25. cxd4 Rxd4.
22. d4? This may be the losing move, since
it allows the opening of the c-file. I was clueless that I might be winning. 22. h3 counters my move and supports a possible g2-g4. The idea behind 22. d4 is to protect his e-pawn freeing his f-pawn to advance.
22. ... Bg4 23. Qf2 cxd4 24. cxd4!? The computer shows this to be the
The 2011 Absolute Championship
Isn’t it every chess-playing kid’s dream to play with the champions? The over-the-board (OTB) kids can dream of playing GM Viswanathan Anand or GM Magnus Carlsen. Of course, in those dreams the chess-playing kid is victorious. What else are dreams for? In the 2011 Absolute Championship I had the chance to live that dream. Of course I was a 70-year-old kid. It wasn’t OTB—it was webserver (even better!) and it wasn’t victorious, it was a crushing defeat. But what joy to mingle my pawns and knights with the very best! So please let me share with you the best of the best, the winners of the 2011 Absolute Championship of the USCF.
The winner of the event was the Mighty Menke—John Menke—who is carving out a niche to be ranked among the best ever of U.S. CC players. John was one of the oldest of the competitors—he was born February 23, 1940, but his play was very sharp. His score of 9½-2½ gave him a winning percentage of 79 percent; the second best in Absolute history. Those of you familiar with John’s name know of his other accomplishments. I will restrict the list to just the first place finishes: two CCLA championships, first place in the 2004 Electronic Championship, first place in the 2003 Golden Knights, an ICCM title in 2010, and now first place in the Absolute Championship. This constitutes the triple crown and grand slam of U.S. correspondence play with the Absolute also serving as the Super Bowl. John was kind enough to share some of his thoughts on his preparation for the 2011 Absolute.
The Opening: Everything depends on the opening. Playing the opening correctly is a balance between innovation and history. There are four main categories of input here. 1) Databases. It is essential to have at least one large chess game database up to the current time so you know what has been played before, statistical results, and example games so you can study them. 2) Published analysis by top players. ChessBase magazine provides some. 3) Opening books. My current favorite electronic opening books are Rybka 4, Hiarcs 13 Pro, and Perfect 2012a. 4) Philosophy and attitude. Like GM Lajos Portisch said, the objective of the opening is to get to a playable middlegame. True, but if we want to win a tournament, we have to try harder. We have to try to get a winning position out of the opening. We don’t always succeed in each game, but it is the overall result that counts in a tournament. Holding a draw in a bad position is just as important as winning a game on another board.
Finally, when all is said and done, lady luck plays a hand, too. Between good players some will be luckier than others. After winning a tournament, other players are inclined to play cautiously against you in the future. It is very hard to win against a good player who is playing to draw.
In the following game Menke demon strates that it is possible to win against a strong player. Gordon Magat may not have been playing for a draw, but in this game it takes opening research, middlegame ingenuity, and endgame technique for Menke to score the full point.
Sicilian Defense, Kan Variation (B43) John Menke (2445) Gordon Magat (2288) 2011 Absolute
Remember all those hours studying
king and pawn endgames? The trip from gain ing an edge to winning the game can be a difficult journey, especially when facing a strong and determined opponent, and the knowledge gained in those hours can become valuable
36 January 2014 | Chess Life companions on that trip.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be2 b5 7. 0-0 Bb7 8. Re1
This move began showing up in
postal play around 1988. An early example was Gelemerov-Tomasic, 1988 which showed the underlying idea of 8. Re1: 8. Re1 b4 9. Nd5 exd5 10. exd5 Bd6 11. Bf3+ Ne7 12. Nf5 Kd8 13. Rxe7 Bxe7 14. d6 Bxd6 15.
Nxd6 Bxf3 16. Nxf7+ Ke8 17. Qxf3 Rf8 18. Bg5 Rxf7 19. Re1+ Kf8 20. Qxa8 h6 21. Qe4 Kg8 22. Bxh6 Nc6 23. Bg5 d6 24. Re3, Black resigned.
8. ... Nc6 9. Nxc6 dxc6 10. e5 Rd8 11. Bd3 c5 12. Qh5 g6
Areschchenko-Avruch, Kiev 2008
saw 12. ... c4 13. Be4 Bb4 drawn in 21. Black was very successful with 12. ... g6 in its first appearances (+0 =2 - 5) but beginning in 2008 White turned
it around with +4 =2 –1. 13. Qh3 Bg7 14. Bf4 This is Korchagina-V. Ni, 2009
European Championship, and has scored +2 =4 in recent games. More usual is 14. Bg5 as in Gofshtein- Hellsten, Albacete 2001.
14. ... Ne7 15. a4 bxa4 Both 15. ... b4 and 15. ... c4 lead to
a small White edge. Magat’s choice
losing move. It suggests the awkward 24. Qxd4 holds better.
24. ... Rac8 25. Re3 Rc2 The rest of the game is just tactics.
I had a strong position. It was a few mere moves before feeling that I should win it.
26. Qf1 Rec8 27. Rg3 Qe4 28. Be3 Of course 28. Rxg4, allows 28. ...
Rxc1 29. Rxc1 Qe3+ winning easily.
28. ... Rxb2 29. Re1 Bf5 30. Rg5 Rcc2 31. Bd2 Rxd2 Much stronger is 31. ... Qxd4+ 32.
Be3 Qc3 33. Rg3 Bd3 34. Bxb6 Rxg2+. With a computer it is easy to see that the 31. ... Qxd4+ line does not have any loopholes in it. During the game the nest of calcula tions was too imposing. The simpler 31. ... Rxd2 leads to a trade of queens and rooks, leaving Black two bishops up with mate possibilities. It was easier to calculate.
32. Rxe4 Bxe4 33. f5 Kf8 34. Qc1 Rb1 35. Qxb1 Bxb1 36. f6 Bh6 37. Rh5 Be3+, White resigned.
If 38. Kf1 then 38. ... Bd3+ 39. Ke1
Rxg2 protects Black’s king, threatens mate, and forces trading the remaining pair of rooks.
FINAL STANDINGS Tseng
McGregor Gary
Meiners Endsley Corkum Endsley Young
Bussom
Calvanico Young
Anderson Le Roux Walters
44.00 39.50 36.85 34.50 33.85 31.10 31.10 28.90 27.25 26.65 24.35 24.00 22.85 18.10
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