I PLAY correspondence chess at the Fide-recognised International Correspondence Chess Federation, mostly for various England teams.
Occasionally a game is lost because a player sets up a faulty position at home and so transmits a blunder, or because a player loses on time, perhaps due to a lifestyle crisis.
But thanks to engine-use the vast majority of games are drawn, and I do not bother to post such games here.
However sometimes a game escapes the drawing margins, or is interesting in another way.
Spanton (2277) - Giel Massy (2130)
PC Gibbs Memorial A
Sicilian Bb5(+)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nd7 4.a4!? Ngf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4
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| This position occurs 145 times in ChessBase's 2024 Mega database |
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It also arose in my subsequent
game at last month's Upper Franconian Seniors Championship, where 6...g6 was played.
6...b6!? 7.d4!?
Offering a transposition to an Open Sicilian. Normal is castling.
7...cxd4
Possibly a novelty. The only game to reach the position in Mega24, Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (2372) - Elizaveta Solozhenkina (2279), Gibraltar Masters 2019, went 7...Bb7!? 8.d5 g6 9.0-0 Bg7 10.Re1 0-0 11.h3, with the upper hand for White, according to Stockfish16.1 and Dragon1, although the game was eventually drawn.
8.Nxd4 g6!? 9.Bd5!? Nxd5
Forced, as 9...Rb8?? runs into 10.Nc6 etc.
10.Nxd5!? Bb7
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| How would you assess this opening position? |
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Black has the bishop-pair, but White has well-placed knights. The engines give White a slight edge.
11.Bg5 h6 12.Bh4 Qc8!?
Breaking the pin on the e pawn, so the king's bishop can go to g7 without allowing a capture on e7.
13.0-0 Qc4!?
Another way to counter the pressure on e7.
14.Ne3 Qc5 15.Re1!?
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| Can Black safely capture the e4 pawn, and, if not, why not? |
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15...Rc8
It seems Black can play 15...Bxe4, but White gets compensation and the game becomes very sharp, eg 16.Nb3 Qh5 17.Qd4 Qxh4!? 18.Nd2!? (18.Qxh8 Ne5 is also hard to assess) e5 19.Qc4!? Bg7 20.Nxe4 0-0 21.Nxd6 Qxc4 22.Ndxc4, after which material equality has been restored. Stockfish16.1 reckons the position is equal, but Dragon1 gives White a slight edge. There are many plausible alternatives along the way.
16.c3 g5!?
The engines prefer 16...e6.
17.Bg3 h5 18.h3 e6
After 18...Bxe4!? 19.Qe2 the engines reckon White has more than enough for a pawn, eg 19...Bb7 20.Rad1 e5!? 21.b4!? Qxc3 22.Ndf5 Qc7 23.Rd2 h4 24.Bh2 Rg8 25.Red1 Rg6 26.Qh5 with a strong attack.
19.Nb3 Qc7
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| How would you assess this middlegame position? |
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The engines give White at least the the upper hand. One obvious positional factor is that Black has not castled, and the remaining option of castling kingside, even if it should become possible, does not look enticing.
20.a5 b5 21.c4 b4!?
If 21...bxc4 then 22.Rc1 is not nice to meet, eg 22...Ne5 23.Bxe5 dxe5 24.Nxc4, after which lines to Black's king have been opened.
22.Ra4 e5 23.Rxb4 Bxe4
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| At last the e4 pawn, which has been en prise since move 15, has fallen, but the capture only restores material equality, and now White has strong play based on the looseness of the light-square bishop and the vulnerability of Black's king |
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26.c5 Ba8 27.Rd4!? f6
Not 27...exd4? 28.Nd5+, but possibly better is 27...Rh6, although 28.cxd4 comes anyway.
28.cxd6 1-0
I doubt if anyone would resign at this point over the board as the position still looks messy, but White is a pawn up, and the black king seems increasingly vulnerable. Best play goes something like 28...Qb7 29.Qd3 Kd8!? 30.Rc4!? Rxc4 31.Qxc4 h4 32.Bh2 Bxd6 33.Rd1 Be7 34.Nc5 Bxc5 35.Qxc5, when White has given back the extra pawn, but is winning, according to the engines. However, it is certainly not a position I would resign, even at correspondence chess - I would want White to show that something concrete will come of White's fine-looking position.
Note that I have been unable to pinpoint the move that lost the game for Black. Perhaps it was a Steinitzian case of White accumulating a series of minor positional advantages.
