Tuesday 29 April 2008

A very quick CC game

Regular blog readers will notice that I've added a couple of extra icons on the left hand side of the page. I've already discussed chessgames.com in an earlier post, but I haven't talked about the other one, until now.
chessworld.net is an online turn based chess server (as opposed to a real-time chess server). This means that is more akin to correspondence chess (in that the time between moves is measured in days rather than seconds) than OTB chess. It follows the same membership model as most online chess servers these days (free to join, paying members get more features), and it seems to be a pretty vibrant set up. Indeed I only joined last Thursday, received 5 game invitations by Saturday, and even completed one game by this morning ( lasting a total of 6 days).

Tikhachon - Press,S [C63]
Chessworld, 04.2008
[Press,Shaun]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.Nxe5 Qd4 6.Nf3 [ 6.Qh5+? g6 7.Nxg6 hxg6 is a trap that my opponents often walk into. The rook on h8 is guarded by the queen on d4!] 6...Qxe4+ 7.Qe2 Nf6 8.Qxe4+?! [ 8.Nc3 Qxe2+ 9.Nxe2 Bd6=] 8...fxe4 [ 8...Nxe4 was played in the only other game I could find that reached this position, but the pawn on e4 cramps White's position.] 9.Nd4 Bc5 10.Ne2? Ng4 (D)
11.d4?? White's position just falls apart. [ 11.0-0 Nxf2 looks good (and I would have played it) but 12.b4! ( 12.Rxf2 Rf8-+) 12...Bb6 13.c4 is messy, although Black is still better. 13...Nd3+ 14.c5 Nxb4 15.cxb6 Nc2 16.bxc7 Nxa1 17.Na3] 11...exd3 12.cxd3 Bxf2+ 13.Kf1 0-0 14.h3 Ne5 15.d4 Bxd4+ [ Turns out the following variation was stronger 15...Be3+ 16.Ke1 Nd3+ 17.Kd1 Bxc1] 16.Ke1 Bxb2 Now I'm just cleaning up pawns. 17.Bxb2 Nd3+ 18.Kd2 Nxb2 19.Na3 Na4 20.g4 Be6 21.Rhe1 Rad8+ 22.Kc2 Rf3 Setting up a mating net. 23.Nb1 [ 23.Nf4 Rc3+ 24.Kb1 Rd2 mates] 23...Rxh3 24.Nf4 Rh2+ 25.Kc1 Bxg4 26.Rg1 Bf5 27.a3 [ 27.Ng2 Be4] 27...Rc2# 0-1

Of course not all games are going to be like this (it was a bit of a massacre after move 15), but if you are looking for CC style chess that is a rung down from seriousness of the ICCF Webserver, then chessworld.net isn't a bad choice.
(BTW To the best of my knowledge there is no connection between the server and similarly named Australian chess businesses)

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