INTERACTIVE CHESS

(In this final installment, Steve Ham announces a second interactive chess challenge. This time hovever, as Steve explains below, there will be two teams and thus two on-going games. Please note, however, that there has been a recent change in the playing assignments. Instead of Steve playing against two teams, he will only play against the Gold team, while NOST Master, Dr. Howard Trimpi will challenge the Silver team to a game. Hopefully Dr. Trimpi will honor us with a brief introduction of himself. Steve will be writing a second series of columns with his commentary and analysis to both games. And, as with the first game everyone is invited to contribute annotations and comments. Of course as with the first game, this website will bring you the move by move action in real time. So please tune in and participate! ---Ralph P. Marconi.)

This installment completes the annotations to the Interactive Chess Challenge. Therefore I wish to give a long overdue thank you to the most active NOST players in this match. They are (in no particular order): Dr. Howard Trimpi, Ralph Marconi, Tony Gardner, Les Roselle, Jakob Kamp Jensen, Garry Reynolds, Ray Gardner, Larry Green, Gary Wallace, Stephen Wead, Robert Meinert (NOST member via ICCF-US), Paul Dyba, and late arrival Pat Donlon. While others popped in and out, these gentlemen defended NOST's honor throughout the game. I also wish to publicly thank Ralph Marconi for carrying this event at his wonderful web site.

White: Stephen Ham
Black: NOST Members
e-mail match game, 1998

24 ...Kf6?!(see diagram)

This move, intending ...Ke5 to prevent White's King from penetrating into Black's Kingside and from moving to d4, is inaccurate since the King needs to be available to travel toward the Queenside, where White's half-passed pawn is. I rather expected Black to wait for White to commit with 24...Re8 (getting only 1 vote) 25 Rd1, f6 26 Kd4, Kd8 27 Rf1 when White wins, but is forced to show some technique. Surprisingly, NOST gave a lot of votes to 24...f5?, which loses immediately to 25 Kf4, Kf6 26 g4, fxg4 27 Bxg4, Rf8 28 Bf3, Bxf3 29 exf, Ke6 30 Ke3, a5 31 Rh4, axb4 32 axb4.

25 Kf4

Black planned 25...Ke5, so White's move is forced. Otherwise 25. Rd1??, Ke5 26 Rf1, d4+ 27 Kd2, f5 28 Rc1, d3 29 e3, h5 and Black has good drawing chances.

25...Rg8

Larry Green correctly assessed Black's situation, saying "NOST's last move created a difficult position for Black. Now his King will have to stay put to stop White's King from going to e5..." Therefore Pat Donlon said, "I vote for 25...Rg8 in an attempt to attack by ...Rg6-h6" and he was supported by NOST's votes. The flaw here is that as soon as the Rook leaves the 8th rank, Black loses material to Bc8. While it is clear that Rook moves are less committal than pawn or King moves, the best move may have been 25... Re8, to cut White's King off from the Queenside. However, it is likely to transpose anyway after 26 a4 since the Rook will have to move again to try to stop my future passed pawn.

26 a4 Ke7?!

Black ignored what was stated in previous notes about making committal moves in positions of this type. Perhaps Black recognized the need to position his King closer to the Queenside, knowing my King can now be kept off e5. Instead, Black still needed to mark time with non-committal Rook moves, such as 26...Ra8 27 b5, axb4 28 axb4, Ke7 (28...Ra2? 29 Bc8, Re2 20 Bb7 wins) 29 c6, bxc6 30 bxc6, Kd6 31 Bd7 and White must again display some technique to win. While there are now several ways to win this endgame for White, such as the immediate 27 b5, axb4 28 axb4, Ra8 29 Bg4, h6 30 Bf3, Bxf3 31 Kxf3, Ra5 32 Rb4, Ra3+ 33Kf4, etc., Black just made things easier as White simply trades into a won Rook and pawn endgame.

27 Bf5 Bxf5

Most players noticed that 27...Bg2? loses to 28 Bxh7, Rh8 29 Bf5, Rxh2 30 Bc8, Re2 31 Bxb7, Re6 32 b5, axb4 33 axb4, although 27...Bg2? and 27...Bh1? still combined for 3 votes.

28 Kxf5 h6

If Black thought he could try 28 ...Rg6-h6 now since White no longer has Bc8, he would lose to 29 b5, axb4 30 axb4, Rh6 31 b6, Ke8 32 Ke5. In short, Black's Rook needs to stay on the 8th rank to ensure mobility to the Queenside. However, 28 ...Rd8? loses to 29 e4, as Ralph Marconi pointed out.

29 Rh4

NOST's last move had a crafty trap built into it. Namely, 29 Rxd5??, Rg5+ 30 Ke4, Rg4+ 31 Kd3, Rxb4 32 Rd4, Rb1 33 Rh4 and White's advantage is minimal. While the immediate 29 b5 retains an advantage, it is not as lethal as the text move.

NOST RESIGNS. NOST saw that 29...Rg6 30 Ke5, Rg5+ 31 Kd4, h5 32 b5, axb4 33 axb4, Ke6 34 b6 wins for White. Also 29...Rg5+ 30 Kf4, Rg6 31 Rh5!? (31 Ke5, Rg5+ transposes to 29...Rg6) Ke6 (31...Re6 32 Rxd5, Rxe2 33 Re5+ wins, as does 31...d4 32 Ke5, Rf6 33 Kxd4) 32 Re5+, Kd7 33 Rxd5+, Kc7 34 Rf5 (planning Ke5), f6 35 Rh5 wins.

NOST played well, in spite of not reaching 30 moves (although many players voted to resign earlier). NOST improved on "the books" with their 18th move, a move quite difficult to find. Finally, this game serves to enrich chess theory since we now all see the dire straits Black obtains after his 11th move.

Most participants said they had a good time and learned a lot. Since this is all for a good cause, HOW ABOUT A REMATCH WITH NOST PLAYING WHITE? Some players were concerned about weaker players outvoting them so it was suggested I play a game apiece against two NOST teams, thus increasing the value of each players votes by diminishing team size. The two teams will be named Gold and Silver. All players with NOST ratings of 1900 or more may join the Gold team while all others qualify for the Silver team. As a final enhancement, each team will consult among themselves to develop strategy and minimize mistakes. The resulting move will be e-mailed to me by the team captain. The Gold team captain is Ralph Marconi, reached at: marconi@pandore.qc.ca. Meanwhile, we need a volunteer for the Silver team captain. Thus Silver team members must e-mail me directly with their first move until a captain is found. For those NOST members who missed out last time, here's your chance to take a shot at a correspondence master and World Champion semi-final round qualifier (my games begin just over a year from now). Wow, I sure set myself up as a target with that one.

NOST is going to be gunning for me this time, so it's important I stay sharp. Here's a recent game where I tried to do exactly that.

White: Dr. Howard Trimpi
Black: Stephen Ham
Corr. 1998

1 d4 d5 2 c4 e5

I normally play the Gruenfeld Defense, but like to try variety in friendly games. This is the Albin Counter Gambit, a line much better than it's poor reputation.

3 dxe5, d4, 4 Nf3, Nc6, 5 Nbd2, Bg4, 6 a3, Qe7, 7 h3, Bh5, 8 Qa4, O-O-O, 9 b4, Kb8, 10 g4, Bg6, 11 Bg2, h5, 12 gxh5, Bxh5, 13 Bb2, Nh6, 14 c5, Nf5, 15 Qc2, Bg6, 16 Qc4, Nxe5, 17 Nxe5, Qxe5, 18 Nf3, Qe7, 19 Rd1, d3, 20 O-O, Nh4, 21 Nxh4, Rxh4, 22 Qb5, c6, 23 Bxc6, Qg5+, 24 Bg2, Be4, 25 f3, Bc6 O-1.

Does anyone want to annotate this as the next Annotational Challenge? Your analysis and mine will be presented in my next column. This Annotational Challenge is open to all, even non-NOST members. Simply e-mail me your annotations to: Steve.Ham@gecapital.com and we'll see if we can explore this game in depth.