Corresponding

I PLAY correspondence chess, mainly for various England teams, at the Fide-affiliated International Correspondence Chess Federation.

Engines mean the vast majority of games are drawn, and I do not post them here.

Occasionally a game escapes that fate, or has some other point of special interest.

Ion Rotaru (2279) - Spanton (2278)

Romania v England 2023

Board Nine (of 24)

QGD Exchange

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 c6 6.e3

How should Black proceed?

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6...Bd6!?

Overwhelmingly most popular in ChessBase's 2023 Mega database is breaking the pin with 6...Be7, while Nigel Short has been fond of 6...Bf5!? However Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik have tried the text.

7.Bd3 0-0 8.Nf3 h6 9.Bh4 Be6 10.Ne5!?

Stockfish15.1 likes this, but Komodo14.1 prefers the more-obvious 10.0-0. Both engines also like 10.Qb3!?

10...c5!?

Taking advantage of the instability of the white king's knight.

11.0-0 Nc6

Alexey Sarana (2688) - Aram Hakobyan (2612), Chess.com Rapid 2022, saw 11...cxd4 12.exd4 Nc6 13.Nxc6 bxc6 14.Na4 with a slight edge for White, according to the engines (1-0, 58 moves).

12.Nxc6 bxc6 13.dxc5 Bxc5 14.Na4 Bd6 15.Rc1 Rc8 16.Nc5 Qb6 17.Nxe6!? fxe6

White has won the bishop-pair and created holes around the black king, but has strengthened Black's centre

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18.Qe2 Qc7

The engines, at least at first, prefer 18...Kh8, but the text is also reasonable.

How should White respond?

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19.g3??

This would be bad enough over the board, but is horrendous at correspondence. It cannot be blamed on a fingerslip as the procedure at the ICCF is that first you input your move on a board at the website, you then have to scroll down to hit SUBMIT, at which point you are shown the board again and then you have to scroll down to hit COMMIT. In other words there are three chances to avoid a blunder.

Komodo14.1 reckons 19.Bg3 Bxg3 20.hxg3 may give White a slight edge, while Stockfish15.1 suggests 19.Bxf6!? Rxf6 20.g3, claiming White definitely has a slight edge.

19...g5 20.Bxg5 hxg5

White has precious little compensation for a knight.

21.e4 dxe4 22.Bxe4 Nxe4 23.Qxe4 Qf7!? 24.Qe3

The engines prefer this over 24.Rxc6 Rxc6 25.Qxc6 Be5 26.b4 Bd4.

24...Qf5 25.Rc4 c5 26.b3 Rcd8 27.Kg2 Kf7 28.Re1 Rh8 29.Kg1 Be7 30.Ra4 Rd7 31.h4 Bf6 32.Ra6 Re7 33.hxg5 Bd4 34.Qf4 Kg6 35.Qxf5+ Kxf5 36.Kg2 Reh7!? 37.Kf3

Or 37.Raxe6 Rh2+ etc.

37...e5 0-1

Team standings can be seen here.