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PART III - THE XTH WORLD CC FINAL
The pairings for the Xth World Final arrived in October 1978. As I perused the list of participants, I recognized many names from past World Finals and European Championships: Y. Estrin (USSR), 7th World Champion; J. Boey (Belgium), runner up to Estrin and a very successful OTB player that represented Belgium in the Chess Olympiads; K. Richardson (England), placed third in the 7th Final; G. Sanakoev (USSR), a perennial contender and a future World Champion; Karl-Heinz Maeder (Germany), the winner of the 1st ICCF World Cup; and other winners of European, as well as North and South American, Championships.
There was approximately a month to go before the games were to begin, so I began thinking about my approach to the tournament and where I will have to improve. Several of the weaknesses that I identified were: recording errors had cost me games in the past; my knowledge of openings was limited; I often become too optimistic in positions that don't deserve such optimism, etc. I pondered on how to avoid these weaknesses and play to my strengths?
My biggest advantage was the surprise element of not being known and being from the U.S. Up to that time, outside of the superb performance by Hans Berliner in winning the 5th World Title, there have not been any strong performances in the World Finals by U.S. players.
My thoughts and preparation before the tournament
To win everything would have to be just about perfect. Because perfection doesn't come very often, I set a more realistic goal aiming for one of the top three places. The following are some of the "rules" I tried to follow.
1. Avoid recording errors! It's bad enough to be beaten by your opponent's fine play, but it's much more painful when you beat yourself. Recording errors have plagued me during most of my CC career. Often I see the forest, but not the trees. I develop a deep plan and write down the next move incorrectly. Several recent painful examples occurred in the 12th World Final against Nesis (USSR) and in the Axelson Memorial tournament against Dr. Fritz Baumbach (Germany).
For this championship I made it a firm rule that I would never mail a reply without rechecking it the following morning. With a good night's rest, I would review the ideas behind the move, and then, if the move was recorded correctly.
2. Always replay the whole game before analyzing the position. By mail, moves sometimes arrive only once a month. The process of replaying the whole game before analyzing the final position helped to refresh my memory about the game and was a good "warm-up" before serious analysis. After deciding on a move, I would write down my thoughts and supporting variations.
3. It is impossible to overstate the importance of openings in correspondence chess. An opening disadvantage can last for years and psychologically wear you down. Being forced to defend an inferior position can consume much time and be detrimental to your other games. This is one of the great differences between over-the-board and correspondence chess.
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