Monday 2 March 2009

The stress of Correspondence Chess - Part 2

This is the second game that I played in the Australia v Finland match. My opponent employed a similar strategy to the first game, with a similar result.

Karpoff,K - Press,S [A13]
Finland v Australia, 2008

1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 e6 3.cxd5 exd5 4.d4 Nf6 5.e3 Bd6 6.Be2 0-0 7.0-0 Bg4 8.Nbd2 Nbd7 9.Re1 Re8 [ 9...Ne4 is also playable, but I didn't want to jam the e file with a pawn.] 10.Nf1?! Allowing my knight into e4 10...Ne4 11.Ng3 Ndf6 12.a3 Nxg3 Here I applied the principle of the 'Superfluous Piece'. The best square for my knights is e4, but I can't put both of them there. So I get rid of one. 13.hxg3 c6 I'd been worrying about Qb3 for White for a while, so I'd thought I'd deal with it. 14.b3 Ne4 15.Bb2 Qf6 The idea behind this move was to prevent Nh2, followed by a lot of annoying exchanges. 16.Rf1 Qh6 With the idea of Nxg3 followed by Qxe3+ 17.Nh2? (D)
17. ... Nxg3!!
After White's last move, this is even stronger.[ 17...Nxg3 18.Bxg4 ( 18.fxg3 Qxe3+ 19.Rf2 Bxe2-+) 18...Ne2+! is the sharpest finish.] 0-1

No comments: