Correspondence Chess Olympiad
The Last Yearbook
Chess Toons
Best Recent Game Contest En Passant
Problem of the Week Editor's Note
Correspondence Chess Olympiad
As the Winter Olympics swing into high gear, it seems appropriate to note that two chess events are also part of the Olympic movement. The next over-the-board Olympiad is set to take place this summer in Moscow. Meanwhile, the slowest sport in the entire Olympic movement, the 21st Correspondence Chess Olympiad is just ending. Here is the crosstable, which contains three surprises.
First, with eight games remaining, the US team is in first place. And we have a decent chance to stay there! The members of the team: Stephen Ham (Board 1), Dan Fleetwood (Board 2), Tim Murray (Board 3), Jon Ostriker (Board 4), Jason Bokar (Board 5, and Jon Edwards, yes, that’s me (Board 6).
The second surprise, on close inspection, is just how incredibly close this competition is. The event featured just 21 wins out of 468 games (8 are still on-going). Two of the six sections ended with no wins. That speaks to the impact of technology on the game. It really is getting hard to win at correspondence chess. Perhaps that’s not really much of a surprise.
The third take away is likely to provide a decent surprise. Russia is bringing up the rear. The reason? We are all conditioned to believe that economic sanctions have no effect, but they really do. In this case, the Russians do not have easy access to access to high-performance computing, a requirement for success in modern correspondence chess. It’s not just being able to find the equipment, but often rather how to acquire it from foreign sources?
The USA’s last posted result is an extraordinary game, one well worth your time.
Bokar,Jason (2526) - Castro, Francisco Manuel Fer (2382) [D11]
CCO21/F ICCF, 2020
(Play through the game here.)
Computers seem unhappy with the following exchange sacrifice, but Jason Bokar demonstrates that human intuition can outthink the machine. There’s still hope for us mortals.
Here I played 34. Qd2, hoping for 34…Qb2 35.Bd4 Nxb3 36.Bxb2 Nxd2 37.c5!
Five years of play, a decent chance at gold, and my main memory is of the one that got away. The computer favors Qd2, but 34.Nd4 provides far better winning chances.
Like many chess players, I was saddened to learn that the New in Chess Yearbook will be discontinued after its final issue, number 142. To capture this moment and reflect on what the Yearbook has meant to players in our club and community, I reached out to a few people for their thoughts, comments, and memories of one of the best publications on chess openings to have graced our mail boxes and bookshelves.
Remmelt Otten, Publishing Director of New in Chess: Yes, sadly, we will stop publishing the Yearbook. Studying chess openings hasmoved to onlineplatforms moresuitable for following the developments of Opening Theory. There is still an enormously loyal group of fans subscribing to the Yearbook, but it proves difficult to expand the readership. The concept of 25 Opening Surveys probably doesn't work as well with new readers as it did ten or twenty years Ago. Subscribers will be offered a refund or a conversion to the magazine subscription at a favorable rate plus some bonus ebooks.
It was great fun to create the yearbook, for more than 38years, 142 Yearbooks, and 35.000 pages of Opening Theory. It helped a lot of people win games, most notablyCaruanain the 2018 US Championship when hewasbrowsing ahardcopy in bed one evening and the next day surprised his opponent with a Winawer sideline, resulting in a quick win.
Jeffrey Tannenbaum, Marshall Chess Club Board Member: The yearbooks havebeen wonderful for years. I’ve bought them all (exceptNo. 142, which I intend to get). I would like to see figuresthat show – or don’t – a drop in demand justifying theend of the series.The publisher evidently thinks it hasbetter things to do with its resources. But I am an old-fashioned reader of hard-copy books. Online offeringsare of far less interest to me.
NM Anthony Levin: As someone who started studyingchess in the post-2010 era, when strong chess engineswere readily available, it's literally something I've neverused, read, looked at, or thought about... but that'sprobably going to be reflective of at least the Alirezageneration and the future. I don't mean to say it doesn'thave value, but it seems to be less and less relevant to younger people.
Jon Edwards: I will miss the NiC Yearbook, which I alwaysread cover to cover.Happy to report that they includedtwo of my games, notably my win in the Spanish Mastersagainstthe Russian cr champion Lobanov (NIC YB 129, p.33). So I got that part of my personal bucket list checkedoff before they stopped publication.
NM Fred Wilson: New in Chess is the best chess magazine in the world. New in Chess has just been consistently the best, the best writers, the best analysts - everything. Maybe the 2nd best would be Chess the one from England edited by Malcom Pein. Chess Life is great but it's full of a lot of stuff that is more “feel good” than real chess.
One place where Chess Life has improved a lot though is they got John Watson to do the book reviews. This makes the book reviews in Chess Life as good as Sadler's articles in New in Chess.
It's possible that the buyout led to the decision todiscontinue the Yearbook. If some bean counter is looking at the business and sees the Yearbook as this big expensive product that doesn’t produce much profit… itwent up to 142 volumes and has a very loyal following to the people who love it but that doesn't mean anything to the money guy. What about the writers? What about the analysts who worked on it? What about the community of loyal subscribers? If you're making money, what should your first obligation be? To the society you live in, or the shareholders?
I suggestedthat they maybe only do it twice a year.Unfortunately, the Yearbook seems to be gone. Remmelt complained to me that most people get their opening stuff online or in data-basess now, which leads me to wonder how much longer Chess Informant will survive.
NM Alex Fikiet:Dang, Chess Informant still exists? I thought that died. I mean I love the Yearbook -- me and my dad faithfully collected every issue. It's all up in a bookcase at my parents' house. There were always some good nuggets of theory or interesting lines, and I prefer there being text explanations. I also thought the community around it was interesting. The letters section always had some intense analysis and arguments on obscure lines like the Traxler, Budapest Farajowicz, stuff like that. But I do recognize in the digital age it has lost some of its use.
Ed Frumkin, Marshall Chess Club Board Member: Ironically, I’m donating my Informants 1-74 and NIC Yearbooks 1-54 (plus the KeyBook) to the Marshall), possibly today. I rarely used them, but they looked impressive on my shelves. I don’t know that we really needed another opening classification system.
I did get one game into NIC 49 (1998), page 185 (RE 9.2) with notes by Miles, a last round (12th) game from the1994 US Open in Chicago. That fortnight in the Windy City was most notable for me in that I attended ball games at both Comiskey Park and Wrigley Field on back to back afternoons during the first week and then the players struck the second week, leaving us with no World Seriesthat season. I also have a published loss to Jon Jacobs in Chess Informant 102, I believe, in which I was credited with a TN. I simply forgot the book variation and came up with something equally playable. It might have made the second edition of “Pirc Alert”. I still occasionally send Pirc scores to Alburt, including that Kozower game from November 1st with the out of nowhere Queen sacrifice.
The Yearbooks were very well organized, but I rarelyprepared for anyone in particular, though I attempt to doso now. The FIDE pairing system makes that largely awaste of time. By the time I get that opponent and colorbreak again, I’ll have forgotten whatever I had in mind.
—Greg Keener, Editor of the Spectator
Best Recent Game Contest!
The Marshall Spectator is thrilled to announce a new contest for our current members to participate in. If you have played a recent game at the Marshall Chess Club that you think may be appealing to a wider audience, please submit it with your annotations to Spectator@mashallchessclub.org. Each issue we will select the most interesting game based both on the quality of play and annotations and publish it here for our readership to enjoy.
Gonçalves, Juan 1524 vs. Meshram, Nirvedh Harshad 1382
Marshall Wednesday Under 1600
2021.11.10
(Play through the game here.)
1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 dxc3 4. Nxc3
Excited to finally play Smith-Morra in a tournament game.
4... e6 The standard move, preventing tactics on f7 and Bb4 coming.
5. Nf3 d6 6. Bc4 Nf6 Debating the usual set up of Qe2 O-O and Rd1 or playing e5! One main variation to calculate. The other two end up with attacks on c7/f7
7. e5
Sac another pawn, sure why not? I stopped calculating after Qxd8+ Kxd8 because I see clear attacking chances along d-file and c-file.
10... Kxd8 11. O-Oa6?! Stopping use of b5 inhibits both Knight and Bishop. Nirvedh said he always plays a6 in the Sicilian but we are so outside of Sicilian main lines that here I think its a weak move- he's committed to playing defense the rest of the game. The move a6 usually comes earlier.
12. Be3 How to stop this king from reaching safety on f8?
12... Bd6?? (12... Bd7 13. f4) 13. Rfd1 Ke7 Here I missed that in the end Bc5 wins the exchange (Ne4 Rc8 takes takes Bc5). Other moves are Rc1 Bb3. But Ne4 feels the most natural.
14. Ne4 Bc7 (14... Rd8 15. Nxd6 Rxd6 16. Bc5) 15. Bc5+ Ke8 16. Nd6+?! I felt very hesitant about trading while attacking. It's just one of those principles I strongly adhere to. However, this is a forcing move and in the end I can stack rooks.
18... Kd8?! He played this so fast. I wasn't entirely sure how to respond to b5.
Thinking of Bb6 but it isn't very clear if it works his king isn't making it to f8 anytime soon. (18... b5 19. Be2 Nxc5 20. Rd8+ Ke7 21. Rxh8 Bb7 22. Rxh7 Kf6 23. Rc1 Ne4 24. Bf3 Bd5 25. Rh4)
21...Rd8?? Blunder. Nf6 was best. I want to play a check on d6 but also wanna try and win the d7 Knight! He brings in another defensive resource but the attack is too much. (21... Nf6 22. Rc1+ Kb8 23. Rdd1 Ka7 24. Bd6 Nd5 25. Bxe5 f6 26. Rxd5 exd5 27. Bd4+ b6 28. Rc7+)
22. Rc1+ Kb8 23. Rcd1 Kc7 24. Rc1+ Kb8 25. Rd3! Here I could say I'm winning but I'm struggling to find a clear plan of attack that leads to a concrete win.
25...b6 The move b6 felt like he was giving up and I now clearly saw how to infiltrate on c7.
Congratulations to Juan Gonçalves for submitting the best annotated, recently played game and winning a free tournament entry!
Want to submit your games? Simply email a recent annotated game that you played at the Marshall to us at Spectator@marshallchessclub.org and you will automatically be entered into the contest.
We look forward to reading your submissions and sharing your recent brilliancies with our readership!
—Greg Keener, Editor of the Spectator
Chess Toons
En Passant
Chess News En Passant:
—GM Yuri Averbakh, the oldest living grandmaster in the world, turns 100 this week. After recovering from Covid last summer, he seems to be back in shape again and says he still analyzes endgames to keep his mind sharp.
– Magnus Carlsen won Tata Steel and Karjakin, Van Foreest and Praggnanandhaa all won their games on the final day.
– The final round of the Battle of the Sexes match-tournament, held at Gibraltar, saw the men’s team win by 6½-3½ to finish overall winners by 53-47.
– Joseph Anthony Ippolito, a former US Chess Executive Board member and once president of the New Jersey State Chess Federation (NJSCF), has died on January 18, 2022 at the age of 78. He was the father of IM Dean Ippolito and made many important contributions to organizations and events in his lifetime. We extend our sincere condolences to the Ippolito family.
Problem of the Week
F.W. Lord, 1876
In this confusing array of pieces it is White to move and find the only move that leads to checkmate in two no matter how Black replies. Happy solving!
[The solution to last issue's problem, J Møller 1920, This is a beautiful example of a problem from the Logical School of composition. Here's the idea: White has a plan to mate Black (called a "main plan"). However, Black has a defense against this plan. White must therefore come up with a prior plan (known as a "foreplan") that will spoil Black's defense. So here, White's plan is to play 1.Qb1 and mate on b8. However, Black can spoil this with 1...Bg3. So what's White's foreplan?The Spectator omitted the stipulation "Mate in 3."
The solution is 1.Qg7 (threatening Qxd7 followed by mate). Black can defend against this threat with 1...Be7. But then White switches back to the main plan with 2.Qb2, now threatening 3.Qb8 mate. Black can no longer play Bg3, but has the analogous response 2...Bd6. But now this move interferes with the pawn on d7 and so allows 3.Qg2 mate. The beauty of the ideas as well as of the movements of the Queen is exceptional.]
—Greg Keener, Editor of the Spectator
Editor's Note
Spot a typo in the spectator? If you have any feedback, comments, or would like to submit an article please contact me directly at gregk@marshallchessclub.org.
Enjoy, and thanks for reading!
—Greg Keener, Editor of the Spectator
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