THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

1

CONTENTS From the Secretary’s Desk Annual Report 2003 - 2004 Editorial Income and Expenditure Account Annual General Meeting Application Form for AICCF Membership The Fifth AICCF Championship, 1505 Close Competition in 1801 Miniature Masterpieces III Bobby Fischer Faces Charges Solutions to Baker’s Dozen Problem Section - 3 The ICCF Webserver Project An Interview with Iain Mackintosh An Interview with Martin Bennedik Chess Crossword Chess Quiz Games Section Corchegimmic Crypt-O-Quest Readers Write Short comments New Tournaments Etc. Ratings International Section Answers to Chess Quiz

E.G.Meherhomji A.Chatterjee

T. Pavan Kumar D.M.Modak S.M.Mody A.Chatterjee A.Chatterjee A.Chatterjee T.Pavan Kumar Anil K. Anand Santhosh Paul T.Pavan Kumar

A.Chatterjee Anil Anand

2 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 11 17 19 22 25 28 34 37 41 43 51 52 53 57 58 61 63 64

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

2

FROM THE SECRETARY’S DESK The publication of this Bulletin is quite late. After the Congress 2004, Mumbai is over we should be able to get back to regular and timely publication of the Bulletin. We remind our readers that the ICCF Congress 2004 will be held at the Retreat Hotel, Madh Islands, Mumbai from 30 October to 5 November, 2004. Members from Mumbai and outstation who want to attend should contact me. There will be a simultaneous display by GM Pravin Thipsay, an ICCF vs. local team match and a Blitz competition. We welcome the new members, A.G.Kalsekar, Amol Agarwal, Dinesh H. Dave, Dr. Dinkar Pai and Debajit Dey.

E.G.Meherhomji Hon. Secretary-cum-Treasurer

ANNUAL REPORT 2003 – 2004 The decision to host the ICCF Congress, 2004 was taken by our beloved President Shri H.J.Samtani. It is a tribute in his memory to carry out his desire. Preparations are underway to make this event a success. The membership figures for this financial year in comparison to last year are given below:

Donor Members Life Members Ordinary Members Total

As on 31.3.03 17 112 83 212

As on 31.3.04 17 119 61 197

We had a good number of new members this year. There is a slight reduction in the total number of members after deleting inactive members from our list. P.M.Dalvi President

E.G.Meherhomji Secretary-cum-Treasurer

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

3

EDITORIAL

We apologise to our readers for the delay in bringing out this issue. From August 1999, we ensured a smooth flow of information to our members by means of the AICCF Bulletin published quarterly (prior to that it was biannual). But this year the May 2004 issue was dropped altogether and the present August Bulletin is delayed in publication to the end of September. There are several factors that have contributed to this situation. I was out of India for long periods this year, there was a heavy load of work connected with the ICCF Congress 2004, a change of house and some other personal circumstances which have contributed to the lapse. When difficulties arise, many things seem to happen at once. I had problems with both the computers I use and despite the precautions I take in this regard, I had to struggle to recover my data and records. The rating calculations took a lot of time. The work to upgrade the software for AICCF ratings is unfinished. In the last 2 periods, the results for the special championship 1801 have not been calculated within the existing software system. These calculations were made from work sheets. This is an error prone and laborious process and several members have written to us pointing out discrepancies. I hope that the contents of this issue, running into a record 64 pages in someway makes up for the delay. Highlights of this issue are articles by Pavan Kumar and Anil Anand. In fact these two members have been very enthusiastic and are willing to contribute substantially for future issues. We request feed back from our members about these articles. We also request our members to go through the letters on the Readers Write page and get back to us in agreement or disagreement with the important issues raised. The ICCF Web Server is a new and exciting method of playing correspondence chess. We are including 3 articles about this important development in this issue. Please note my new postal address (see cover page). The email address is not changed.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

4

All India Correspondence Chess Federation Income and Expenditure Account for the year ending 31 March 2004 Expenditure Rs. Books and Periodicals Printing and Stationeries 17,024.00 Postage Expenses 4,781.00 Audit Fees 810.00 Bank Charges 313.00 ICCF Membership Fees 1,820.40 ICCF Tournament Fees 1,183.26 Public Trust Fund 834.00 Advertising Expenses 1,175.00 Misc. Exp. 2,600.00

Income Entrance Fees AICCF Annual Subs. ICCF Annual Subs. AICCF Championship Fees Friendly International Fees ICCF Tourn. Entry Fees Donation Bank Charges Received Advertisement Income Miscellaneous Bank Interest 14,667.05 F.D. Interest

Excess of income over expenditure Total 45,207.71

Rs. 700.00 1,500.00 1,500.00 1,400.00 200.00 1,728.00 10,000.00 150.00 12,500.00 2,613.90 1,454.02 11,461.79

Total 45,207.71

For T.B.Karnik & Co. Sd/- E.G.Meherhomji Sd/- P.M.Dalvi Chartered Accountants Sd/- T.B.Karnik (Prop.) M.No. 42238 (Seal) Dated at 1st July 2004

Balance Sheet As At 31 March 2004 Funds & Liabilities Trust Funds or Corpus: Balance as per last B/S Life Membership Fees ICCF Life Mem. Fees Earmarked Funds: Last Year’s Balance Prizes Fund

Rs.

Property & Assets Advances: 96,750.00 Tax Ded. On Interest 5,400.00 Advance for Hotel Booking 3,000.00 Cash and Bank Balances: 14,430.00 Current A/c 1,000.00 Canara Bank HDFC Bank Fixed Deposit 810.00 Canara Bank 1,431.00 HDFC Bank

Rs. 39.00 5,000.00

38,963.50 23,364.76

Liabilities: For Expenses: Audit Fees 111,898.00 For sundry Credit Balance 52,636.79 Income & Expenditure A/c Balance as per last B/S 96,004.38 With Manager/Trustee 1,590.38 Surplus as per I & E A/c 14,667.05 Total 233,492.43 Total 233,492.43 For T.B.Karnik & Co. Sd/- E.G.Meherhomji Sd/- P.M.Dalvi Chartered Accountants Sd/- T.B.Karnik (Prop.) M.No. 42238 (Seal) Dated 12th July 2003

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

5

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING All India Correspondence Chess Federation 6, Ashok Apartments, Sane Guruji Nagar, V.B.Pahadke Marg, Mulund(E), Mumbai 400 081 th

The 11 Annual General Meeting of the members of the Federation will be held on Sunday 3rd October 2004 at 10:00AM at the new residence of Dr. Chatterjee (11 Shreeniketan, Anushakti Nagar, Colaba). The agenda will be as follows: th

1. To confirm the minutes of the 10 Annual General Meeting held at the th residence of President Shri P.M.Dalvi on 28 September 2003. 2. To consider and adopt: a) The report of the Managing Committee on the working of st AICCF during the year 2003-2004 ended 31 March 2004. b) The Income and Expenditure Account for the year 2003st 2004 and the Balance Sheet as on 31 March 2004. c) To appoint the auditors for the year 2004-2005. 3. To discuss the arrangements for the ICCF Congress to be held at Mumbai during 30 October – 5 November 2004. 4. To discuss the financial and accounting matters connected with the ICCF Congress 2004 and to consider and adopt resolutions required to expedite these matters. 5. To consider any other business with the permission of the chair, the prior notice of which has been given to the Management Committee in advance of the meeting, and take decision thereupon. The decisions taken in the meeting shall be binding on all members. Only members shall be entitled to attend. Intimation of proxy attendance should be given at least 48 hours in advance. In view of the delay in publication of this bulletin, this notice is being circulated by email and telephonic intimation has already been given to members who have been attending the previous AGMs.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

6

APPLICATION FORM FOR AICCF MEMBERSHIP Mail to: Shri E.G.Meherhomji, Secretary-cum-Treasurer, Brahmand Phase II, A-6, G-3, Azad Nagar, Sandoz Baug P.O., Thane (W) 400 607 I wish to join the All India Correspondence Chess Federation I am sending the fees for one of the following categories of membership (tick one): ο Rs. 1550/- Donor Member (Rs. 1500/- + Rs. 50/- Entrance Fee) ο Rs. 650/- Life Member (Rs. 600/- + Rs. 50/- Entrance Fee) ο Rs. 150/- Ordinary Member for 2 years (Rs. 100/- + Rs. 50/- Entrance Fee) Fill in the form below, leave blank any of the items which do not apply. Attach additional sheets if you wish to write anything about yourself . If possible send us a passport size photograph. Name (in Block Caps): (Please underline your family name for alphabetic listing) Address (with PIN):

Phone (Res): Email:

Phone (Off): Fax:

Date of birth: Occupation (Student/Business/Service etc): Educational Qualifications: Learnt about AICCF through: (friend, advertisement etc.): Introduced by (AICCF Member): Chess Playing Level: Beginner/Mid-Level/Advanced: Chess Experience: (Tournaments played etc.):

If you are below 16 years of age: Father/Guardian’s Name: Father/Guardian’s Occupation: Father/Guardian’s Educational Qualifications:

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

7

You can ask to play in upto 3 tournaments right away. These can be postal or email. You can also play in both postal and email. AICCF ratings are integrated for postal and email play. ο

I wish to play in 1/2/3 email tournaments (My email address is given above). The start lists and instructions will be sent by email.

ο

I wish to play in 1/2/3 postal tournaments. I am enclosing 1/2/3 self addressed stamped envelopes for sending me the start lists.

Payment Options (select one) Demand Draft or Mumbai cheque or outstation cheque with Rs. 50/- (bank clearance charges added) in favour of All India Correspondence Chess Federation is enclosed

A money order has been sent separately in the name of Shri E.G.Meherhomji at the above address

DD/Cheque No: Date: Amount: Name of Bank: Branch:

Receipt No: Date: Amount: Name of Post Office: Pin Code:

Signature: Place: Date:

For AICCF use: Date: Ref No: Receipt No: Membership No: Remarks:

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

8

THE FIFTH ALL INDIA CORRESPONDENCE CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP, 1505 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Sunil Somani A.G.Nagaradjane R.K.Chauhan Dr. K.Prabhakar N.Neelakantan Vaibhav Saxena Dr. A.Chatterjee Mookiah Reddy V.Shivdasani Dr.A.B.Surveyor Tyagi Dr DRKS Rao K.Lhouvum Gautam De N.R.Anil Kumar

1 2 1 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 ½½ ½ 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

3 4 5 6 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½½ ½ 1 0 ½ 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

7 ½ 1 0 1 0 1

8 9 1 1 1 1 1 0 ½ 1 1 0 1 ½ 1 0 1 1 0 0 0

½ 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

10 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 ½ 1 0 0

11 12 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ½ 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

14 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1

15 Score 1 10.5/12 1 10.5/13 1 9/12 1 9.5/13 1 8.5/13 1 8.5/14 1 8/14 1 5.5/11 1 6.5/13 1 6/14 1 4/11 1 3.5/11 1 4/13 1 2/14 0 0/14

% 87.50 80.77 75.00 73.08 65.38 60.71 57.14 50.00 50.00 42.86 36.36 31.82 30.77 14.29 0.00

Neelakantan, N. – Chauhan, R.K. Sicilian Poisoned Pawn, B82

Shivdasani, V. – Tyagi, D. Caro Kan,B19

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f4 e6 7.Qf3 Qb6 8.Nb3 Qc7 9.g4 b5 10.g5 Nfd7 11.Bd3 Bb7 12.Qh3 g6 13.Rf1 Bg7 14.f5 Bxc3+ 15.bxc3 exf5 16.exf5 Ne5 17.fxg6 fxg6 18.Rf6 Kd8 19.Kd2 Nbd7 20.Rf4 Re8 21.Ba3 Nb6 22.Na5 Rb8 23.Bb4 Bd5 24.Rf6 Nc8 25.Nb3 Qd7 26.Qg3 Kc7 27.Re1 Qe7 28.Nd4 Kb7 29.a4 Nb6 30.Re2 Qd7 31.axb5 Nbc4+ 32.Kd1 axb5 33.Bxd6 Ra8 34.Rxe5 Ra1+ 35.Ke2 Nxd6 36.Kd2 Nc4+ 37.Bxc4 bxc4 38.Rxe8 Qxe8 39.Rd6 Ra5 40.Qg4 Kc7 41.Qf4 Kb7 42.Qf6 Ra1 43.Ne2 Bc6 44.Re6 Qc8 45.Nd4 Bd7 46.Re7 Qc7 47.Rxh7 Rb1 48.Ne6 Qd6+ 49.Qd4 Qxe6 50.Qxd7+ Qxd7+ 51.Rxd7+ Kc6 52.Rg7 Rg1 53.Rxg6+ Kd7 54.h4 Rg2+ 55.Kc1 Rh2 56.Rh6 1-0

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 e6 11.Bd2 Qc7 12.O-O-O Ngf6 13.Qe2 Be7 14.Ne5 c5 15.Nxd7 Qxd7 16.dxc5 Qc6 17.Bc3 Qxc5 18.Bxf6 gxf6 19.Ne4 Qe5 20.g4 a5 21.Rhe1 O-O 22.Rd7 Rfe8 23.Qd2 Red8 24.Rxd8+ Rxd8 25.Qxh6 Qd5 26.Kb1 Qd1+ 27.Rxd1 Rxd1+ 28.Qc1 Rxc1+ 29.Kxc1 Kh7 30.Kd2 Kh6 31.Kd3 f5 32.gxf5 exf5 33.Ng3 Kg5 34.h6 Bf6 35.h7 Kg4 36.c3 Bg7 37.Kc4 f4 38.Ne4 Kf3 39.Kd3 b6 40.Ng5+ Kxf2 41.Ke4 Kg3 42.a4 Bh8 43.Nxf7 f3 44.Nh6 f2 45.Nf5+ Kg2 46.Ne3+ Kg3 47.Kd3 Kf3 48.b4 Bxc3 49.Kxc3 Kxe3 50.h8=Q axb4+ 51.Kxb4 f1=Q 52.Qe5+ Kd2 53.Qc3+ Kd1 54.Qa1+ Ke2 55.Qxf1+ 1-0

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

9

CLOSE COMPETITION IN 1801 SPECIAL TOURNAMENT The Special Tournament 1801 is a great opportunity for players who are not playing in the presently on going AICCF Championships. It has provided the chance for players to improve their skills by playing against a competitive field and the prospect of enhancing their rating thereby possibly qualifying for the next AICCF Championship. 1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Meherhomji Gala Pandavakrishna Bhave Dr Nagaraj Wahee Dabholkar Sgt.Bhowmick Torvekar D.Sarkar K.Shiva Kumar Kalapi Trivedi Shyamal Sarkar Bansphore Pandalai N.G. Yezad Mistry H.P.Chavan T.Pavan Kumar

0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Pts

0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 ½ 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1

0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 ½ 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0

0 4/13 1 1 13/13 7/10 6/9 0 6½/11 0 4/9 1 1 12/12 3/7 0 0 0/17 0 6/8 0 4½/13 1 13/13 4/11 5/8 0 0 0/17 0 0 0 0/17 1 1 0 3/6 1 1 1 9/11

The leading players at the moment are K.L.Gala and Kalapi B.Trivedi with a perfect score of 13/13 followed by P.S.Dabholkar also with a 100% score of 12/12. This is followed by a very creditable score of T.Pavan Kumar. Y.Pandavakrishna, Milind Bhave, D.Sarkar, Ajay Kr. Bansphore are all doing very well. As mentioned elsewhere, we have a problem in updating the ratings arising from this tournament. We have done the best we can for the moment but the possibility of errors is noted. We request all the players to go through the above cross table and note any discrepancies. We will shortly be sending a proforma to all the participants in order to check all our data. We will then review the calculated ratings during the past two 6-month periods and incorporate the necessary corrections.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

10

Please send us your interesting games with notes. We have received only a few game scores without notes and we are publishing two of these. In both cases the game was level almost upto the end till the loser made a simple error. Gala, K.L. – Chavan, H.P. Irregular Opening, A00 1.a4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 d6 4.e4 Nf6 5.Bd3 O-O 6.O-O Nbd7 7.Qe2 e5 8.dxe5 Nxe5 9.Nxe5 dxe5 10.Nc3 c6 11.Rd1 Qc7 12.Bc4 Re8 13.b3 Bg4 14.f3 Be6 15.Bxe6 Rxe6 16.Be3 Ne8 17.a5 Rd6 18.b4 Rxd1+ 19.Nxd1 Qd7 20.Nb2 Bf8 21.c3 Nc7 22.Rd1 Qe6 23.Qc4

23…Re8? This loses the a-pawn directly (24.Bxa7) or after the exchange of queens as in the game. 24.Qxe6 Rxe6 25.Rd7 Nb5 26.Rxb7 Nxc3 27.Bxa7 Re7 28.a6 Nb5 29.Bc5 Re8 30.a7 1-0 Bhave, Milind – Dabholkar, P.S. English Opening, A29 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 Bc5 5.Nf3 O-O 6.d3 d6 7.O-O Nd4 8.Ne1 c6 9.e3 Nf5 10.a3 Bb6 11.Nf3 Re8 12.b4 d5 13.cxd5 cxd5 14.Na4 Bc7 15.Bb2 a5 16.Qc2 Bd6

17.e4 Nh6 18.Bc3 Qc7 19.Rfc1 axb4 20.axb4 d4 21.Nc5 Rxa1 22.Bxa1 b6 23.Na4 Qb8 24.Qd2 Qa7 25.Nb2 b5 26.Ne1 Qe7 27.Nc2 Be6 28.f4 Ra8 29.Nd1 Ra2 30.Bxd4 There was no need for this ‘finesse’. It only loses time and alows Black some play on the a-file. 30…exd4 31.e5 Bb3 32.exd6 Qxd6

33.Nc3? And this simply loses a piece. 33…dxc3 0-1

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

11

MINIATURE MASTERPIECES III THE STEINITZ IMMORTAL GAME Tumuluri Pavan Kumar [email protected]

Author: T.Pavan Kumar

W

hen asked by the famous Russian Historian, Issak Linder, as to which game of the past made a particularly strong impression on him, former World Champion Mikhail Tal cited this game. In particular Tal praised, “The beautiful and picturesque stroll of the unprotected White Rook along the seventh Rank”.

W: Wilhelm Steinitz (2700) B: Curt Von Bardeleben (2635) The International Chess Congress Hastings, England 17.08.1895 st

The 1 Official World Champion was a man by the name of Wilhelm Steinitz. Steinitz dominated the chess world in the 1860’s, 1870’s and 1880’s. He founded the principles on which modern Grandmaster play is built. Not many people are aware of the fact that Bardeleben was leading the tournament undefeated with 7.5 points out of 9 when this game was played! He had thus far played some

of the best chess of the tournament. Unfortunately, Bardeleben never recovered from this loss and practically collapsed after this game was played. But even though he never got back to the form he had st demonstrated in the 1 part of the tournament, he still finished well, th th tying for 7 – 8 places with Teichman on 11.5 points but ahead of many stronger (and famous!) players like Janowsky, Bird, Schlechter etc to name just a few. In this game, Steinitz shows the punching power it takes to be the best. His opponent was so upset at the incredible moves Steinitz was smashing him with, that he left the playing hall in the middle of the game and never returned that day. Let’s take a look at this classic th brilliancy from the 19 Century, which Irving Chernev acknowledges as being one of the 100 Best Games Ever Played! 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 This is called the Italian Opening also known as Giuoco Piano Opening.

THE AICCF BULLETIN 4.c3 Both sides have developed their pieces quickly but now Steinitz decided to take the centre under greater pawn control. As long as the pawn moves made in the opening are intended to control the centre, they are good, otherwise forget about the pawns and move the pieces. 4…Nf6 5.d4! The most energetic continuation. 5…exd4 6.cxd4 Black had better not touch the “d4” pawn. Even though he has two attackers -the “c5” Bishop and the “c6” Knight, white also has two defenders (i.e., the queen at “d1” and Knight at f3). So, Defence cancels out Attack. 6…Bb4+ 7.Nc3!? Now, Black should invariably take the “e” pawn. White cannot capture back because his Rook is pinned. It cannot move as it is shielding the White King from check. Instead of taking the pawn, Black moved his “d” pawn forward. Greco recommends this move and Steinitz has again recommended it in his “Modern Chess Instructor”. Steinitz

Aug 2004

12

also played this variation against Schlechter in this tournament. 7…d5!? Instead, Opening Theory recommends 7…Nxe4!? 8.0-0 Bxc3 (8…Nxc3!?) 9.d5! This is the deadly “Moeller Attack” which breathed new life into this variation. Though this continuation is condemned in some opening manuals, it is better than it is reputed to be. Schlechter here played Nxe4, which is the correct move, following it up with 8.0-0 Bxc3 9.bxc3 d5 10.Ba3 (Steinitz’s new move on which the whole variation depends) 10…Be6 11Bb5 Nd6 with an equal game. 8.exd5! Nxd5 White still cannot move his Knight because of the pin. Pins can be extremely annoying. So, use them to your advantage whenever you can. 9.0-0! The Best Move. Castling is most often done to get the King to safety behind the pawn shelter (i.e., f2, g2 and h2 pawns) and quickly bring the Rook into the game. White is now ready to play Knight takes Knight on d5. An interesting alternative, however, is 9.Bxd5 Qxd5 10.0-0 etc. 9….Be6 With the open situation of the King in the centre, an attempt to win a pawn would be disastrous for Black because

THE AICCF BULLETIN of the continuation 9…Nxc3!? 10.bxc3 Bxc3? 11.Bxf7+ Kxf7 12.Qb3+ when the Bishop is lost 12…Be6 13.Qxc3 while the exposed position of the King makes it susceptible to dangerous attacks. 10.Bg5 Black has to watch out! White’s last move develops a piece and attacks the Black Queen. 10…Be7!?

Now, the board looks very complicated. But White has the advantage because of one factor: King Safety. His King is safe & tucked away while the Black King is still in the middle of the action. Of course not 10…f6 because of 11.Re1 attacking the Bishop on e6. Watch how White exchanges off his bunch of pieces in order to clear a path to the enemy King as well as prevent his opponent from castling. 11.Bxd5! Bxd5 Of course not 11.Re1?? Nxc3 12.bxc3 Bxc4 -/+ Also, if 11.Nxd5 Bxd5! 12.Bxd5 Qxd5 13.Re1 f6 14.Bf4 0-0-0! and Black claws his way back into the game. 12.Nxd5! Qxd5 13.Bxe7 Nxe7 14.Re1!

Aug 2004

13

A Good Move! Black’s king is desperate to get out of the middle of the board but if Black were to castle right now, then White’s Rook gobbles up the Knight on e7. After this fine move, Black can never castle. If he tries something like 14…Qd7, then White will include the Queen in the attack along the e-file by 15.Qe2. The attempt to include the Rook in the defence (Ra8-d8-d7) is difficult since it takes a long time during which White further strengthens his position. If 14…Rd8 then 15.Qe2 Rd7 16.Ne5 Rd6 17.Ng6! Re6 18.Nf4! Rxe2 19.Nxd5 etc winning the exchange. The object of the foregoing exchanges now becomes clear. By this excellent move, the first player obtains full command of the board. He prevents Black from Castling and also initiates a most powerful attack against the hostile King – Wilhelm Steinitz. 14…f6! This is interesting. Black plans an artificial Castling manoeuvre by Kf7 and Re8. Black will now try to unpin himself by moving his King to f7. 15.Qe2! White keeps up the pressure. Now, Black’s King is definitely stuck in the middle of the board because he cannot afford to castle and lose a Whole Knight. That’ll be like losing your right hand in the middle of a fight! 15…Qd7 This move defends the Knight and prepares Black for his artificial Castling manoeuvre. 16. Rac1!? Notice how the Masters play. Every piece is brought into action before the final onslaught begins. No piece must ever be left sleeping except, of course, the King. However, according to modern theory, 16.d5 or 16.Qe4! is much stronger here.

THE AICCF BULLETIN Let’s consider the line, 16.Qe4! c6 17.Re2 Kf7 18.Rae1 Nd5 19.Qh4 etc, when it is difficult for Black to defend himself. 16…c6?

This is a fatal mistake by Black. He should have been more concerned with the safety of his King and shifted it to the f8 square i.e., Kf8. This could be the best defence for Black. What’s wrong with 16…Kf7 ? In this case, 17.Qc4+ Kf8 and Black has lost a valuable tempo in moving his King to safety. Black evidently played 16…c6? to neutralize White’s pressure along the cfile and to cover up the pawn on b7 hoping that he might be able to play …Kf7 later on. “It would have been preferable to play16…Kf7 as White had then nothing better than 17.Qxe7+ Qxe7 18.Rxe7+ Kxe7 19.Rxc7+ King moves 20.Rxb7 and Black still has a prospect of a draw.” – Dr. Tarrasch. Now, take a look at this position and see if you can spot White’s next move. 17.d5!! White begins one of the most remarkable combinations in the history

Aug 2004

14

of Chess. This is the prelude to an excellent original combination. White sacrifices a pawn in order to bring the Knight into battle through the evacuated square, thereby powerfully strengthening the attack. White needs the d4 square for his Knight. 17…cxd5 18.Nd4! Continuing with his plan, this is the beginning of a very beautiful combination. 18…Kf7 This move is forced. Of course not 18…Rc8?? 19.Rxc8+ Qxc8 20.Qxe7+ with mate to follow soon. 19.Ne6! WOW!! What an awesome Knight! Imagine trying to fight an enemy who’s so close to you that you can actually smell him! Not a pleasant thought…. In this position, the Knight is lured to the weak “e6” square like a Sumo wrestler and Black is about to get saddled. Steinitz referred to this Knight as “A bone stuck in poor old Bardeleben’s throat”. 19…Rhc8 A natural move striving on the part of the defender to improve his position through exchanges. Also, White was threatening 20. Qc7 20.Qg4!! THE BEST MOVE!! There’s a two on one attack on the “g7” pawn and also threatens a mate in two with 21.Qxg7+ Ke8 22.Qf8# 20…g6 Of course not 20…Ng5? because of 21.Ng5+ winning the Queen. 21.Ng5+! A Spectacular Move! If Black takes the Knight, he can kiss the Queen Goodbye! An interesting alternative here is 21.Rxc8!? Rxc8 22.Ng5+ Ke8 23.Nxh7 Qxg4 24.Nxf6+ Kf7 25.Nxg4 when White is a pawn ahead coupled

THE AICCF BULLETIN with his better pawn structure. 21…Ke8

Completely forced as Black has to protect his Queen. Now, follows an original combination by the 1st World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz who is rightly considered “The Father of Modern Chess”. 22.Rxe7+!! A vicious body blow! One of the most brilliant moves ever played!! Now, White has everything hanging and will be constantly threatened with a back rank mate. The combination starts! If Black takes the Rook with the Queen, then White will have a 2 on 1 attack on the Black Rook on c8 i.e., If 22…Qxe7? 23.Rxc8+ Rxc8 24.Qxc8+ Qd8 25.Qxd8+ and White wins easily with his extra piece. But, if Black takes the Rook with his King, the position becomes a little more complicated. Let’s take a good look at what would’ve happened if Black had captured the Rook with his King: 22…Kxe7 23.Re1+ Now, Black has to protect his Queen from being captured.

Aug 2004

15

23…Kd6 (Very bad would have been 23…Kd8 because of 24.Ne6+ Ke7 24.Nc5+ and the Queen is dead!) 24.Qb4+ Kc6 25.Rc1# It’s quite possible that Black might have calculated this variation till the end and hence chose not to capture the Rook with his King. “There were many critics of Steinitz who said he played penny-pinching chess. But if that were true, he would’ve played 22.NxP! which wins a pawn and probably the endgame. But he has more.” – GM Andrew Soltis. White could also have won easily with 22.Nxh7! with a clearly better position. But let’s go back and see what Black actually played. 22…Kf8! An excellent reply, underscoring the weakness of White’s last rank. Now, if White gets greedy and grabs the Queen, then Black can capture the Rook on c1 with his Rook and it’ll be curtains for White. However, the present position seems to be against White’s advantage as all his pieces are under attack. But from the subsequent play, it is clear that the Champion had conceived the plan perfectly till the end. 23.Rf7+! The Rook still cannot be captured with the Queen because White threatens to knock the c8 Rook right off the board. 23…Kg8 A forced move. The following variation leads to the loss of a piece: 23…Qxf7 24.Rxc8+ Rxc8 25.Qxc8+ Qe8 26.Qxe8+ and White wins easily. Black might have had an outside chance of a victory if White had taken the queen, overlooking checkmate on the first Rank.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

16

But the story isn’t finished yet. Steinitz shows the spectators that the game was really his and to prove his point, he shows them the next 10 moves that he had foreseen in advance. Here is the finale of the game as envisaged by Steinitz who demonstrated it to the public: 25…Kg8 We have already seen what happens if Black captures the Rook. 24.Rg7+! The Apex! White continues the hammer blows. Now, the King cannot take the Rook because White will take the Black Queen but this time with Check. This is precisely the position Steinitz foresaw when starting the combination. The defenceless Rook continues to harass the King. An interesting continuation could have been 24.Rf8+!? Kxf8 25.Nxh7+ Ke726.Re1+ Kd8 27 Qb4 +/- with a winning position. 24…Kh8 Taking the Rook leads to an instant death. If 24…Kg7 then 25.Qd7+ leaving no time for Black’s Rc1# On the other hand, if 24…Kf8? then 25.Nxh7+ Kxg7 or Ke8 26.Qxd7+ 25.Rxh7+!! A very brilliant final parting shot!! Another blow to the head. Steinitz has been showing so much dazzling punching power that Von Bardeleben was soon embarrassed to continue the game. At this point, Bardeleben stood up, and without making another move on the board, left the tournament hall and did not return that day.

26.Rg7+! Kh8 27.Qh4+! Kxg7 28.Qh7+ Kf8 29.Qh8+ Ke7 30.Qg7+ Ke8 31.Qg8+ Ke7 32.Qf7+ Kd8 33.Qf8+ Qe8 34.Nf7+ Kd7 35.Qd6#

A Stunningly beautiful Epaulette Mate!!

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

17

BOBBY FISCHER FACES CHARGES

Fischer in 1972

R

obert James Fischer is every chess player’s hero. His ascent to the throne of World Champion with 6-0 victories against Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen, 6.5 – 2.5 against Tigran Petrosian and 12.5 – 8.5 in the championship match against Boris Spassky have become legend. His apparently eccentric ways off board coupled with his chess genius on board gave a fillip to chess publicity in 1972 when teenagers to grandfathers were tuned to Reykjavik and the sale of chess sets soared the world over. But after attaining the pinnacle of success, Fischer went into seclusion, defaulting the crown to Anatoly Karpov in 1975. It was a great loss to chess, for the mastery of Bobby Fischer’s chess was lost to the world. In 1992, twenty years after Reykjavik, Fischer resurfaced to play a ‘return’ match against Boris Spassky and won easily. There were only flashes of his former self in evidence in his games, but after 20 years, what could one expect.

Recent photo Fischer was back … now sporting a beard … could we hope to see more of him? But his comeback in 1992 created another controversy. U.S. authorities accused him of violating U.N. sanctions imposed against Yugoslavia by playing the match. The sanctions were imposed on Yugoslavia for provoking warfare in neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina. Fischer was indicted by a grand jury but apparently managed to evade the authorities. During this period, some press reports say that Fischer in radio broadcasts praised the September 11 terrorist attacks, saying America should be wiped out, and adding derogatory remarks about Jews. Now, in July 2004, we have the news of his detention at Narita Airport, Tokyo, by the Japanese authorities apparently for passport violations with the possibility of his deportation to the US where he faces criminal charges for having played a match against Boris Spassky in Yogoslavia.

THE AICCF BULLETIN Fischer, with the help of his lawyer seeks to revoke his US citizenship and asks for political asylum to a suitable country, although, we are told that such an action will not protect him from the US action. The chess world is clearly in Fischer’s favour. One cannot comment on his controversial views, but expressing views is not a crime in a democratic world. His playing in Yogoslavia had no known political overtones. Why should the US push for his arrest? Boris Spassky (a citizen of France since 1978) has expressed the sentiments of Fischer’s supporters in a letter to the US President. In this letter he argues that Bobby is an honest and good man and appeals for mercy. But where the letter strikes home is that Boris Spassky himself is not being persecuted by the French government for having played in Yogoslavia. He ends his letter dramatically thus, “Bobby and myself committed the same crime. Put sanctions against me also. Arrest me. And put me in the same cell with Bobby Fischer. And give us a chess set.” Will the eccentric chess genius be pardoned? Will the US authorities put aside their anger and let things pass? If the US pardons him, will Fischer remain in Japan where he has friends and support with the Japanese Chess Federation, or will he migrate to another country? AICCF remembers the wonderful games the chess genius played. The rd 3 Game against Spassky in the World Championship was a turning point of sorts. Fischer was 2-0 down

Aug 2004

18

at this point having lost the first game and forfeited the second. But rd after this 3 game he never had to look back. Spassky, Boris – Fischer, R.J. rd 3 WC Game, Reykjavik, 1972 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nc3 g6 7.Nd2 Nbd7 8.e4 Bg7 9.Be2 O-O 10.O-O Re8 11.Qc2 Nh5 12.Bxh5 gxh5 13.Nc4 Ne5 14.Ne3 Qh4 15.Bd2 Ng4 16.Nxg4 hxg4 17.Bf4 Qf6 18.g3 Bd7 19.a4 b6 20.Rfe1 a6 21.Re2 b5 22.Rae1 Qg6 23.b3 Re7 24.Qd3 Rb8 25.axb5 axb5 26.b4 c4 27.Qd2 Rbe8 28.Re3 h5 29.R3e2 Kh7 30.Re3 Kg8 31.R3e2 Bxc3 32.Qxc3 Rxe4 33.Rxe4 Rxe4 34.Rxe4 Qxe4 35.Bh6 Qg6 36.Bc1 Qb1 37.Kf1 Bf5 38.Ke2 Qe4+ 39.Qe3 Qc2+ 40.Qd2 Qb3 41.Qd4 Bd3+ 0-1

Recent news By the time you read this, Bobby Fischer may be already married to Miyoko Watai, four-time Japanese women's champion and president of the Japan Chess Association. It is not clear is this marriage will help him in avoiding deportation and trial in the US.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

19

SOLUTIONS TO BAKER’S DOZEN Deodutta Mahadeo Modak Shree Bungalow, Plot No 1, Usha Kiran Society, Opp. Milk Scheme, Trimbak Road, Nashik 422 002 Maharashtra

The Feb 2004 Bulletin, “A Bakers Dozen” presented 13 Classical Mate in 3 problems. Unfortunately three of the problems (Diagram numbers 6, 8 and 10) were printed incorrectly. The positions were corrected immediately in the online edition of the AICCF Bulletin. This time we give the solutions of the remaining 10 problems and the correct positions for problem numbers 6, 8 and 10 but without the solutions so that readers who did not see the corrected positions on the AICCF web page may try out the solutions.

Composer: C.A.L.Bull

Composer: P.L.Rothenberg

2

1 Key: 1.Qh3

Key: 1.Bd1

THE AICCF BULLETIN Composer: W.Jorsensen

Aug 2004

W.A.Shinkman & O.Wurzburg

4

3 Key: 1.Be6

Key: 1.Bc6

Composer: J.Warton

Composer: W.A.Whyatt

5

6 Key: 1.Rh7

Position corrected

Composer: L.Lushinsky

L.F.Anderson & V.L.Eaton

7

8 Key: 1.Rg6

20

Position corrected

THE AICCF BULLETIN

21

Composer: V.L.Eaton

Composer: F.Giegold

9

Aug 2004

10 Key: 1.Qh8

Position corrected

Composer: S. Brehmer

Composer L.I.Loshinski

11

12 Key: 1.Qb7

Key: 1.Ng7

Composer: L.I.Loshinski

Please send your solutions and comments to D.M.Modak at the postal/email address given at the beginning of this article.

13 Key: 1.Rg5

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

22

PROBLEM SECTION - 3 Suresh M. Mody H-6, Saraswati Society, NG Acharya Marg, Chembur, Mumbai 400 071 Email: S.M.Mody continues his series about Chess Problems started in the Nov 2003 Bulletin .

L

et us first see the solution of the problem set in the last issue for solving. Anonymous

which uses all of White's force (with permissible exception of K and Ps). The pieces form letter 'I', probably to honour someone whose name started with I. Such problems belong to letter theme. The Black King had two flight squares available to it in this problem. Now we see a problem in which the available flight squares to the Black King is the theme. Dr. A. Miskolczy

6 Mate in two Set Play: 1...Kd4 2.Qc4 1...Kf4 2.Qg4 Key: 1.Qe7 Threat: None - Waiting move Variations: 1...Kd4 2.Qb4 1...Kf4 2.Qh4 This neat little composition packs so many interesting features with just five pieces on board! It is a complete block with a key that changes both the set mates - a very good mutate. The mates are economical, a term used for a mate

7 Mate in two In the set position the king has two flight squares. The interesting key allows it two more. The four squares now available are all along the two

THE AICCF BULLETIN diagonals. Such a pattern of flight squares constitutes the Star-Flight theme. Let us see the solution. Key: 1.Pg4 Threat: None - Waiting move Variations: 1...Kf4 2.Qf5 1...Kh4 2.Be7 1...Kf6 2.Qe7 1...Kh6 2.Be3 All the mates are economical, a term we have just learnt while discussing problem no. 6. The mates are also pure, a term used for mating positions in which each of the square in the king's field is either blocked by one of its own piece or is guarded by only one opposing piece. The mates in problem 6 were economical but not pure as the squares c4 and g4 were guarded by both the Q and the N. A mate that is both pure and economical is termed as a model mate. Thus the excellent miniature shows star-flight theme with all the four model mates. After this simple but beautiful miniature, let us see a more complex twin problem - two problems in one. G. Latzel 1st place, Holland vs. Germany

Aug 2004

23

8B The set positions seem packed with white force and hardly any force to defend the black king! Still the problem is very interesting. Part A has a try that permits star-flights. None of the flights available in virtual play (variations after a try) are possible after the key. The other four flights now become available. These squares create a pattern of plus sign and thus in actual play (variations after the key) shows the plus-flight theme. Let us see the solution to part A. Try: 1.Nxh6? 1...Kxh6 2.Pg8(Q) 1...Kh4 2.Be7 1...Kxf4 2.Qc1 1...Kf6! Key: 1.Ng6! Threat: None - Waiting move Variations: 1...Kxg6 2.Rd5 1...Kf5 2.Rg3 1...Kh5 2.Rg2 1...Kg4 2.Re5

8A

There is complete change of defences as well as mates between the virtual

THE AICCF BULLETIN and actual play. Thus the theme is total virtual change. Such change is sometimes between set and virtual or between set and actual play or between all three phases. Part B of the problem, a twin with a small change in the position, provides interesting change. What was a try in A is the key in B and what was the key in A is now a try!

Aug 2004

24

The twin becomes very interesting due to reversal of try and key. This time I leave you with a star-flight problem to solve. It has some very interesting features and hence had won a first prize in a tourney. I do not provide any more details as it will reveal the solution and spoil your pleasure of solving it.

Try: 1.Ng6? 1...Kxg6!

M. Lipton 1st Prize Segal Memorial Tourney, 1961

The square f7 is no longer guarded by the WK; so 2.Rd5 is not a mate. Mates after other defences are as in actual play in part A. Key: 1.Nxh6 Threat: None - Waiting move Variations: 1...Kxh6 2.Pg8(Q) 1...Kh4 2.Be7 1...Kxf4 2.Qc1 1...Kf6 2.Be7 This mate has been made possible as Pg7 is now defended by the WK on h8!

9 Mate in two

Please send your solutions to me along with any comments you might have. We are interested to see how many of our readers are interested in chess problems. My address postal and email are given at the beginning of the article.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

25

The ICCF Webserver Project A.Chatterjee

I

guess it would be sometime in mid-2003 that several people active in ICCF began to seriously contemplate a webserver for ICCF. By this time there were already many webservers in the cyberworld where chess could be played “live” on the Internet and a few of these were for correspondence chess. The technology for such servers was available in the mid-90’s and in fact quite a few servers for various games began surfacing along with advances in the software that make it possible. The thought of a webserver for ICCF must have occurred to many of us at that time, but email itself was a new concept for many, so it was felt that people were not yet ready for the webserver. But, today it is a different story. For the technologically minded, I would go so far as to say that the webserver is a necessity rather than a novelty for CC. The webserver can be thought of as a new medium for playing correspondence chess. Over the years CC has been played with many different methods of communication: postal, telegraphic radio and telephone in older times, fax and email in modern times. The advent of the computer and email brought about a faster, inexpensive (compared to international post) and more convenient method of communication for playing CC. But along with it, it brought in a few

problems also. In addition to playing skill, there was always the ‘other side’ of CC – clerical errors, record keeping, reporting results back to the TD and being vigilant about the time limit (oneself and opponent). With the faster pace of email, and the lack of a hard copy (how many people take printouts?) the clerical burden appeared to have increased. The threat of a computer crash, wiping out your CC records was always very real. The webserver is an interface allowing you to play CC where a picture of the board showing the current position of each of your games appears and you can make your move by clicking the mouse. Records are kept within the server. You can log in from any computer anywhere at home or office, without downloading any software and make your move. You don’t even need to carry a chessboard when you are travelling. So long as you have web access, you are in touch. There is no fear of computer crash; you could continue the games from any computer. Crucial, of course, is reliable and fast web access. Today, good web access is taken for granted in the developed countries. In India, in the bigger cities web access has become very good in the last couple of years. Cybercafes with broadband Internet abound even in small towns. The high cost of computer hardware, alas makes it unavailable in homes

THE AICCF BULLETIN except to those in the higher income groups. With my interest in computers and the Internet, I had long been toying with the idea of setting up a CC server for AICCF, but realised that we would have only a handful of members with web access. It was nevertheless an exciting thought. Somewhere around the beginning of 2003 I enquired and learnt that ICCF was planning to setup a webserver. Unfortunately, by the time I received an email from Iain Mackintosh (late 2003) asking for help with the webserver project I was already involved in preparations for the ICCF Congress, Mumbai 2004 and I feared I wouldn’t have the time to work for a software project of this magnitude. I was assured however that Martin Bennedik was to do the real programming work and perhaps I could help out with some parts of it. The first work I did for the server was a Javascript which allows the user to browse through his game. The game notation is displayed along with the board diagram. When the text of a move is clicked, the diagram is updated with the current position. If you browse the internet (including the ICCF website) you find examples of Javascripts that could do this already. But what we needed was a fixed Javascript program – one code that could handle any game. The existing Javascripts were generated separately for each game, and that was not the idea for our webserver. In the end the task proved to be not too difficult since we were not to display any variations or subvariations, just the main line.

Aug 2004

26

The other task I did was the ‘drag and drop interface’. This is again a Javascript. It allows the user to drag his piece (or his opponent’s piece in case of conditional moves) to a new square. The Javascript checks that the move is legal and wont allow illegal moves. There were some difficulties here. If the program was complicated, it would run slowly and would be irritating to the user. So a lot of effort was put to write the best possible code. A second difficulty presented itself. The software technology for dragging images on internet pages (dynamic HTML) is in its infancy. It is complicated; I did not know how it worked, and the example programs I saw, showed unreliable behaviour. I was afraid I would not be able to generate a suitable and stable code. I wanted to incorporate a simple move interface that would just highlight the piece and destination squares. But Martin persisted. I did some study, browsing the Internet and located the information and software components I needed and finally completed the task. There remained a bug which I was aware of and a couple of bugs I was not aware of. These too were eventually resolved. The detailed programming of the webserver was done by Martin Bennedik. This includes all the interfaces to the tournament tables, login, access for arbiters, ratings, the web page for the position display, full legal check of moves (in addition to what is in the Javascript), record keeping etc. Another area where my experience came in handy was in the preparation of the images for the chessboard and pieces. Thanks to

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

27

Chessbase, we already had all the images we initially needed for the display. But for the drag-and-drop feature we needed piece images with transparent backgrounds. We also decided that we ought to have the option of displaying ‘a’ to ‘z’ and

‘1’ to ‘8’ along the edges of the board. This was straightforward but time consuming because there were options for different board and piece sizes. I had to work on 468 image files!

A sample screen dump is shown above. Go to the web site located at www.iccf-webchess.com and you will be able to see how the server looks for yourself. Unless you are a player, you won’t be able to drag

and drop pieces, but it is possible to view all the games that are currently in progress (with a 3-move delay) in the very first event being conducted on this server – the Chess Mail ICCF-Webchess Inauguration Event.

The two interviews that follow were given for the AICCF Bulletin and appeared on the AICCF website (The Martin Bennedik interview was simultaneously released on AICCF and ICCF web sites). We also gave permission for other websites and magazines to reproduce these interviews freely.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

28

An Interview with Iain Mackintosh - ICCF Webserver Project Manager By A.Chatterjee We have seen ICCF games played by postal mail and email. Now ICCF has introduced a new way of playing correspondence chess – the Webserver. On the webserver, players can see a picture of any game they are playing on their computer and can enter their next move on the board using the mouse. Record keeping and time accounting are done by the webserver. This means that the players are free from clerical tasks and can concentrate more on the game itself. It also does away with many of the disputes and some of the controversies that can arise in CC play. The tasks of the archiving the game scores, cross tables and calculation of ratings also become automatic, thereby freeing the tournament arbiters of huge amounts of work, eliminating human errors and delays. In this interview, Project Manager Iain Mackintosh talks about ICCF’s Webserver Project. 1. Correspondence chess players the world over are delighted with the news about the ICCF Webserver. When was it eventually decided to go ahead with the project? What was the expected date for completion and how far was it possible to keep to the schedule? The decision to proceed with the project was made at the ICCF Congress in Ostrava, Czech Republic, held in October 2003. The decision was a unanimous vote by national delegates, and it followed a presentation of a proposed plan, budget and methods of raising finance to do the work. Phase 1a of our project was scheduled to complete by end-June 2004, to allow our first live event to start in July - we have finished that work on time. In August we will complete phase 1b, which is mostly to allow team events to be held. We have kept well within our budget. 2. Can you give an overview of the features of the webserver? The first thing to notice is that the webserver has been specially built for CC

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

29

administrators and players. We have received some assistance from ChessBase, but ICCF fully owns the title to the webserver software. Administrators should benefit from the automation of many tasks currently done manually. Events can be easily created and edited online, and the system offers many ways to tailor events to suit the organisers (for example, time controls, pairing rules, game viewing rules and player substitutions all offer choices). Calculation of norms is automatic for title events, and crosstables are maintained by the system (and manually) during an event. Some rating features are now automated, and we expect more to follow in subsequent phases. Players should enjoy seeing their game positions on screen, and being able to enter their next move using mouse or keyboard (thus avoiding illegal, ambiguous or unreadable moves). The system maintains a list of all current games, showing event and status, and PGN game files may be downloaded at any time for offline analysis. There are facilities to book holidays and special leaves, to exchange messages securely with opponents, and to communicate with officials. 3. In your report on the ICCF web page you have mentioned about Phase 2 of the project (starting from after August). What are the additional features being planned for this phase? Phase 2 will be planned in July and August, but there is no agreed start or end date for it yet - we have to decide on the work priorities first, and the features under consideration include ideas like online entry of players to webserver events, automation of rating system and games archive features, additional language support (probably German and Spanish), and switching of games between playing modes - postal, email and webserver. We will also consider any feedback we get from early users of the system in the first event (below). 4. Many people feel that the webserver will revolutionise the way CC is played. In fact ICCF should have introduced the web server even earlier. Your comments … ? It is very difficult for a large organisation to be the first to innovate with new technology - much of the energy of ICCF officials is spent running the many existing CC events enjoyed by players round the world. New organisations can usually move faster because they have no existing commitments, but sometimes it can be hard for them to be pioneers, making all the early mistakes! ICCF has had to spend time examining the commercial offerings available (mostly aimed at OTB players), deciding that they wanted to own and build

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

30

an in-house system, then looking for skilled people to work on the development, negotiating with a suitable development partner (ChessBase), and finding ways to pay for the work (this project is the largest ever undertaken by ICCF, and some key jobs had to be done by paid professionals because part-time, volunteer workers would not have been able to give the necessary time). Maybe, with hindsight, the work could have been started earlier, but I hope we have been able to provide a high-quality system in the 8 months since the final decision was made to proceed. 5. Now that we have the web server, will there still be postal and email tournaments still conducted by ICCF? Yes. ICCF will always organise postal and email events as long as enough of its members want to play in these ways. Webserver is just one more way of playing CC, and we will probably try to find easy ways of switching games between playing modes (Phase 2 above). In years to come, we can expect other new technologies to overtake webserver! 6. We have heard that there are countries like Cuba where there is email access but no web access. Does the web server generate and receive emails so that such players could still use the web server indirectly? The webserver will send an email to let a player know that his opponent has moved (unless it is specifically asked not to). However, a player has to login to the webserver and play a move before such an email is sent. If a player cannot access the webserver directly, he cannot send it an email to say what move he wants to make. In this case, he would just have to enter and play in email events until webserver access can be provided. 7. When will be the first event on the new server and who all are playing in it? The first event is being sponsored by Chess Mail, and starts on July 15th. It takes the form of a Test Tournament where players can enjoy the webserver for the first time, and provide feedback on their experiences to ICCF. Over 90 players will take part, selected from those who applied to Chess Mail and to the notice on the ICCF website. We have selected a representative range of countries and players. There will be 13 sections of 7 players initially, with a final in 2005, which is expected to be a title event. 8. Some people have asked about the central clock of the server – will the time stamps be in GMT or some local time zone? Probably it

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

31

should not matter to the player, except if he tries to read and verify the time stamps. The server is located in Germany at present, so the time stamps will be in CET (Central European Time). However, it doesn't really matter to the player – the important thing is that there is only one clock used. Wherever you live in the world, you have 24 hours from the time of your opponent's last move before the server adds 1 day to your time used. Players can choose whether they see the time stamps or not when they look at the game score on the screen. Time remaining until the next time control is always shown for both players. 9. There has been a lot said on TCCMB about the “phoney” email day. Can you please explain this clearly and concisely for the benefit of our members who have no idea about the “phoney” day? The phoney day arises from the playing rule for email events allowing a player to receive a move one calendar day after it is sent, even if it arrives on his computer within minutes. So, if you receive a move (say) at 00:05 on day 1, you don't officially have to log it until day 2 and, if you send your reply at (say) 23:55 on day 2, you are charged no time, even though you have had almost 2 days to think about it! This can be further complicated by local delivery times being used - for example, India is 5.5 hours ahead of GMT, so your opponent in the UK gets an 'extra' 5+ thinking hours before the clock catches up. Some players always send moves at times calculated to get the maximum time advantage, depending on the location of their opponent! 10. Can you explain about sending conditional moves on the server? In what way is this “a limited form of conditional moves” and what is the rationale behind this limitation? Why do you consider two types of tournaments, with and without conditional moves? When we sat down to define our requirements, we found two very different schools of thought on conditional moves. One school wanted to get rid of them altogether, on the basis that they were only devised to speed up slow delivery times, particularly in postal games. The other school wanted to keep them, on the grounds that they were a distinctive part of CC, and we needed to keep our traditions separate from OTB chess servers. We couldn't get agreement, so we decided to offer a yes/no option for each event, and leave the decision to the organisers. A compromise maybe, but everybody can exercise their choice! In the events where conditional moves are allowed, we chose a simple

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

32

system to keep development time to the minimum. So, you can propose a sequence of conditional moves of any length as long as it follows only one line; multiple lines are not permitted just now because the branching logic can get very complex. There is detailed documentation on a help page in the webserver to assist players. 11. We noted your statement that the 50-move rule and three-fold repetition are not implemented. Does this mean that a draw claim under these rules has to be looked into by a human arbiter? We would have expected that it would be a simple matter for the server itself to uphold or deny such a claim without human intervention. Yes. This was another design decision to minimise development work for situations which don't happen very often, and which can be fairly easily verified by a TD or adjudicator playing through the game. If there is enough demand, and, of course, we have the budget and resources, we can revisit this later. There are other instances where human intervention is required – for example, the server will not automatically award a game defaulted on time (though it will highlight it). A player must claim a win, and the TD must be satisfied that all the circumstances are correct before awarding a result. Note that TDs can award defaults to both players (0-0) in some cases, which can be hard for a server to do! 12. A few words about the ICCF Webserver team, their goals and functions… A steering group, chaired initially by ICCF President Josef Mrkvicka (CZE), and now by Grayling Hill (USA), has governed the project. Other members have included Alan Borwell (SCO), Nol van 't Riet (NLD), Max Zavanelli (USA), Pedro Hegoburu (ARG), Chris Lueers (GER) and Raymond Boger (NOR). The job of the steering group has been to approve the requirements, find resources to work on the project, draft the first webserver playing rules, negotiate with the sponsor for the first webserver event, and generally resolve any issues the project team couldn't handle. The project manager has been Iain Mackintosh (SCO), who has produced the functional specification (requirements), controlled the project plan and budget, created the help facilities, and provided decision support to the development team. The lead developer has been Martin Bennedik (GER), who has produced the technical design, administered the project workspace, done the technical research, and provided most of the server programming. Martin has been

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

33

assisted by Ambar Chatterjee (IND), who has provided the browser (Javascript) programming – every time you drag and drop a piece on the board, you are using Ambar's software! The test team leader has been Jens Lieberum (GER), who has been responsible for defining the test plan, and organising the work of the test team, as well as performing many tests himself. The test team has included valuable contributions from Luz Marina Tinjaca (ITA), Virginijus Grabliauskas (LIT), Jonathan O'Connor (IRE), Carlos Cranbourne (ARG), Franklin Campbell (USA) and Chris Lueers (GER). We have also received very helpful advice from Matthias Wuellenweber of ChessBase, and Gerhard Binder (GER), the ICCF Ratings Commissioner. 13. Is there anything else you would like to add? Just that it has been very nice to combine business and pleasure on this project, and I would like to thank very much everybody who has made a contribution! The standard of work has been very professional from all concerned, and I hope that you will agree when you get the chance to see and use the webserver for yourself. I am certain that the system will make a really big difference to the way in which ICCF works, and I look forward to seeing many CC games being played on it in future.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

34

An Interview with Martin Bennedik Developer, ICCF Webserver by Ambar Chatterjee The development of a web server for ICCF was a challenging project. There are already many chess servers on the internet, even chess servers for correspondence chess, but the requirements for ICCF’s chess server were much more involved. In this short, non-technical interview, Martin Bennedik, the main developer of the server talks to Ambar Chatterjee who also assisted in the project. 1. Can you tell our readers a little bit about your professional qualifications and the kind of work you do? I studied mathematics and computer science. I have seven years of professional experience in the IT business, where I worked in many different positions and companies. I am now an independent system architect and developer. The website for my business is www.bennedik.com. 2. What about your chess experience and playing strength? Are you active in playing CC or OTB? I am still playing OTB for a local club. I am currently playing an email master class event, and for the Chess Mail team in the Rochade jubilee. Because of the project I think I play rather bad at the moment, it is somehow too much chess right now  My best success was place 5 in the IECG world championship final 2000. I also co-authored The Total Marshall, and got place 11 in Informant for my theoretical novelty in the Dragon (Gary got place 12 ). 3. When did you start working on the ICCF Webserver Project? I started working in January 2004.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

35

4. How did you go about planning for the project? Were the specifications provided to you by ICCF clear enough or were there any uncertain areas? The steering group provided the spec. I first made a detailed design to clarify any uncertainties and to work out the details. 5. The decision to use Microsoft .NET and Javascript as the main software technologies … was it your choice? Could you explain in simple terms what are the advantages of using these tools, what could have been other possibilities and with hindsight, was it the best way to go about it? Yes, I recommended using .NET. One of the advantages is that you can encapsulate and reuse user interface components, such as the chess board and notation that you use to make your moves. Javascript is the de-facto standard today for dynamic browser-based user interfaces and is supported by all modern browsers. I don’t think the same level of productivity could have been achieved had we used a different set of technology. 6. Broadly speaking, and in comparison to other chess servers, what were the main design goals of the ICCF web server? ICCF is the most established correspondence chess organisation and already has a long history. In comparison with other servers we were not able to start from scratch, but the server has to model the way chess is played and organized the ICCF-way very closely. 7. ICCF has announced that member countries will also be allowed to conduct their tournaments on the ICCF server. This is in addition to the large number of tournaments conducted by ICCF. Are there any issues regarding the slowing down of the system when a huge number of players login simultaneously? We are with a host that allows us to move to bigger servers if the demand increases. We won’t start all of the events at the same time but will increase the load gradually, so we can move to a bigger server if this is necessary. 8. A project of this magnitude must have meant a lot of hard work. You became a father during the course of your work on the project, but we saw you taking only a few days off from work … I started working in January and had two breaks for moving house and for becoming father. I am working from home and have flexible working-hours. So I was able to start with a few hours and slowly move back to fulltime.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

36

9. Can you tell our readers your experience in working with Dr. Ambar Chatterjee who helped you in the development? The internet enables us to work in a project with people sitting all around the globe, or to play chess with them. I think the cooperation and communication with you and with everybody involved in the project was very good. 10. Were you already familiar and experienced with .NET or did you have to read up about it during the development? I already did several other .NET projects and I am also Microsoft Certified Application Developer for .NET. Of course in every IT project there are some new tricks to learn, so I also did the usual share of reading during this one. 11. What part of the project did you find the most difficult or tricky? Which parts of the code gave you the most satisfaction when completed? I think the user interface for the page where you make your moves is actually quite complex. You can do so many things on this one page, and they depend also on the settings of the event and on who you are. The player sees his game different than a visitor or the TD, and can interact with the game in different ways. 12. You have published a white paper, Xfcc – XML Web Services for Correspondence Chess where you express an idea of some standards that should evolve for CC webservers. Can you explain briefly about it and your idea about the future of CC webservers. My personal hope is that this will help to bridge some of the gaps between different chess software and organizations, similar to what the PGN standard did a few years ago. The standard is now implemented on iccf-webchess, and Chessbase is going to support Xfcc as well. So you will be able to submit moves from within Chessbase. I certainly hope that other servers and software will support it in the future.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

37

CHESS CROSSWORD Tumuluri Pavan Kumar

C4, Mythri Krishna Apts, B/H Raghu Tutorials, Ram Nagar Visakhapatnam 530002

[email protected] The crossword puzzle is said to be the most popular and widespread word game in the world, yet it has a short history. The first crosswords appeared in England during the 19th century. They were of an elementary kind, apparently derived from the word square – a group of words arranged so the letters read alike vertically and horizontally, and printed in children's puzzle books and various periodicals. Many of our friends might be familiar with Crossword Puzzles and a few of us may even have solved them in newspapers or magazines. I have attempted to create a Chess Crossword for players of all skill levels. Different instructions are given for amateurs and advanced players. Amateurs and complete beginners (of chess) are advised to try the Quick Clues section to find the solution(s) using simple hints, which might lead them to the solution without much difficulty. Some of our stronger (senior) players might relish the slightly tougher Cryptic Clues section and might also find it an interesting challenge. Indeed, some of the Cryptic Clues might send the adrenaline soaring! 1

2

3 7

4

5

6

8

9

10

11 12 13

14 15 16

17

18 19 20

21

22

Comments and criticism are welcome and can be sent either to the Bulletin Editor or to myself directly at the postal/email address mentioned above. The names of the correct solvers along with the detailed solutions will be published in the next issue. All the best and have fun!

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

38

CRYPTIC CLUES

(FOR ADVANCED PLAYERS) ACROSS: 1 Across: Steinitz honoured me by embossing one of my best combinations (against a Master player) in letters of GOLD on the cover of his MODERN CHESS INSTRUCTOR. Who am I? (6) 4 Across: This is the 1st name of the Grand Master who revised the 10th Edition of the MCO. (5) 7 Across: Against whom did Black Death win a sparkling game with a Beautiful Queen Sacrifice in 1889? (4) 9 Across: This Singaporean IM is also a strong CC player apart from being a prolific writer. Name him. (3) 10 Across: POST – A – _____ SHEETS are useful for keeping track of games in progress. (3) 11 Across: The man who said, “Chess is 99% Tactics” might as well have added “and 99% of the fun too”. Whom is the above phrase attributed to? (8) 13 Across: The Chess Machine’s 1st International Tournament was at ___ Sebastian Tournament in 1911. Fill in the blank. (3) 14 Across: “The greatest compliment one can pay a master is to compare his play to ______ who was superb in the opening, marvellous in the middle game and wonderful in the ending.” What is the middle name of the player Irving Chernev is talking about? (5) 16 Across: The author of the book Chess History and Reminiscences is ____. (4). Hint: His middle name is Edward. 17 Across: Mention the first name of the author of the Classic Ebook Chess Strategy for the Tournament Player. (3) 18 Across: One of the teams in the ICCF Champions League is named as the ___ League. (3) 19 Across: “For the 1st time since 1935, a Dutch player has been given the chance to fight for the FIDE Title” – GM Yasser Seirawan in Inside Chess magazine. Which Dutch player is he talking about? (3) 20 Across: This venerable GM is a regular contributor of Chess Mate magazine. Who is he? (3) 22 Across: “How I became a Grand Master at age 14”, is a book written by _____. (9)

DOWN: 1 Down: I am the World’s 1st Black Grand Master. Who am I? (7) 2 Down: The Legendary Irving Chernev called me as “The Artist of the Chess Board”. Who am I? (10)

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

39

3 Down: Chernev writes, “Alekhine’s King walks up the board practically in the middle game & steals a Rook in broad daylight! Irving Chernev called my game against the mighty Alekhine as “Coup de Grace”. Who am I? (5) 4 Down: “I have often expressed the opinion that it is no easy task to compose a good two – move problem. It should have a decided point, a well defined theme with a sparkle to it and the difficulty should consist in the surprise of the trick, and not in the mere trouble of selecting the correct key – move.” To whom are the above lines attributed? (4) 5 Down: Find the missing Chess players in E, ___, B, ___, B, T. 6 Down: One of the World’s best Chess magazines of which Matanovic is the President is of ______ origin. (11) 8 Down: Chess is perhaps the only sport in which _____ domination doesn’t exist. (4) 12 Down: Who was the victim of a beautiful combination in Rubinstein’s Immortal Game? (7) 15 Down: In Russian Language, this opening means “COFFIN”. Which opening is it? (4) 16 Down: I have received Negative Immortality at the hands of a 15-year-old chess prodigy who was voted as the “Chess Player of the Century”. Who am I? (5) 21 Down: Find the missing Chess player in L, C, __, E, __.

QUICK CLUES ACROSS:

(FOR BEGINNERS)

1 Across: Who is the greatest player of the 19th Century? (6) 4 Across: Mention the 1st name of the Grand Master who revised the 10th edition of the MCO. (5) Hint: He is a regular contributor to Chess Life magazine. 7 Across: Mention the 1st name of the player against whom Black Death won a sparkling game with a Beautiful Queen sacrifice in 1889. (4) 9 Across: This Singaporean IM is also a strong CC player and a prolific writer. Who is he? (3). Hint: He is/was a regular contributor to CCN magazine. 10 Across: POST – A - ____ SHEETS are useful for keeping track of games in progress. (3). Hint: Dr. Ambar Chatterjee used to prepare them himself before becoming busy as the Bulletin Editor! 11 Across: Who is the author of the books The Complete Chess Player and 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations? (8) 13 Across: Capablanca’s 1st International tournament was at ___ Sebastian tournament in 1911. (3) 14 Across: “The greatest compliment one can pay a master is to compare his play to ______ who was superb in the opening, marvelous in the middlegame & wonderful in the ending.” What is the middle name of the player Irving Chernev is talking about? (5) 16 Across: This English player is the inventor of an opening, which has been rightfully named after him. Who is he? (4)

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

40

17 Across: What is the 1st name of the author of the highly acclaimed Six-Volume Comprehensive Chess Course? (3) 18 Across: One of the teams in the ICCF Champions League is named as the ___ League. (3) 19 Across: Against which Dutch player did the 12th World Champion play a World Championship match? (3) Hint: Mention his 1st name. 20 Across: This venerable GM is a regular contributor of “Chess Mate” magazine. Who is he? (3) 22 Across: I finished Runners – up in the 2001 Women’s World Chess Championship. Who am I? (9)

DOWN: 1 Down: The Internet’s Premier Chess Academy, Chess Wise is my brainchild. What is my 1st name? (7) 2 Down: The Legendary Irving Chernev called me as “The Artist of the Chess Board”. Who am I? (10) 3 Down: Chernev writes, “Alekhine’s King walks up the board practically in the middle game & steals a Rook in broad daylight! Irving Chernev called my game against the mighty Alekhine as “Coup de Grace”. Who am I? (5) 4 Down: “The Chess Openings have become so thoroughly canvassed and book knowledge has become so general, that there is but little room for improvement and display of skill, except in the end-play. Anyone can learn to play Chess and will make progress in proportion as he devotes his time to the study. To become a problemist requires a special attitude, and this cannot be cultivated by everyone. I have always believed that the bump of ingenuity is the only faculty that cannot be developed”. Which famous problemist said these lines? (4) 5 Down: Find the missing Chess players in E, ___, B, ___, B, T. 6 Down: One of the World’s best Chess magazines of which Matanovic is the President is of ______ origin. (11) 8 Down: Chess is perhaps the only sport in which _____ domination doesn’t exist. (4) 12 Down: Who was the victim of a beautiful combination in Rubinstein’s Immortal Game? (7) 15 Down: In Russian Language, this opening means COFFIN. Which opening is it? (4). Hint: The previous AICCF bulletins can be used as a source for reference! 16 Down: My game with an eccentric Genius has become famous as Game of the Century. Who am I? (5) 21 Down: Find the missing Chess player in L, C, __, E, __.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

41

CHESS QUIZ Anil K. Anand 15-6-5/21 Nagamalli Plaza, Maharanipeta, Visakhapatnam (A.P.) 530 002

1. Who achieved the unique double of being both a chief arbiter and a nd player in the USSR Championships? He was the arbiter for the 32 USSR championship, played at Kiev in 1964, and then played in the rd 33 championship in Tallinn in 1965. 2. Whom did Garry Kasparov (highest-ever ELO 2830) lose to in just 22 moves in October 2003 at the ECC Rethymnon championship? 3. Which former world chess champion was a member of a working party set up in 1936 by the Internationaler Fernschachbund (IFSB) to determine a system for deciding a world correspondence chess (WCC) championship? He had played CC in his younger years in Russia prior to World War-I. However, World War-II put a stop to the IFSB's plan and the inaugural World Correspondence Chess Championship was started in 1950, under the umbrella of the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) well after the death of this great champion! 4. Prior to his famous over-the-board (OTB) career, this great Estonian master had established a very successful Correspondence Chess (CC) career. He had commenced playing in European tournaments from the age of 15 and at one stage was playing 150 games simultaneously! In 1935 he won the inaugural IFSB individual championship, and received the IFSB IM title. He also won the inaugural Estonian CC championship in 1936. In his later years, he had stated that he would resume his CC play as his OTB commitments had decreased. Death robbed us of this champion before this could happen in 1975! Who is this? 5. To qualify as an entrant in the 1911 San Sebastian International Tournament, the condition was that each participant must have rd finished 3 or better in at least 2 international tournaments. An exception was made for this future world champion with the organizers taking into account his convincing victory over the US champion Frank Marshall in 1909. The organizers were proved correct, as he won the tournament easily with a score of 6 wins, 7 draws and just 1 loss!

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

42

6. This great champion had lost all 5 previous tournament games against the reigning champion prior to their 1927 World Championship match. Yet he won the match narrowly over the overconfident champion and annexed the World Champion title. He, however, meticulously avoided a re-match. Who are we talking about? 7. A similar situation occurred when another future world champion played his 1972 World Championship match against the reigning champion. He had lost 3 of his 5 previous decisive games with the other 2 ending in draws. But he too turned it around and won the match and the World Champion title. Who are we talking about? 8. This world champion, generally regarded as the greatest chess player-ever, had a winning streak of 20-0 in 1971-72 showdown against the reigning champion. He beat Mark Taimonov and Bent Larsen, both world-class GMs by identical margins 6-0! He, at that time, had the highest ELO rating of 2780.Who is this? 9. After winning the World Championship title in 1948, this world champion took a 3-year break from chess so that he could study for his science doctorate. He returned to competitive play in 1951, when he defended his title against David Bronstein. Who is this? 10. A leading player of his country from the mid 1970s to late 1980's, he was ranked the No.3 player in the world, behind only Karpov and Kasparov. After a slow start to his career, he started winning tournaments aged in his early 20's and made his Olympiad debut at the same time and achieved the best score on Board 3. He was severely injured in a car accident, and during his convalescence reappraised his playing style, which was highly original and combinative. He could never translate his success to the World Championship cycle, and never qualified for the Candidates matches. Who are we talking about?

For answers turn to the last page (page 64). Did you enjoy this quiz? We would like your feedback about this article. Please write to the Bulletin editor and the author at the email/postal address above.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

43

GAMES SECTION Santhosh M.Paul

Please submit your games for publication to the Games Editor: Santhosh Matthew Paul, Earalil Market Road, Convent Jn, ERNAKULAM, Kochi 682011. Email: [email protected]. Khan, Shams – Meherhomji, E.G. T.No. 7279 Sicilian Sozin, B86 Notes by Shams Khan Another miniature from Shams Khan. Our beloved Secretary is at the receiving end this time. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 Avoiding the fork trick variation. 7...Be7 8.O-O Nbd7??

8...O-O should have been played Games Editor. 9.Bxe6! Nc5! 9...fxe6 10.Nxe6 Qb6 was a bit better. 10.Bxc8 Rxc8 11.Nf5 Ncxe4 12.Nxe4 Nxe4 13.Nxg7+ Kf8 14.Bh6 Qd7 15.Qd4 Rg8 16.Qxe4 Rh8 17.Nh5+ 1-0

Jayaraman, Mohan - Ward, John T.No. EM/O/151 Queen’s Gambit, D44 Notes by Mohan Jayaraman Jayaraman sent in the following game featuring the intricate Botvinnik Variation, a favourite of Latvian players such as Tal, Shirov, and Shabalov. His theoretical notes on this super-complicated line will, it is hoped, encourage some readers to include it as a weapon in their armoury. 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 e6 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Nxg5 hxg5 10.Bxg5 Nbd7 11.exf6 Bb7 12.g3 c5 13.d5 Qb6

'Undoubtedly the most complicated branch of the Botvinnik Variation, and the one that most players have focussed their attention on' - Alexei Shirov in "Fire on Board".

THE AICCF BULLETIN 13...Nb6 14.dxe6 Qxd1+ 15.Rxd1 Bxh1 16.e7 a6 17.h4 Bh6 18.f4 and the formidable chain of White pawns proved to be too much for Black despite his extra rook. PolugaevskyTorre, Moscow International, 1981 Garri Kasparov by M.Yudovich 13...Bh6 is another alternative. 14.Bg2 b4 15.Na4 Qb5 16.O-O OO-O 17.a3 Garri Kasparov by M.Yudovich : This is an idea suggested by the young Master Andrei Kharitonov. 17.dxe6 Bxg2 18.e7 Bxf1 19.exd8=Q+ Kxd8 20.Kxf1 Qc6 21.Kg1 Bd6 22.f4 Re8 23.Kf2 Kc7 with advantage to Black -Garri Kasparov by M.Yudovich. 17...exd5 17...Nb8 18.axb4 cxb4 19.Be3 Qg4 also deserves serious consideration. 19...Bxd5 20.Bxd5 Rxd5 21.Qe2 Nc6 22.Rfc1 Garri Kasparov by M.Yudovich: This extremely complicated position has remained the subject of a heated theoretical dispute since the time of the game we are examining. How can it be assessed? Who has the advantage? In spite of severe testing, both practical and analytical, an unambiguous solution has not yet been reached. 22...Na5 (22...Ne5 23.Bxa7 Kb7 24.Nb6 with a double edged game - Garri Kasparov by M.Yudovich) (22...Ne5 23.b3 c3 24.Nxc3 bxc3 25.Rxc3+ Kb8 26.Qc2 Bd6 27.Bxa7+ Kb7 28.b4 Nc6 29.Be3 Be5 30.Rxc6 Bxa1 White can force a draw but no more - Garri Kasparov by M.Yudovich.) 23.b3 c3 (23...Nxb3 24.Rxc4+ Kd7 25.Nc3 bxc3 26.Rxa7+ Kd8 27.Rxc3) 24.Nxc3 bxc3 25.Rxc3+ Kd7 26.Qc2 Bd6 27.Rc1 Qb7 28.b4 Qxb4 (28...Rxh2 29.Qa4+) 29.Rb1 Qg4

Aug 2004

44

30.Bxa7 e5 31.Qa2 Rd1+ 32.Rxd1 Qxd1+ 33.Kg2 Qh5 34.Qa4+ Ke6 35.h4 Qe2 36.Qxa5 Ra8 37.Qa4 Kxf6 38.Qd7 Kg7 39.Rf3 Qc4 40.Qxd6 Rxa7 41.Qxe5+ Kh7 42.Rf5 Qc6+ 43.Kh2 and Black resigned in Kasparov-Timoschenko. 18.axb4 cxb4 19.Be3 a6 Nc5 or Ne5 is more common. 20.Qg4 Bd6 21.Rfc1 Rdg8 Kb8 22.Qd4 Be5 23.Qa7+ Kc7 24.Rxc4+ Qxc4 (24...dxc4 25.Bb6+ Kd6 26.Qxb7 Rb8 27.Rd1+ Ke6 28.Qxd7+ Qxd7 29.Nc5+) 25.Rc1 Qxc1+ 26.Bxc1 Ra8 27.Qe3 Rae8 28.Qb3 Bd6 29.Bd2 Re2 30.Bxb4 Bxb4 31.Qxb4 Rhe8 32.Qa5+ Kb8 33.Bf3 Rc2 34.Qb4 Kc8 and Black resigned in Mayer - Kuhne, ICCFCup Corr, 1994. 22.Qf5 Kc7 22...Kb8 23.Bf4 (23.Bd4 Re8 24.f4 Nc5 25.Nxc5 Bxc5 26.Rd1 appears to be in Black's favour.) 23...Bxf4 24.Qxf4+ Ka8 25.Re1 Rg6 26.Re7 Nb6 27.Nxb6+ Qxb6 28.Rxb7 Kxb7 (28...Qxb7? 29.Qd6 Ka7 30.Re1) 29.Bxd5+ Ka7 30.Re1 Qc5 31.Re7+ Kb6 32.Rb7+ Ka5 33.Qc1 winning 23.Bf4 Qc6?!

Allowing White to take the queen for 2 rooks in an advantageous manner.

THE AICCF BULLETIN 23…Bxf4 24.Qxf4+ Kd8 25.b3 c3 26.Nxc3 bxc3 27.Rxc3 was the expected continuation with advantage to White. 24.Rxc4 Qxc4 25.Rc1 Qxc1+ 26.Bxc1 Bc6 27.Bf4 Rb8 27...Bxa4 28.Bxd6+ Kxd6 29.Qxd5+ Kc7 30.Qa5+ 28.Bxd6+ Kxd6 29.Qf4+ Ne5 30.Qd4 Rb5 30...Bxa4 31.Qxd5+ Kc7 32.Qxe5+ 31.f4 Nd7 32.Bf1 Rbb8 Black is now ground down slowly but surely - Games Editor. 33.Nc5 Rhe8 33...Nxc5 34.Qe5+ Kd7 35.Qe7+ Kc8 36.Qxc5 34.Nxa6 Re4 35.Qd2 Rb6 36.Bd3 Re8 37.Nxb4 Nxf6 38.Qc3 Nd7 39.Nc2 Rc8 40.Nd4 Kc7 41.Bb5 Nb8 42.Bxc6 Nxc6 43.Qc5 Rd8 44.Nb5+ Kb7 45.Nd6+ Kc7 46.Nxf7 Rd7 47.Ne5 Rd6 48.Nd3 Rb3 49.Qc2 Rb8 50.g4 Re6 51.g5 Rbe8 52.Kf2 Re3? 53.Ne5 R8xe5 54.fxe5 Rxe5 55.h4 Kd6 56.g6 Ne7 57.g7 Ke6 58.Qh7 Rf5+ 59.Ke3 Rf1 60.g8=Q+ Nxg8 61.Qxg8+ Kd6 62.h5 Rh1 63.Qg6+ Kc5 64.h6 Rh4 65.h7 Rh3+ 66.Kd2 Rh2+ 67.Kc3 Rh3+ 68.Kc2 Rh2+ 69.Kb3 Rh1 70.Qg7 Kb5 71.h8=Q Rxh8 72.Qxh8 Kc5 73.Kc3 Kb5 74.Qc8 d4+ 75.Kxd4 Kb6 76.Qc5+ Ka6 77.Kc4 Kb7 78.Kb5 Ka8 79.Kb6 Kb8 80.Qc7+ Ka8 81.Qb7# 1-0 White: Datta, Devangshu Black: Petersen, Neils T.No. EMJ50P166 Bogo-Indian Defence, E11 Notes by Devangshu Datta In the last issue, we showed you a key game from the Jubilee group that Devangshu Datta won. Here,

Aug 2004

45

we present the other game he annotated for the Bulletin readers. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Bxd2+ 6.Qxd2 O-O 7.Bg2 c6 8.O-O Nbd7 9.Qc2 Re8 10.Nbd2 Rb8 11.e4 dxe4 12.Nxe4 Nxe4 13.Qxe4 Nf6 14.Qf4 Bd7 15.Ne5 Qe7 16.Rfe1 Rbd8 +/-

Unambitious opening play by both sides has led to a Bogo/Catalan set up which is clearly favourable to white. White has more space, a grip on the dark squares and prospects on both sides of the board. 17.Qe3 Qb4 18.a3 Qb6 18...Qxb2 19.Rab1 Qc2 20.Rxb7 +19.b4 Bc8 20.Red1 Qc7 21.a4 Nd7 22.a5 Nxe5 23.dxe5 a6 24.Qc5 Rxd1+ 25.Rxd1 Rd8 26.Rd6 Rxd6 27.exd6 Qd8 28.h4 f6?

THE AICCF BULLETIN Black wants to play e5 freeing the bishop but this is a decisive error. (a) 28...h6 += (b) 28...Bd7 29.Qb6 Qxb6 30.axb6 Kf8 31.b5 +29.b5!! It took 16 long days for me to convince myself that this worked. The combination is linear but it's also too deep for the average engine on an average PC. White gets a piece but it would be difficult technically to convert without the fact that a dangerous attack is maintained. 29...axb5 (a) 29...cxb5 30.cxb5 +(b) 29...Qxa5 30.Bxc6 bxc6 31.Qxc6 Qd8 32.bxa6 +30.a6 bxa6 31.Bxc6 bxc4 (a) 31...Bd7 32.Bxd7 Qxd7 33.Qc7 (b) 31...g5 32.cxb5 axb5 33.hxg5 b4 (33...fxg5 34.d7 Bxd7 35.Qd6 b4 36.Bxd7) 34.gxf6 b3 35.Qg5+ 32.d7 Bxd7 33.Qd6 c3 34.Bxd7 The problem with f6 becomes apparent - the black king is caught in a back-rank crossfire. So white has time to eliminate the potential danger of the queenside pawns. 34...Kh8 35.Qc5 e5 36.Be6 g6 37.Qxc3 Kg7 38.Qc5 a5 39.Qa7+ Kh6 40.Bb3 Qd3 41.Bg8 g5 42.hxg5+ Kxg5 Now the obvious 43 Bxh7 wins very easily. But I was playing from memory in an Internet cafe and I forgot about the existence of the e5 pawn and decided to look for f4+! Luckily it's still winning. 43.Qe7? a4 43...Qb1+ 44.Kh2 Qf5 (44...Qg6 45.Bxh7 Qh5+ 46.Kg2 Kh6 47.Bc2) 45.Qg7+ Qg6 46.Qxh7 a4 47.Qxg6+ Kxg6 48.Kg2 e4 49.Kf1 Kf5 50.Ke2 Ke5 51.Ke3 f5 52.Bc4 a3

Aug 2004

46

44.Bxh7 Qd1+ 45.Kg2 Qd5+ 46.f3 1-0 An elegant finish would be 46...Qd2+ 47.Kh3 Kh6 48.Bf5 Kg5 49.Qg7+ Kxf5 50.Qg4# Alberto, Zuna - Kumar, Pavan India-Portugal FICCM Sicilian Rossolimo, B52 Notes by T.Pavan Kumar Pavan did very well to win both his games in the India-Portugal match. In his notes to the following win over his Portugese opponent, Pavan is the soul of objectivity as he subjects some of his own moves to harsh criticism. He hangs in there, however, and his patience is rewarded when he gets a gift of a piece. The opening features the opening made famous by the ROWKasparov Internet game. I agree with Pavan's comments on the merits of this opening. 1.e4 c5 The Sicilian is far and away the most popular chess opening. The reason is obvious : It enables Black to fight for victory without taking excessive risks. The Sicilian scores well in practice and is a firm favourite with players of all standards. 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ The Open Sicilian demands a lifetime of study while other systems tend to be positionally dubious or rather tame. The Bb5 line is the exception. It is completely logical and has real practical sting and can be played confidently provided one has a good understanding of its ideas and a moderate amount of specific knowledge. 3...Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Qxd7 5.c4!

THE AICCF BULLETIN

The strategic ideas behind this move are two fold. As a general rule, if Black can eventually play the freeing ....d5 in 1.e4 openings and ....e5 in 1.d4 openings, he gets an equal game. So, 5.c4 makes Black's liberating ....d5 almost impossible. The other idea is that after the exchange of the light squared Bishops, White is happy to have his central pawns blocked on White squares as Black would then have a "bad" bishop which runs on Black squares and is impeded by its own pawns blocked on dark coloured squares. But this game is not an illustration of strategic ideas because Black wants to win a pawn at the cost of development. 5...Qg4?! Double Attack! Sure, this wins a pawn but the Queen works alone while the remaining pieces sleep on their original squares. 6.O-O Qxe4 Greedy play by Black. It's better to complete development first. 7.d4! With the Black Queen in the centre of the board, White opens up the position so that he could develop

Aug 2004

47

rapidly by attacking the adventurous Queen. 7...cxd4 8.Re1 Much stronger than the immediate Nxd4.Now, Black loses two tempi in moving his Queen to safety. 8...Qg4 9.h3 Qd7 10.Nxd4 e5!? Nc6 and e6 are normal moves here. e5 leaves Black with a backward pawn on d6. 11.Nc3 The Knight on d4 is immune thanks to the pin along the 'e' file. 11...Nc6 12.Ncb5 Is this necessary? 12...Nxd4 This galloping creature is a dangerous weapon in the hands of stronger players who use it like a Magic Wand to produce combinations out of thin air. After having suffered a painful defeat at the hands of Dr.D.R.K.S.Rao, I now make it a point to always exchange at least one of my opponent's horses! 13.Qxd4 a6 Otherwise, the pawn is lost. 14.Nc3 Rc8 15.b3 The only 'good' move. 15...Qc6 It would have been better to complete development with moves like Be7 or Nf6 instead of wasting valuable tempi moving the Queen again. 16.f4 Attacking the crucial pawn at the right time. 16...f6 The only plausible move. Other moves are weak. 17.Nd5? This is a dubious move as is evident from Black's reply. 17.a4! preventing the Black pawn's push to 'b5'

THE AICCF BULLETIN could've been tried. Instead, 17.Nd5 allows Black to exchange Knights and free his locked in and passive 'f8' Bishop. 17...Ne7 18.Nxe7?! 18.Qd1 This move passes on the initiative to Black. The correct continuation would have been 18...Nxd5 19.cxd5 Qd7 20.Be3 with an almost equal position. 18...Bxe7 Forced. 19.fxe5 Moving the Queen might have been a better option. 19...dxe5 Of course not 19...fxe5 20.Qg4 O-O 21.Be3 allows white to inch his way back into the game. 20.Qg4 O-O At last! 21.Bh6? A weak move. White makes a desperate attempt to save the game. 21...Bc5+ The Intermezzo or the 'in-between' move. 22.Kh1 Rf7

23.Rad1??

Aug 2004

48

The losing move. Retreating the Bishop was safer. 23...f5! The Bishop is trapped. 24.Qh5 Another possibility was Qh4. 24...Qxh6 Exchanging Queens and trading down to an easily won endgame. 25.Qxh6 gxh6 26.Rxe5 Gobbling up a crucial pawn. 26...f4 The 'f' pawn marches forward unopposed. 27.Rdd5 b6 28.Re4 Rcf8 29.Rh5 Rg7 0-1 White: Paul, Santhosh Matthew Black: Nagaradjane, A.G. 3rd Asian CC Championships Sicilian Sveshnikov, B33 Notes by Santhosh Paul My first game against Nagradjane hopefully, the first of many more to come. I tested out a recommendation by Agaard in his book on the Sveshnikov, which seemed to give white a good initiative. However, Nagaradjane defused the situation expertly and the game petered out into a draw. 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.Nd5 9.Bxf6 This is the best move from the theoretical point of view. 9...Be7 The main continuation. 9...Qa5+ is playable, as long as Black does not mind the following draw: 10.Bd2 Qd8 11.Bg5 Qa5+ 10.Bxf6 10.Nxe7?! is dubious. 10...Nxe7 gives Black a comfortable game. 10...Bxf6 11.c3 Bg5 12.Nc2 O-O Alternatives:

THE AICCF BULLETIN 12...Ne7; 12...Rb8; 12...Bb7 13.a4 Breaking up the Q-side. 13...bxa4 Forced. 13...Rb8? 14.axb5 axb5 and White has the 'b4' square. 14.Rxa4 a5

A standard idea in this line. White now has two main continuations. He can move his Bishop to c4 or b5. 15.Bc4 I selected this square for the bishop because of the 'd5' theme. I increase my grip on that critical square. 15...Rb8 16.Ra2 16.Ra2 was recommended by Nunn in Beating the Sicilian. Next time, I'll probably try 16.b3 16...Kh8 17.Nce3!? Yakovich gives 17.O-O f5 with counterplay. Even 17...g6 is playable, according to him. 17...g6 Two experts differed on the merits of this move. Agaard (in Easy Guide to the Sveshnikov) felt this move allowed White a dangerous attack. On the other hand, Yakovich, who wrote a more recent book, recommended this move. I decided to test Agaard's judgement.

Aug 2004

49

17...Be6 +=2 according to Agaard. 18.h4!? Yakovich does not even mention this move. 18...Bxh4 19.g3 Bg5 20.f4 exf4 21.gxf4 Bh4+ 22.Kf1 f5 23.b3 fxe4 24.Rah2 g5 25.Ng2 Rb7 26.Nxh4 gxh4 27.Rxh4

Agaard now states that "White has good compensation", citing MausBirnbaum, Tel Aviv 1987.I found the game in a database on the Internet; Chesslab, I think. The game is given in full right after this game so that readers can make a comparison of events in the two games. On the very next move, Nagradjane deviates from the above game. White has compensation for the pawn. Indeed, I liked the rooks on the 'h' file and the strong knight on 'd5', but I think this game shows that the position is equally balanced. My impression is that Nagradjane played the position perfectly. I did not see any possibility to break through in what followed. 27...Rg7 N 28.Ke1 28.Qh5 looks obvious but does not seem to lead anywhere. 28...Bf5 29.Ne3 Bg6 30.Qxg6?? Rxf4+! -+

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

50

28...Rg1+ 29.Bf1 Rf7 30.Qh5 30.Qa1 Qg8 31.c4+ Ne5 and Black looks in good shape. 30...Rxh1 31.Rxh1 Qg8 32.Rg1 Qf8 33.Bc4 Be6 34.Rg5 Rf5 35.Rxf5 Bxf5 36.Kd2 Bg6 37.Qg5 Qf5 38.Qh6 Ne7 39.Nxe7

Here Nagaradjane played instead 27…Rg7 leading to a different course for the game. 28.Bb5 Tactical possibilities for White (gaining access to 30.Qd4+) arise after this pin. 39...e3+! 40.Kxe3 Qe4+ 41.Kf2 Qxe7 42.Qg5 Qxg5 43.fxg5 Kg7 44.Ke3 Be8 45.Be6 a4 46.bxa4 1/21/2 Here is the game I cited above. On the basis of this game, readers can judge the merit of Nagaradjane’s 27…Rg7 – probably a new move in this position. Maus, Soenke - Birnboim, Nathan T.No. Tel Aviv Sicilian Sveshnikov, B33 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.Nd5 Be7 10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.c3 O-O 12.Nc2 Bg5 13.a4 bxa4 14.Rxa4 a5 15.Bc4 Rb8 16.Ra2 Kh8 17.Nce3 g6 18.h4 Bxh4 19.g3 Bg5 20.f4 exf4 21.gxf4 Bh4+ 22.Kf1 f5 23.b3 fxe4 24.Rah2 g5 25.Ng2 Rb7 26.Nxh4 gxh4 27.Rxh4 Qe8

28…Bf5 29.Bxc6 Qxc6 30.Qd4+ Rg7 31.Ne7 Qb5+ 32.Ke1 e3 33.Rh5 Pinning and winning black’s bishop, after which the win follows in due course. 33…Qxb3 34.Nxf5 Qb1+ 35.Qd1 Qxd1+ 36.Kxd1 Ra7 37.Ke2 a4 38.Kxe3 a3 39.Nd4 a2 40.Ra1 Ra3 41.Ne2 Rb8 42.Rhh1 Kg7 43.Rhd1 Rb6 44.Rd2 Rba6 45.Kd3 Kf6 46.Nd4 h5 47.Nc2 Rb3 48.Nd4 Rba3 49.Rb2 R6a5 50.Re2 Kg6 51.f5+ Kf6 52.Rh2 Kg5 53.Rg1+ Kf6 54.Rxh5 1-0 For if 54…a1Q 55.Rg6+ mates

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

51

CORCHEGIMMIC CORCHEGIMMIC-31

CORCHEGIMMIC-32

White to play

White to play and win

The solution is: 1.Nf5+! gxf5 2.Qxh6+ kg8 3.exf5 Threatening 4.f6 3…Qf8 4.Qh4 Nd6 If 4…f6 5.Rxf6 Rf7 6.Qg5+ Kh8 7.Qh5+ Kg8 8.Rg6+ Rg7 9.f6 Rxg6 10.Qxg6+ Kh8 (or 10…Rg7 11.fxg7 Qf4+ 12.Kg1 and the white king will find a refuge on e2) 11.Bf5 winning 5.f6 e4 6.Rb6xb7! Rxb7 7.Ra8! Qxa8 8.Qg3+ Kf8 9.Qg7+ Ke8 10.Qh8 mate.

This time we have an endgame study submitted by Tumuluri Pavan Kumar. The solution is both amazing and amusing. Readers should have an enjoyable time in cracking it.

Send your solutions to: Dr. A.Chatterjee 11 Shreeniketan Anushaktinagar Mumbai 400 094 Or by email to

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

52

CRYPT–O–QUEST Tumuluri Pavan Kumar C4, Mythri Krishna Apts; B/H Raghu Tutorials; Ram Nagar Visakhapatnam 530002 [email protected] Hidden in this grid are names of a few famous Chess players. Can you find them? Their names can be found forward, backward, horizontally, vertically or diagonally. If this sounds too easy, you can try providing a brief description (2 or 3 lines) about each of them. Have Fun! N V S R E N I L R E B

K I E M M Y K N O L L

O O M S H E D N A N A

T L R Z N V L C F S G

H T S C O I K L T E E

A O B P H V G E E W L

R E R N O N I A R U L

I A I T U N O T I E I

K E E N I E S I S V S

A U N T Y A N T I C Z

N A Z E P O L Y U R H

Solutions can be sent directly to the author at the Postal or Email address mentioned above.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

53

READERS WRITE Dear Editor, I received the latest AICCF bulletin. Kudos to you, your committed team and all the eminent contributors and discerning readers! Though belated the bulletin is a work of art with several interesting articles and topics of compelling and lasting interest. Thanks for including my articles: The Babson task and the Corchegimmic-30. So far I have written chess articles only for the AICCF bulletin and have not sent even one such article to Chessmate though I have been reading that chess mag for almost 10 years now. Here are some of my critical comments on the AICCF Bulletin: 1. The Games section needs improvement. I can’t believe that we don’t produce enough quality games in AICCF! I personally feel that my 2 games against Nikhil Kamat didn’t deserve their place in the bulletin. Drawn games unless they show outstanding ideas should be excluded completely. 2. The International Section should be given equal importance. Indian chess has come of age lately while other

countries are light years ahead of us, so the quality of games will definitely be better there. Moreover, our dismal performance in ICCF/friendly games against other countries leaves a lot to be desired. 3. I had sent you a code of conduct and rules for CC that is followed by USCF. Why don't we evolve something of a similar kind for AICCF? This needs serious thought and may very well define the future of CC in India. 4. As another totally Email chess player, I have been able to appreciate the nuances of Shri Santhosh Paul's wonderful article: Email Chess - Opportunities and Pitfalls. 5. Another aspect we should consider is annotations of games of lower-rated players by the top players of AICCF besides the annotations by the winners/losers themselves. Shri Lhouvum's idea of offering a "problem situation" to readers to analyse has amply showed that there are a lot of ideas that may come when superior players annotate interesting games.

THE AICCF BULLETIN Anil Anand We thank reader Anil Anand for his valuable comments. We have ourselves been pondering over very similar issues in all our meetings right from the inception of AICCF. What we need to make AICCF even better, is increased participation from our members. Unfortunately, some of our previously enthusiastic players have become somewhat inactive. Their place is being taken by the new fold of players (like T.Pavan Kumar and Anil Anand himself) but the process is a gradual one.

Aug 2004

54

like our experienced players to participate more in ICCF tournaments (ICCF Email, and now the ICCF Web Server). We have poor results in the Friendly Internationals more because some of our very senior players (even a past AICCF Champion) suddenly drop out. But some players are doing well (e.g. T.Pavan Kumar’s 2-0 against Portugal). 3. We are trying to follow ICCF guidelines as far as possible. USCF is not all that different. We have different circumstances and situations in India which we need to cover.

1. Our members must take more initiative to annotate their games and send them for publication to Games Editor, Santhosh Matthew Paul. While we are aware that there must be quite a few quality games being played between our members, we receive very few of them for publication. We appeal to our readers to send us their games, even without notes. The games should be sent to Santhosh Paul (see Games Section).

4. Email is currently the most popular way to play CC. Unfortunately we have in India, only a handful of players playing by email. Internet connectivity is very good all over India in the bigger cities, but many of our members have no computer at home and prefer to play by post card. Now email has given way to server as the new medium for CC, and we must all begin to play this way.

2. We have sometimes printed Game of the Month from the ICCF website. Important CC games are available at many web sites and ICCF has their own publications. On the new ICCF Web Server, one can view all games in progress (with a 3 move delay). However, we take note of the suggestion and will try to give more importance to the International Section. We would

5. We tried out the idea of receiving games from less experienced players (to be annotated by us), but the games received contained obvious blunders and beginners mistakes and were unworthy of publication. Despite this, we continue to invite new or less experienced players to send us their games, and we will prepare the annotations for games which are interesting.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

55

Dear Sir, I submit the following comments in a format of pros and Cons: PROS The layout, the cover page and design have improved with every issue… EXCELLENT!!

Some of our senior members have also started contributing which is a good sign as all of us can benefit from their rich experience. Mr. Santosh Paul is doing an excellent and tough work, as Games Editor, analyzing and annotating many games in time for the next issue. Mr. Nagesh is doing a great job with his Heritage series. Perhaps some of our other readers can also contribute articles on different topics. Regular articles on problems by Mr. Suresh Mody and Mr. Deodatta Modak are very useful. The AICCF Management Committee should be lauded for its efforts to present the readers with a good bulletin each time… “The Editorial” and “From the Secretary’s Desk” are very good as usual… Please keep it up! The February and August issues are eagerly looked forward to by most of our members, the primary reason being the AICCF Rating Chart.

CONS Unfortunately, the number of pages has always remained in the 40’s. I can remember only 3 occasions when we crossed the half century mark: Aug’01 – 60 pages (!), Nov’02 – 56 pages and Aug’03 – 52 pages. In spite of the merit, the number of contributions has actually diminished compared to the number of articles in the previous issues. The number of games being published with annotations is very small. Maybe we can announce a special prize for the best-annotated game in each issue to invite more contributions from our readers! What used to be regular articles in the past have now vanished completely without even a trace. “ICCF Game of the Month”, “AUTO-CHESS-O-GRAPHY”, “AICCF Thematic Tourneys”, “News from Africa Asia Zone” etc. which were eagerly looked forward to in the past seem to have become extinct now. No comment

Since the Feb’ 04 issue, only the top 20 in Rating (instead of top 25) are being shown. I suggest that we revert to the older practice of showing the top 25 Rated players as usual. The Rating List on our official website has not been updated for the last 4 years.

THE AICCF BULLETIN Apart from the above-mentioned comments, I have a few suggestions to improve the overall quality of the bulletin. I suggest that we try to increase the number of pages and take it well beyond the half-century mark. I’m sure our readers will also be happy to have more articles and more annotated games. A slight increase in the number of pages is always welcome as long as it doesn’t exceed the limit set for the bulletin printing expenses. We can encourage our members to send their games (with or without annotations) of not just (A) ICCF but also OTB / IECG / IECC / online blitz games etc. Of course, this is only a suggestion as it is for our AICCF Management to decide whether OTB games can be included in a CC magazine or not. Readers can be invited to share some of their humorous experiences in a new column titled “AICCF Humour” concerning all aspects of Chess. We can also invite readers’ suggestions regarding the type of articles they would like to see in the future issues. The above comments have been made with the firm belief that AICCF is an Organization Of the CC Player, By the CC Player and For the CC Player! T. Pavan Kumar VISAKHAPATNAM [email protected] Some of the answers to the questions are in the letter itself. It is important to note the last sentence. It is for the

Aug 2004

56

reader to send in articles and suggestions … and that has certainly be done my Mr. Pawan Kumar himself and by Mr. Anil Anand. We do hope other readers will emulate the example set by these two members! In reply to some specific points … not updating the ratings at the web site is certainly a mistake. After we took the decision to include the ENIRE contents of all bulletins at the web site and since the ratings were provided inside the Bulletins, we overlooked updating the link to the ratings page. For Auto-Chess-OGraphy we are awaiting some new prominent players to appear on the scene. The articles of all the top rated players are already published! I understand that we did not get sufficient entries for thematic tournaments so we suspended that for the time being. At present the most active tournament after the AICCF Championship is 1801 and we also noticed that quite a few players are asking for email tournaments. Starting email tournaments is slowed down because we don’t get sufficient entries all together and our players are left waiting for long periods. In fact 1801 was started after our late President, Shri H.J.Samtani appealed to our members to actively play in more tournaments. We now need the same impetus to be applied for email entries. The situation will change as more and more of our players acquire email connectivity and perhaps the day of server chess within AICCF is not far away. RESIGN EARLY Prabhandan K. has been showing very creditable performance in International

THE AICCF BULLETIN events. Here he sends one of his games with comments. FICCM INDIA - SWEDEN Hansson, Susanne Krishnamurthy, Prabhanandan Coments by Prabhanandan K. 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d6 4.d4 g5 5.h4 g4 6.Ng1 Qf6 7.Nc3 Ne7 8.Nge2 Bh6 9.Qd2 Bd7 10.g3 Nbc6 11.gxf4 0-0-0 12.Bg2 Qg7 13.d5 Ne5 14.Qd4 Nf3+ 15.Bxf3 gxf3 16.Qxa7 c5 17.dxc6 Bxc6 18.Rg1 Qf6 19.Ng3 Bxf4 20.Bxf4 Qxf4 21.Qf2 d5 22.Nge2 Qf6 0-1 This is what my opponent wrote with his resignation: I resign this game A, 0-1. You will eventually win

Aug 2004

57

this position. Thank you for the game! I underestimated 16...c5 because I only considered 17...Nxc6 but of course 17...Bxc6 gave you a terrific position. I was surprised with his resignation so early. Although I had a winning position, I did not except him to resign immediately. Just for the record, in AICCF tournaments, I am playing 2 games where I am 2 pieces up in one game and one piece up in another with both my opponents still dragging the games. Prabhanandan K.

SHORT COMMENTS Y.Pandavakrishna: Received the AICCF Bulletin for Feb ‘04. It is very nice and wonderful. N.K.Bajpai: I was pleased to read the AICCF Bulletin of Feb ’04. Sunil K. Somani: Nice to see the Feb ’04 Bulletin on Internet. It seems that the size of the bulletin has become small since I read the whole bulletin on the monitor itself. Further, there are very few games in the Games Section. Last point is, it is hard to believe that we will not get the next bulletin. JWO M.C.Chandran: Feb Bulletin is very good. It seems our standard is of a very high order and congrats to all writers and people behind the endeavor. Dr. Syed Padsha: I am enjoying playing games and making friends. This reminds me of the days when I enjoyed my life and had many friends and relatives in India. I wish my health would permit me to go there as often as I like. I am grateful to you for your help in making my life enjoyable.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

58

The following pages are printed directly from our computer database. Please check your results and report any discrepancies to Dr. A.Chatterjee, 11 Shreeniketan, Anushakti Nagar, MUMBAI 400 094. Rating queries should be accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope (a reply post-card is not sufficient) and should include a table with Tournament Number, Opponent’s Name, Opponent’s Colour, Opponent’s Rating, Result, Points Gained or Lost. In the event of a result not reported, it is necessary to write to the concerned Tournament Director as well.

NEW TOURNAMENTS STARTED

4-Player Double-Game Tournaments 4292 Sayed Padsha, Lhouvum, Anil Anand, Nikhil Kamat (Adj. Date: 19-02-05) 4293 Dr Nagaraj, Wahee, H.P.Chole, Sreejith K.S. (Adj. Date: 31-05-06) 4294 Meherhomji, Wahee, Amol Agarwal, Dinesh H. Dave (Adj. Date: 31-08-06) 19-EM-4295 V.B.Shetty, Mandviwala, K.M.Prasad, Unni C.S. (Adj. Date: 08-08-06) 4296 Meherhomji, T.Chandran, Sudhir, Dr. Dinkar Pai (Adj. Date: 31-10-06) 7-Player Single-Game Tournaments 7285 Mandviwala, Manoj Kumar, Baldev Singh, Pandalai N.G., Meherhomji, Sukumaran, T.Pawan Kumar (Adj. Date: 24-02-05) 7286 Dr Nagaraj, Shams Khan, Dutt, N.J.Dave, H.P.Chole, G.Vishwakarama, Sreejith K.S. (Adj. Date: 31-05-06) 7287 Meherhomji, Shams Khan, N.J.Dave, Dr Nagaraj, G.Vishwakarama, Amol Agarwal, Dinesh H. Dave (Adj. Date: 31-08-06) 18-EM-7288 Anil Anand, Lhouvum, T.Pawan Kumar, Mohan Jayaraman, Umesh Nair, Ravi Prakash, Sayed Padsha (Adj. Date: 08-08-06)

TOURNAMENT DIRECTORS Send your result, claim and other correspondence to the concerned tournament director only. Note the new address for Shri A.G.Nagaradjane. Shri M.B.Mulla, Hill View, 23 N.S.Patkar Marg, Mumbai 400 007 (022)23803951, (022)23804523

A.G.Nagaradjane, rd No. 40, 3 Street Kumaran Nagar Nagar, Lawspet Pondicherry 605 008 [email protected]

Shri E.G.Meherhomji Brahmand Phase II, A-6, G-3, Azad Nagar Sandoz Baug P.O. Thane (West) 400 607 (022)25896941

P.S.Dabolkar G-1 Radha Sahniwas C.H.S Damodar Nagari,Chendani Vill. Thane (East) 400 603 Phone: (022)25433703

Email Tournaments: Santhosh Paul

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

59

Extension of Adjudication Date 4258: A.Dutta Gupta – Tyagi to 30-09-04 4262: Tyagi – Pavan Kumar (both) to 30-11-04 14-EM-7277: Saxena – Umesh Nair, Unni – Umesh Nair, Umesh Nair – Sastry

TOURNAMENT RESULTS `1’ means `won over’; `0’ means `lost to’; `=’ means `drew with’; `(both)’ means `both the games’; `w/d’ means `withdrew’; `nr’ means `no result’; `n/s’ means `non-starter’.

Championship Tournaments 1505 Chatterjee & Vaibhav Saxena 1 Dr DRKS Rao; Shivdasani 1 Tyagi; Tyagi 0 Neelakantan; Chauhan 1 Shivdasani 1506 Dabholkar 0 Nagradjane; Ravi Prakash 1 Shivdasani; Neelakantan 0 Somani 1801 Results are given in a separate section

4-Player Double-Game Tournaments 4258 A.D.Gupta = Tyagi 4269 R.K.Kapoor nr Vidyadharan; D.Sarkar 1 A.D.Gupta 4273 C.Venugopalan 0 Saxena A.; Bansphore 1 Saxena A.; Bansphore 0 C.Venugopalan; Saxena A. 1 Bansphore 4276 Mandviwala 1 Pandalai N.G.; Mandviwala 0 Saxena A. 4277 Abhisek Gupta 0(both) D.M.Modak 4278 Bajpai 1 Wahee; Wahee 1 Bajpai 4279 Wahee = Keerthi Theza 4280 Bajpai 0(both) Lhouvum 4282 Keerthi Theza 0(both) Umesh Nair 4286 Vikas Singhai 0(both) Wahee 4287 H.P.Chole & Wahee 1(both) Suresh Jain 4292 Sayed Padsha 1 Lhouvum & Anil Anand; Anil Anand 0 Lhouvum; Nikhil Kamat w/d; Lhouvum 0 Anil Anand; Lhouvum 1 Sayed Padsha; Anil Anand = Sayed Padsha 4293 Sreejith K.S. 0(both) Dr Nagaraj

7-Player Single-Game Tournaments 7270 Shams Khan 0 Kalapi Trivedi; Dr Nagaraj 1 Dabholkar 7271 Dr Nagaraj 1 Shyamal Sarkar; Bansphore 0 Dr Nagaraj; Shubam Sanat Jain 1 Dr Nagaraj 7272 Subhash Hule nr Baksha, Vidyadharan & Manjesh Kumar; Manjesh Kumar nr Pandalai N.G., Vidyadharan & Baksha; Vidyadharan nr Pandalai N.G. & Baksha; Pandalai N.G. nr Subhash Hule; Baksha nr Pandalai N.G.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

60

7273 D.Sarkar 0 Saxena A.; Deshpande nr Hrishikesh Chavan; Hrishikesh Chavan nr D.Sarkar; Saxena A. 1 Hrishikesh Chavan; D.Sarkar 1 Deshpande 7274 Nalladaru 0 Prabhanandan; Prabhanandan 1 A.D.Gupta 7275 Lhouvum 1 Bhave 7276 Pranab Bhowmick 1 Abhisek Gupta & Keerthi Theza 7277 Umesh Nair 1 Keerthi Theza & Parvesh Gautam 7278 Abhisek Gupta 0 S.Palaniappan; Wahee 1 Maya Hardia 7279 Shams Khan 1 Meherhomji 7280 Parvesh Gautam & Sundararajan 0 Mudit Thakkar; Dinakaran 1 Veerendra Jain; Dinakaran w/d 7281 Meherhomji 1 Parvesh Gautam; Suresh Jain 0 Meherhomji; Chhaya Hardia 0 S.Palaniappan 7282 Meherhomji 0 Baldev Singh, Lhouvum & Anil Anand; V.B.Shetty 1 Nikhil Kamat, K.M.Prasad & Meherhomji; Anil Anand & Lhouvum = V.B.Shetty; Nikhil Kamat & K.M.Prasad 0 Anil Anand; Kamat & K.M.Prasad 0 Meherhomji 7283 S.Palaniappan 1 Lhouvum; Salathia 0 Manoj Kumar 7285 Baldev Singh = Pandalai N.G. & Sukumaran; Meherhomji 1 Baldev Singh & Mandviwala; Pandalai N.G. 0 T.Pawan Kumar & Manoj Kumar; T.Pawan Kumar 1 Baldev Singh & Mandviwala; Manoj Kumar = Baldev Singh; Mandviwala 0 Manoj Kumar; Sukumaran 0 T.Pawan Kumar 7286 Sreejith K.S. 0 Dr Nagaraj

COMPLETED TOURNAMENTS

We heartily congratulate the winners (names in bold) of the following tournaments: 4258 A.D.Gupta 5, Tyagi 4, K.Shiva Kumar 3, Rabindra Kumar 0 4292 Sayed Padsha 4.5, Lhouvum 4, Anil Anand 3.5, Nikhil Kamat 0 7272 Shyamal Sarkar 6, Kanishka 5, Subhash Hule 0, Baksha 0, Vidyadharan 0, Manjesh Kumar 0, Pandalai N.G. 0 7273 Saxena A. 6, D.Sarkar 4, Kanishka 3, Hrishikesh Chavan 3, Deshpande 2, Torvekar 1, Prabhat Kumar 0 Ratings are updated every 1 Jan and 1 July and remain frozen in the interim period. All results published in this Bulletin (i.e. actual results received upto 30-06-2004 and valid claims upto 31-05-2004) are rated. The ratings appear on the next page. We regret that several errors have crept into the ratings records. Unfortunately our software cannot handle the 18 player tournament 1801and needs to be modified. In the last period the ratings of participants in 1801 were not calculated correctly as pointed out by Ajay Kumar Bansphore, P.S.Dabholkar and others. Also the rating of Pranab Bhowmick was mixed up. We have corrected these mistakes, but the system is not yet free of errors. We request the members to bear with our difficulties. We are going to re-calculate all ratings of the last two periods after the software system is modified.

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

61

RATINGS The top 20: 1. Somani Sunil K 2. Nagaradjane 3. Satheesan M 4. Chauhan R.K. 5. Chatterjee Dr A.

6. Neelakantan N. 7. Prabhakar K. 8. Ravi Prakash S.M 9. Dhanish P.B. 10. Saxena Vaibhav

Aaron Arvind Agarwal Amol Agarwal Avinash Ahmed Sheeraz Anil Anand Anil Kumar N.R. Anirudh S. Anpazhakan S. Bajpai N.K. Baksha Ansar K. Bansphore Ajay K. Bhaskar Priyamva Bhattacharjee Bhave Milind N. Bhowmick Sgt. P. Bhowmick Pranab Bobby V.S. Bose Samir Kumar Chandran JWO MC Chandran T. Chandrashekar Chatterjee B. Chatterjee Dr A. Chatterjee Urmila Chaudhuri Ajoy Chaudhuri T.K. Chauhan Rakesh K. Chaurasia V. Chavan Hrishikesh Chole H.P. Chole Vikrant H. Choudhari C.L. Chouhan Hemendra Dabholkar P.S.

800 800 436 560 986 1158 630 400 890 436 906 551 950 1058 964 1076 643 800 1050 829 611 800 1305 800 800 685 1378 800 884 832 919 500 799 1177

11. Reddy Mookiah 12. Prabhanandan K. 13. Rao Dr D.R.K.S 14. Saxena R.G.D. 15. Shivdasani Vijay

Dagaonkar Nagesh Dalvi Prasad M. Daruwala M.P. Das Barun Das Swapan Dave Dinesh H. Dave Dr N.J. De Ashutosh De Gautam Deshpande Atul R. Deshpande Y.G. Devaraju H. Devlekar C.R. Dey Debajit Dey Rana Dhanish P.B. Dinakaran J.P. Dudeja Sanjay Dutt B.S. Fernandes S.A. Gala K.L. Ganapathi Cdr R. Gandhi Vishnu P. Gautam Parvesh Gosar Vinod Kumar Goyal Munish Gupta Abhisek Gupta Anirudh D. Gupta Naveen K. Gupta Vijay Kumar Hardia Chhaya Hardia Maya Hule Subhash M. Hule Yamini M.

694 1141 676 1001 879 800 400 1042 1049 622 747 529 766 800 626 1242 776 698 502 800 1178 1113 918 737 718 494 707 1072 1043 412 803 762 682 708

16. Gala K.L. 17. Dabholkar P.S. 18. Anil Kumar N.R 19. Salgaocar S.A. 20. Trivedi Kalapi B.

Iyer Preethi G. Jadhav Dinesh V. Jain Shubam Sanat Jain Suresh Jain Veerendra Jamindar Peeyush Jayaraman Mohan Joseph Kum. Ashna Joseph P.J. Joy Kumar Vineet Joy P.O. Juneja Madan Lal Kalsekar A.G. Kamat Nikhil Kanishka T.N. Kapoor Lalit Kapoor Dr R.K. Khamparia Akshat Khan Shams Kini Harish Krishnan T.N. Kulkarni Mahesh G Kulkarni S.P. Kumar Awani Kumar K.Shiva Kumar Manjesh Kumar P.R. Kumar Pavan T. Kumar Prabhat Kumar Rabindra Lakshminarayana Lhouvum Kammang Mandviwala Pervez Manoj Kumar P.K.

702 416 843 723 792 612 865 800 800 764 522 501 800 784 887 475 747 619 906 400 544 629 747 1021 804 551 400 1074 648 677 962 1054 848 860

THE AICCF BULLETIN Marathe Suparna Meherhomji E.G. Mehta Bikram Mistry Yezad K. Miyani Ketan P. Modak Deodutta M. Mody Suresh M. Mohamed M.K. Mohan C.S. Mukherjee T.K. Mulla Mehli B. Murali R.C. Nagaraj Dr A. Nagesh Havanur Nagesh J. Nagradjane A.G. Nalladaru K.A. Nambiar A.V.S. Nambiar Vivek Naveen Kumar A. Nayak Satya S. Neelakantan N. Niranjan M.V. Nishanth H.M. Nizamuddin S.K. Pable Kum. Amisha Padhi Prem P. Padsha Sayed Pai Dr. Dinkar Palaniappan S. Pandalai N.G. Pandavakrishna Y. Pandit Vijay D. Pathak Pramod B. Patil Abhijit A. Paul Santhosh M. Phani Dr. Mohan Pinge Shankar Prabhakar Krishna Prabhanandan K. Prakash R. Prasad Krishna M. Rama Rao Imandi

858 825 590 431 708 809 772 926 668 400 800 767 1028 800 400 1417 696 507 599 694 423 1288 657 400 558 784 400 898 800 931 400 1077 1107 954 907 990 643 667 1271 1201 582 711 800

Ramamurthi K.V.S. Raman R. Ramaya Selvi S. Ramesh J. Randeria V.S. Rao Dr D.R.K.S. Rao E. Vijay Ravi Rao P. Jaggappa Rath Bijay K. Ravi Prakash S.M. Reddy Mookiah Rekh Ketan S. Sadashiva V. Sahiyar Diniyar Sait Zahid H. Salathia H.S. Salgaocar S.A. Samuel V. Sanath V. Sandeep Y. Saravanan K.S. Sarkar D. Sarkar Shyamal Sarma Akash Das Sarma Anish Das Sarma Atish Das Sastry K.V.S. Satheesan M. Saxena A. Saxena Rakesh GD Saxena Vaibhav Seetaramayya L. Semeel V.S. Senthilnathan S. Shah Atulkumar A. Shaikh Md. Hanif Sharma M.P. Sharma Manish Sharma R.D. Sharma Vinod Sharma Vipul K. Shelke G.B. Shetty V.B.

Aug 2004 677 544 1110 671 459 1200 797 400 837 1255 1233 400 863 800 422 641 1158 400 760 526 736 1034 812 1031 919 1011 828 1383 1095 1194 1239 685 800 628 683 736 654 1069 768 885 502 400 889

Shirsekar Amey R. Shivdasani Vijay Shukla N.P. Singh Er Baldev Singh Jatinder Singh Oinam I. Singhai Vikas Sirohi Narendra Somani Km Shalaka Somani Smt Rashmi Somani Sunil K. Sreejith K.S. Sudhir N. Sukumaran K.C. Sundararajan S. Surveyor Dr A.B. Swapna V. Swathi V.N. Talukdar Gaurav Talukder Manik Tamrakar B.B. Thakkar Mudit Thakur G.S. Thangkhiew G. Theza K.L.Keerthi Torvekar G.P. Trehan Anirudh Trivedi Kalapi B. Tyagi D. Umashankar Cpl N. Umesh Nair Unni C.S. Upadhyay S. Vaidya Piyush H. Valsan K. Venugopalan C. Vidyadharan M.R. Vishwakarama G. Vittal T.R.Ananda Vivek J. Vyas Nilesh J. Wadhwa Rajesh Wahee S.N.

62 785 1187 415 748 816 717 769 400 848 864 1419 749 416 851 441 1011 546 465 699 834 800 837 922 875 784 400 1112 1156 1034 522 886 790 614 627 525 843 597 800 800 634 888 885 968

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

63

INTERNATIONAL SECTION

Dr. A.Chatterjee Members wishing to play in ICCF Email should contact me at the above email address. The required fees should be sent to Mr. E.G.Meherhomji (Secretary-cumTreasurer). In addition to the membership of the International Section (Rs. 300/- for 2 years or Rs. 1500/- one time donation) you need to cover the fees of the tournament: Rs 192/- for Email open class 7 player or Rs. 320/- for Email open class 11 player. There are other tournaments too like the Afro-Asian Championships which are free (contact Med Samroui ) and ICCF special tournaments the details of which are given at http://www.iccf.com. ICCF server tournaments will be announced soon (already the first one is underway). Watch the ICCF web site and contact me when you want to play CC in this new and exciting mode. Here are the recent results from international tournaments.

Friendly International Matches India Sweden: Svenson 2-0 Nair; Ingvar Bratt 2-0 Sukumaran, Anil Anand 2-0 Alfred Thomassen, C.S.Unni 0 Ari Oinonen, Mandviwala 0 Alvebring, Hansson 0 Krishnamurthy, K.Prabhanandan 2-0 Susanne Hansson, Jacobson 1 Meherhomji, Brink 1 Meherhomji, Svensson 1 Meherhomji. India - Portugal: Chauhan 0 Marques, Pawan Kumar 2-0 Alberto Zuna, José, Figueiras ½ Somani, Salvador Marques 1 Chauhan, Santhosh ½ Julio, Flores 1 Santhosh India - France: M.Marciniak 1 Mulla, Prabhakar 0 Vandervorst Italy-World: Italo Monteverde ½ (both) Santhosh Paul, Friendly Afro-Asian v. France: K.L.Gala ½Pierre Lacombe

Others Email Olympiad: Vasconceles ½ Santhosh, Santhosh ½, Santhosh 0 Christov, Nagradjane ½ Pina, Nazer ½Nagradjane, Chauhan ½ Gaujens, Lhouvum 0 Petkov, Vasconcelos ½ Santosh Paul, Teichmeister 1 Santhosh, Strautins 1 Santhosh, Santhosh 0 Walsh, Chauhan 0 Knoll, Chauhan 0 Cruzado, Hansen 1 Santhosh Barrios Troncosco 1 Santhosh, Santhosh ½ Irzhanov , Baochev 1 Nagradjane WC13/Prel: K.L. Gala 0 Teuschler Hugo, Montella Salvatore 1 K.L.Gala, Hamilton Doug ½ K.L. Gala, K.L. Gala ½ S. Steffen, K.L. Gala 1 L. Ramunas WC13/02: K.Prabhanandan ½Bechara, Flaherty and Armel , Manuel Apicella 1-0 K. Prabhanandan, Bodgan 1 K.Prabhanandan Champions League: Ryska ½Santhosh Paul 6th Afro-Asian Champ: Dabholkar 1 Tan Fee Meng, Nikhil Kamat,

THE AICCF BULLETIN

Aug 2004

64

Hatem Ould Rouis, Zhou San Ming, Willie Siebert and Mohamed Ali Abdelhalmin; Dabholkar 0 Hayakawa Satoru, Nikhil Kamat 1 Dabholkar, Dabholkar ½Johannes Benade, Smuts ½Dabholkar, Dabholkar ½Hanger ICCF Jubilee D: Bernard Hanen 1 Dabholkar EM/J50/Q10: Kahl, Fred 1 K.Prabhanandan 3rd Asian CC Championship: Sakae Ohtak ½ Santhosh, Santhosh 1 Orlan Pascual, Santhosh ½ Nagradjane, Santhosh ½ Annayev, Santhosh 1 Shoji Terada, Dave Dempster 0 Santhosh, Santhosh 1 Altanoch, Santhosh 0 Balabaev. EM/O/152: John Ward 1 A.Saxena, A.Saxena 1 Janet Peterson ICCF Champions League Prelims: Gino 1 Santhosh

ANSWERS TO CHESS QUIZ Anil Anand Here are the answers to the quiz questions on page 41. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

9. 10.

Vladimir Mikenas A.Huzman (ELO 2574)! Alexander Alekhine Paul Keres (1916-1975) Jose Raul Capablanca (1888-1942) Alexander Alekhine vs Jose Raul Capablanca Robert J.Fischer vs Boris Spassky Robert J.Fischer (1943- ) Mikhail Botvinnik Ljubomir Ljubojevic (Yugoslavia)

Printed by: The Impression, 3rd Floor, 29, Mapla House, 13/21, Mohammed Shakoor Marg, Fort, Mumbai 400 001, Ph: 22705444, 22650261