Warmest Regards and Amici Sumus,
Michael Millstone
ICCF Finance Director
Direct Entry Administrator
International Correspondence Chess Master
Overall Good Guy (or so says my wife)
The Liechtenstein Museum Match
By IM Corky Schakel
Roland Stratmann is an artist affiliated with the Kunstmuseum in Liechtenstein. He has developed several projects celebrating games in art, and proposed a chess match with an Israeli and Arab team playing an American and a Cuban team, sponsored by ICCF. Since I had played in the tournament honoring 30 years of the Cuban Correspondence Chess organization, I was selected to play with SIM Pablo Salcedo Mederos as my teammate. Our opponents were GM Yoav Dothan (Israel) and SIM Khalid Chorfi (Morocco). The format was for one move to be made per day, Tuesday through Saturday, with the players alternating turns making moves. This is a fast time control for correspondence chess, but the quality of the moves was still good.
The game was displayed in the lobby of the Kunstmuseum, on a board on the ceiling (each square about one meter on a side), with banners hanging down for the pieces. The lobby also serves as a restaurant, so there was chess on display with lunch and dinner. By coincidence my wife and I were invited to the wedding of our 1990 foreign exchange student in Paris in late May, shortly before the match was to begin. So we flew to Zurich and took a one hour train ride to Sargans, Switzerland. The museum staff was very welcoming, including a brief car ride to the Kunstmuseum. It is a new museum of modern art, and we were given a tour of the museum by Roland Stratmann and curator Nike Baetzner. Our hosts made the visit delightful, a good start on our trip to Paris for the wedding.
Pablo played odd numbered moves, and selected the Sicilian Defense, 1.e4 c5… I have met this with white pieces, but never played it as black. And I always play Bb5 lines, so this was an adventure for me!
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Nd5 f5 11.Bd3 Be6 12.Qh5 Rg8 13.g3 … White had numerous choices here, but they played what is considered the sharpest move.
13. …Nd4 … This is the best of several options for black.
14.c3 fxe4 15.Bxe4 Bg4 16.Qxh7 Rg7 17.Qh6 Nf3+ 18.Ke2 … Here 18.Kf1 Rg5 19.Nf6+ Ke7 20.Qh8 Nd2+ 21.Kg2 Nxe4 22.Nxg4 Rxg4 23.f3 Nxg3 does not give white much, if any, advantage.
18. … Ng5+ 19.f3 Nxe4 20.fxg4 Qc8 21.Qe3 Qxg4+ 22.Qf3 Qxf3+ 23.Kxf3 f5 …, and this is the end of ECO (B33) analysis, with the position “unclear.” But it looks to me like a draw should be reached, although white is now defending a somewhat weaker position (black controls the center, as noted below).
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7+-+-+-tr-'
6p+-zp-+-+&
5+p+Nzpp+-%
4-+-+n+-+$
3sN-zP-+KzP-#
2PzP-+-+-zP"
1tR-+-+-+R!
xabcdefghy
24.Nc2 Kf7 25.Nce3 Nf6 26.a4 Nxd5 27.Nxd5 Ke6 28.Rhd1 Raa7 …, a position also reached in Tommasi-Panicali (Sicilian Lasker theme tournament, 1999) and Kahl-Sakai (Board 1 in the15th Anniversary Tournament of the Rochade, Germany Chess Club, 2004). Both games ended in a draw shortly thereafter. Black has a space advantage, and control of the center, but not enough advantage to counter the threat of white’s h-pawn.
XABCDEFGHY
8-+-+-vl-+(
7tr-+-+-tr-'
6p+-zpk+-+&
5+p+Nzpp+-%
4P+-+-+-+$
3+-zP-+KzP-#
2-zP-+-+-zP"
1tR-+R+-+-!
xabcdefgh
29.b3 Rh7 30.axb5 axb5 31.Rxa7 Rxa7 32.g4 fxg4+ 33.Kxg4 Ra3 … The possibility of 33. … Be7 is met by 34.Nxe7 …, and pushing the h-pawn.
34.Nc7+ Kd7 35.Nxb5 Rxb3 36.Rf1 Be7 37.c4 Rb4 ½–½. Despite white’s isolated pawns, the advancing h-pawn forces a draw.
It was a pleasure and an honor to play this match on the ICCF server, and to play with Pablo as a teammate. I enjoyed the communications with Pablo, as well as Yoav Dothan, Khalid Chorfi, and our TD, Med Samraoui. This was a truly memorable summer for me! Corky Schakel, Lakeland, Minnesota
SCCA 25th Anniversary
Match v. ICCF Select
By George Pyrich
This event was devised as part of our celebrations of the 25th anniversary of our founding in 2002. Basically the idea was to play a match with as many boards as possible (by either email or post) against an ICCF select team. Organising the event soon proved to be a considerable task and I am grateful to Richard Beecham who recruited the Scots players. As we hoped for at least 125 boards, it was clear that the Scots players would have to play more than 1 board and “volunteers” were asked to specify the number of boards they could take – Jim Anderson and Derek Coope both agreed to take 6! As each board involved 2 games (1 White, the other Black), Jim and Derek both took on 12 games! Obviously it was desirable to try to pair everyone against opponents of roughly equal strength and so it was necessary to carefully outline “rating requirements” when extending invitations to other Federations – also, care had to be taken in offering postal boards only to those countries with good postal connections! Due to the aforementioned “rating requirements”, the ICCF team (average rating 2020), drawn from 19 countries, was in no way representative of ICCF’s true strength but rather tailored towards our strength (average rating 1984).
Eventually, pairings were produced for players from 20 countries over 129 boards (47 postal & 82 email) and play finally commenced on 1 December 2002. I captained the Scots team whilst Duncan Chambers (ENG) kindly agreed to fulfil this role on behalf of the ICCF team. Unfortunately, for various reasons, play had to be abandoned during the first year on 5 boards. However, everything seemed to go smoothly on the remaining 124 boards and presently, almost 3 years after the start, only 3 games remain unfinished. As in all such friendly matches, the overall score is relatively unimportant. For the record, the ICCF select, currently ahead by 147 points to 98, won comfortably.
PNUM
|
First Name/s
|
Surname
|
Result
|
No.
|
Result
|
|
PNUM
|
First Name/s
|
Surname
|
Country
|
210802
|
Douglas S.
|
Finnie
|
0
|
1/2
|
|
1
|
|
1
|
1/2
|
460889
|
Taisto
|
Koskela
|
FIN
|
210802
|
Douglas S.
|
Finnie
|
1
|
1/2
|
|
2
|
|
0
|
1/2
|
160061
|
Carlos
|
Flores Gutiérrez
|
ESP
|
210802
|
Douglas S.
|
Finnie
|
1/2
|
0
|
|
3
|
|
1/2
|
1
|
450451
|
Lars Sture
|
Olsson
|
SWE
|
620211
|
Philip M
|
Giulian
|
1/2
|
0
|
|
4
|
|
1/2
|
1
|
80408
|
Gerhard
|
Binder
|
GER
|
620211
|
Philip M
|
Giulian
|
1/2
|
0
|
|
5
|
|
1/2
|
1
|
241018
|
Eros
|
Riccio
|
ITA
|
620334
|
Colin A
|
McNab
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
|
6
|
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
510999
|
Dr. Anatole
|
Parnas
|
USA
|
620184
|
C Richard
|
Beecham
|
0
|
0
|
|
7
|
|
1
|
1
|
150768
|
Klaus Høeck
|
Johnsen
|
DEN
|
620204
|
George
|
Pyrich
|
1
|
1/2
|
|
8
|
|
0
|
1/2
|
130863
|
Josef
|
Mrkvicka
|
CZE
|
620204
|
George
|
Pyrich
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
|
9
|
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
420269
|
Witold
|
Bielecki
|
POL
|
620204
|
George
|
Pyrich
|
0
|
1/2
|
|
10
|
|
1
|
1/2
|
513931
|
Grayling
|
Hill
|
USA
|
620204
|
George
|
Pyrich
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
|
11
|
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
150234
|
Søren
|
Peschardt
|
DEN
|
620237
|
Thomas J
|
Craig
|
1/2
|
0
|
|
12
|
|
1/2
|
1
|
20584
|
Pedro
|
Hegoburu
|
ARG
|
620237
|
Thomas J
|
Craig
|
0
|
0
|
|
13
|
|
1
|
1
|
460268
|
Pertti
|
Raivio
|
FIN
|
620237
|
Thomas J
|
Craig
|
|
|
|
14
|
|
|
|
510683
|
Richard
|
Aiken
|
USA
|
620498
|
Dr. Alan C.
|
Brown
|
1/2
|
0
|
|
15
|
|
1/2
|
1
|
150525
|
Svend Kronborg
|
Kristensen
|
DEN
|
620498
|
Dr. Alan C.
|
Brown
|
1
|
1
|
|
16
|
|
0
|
0
|
510624
|
Anthony
|
Albano
|
USA
|
620482
|
C. Jonathan
|
Lennox
|
1
|
0
|
|
17
|
|
0
|
1
|
460614
|
Birger
|
Wikman
|
FIN
|
620482
|
C. Jonathan
|
Lennox
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
|
18
|
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
150039
|
Aage
|
Justesen
|
DEN
|
210426
|
Christopher
|
Fordham-Hall
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
|
19
|
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
450751
|
Jan
|
Bennborn
|
SWE
|
620238
|
George W.G.
|
Livie
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
|
20
|
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
100125
|
Georg
|
Walker
|
SUI
|
620238
|
George W.G.
|
Livie
|
1
|
0
|
|
21
|
|
0
|
1
|
150602
|
Tomas Guldberg
|
Hansen
|
DEN
|
620212
|
Raymond W.M.
|
Baxter
|
|
1
|
|
22
|
|
|
0
|
510289
|
Eric
|
Osbun
|
USA
|
620212
|
Raymond W.M.
|
Baxter
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
|
23
|
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
260153
|
Dave
|
Salter
|
IRL
|
620098
|
A.P.
|
Borwell
|
0
|
0
|
|
24
|
|
1
|
1
|
210849
|
Duncan
|
Chambers
|
ENG
|
620098
|
A.P.
|
Borwell
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
|
25
|
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
130429
|
Jaromir
|
Canibal
|
CZE
|
620529
|
Robert S.
|
Montgomery
|
0
|
0
|
|
26
|
|
1
|
1
|
511675
|
Ed
|
Limayo
|
USA
|
620529
|
Robert S.
|
Montgomery
|
1
|
1/2
|
|
27
|
|
0
|
1/2
|
159049
|
Karsten
|
Fyhn
|
DEN
|
620529
|
Robert S.
|
Montgomery
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
|
28
|
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
70104
|
Warner Bruce
|
Kover
|
BRA
|
620529
|
Robert S.
|
Montgomery
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
|
29
|
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
90161
|
Serge
|
Maurer
|
CAN
|
620529
|
Robert S.
|
Montgomery
|
1/2
|
0
|
|
30
|
|
1/2
|
1
|
550040
|
Dinand
|
Knol
|
RSA
|
620342
|
Kenneth W.C.
|
Stewart
|
0
|
0
|
|
31
|
|
1
|
1
|
10465
|
Heinz
|
Lejsek
|
AUT
|
620342
|
Kenneth W.C.
|
Stewart
|
0
|
0
|
|
32
|
|
1
|
1
|
450599
|
Börje
|
Ivegård
|
SWE
| |