70 years Correspondence Chess in Bulgaria: Win against SIM Schwenck, Mathias

I was able to win my game with Black against SIM Schwenck, Mathias of Germany, http://www.iccf-webchess.com/game?id=417904. He is around 45 years old and lives in Freising, a small town near Munich. This game was characterized by my opponent consistently being in time trouble. He would make no move for 40 or 45 days, and then shoot off the moves till next time control taking only a few hours for each move! I was always in doubt, whether to play fast and pressurise my opponent, or play at my own pace. 

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5 5.Bg5 exd5 6.cxd5 h6 7.Bxf6 Qxf6 8.Qc2 Be7 9.e4 Qb6 10.a4 bxa4 11.e5

Novelty? The ChessOK opening tree gives only 11. Nbd2 Na6 12. Qxa4 Nb4 13. Be2 O-O 14. O-O d6, quoting Nguyen Huynh Hui - Radziewicz Iweta (POL), Budapest (Hungary), 2008, 0-1.

From the ICCF database, I could find:

11.Qxa4 Qxb2 12.Nbd2 O-O 13.Rb1 Qf6 14.e5 Qg6 15.d6 Bxd6 {1/2-1/2(22) Schmidt, Theo (2375) - Sadowski, Marek (2502) / WC30/ct06, ICCF 2010}

11.Nc3 Na6 12.e5 Nb4 13.Qe4 O-O 14.Bc4 d6 15.O-O dxe5 {1-0(30) Lizarzaburu, Odilo Blanco (2428) - Santos, Marcos Antonio dos (2427) / BRA-42anos/M (BRA), ICCF 2011}

11.Qxa4 Qxb2 12.Nbd2 O-O 13.Rb1 Qf6 14.Bb5 Qf4 15.O-O a5 {1/2-1/2(29) Brodt, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich (2396) - Zuev, Denis Vladimirovich (2393) / RUS/Silver-2011 (RUS), ICCF 2011}

Anyway, the pawn push seems premature and does not seem to have anything to recommend it.

11...O-O 12.Bc4 d6 13.O-O dxe5 14.Nc3 Nd7 15.Rfe1 a6 16.Nd2 ?!

Better may be 16. Nxa4 or 16. Qxa4


16...Kh8 17.Bd3 Qc7 18.Nc4 Nb6 19.Nxb6

And now Nxe5 looks better.

19...Qxb6 20.Nxa4 Qc7 21.b4 c4 22.Re4 Qd8 23.Rxc4 Rb8 24.Nc5

With a cursory look, it may seem that White has an advantageous position, all his pieces are active and he has solid control of the c file. But soon Black's Bishop pair will come into its own.  


24...Rb6 25.Qe2 ?!


25. Bf1 may be better.

25...Rd6 26.Rc2 Rxd5 27.Bxa6 Bf5 28.Rcc1 Qd6 29.Qf3 Bg6 30.Bf1 


By now, all the White pieces have been pushed back! Here it was difficult to decide between Rd4 and e4. Finally, I chose Rd4 in spite of the lower IdeA score.

30...Rd4 31.Ra6 Qd8

32.Qa3 ?

32. Qb7 was necessary

32...Kh7 33.b5 Qd5 34.Rc6 e4 

And here 35. Qc3 may have been better.

35.Qb3 Qf5 36.b6 ?

36. Qh3 would have prolonged the fight

36...Bg5 37.Re1 e3 38.fxe3 Rd2 39.Re2 ?

 Time remaining: 24 h; Nd3 was necessary.It may be recalled that in ICCF, upon making a move, 24 hrs get added to your time. So you always have at least 24 hrs to make each move.

39...Rfd8 40.b7 Rd1 41.Rf2 Qe5 42.e4 Qd4 43.Nd3 Bxe4 44.Qxd1 Bxc6 45.Qb1
Rb8 46.Kh1 Rxb7 47.Rb2 Ra7 $1 48.Ne5+ Be4 49.Bd3 Bxd3 50.Nxd3 g6 51.Qf1
Rd7 52.Rf2 f5 53.Ne1 Qa1 54.Nc2 Qa4 55.Qb1 h5 56.Rf1 h4


White has 1 day to move 60.

57.Rd1 h3 58.Rxd7+ Qxd7 59.Qg1 Bd2 60.Qd1 Qd5 0-1

Here White resigned, but not before consuming 45 days of the available 50! With this win, I achieved my second GM norm, and tied for the first place along with GM Stephan, Prof. Dr. Jürgen, crosstable at https://www.iccf.com/EventCrossTable.aspx?id=32000. GM Weizsäcker, Prof.Dr. Robert K. Frhr. von has one more game remaining, but with just seven pieces, the Lomonosov bases don't forebode well for him.. 

Draw against GM Bokar, Dr. Jason

70 years Correspondence Chess in Bulgaria: Draw against GM Bokar, Dr. Jason

I was lucky to escape with a draw against GM Bokar, Dr Jason of the USA, http://www.iccf-webchess.com/game?id=417900. He is around 50 years old, and a Professor of mechanical engineering. He also works in the Michelin Tyre company as a tyre performance engineer.

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 c5 6.Be3 Qb6 7.Nc3 Nc6 8.O-O Qxb2

Grabbing the pawn is always risky. But one can't win games without taking risks. The ChessOK opening tree gives only 9. Nb5, but followed by 18 games, with White winning 77.8% of them. But I had won a game in this line against GM Pauwels, Christophe, in the Andrew Sustarsic memorial, which I have annotated here.

9.Qe1 c4 10.Rb1 Qxc2 11.Bd1!

At the time, it was a shock for me. Now I find three more games with this move, in my ICCF database. This line seems to be unknown in OTB Chess, but I don't know about Playchess.

11...Qxb1 12.Nxb1 Bxb1 13.Ba4 Bd3 14.Qa5 Kd7

All the previous moves are almost forced for both sides. Here,  Walker, Georg (2438) - Murden, Clive (2434) / JUB/DJ/A (-), ICCF 2011 went 15.Bxc6+ Kxc6 16.Rc1 b6 17.Qa6 Be7 18.g4 Kc7 19.Ng5 Nh6 20.Bd2 Rhb8, 1/2-1/2 (36 moves) .

15.Rd1

Here, I had a long think. The move first suggested by engines is 15...Nge7, but then this allows 16.Rxd3 cxd3 17.Ng5 Nf5 18.Nxf7 Rg8 19.Bxc6+ bxc6 20.Qa6 Rc8 21.Bd2 Be7 22. g4 ! as I now find in Yurov, Aleksandr Andreevich (2379) - Nemtsev, Savely Vladimirovich (2347) / MT-Averkin (RUS) (-), ICCF 2012,  1-0(28). In Geist, Helmut Dr (2592) - Pfretzschner, Roland (2546) / GER/Pirs10/B (GER) (-), ICCF 2011, Black tried 21.... Rc7 22.Qxd3 Be7 23.g4 Nh4 24.Nd6 Rb8 25.f4 Rb2; 1-0(47). Of course, at the time I did not have access to these games. But as there were several games pending and the clock was not stopping, I finally decided to play 15...h6.

15...h6 16.Bc1 b6 17.Qa6 Kc7 18.Bxc6 Kxc6 19.Nd2!!

This was another shocker. Till this move, I thought White may be better, but never winning. But soon, I discovered the reality.  That's why, 15...b6 seems to be a better alternative now.

19...Kc7 20.Nb3 Bb4! 

Getting my pieces out was most important. If 20...Ne7 (the engine favourite) 21.Nc5 bxc5 22.Qd6+ Kc8 23.dxc5 a5 24.Qb6 Bc2 25.c6 Rb8 26.Qa6+ Kc7 27.Qa7+ Kxc6 28.Qxb8 Bxd1 29.Be3! d4 30.Bxd4 Kd5 31.Be3 Nf5 32.Qb5+ Ke4 33.Qxc4+ Kxe5 34.Qc3+ Ke4 35.Ba7 was not a journey to the liking of my king.

21.Nc5 Bxc5 22.dxc5 Ne7 23.Be3 d4!

Sacrificing a pawn, but activating my pieces and gaining counterplay.

24.Bxd4 Nd5 25.a4 Rhc8 26.Qb5 Kd8

26...Kb7 27.cxb6 axb6 28.Bxb6 Nc3 29.Qd7+ Kxb6 30.Qd4+ Rc5 31.Qxc3
Rxa4 32.Qd4 Kb5 33.Qd7+ Kb4 also seems OK, but that's another run with my king.

27.cxb6 axb6 28.Bxb6+ Nxb6 29.Qxb6+ Ke8 30.Rc1 Rab8 31.Qd4 Ra8 32.Qb2 Rc5

Now, all the Black pieces are active. In general, the Queen is supposed to be better than a Rook, Bishop and a Pawn. This happens when the Queen, in cooperation with the other pieces, is able to attack and capture more material. But here, the White queen was not able to make progress.

33.f4 Rca5 34.Ra1 Kf8 35.Qb4+ Kg8 36.Kf2 Be4 37.Qxc4 Bd5 38.Qb4 Bc6 39.g3 g6 40.Ke3 h5 41.Qd6 Bxa4

Now, I heaved a sigh of relief. The remaining White pawns are all on one side, and the game was moving towards a draw.

42.h3 R5a6 43.Qc5 Rb8 44.Qc4 Bb5 45.Qc7 Rf8 46.Rxa6 Bxa6 47.g4 Bf1
48.gxh5 Bxh3 49.hxg6

Here White offered the draw, and I gladly accepted.

1/2-1/2

Here is the current crosstable, and I am tied for the 11th to 13th places:

The draw rate in this tournament seems to be particularly high, with even the leader not making a GM norm yet. In my previous tournament , seven players had achieved GM norms!