The Kibitzer 
by Tim Harding

POWER PLAY IN THE CORRESPONDENCE CHESS
OPENING

The opening is even more important in correspondence chess than
OTB, because there is no need to avoid the most critical moves
for fear of memory failure or distrust in one's analytical powers
against the clock. Many players are attracted to CC for the very
reason that it gives excellent scope and motivation for studying
openings, especially sharp ones, in depth. Such "power" players
often decide a high percentage of their games in the first 20
moves; of course not everyone has the time or the desire to
approach chess in this way and other approaches to CC openings
play can also pay dividends. Much depends upon the level of
opposition you are meet and on your style of play.

Another factor may be whether you play your correspondence
games by post or e-mail. The postal transmission times in
traditional CC do give the player who is caught out in the opening
some chance to recover: if he can make a sound first reply after a
few days research and thought, he can then count on many days, if
not several weeks, before he must move again. In an e-mail or fax
game, his clock may be ticking again within 24 hours.

The power player's game plan is to maximise the advantage of his
opening knowledge and analytical powers. With White he goes
for direct play, often following OTB grandmaster praxis. If Black
chooses an inferior line, he hopes to cash in; if Black defends with
reliable main lines the power player expects to achieve an edge,
which he will be able to convert to victory in many cases. He
provokes confrontations in the belief that most of his opponents
will be found wanting. With Black, the power player has more of
a dilemma. To minimise draws, he may tailor his choice of
opening to the expected level of opposition. Against high rated
opponents, he may defend with a main line (or more likely a sub
variation he knows well) and be content with a draw but against
inferior opposition, he will attempt to win by playing sharp
variations that he has studied deeply, even though this involves
more risk.

In the following game from the European Towns CC tournament
of 1988, Scotland's leading CC player (now GM) Douglas Bryson
takes on the challenge of the Polugaevsky Sicilian and unerringly
puts his finger on one of the weak spots in that extremely
complicated line. 

Bryson-J.Zoltai: 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6
6 Bg5 e6 7 f4 b5 8 e5 dxe5 9 fxe5 Qc7 10 Qe2 Nfd7 11 0-0-0 Bb7
12 Qg4 Qxe5 13 Be2! Bc5 14 Nf3 Stean's move: with 13 Be2,
unlike some violent attempts to overthrow the Polugaevsky,
White gives up only a pawn for which he evidently receives good
compensation. This is good CC: find the most precise sequence of
moves to induce an error and then drive home the advantage.
Black tries the reply recommended by Polugaevsky himself:
14...h5!? 15 Qh4 Be3+ 16 Kb1 Bxf3 17 Bxe3 Bxe2 18 Bd4 Bxd1
In an earlier game played OTB, 18...Qf5 proved insufficient: 19
Nxe2 0-0 20 h3 e5 21 Bc3 Nc6?! 22 Rd6 b4 23 Ng3 Qf4 24 Qxf4
exf4 25 Bxg7! (Bryson-Gallagher, Nottingham 1987). 19 Bxe5
Bxc2+ 20 Kxc2 Nxe5 21 Qg5 Nbc6 22 Ne4 Nd4+ 23 Kb1 Nf5 24
Rd1 Ng6 25 Nd6+ Nxd6 26 Rxd6 0-0 27 Qxh5 Rfd8 28 Qf3 Rxd6
29 Qxa8+ Kh7 30 Qb8 Rc6 31 h4 f6 32 g4 Ne5 (32...Nxh4 33
Qe8 Rc5 34 Qxe6) 33 g5 Kg6 34 Qe8+ Kf5 35 Qf8! Nf3 36 a3 a5
37 Qxg7 fxg5 38 h5 Nd2+ 39 Ka2 b4 40 axb4 axb4 41 Qg6+ Kf4
42 b3 Ne4 43 Kb2 Ke3 44 h6 Kd3 45 Kb1 Rc8 46 Qh7!! (Not 46
h7? Rf8!= as Bryson points out.) 46...Rf8 47 Qd7+ Ke3 48 Qa7+
Kd3 49 Qa6+ Kd2 50 h7 Nc3+ 51 Kb2 Nd1+ 52 Ka1 Rh8 53
Qb7! Nc3 54 Qg2+ Kc1 55 Qxg5+ Black resigned. While this
policy is characteristic of ambitious young players who enjoy
theory battles in their OTB games too, it may also be adopted by
players whose library/database is one of their main weapons. 

 "Power play" is no new phenomenon; ever since Chigorin there
have been CC masters who believed in direct and trenchant play
in search of a large advantage from the start. An example was the
late Charles W.Warburton, undoubtedly one of England's
strongest CC players in the 1950s and 1960s. A regular
contributor to the BCCA's magazine, many of his liveliest articles
have been collected in the book "My Chess Adventures",
published some years ago in the USA by Thinkers Press and
based on Warburton's many articles for the British
Correspondence Chess Association magazine.

Warburton, a great believer in open play, liked to decide matters
in the middle game if possible, usually by exploiting opponents'
inaccuracies or choice of openings he considered inferior, such as
the Caro Kann! His writings show he was a dogmatist but this is
not necessarily a bad thing when allied to good openings
judgment, great self confidence and a talent for sacrificial
attacking play. It is a shame that Warburton played so few games
against the top CC players of his day. Controversially left out of
the first British olympiad team, he took immediate revenge by
winning the following game against one of those who, preferred
to him, soon earned the IM title:

Warburton-C.S.Hunter, Northern Counties CC Team Champ
1962-63: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nxe5 d6 4 Nf3 Nxe4 5 Qe2 Qe7 6
d3 Nf6 7 Bg5 Be6 This line against the Petroff, since favoured by
Spassky, belies its innocuous reputation. Black is often advised
nowadays to accept the lifeless position resulting from 7...Qxe2+
but Warburton quoted such authorities as Capablanca and
Botvinnik who pointed to the tempo lost by Black and said the
resulting endgame is far from drawn if White plays precisely. 8
Nc3 h6 9 Bxf6 Qxf6 10 d4 Be7 11 Qb5+ ECO gives a line from
Yudovich with 11 0-0-0 but Warburton disliked castling
queenside on principle. 11...Nd7 12 Bd3 g5 13 Qxb7! This move
is still not in the books! They were following
Capablanca-Marshall, St Petersburg 1914, in which White
achieved a good game by 13 h3 0-0 14 Qxb7 Rab8 15 Qe4 Qg7
16 b3 c5? 17 0-0 cxd4 18 Nd5. "The readiness of Dr Hunter to
follow Marshall raised great suspicions in my mind and I gave
very careful attention to the possibilities at this point," wrote
Warburton. He eventually spotted 16...Nc5! (a move once pointed
out by Tarrasch and analysed further by Sozin). He concluded that
13 h3 was a waste of time, which would be better employed by
taking the b pawn, when Black (rather than play under the
handicap of a pawn deficit) would have to keep his king in the
centre: 13...Rb8 14 Qe4 Rxb2 15 0-0 Qg7     If instead 15...Nc5,
Warburton intended 16 Bb5+! Rxb5 17 Qc6+ Bd7 18 Qa8+ Bd8
19 Nd5 Qf5 20 Nxc7+ Ke7 (20...Kf8 21 Nxb5 Bxb5 22 Qxd8+
Kg7 23 Qxd6 Bxf1 24 Rxf1) 21 Nxb5 Bxb5 22 Rfe1+ Kd7 23
dxc5 Qxc5 24 Rad1 Bf6 25 Qb7+ Kd8 26 Qxf7 Bc3 27 Re6 etc.
Or if 15...g4 16 Nd2 Nc5 17 dxc5 Qxc3 18 Qa8+ leading to a win.
16 Bb5 Bd8 Against 16...g4 Warburton prepared 17 Nd2 Bf6 18
Qa8+ Ke7 19 Nd5+ Bxd5 20 Qxd5 Bxd4 21 Rae1+ Be5 (21...Ne5
22 Nc4) 22 Nc4. 17 Bxd7+ Kxd7 (See Diagram) 18 Ne5+! A
positional sacrifice obtaining open lines and persistent
light-square pressure in return for the pawn. Warburton finished
off nicely by 18..dxe5 19 d5 Ke8 (19...Bh3 20 Qa4+ Kc8 21 Rab1
Rxb1 22 Rxb1 Qg6 23 Nb5) 20 dxe6 fxe6 21 Rad1 Rb6 22 Nb5
a6 23 Na7 Rd6 24 Nc6 Bf6 25 Rxd6 cxd6 26 Rb1 d5 27 Qa4 Qc7
28 Qxa6 Qd6 29 Rb7 Bd8 30 Rg7 1-0. Afterwards Dr Hunter
wrote to his opponent: "Capablanca must be turning in his grave
at missing what you found."

"Power play" is not the only route to success at CC. Some very
fine players are content simply to steer for comparatively
unexplored positions, reckoning that they will be able to outplay
their opponents from an "equal" position. Their objective is to
find a repertoire that enables him to play for a win in the later
middle game or endgame by frustrating the wiles of the power
player. Here is an example of how such a policy may be
implemented, with a few comments based on notes by the winner
in "Fernschach". Dr M.Negele-N.Gallinnis, 1st United German
Team Ch 1992 93:  1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 c3 Nf6 4 h3 White
observed that his opponent (a postal IM, former German Junior
CC Champion and active OTB Bundesliga player) was playing for
the ChessBase Userclub team and would be certain to have a large
database at his disposal. For that reason he started by selecting a
"harmless sideline" against the Sicilian in which Black would be
able to find only a moderate amount of game material. Since
ex-world-champion Smyslov had played this line as White, he did
not believe it could be anti-positional. The idea behind 4 h3 is to
transfer the f1 bishop to c2, as a preparation for d2 d4, without
allowing ...Bg4; of course 4...Nxe4?? fails to 5 Qa4+. The best
reply may be 4...Nc6 5 Bd3 g6 as in Dobrovolsky-Ftacnik, Trnava
1984 but 4 h3 is still relatively unstudied. 4...g6 5 Bb5+! White
now expected 5...Nc6 or 5...Bd7 with a transposition to a form of
the Rossolimo (3 Bb5) variation, but Black chose: 5...Nbd7?! 6
Qe2 Bg7 7 O-O O-O? 8 d4 a6 Too late, and a sign that Black has
been thrown off balance by White's opening choice. He should
have played ...a6 before the bishop could tuck itself in behind the
advanced d-pawn. Now a kind of Ruy Lopez arises. 9 Bd3!? e5 10
dxe5 dxe5 11 a4! We can leave the detailed analysis of the game
here, with White having established a grip on the queenside and
preparing to take firm control of the open d-file. He won in 31
moves after some inaccuracies. For the record the game ended:
11...Nh5 12 g3 Qc7 13 Nbd2 b6?! 14 Nc4 Rd8 15 Bc2 Rb8 16
Rd1 Bb7 17 Bg5! Nhf6 18 Nd6 Rf8 19 Rd2! h6 20 Bxf6 Bxf6 21
Rad1 Rbd8 22 h4? (22 Qe3! Kg7 23 Bb3 is more forcing, with
threats against f7.) 22...Kg7 23 Bb3 Nb8 24 Nh2 h5?! 25 Nf1
Bc6? 26 Ne3 Kh7 27 Nef5! c4!? 28 Bxc4! Bxa4 29 Qe3! Bg7 30
b3 Bd7?? (He had to try 30...Rxd6!) 31 Nxf7! 1-0.

Score one to the anti-theoreticians. However, I would point out
that after such a line as 3 c3, 4 h3 achieves a few successes it will
be noted, played more and studied. Thus we have Harding's
Axiom: What is untheoretical today, will become theory
tomorrow!