For one who has played and enjoyed correspondence chess dating back to the pre-Deep Blue era, writing about the latest chess-by-mail world championship is a melancholy business.
Faced with the rise of superstrong chess-playing computer programs and the practical impossibility of policing the players, organizers of the World Chess Correspondence Championship have thrown in the towel and allowed participants to use the silicon beasts and their vast databases to evaluate moves, check combinations and chart endgame wins. The old pleasure of deep concentration and painstaking analysis over months and months of play is now more akin to those engineering school battles where teams send out their little robots to smash each other to bits.
“It is indeed impossible to achieve any significant result in today’s correspondence chess without engines and databases,” admits Leonardo Ljubicic, the Croatian master and mechanical engineer just crowned as the 28th world correspondence champ with an undefeated score of 4-0-12. Correspondence success these days, he acknowledged in an interview with ChessBase.com, rests on having “enough time and patience and composure [so] you can feed the computer with more good ideas than your opponent.”
With players guided by their Rybkas, Stockfishes and Fritzes, the quality of the play is high, if more than a bit sterile — 87 percent of the games in the finals were drawn, with two players drawing all 16 of their games.
Still, give the new champ his due. He’s mastered the new system and still has managed (with help from Stockfish) to play games like the one here, actually pulling off a speculative piece sacrifice and navigating the ensuing complications to a critical victory over German SIM Hans-Hermann Clever. Here, 31. Bf5 Ne7 32. Bh7+!? is not a move often risked in modern postal chess, but it works out after 32…Kxh7 33. Rh1+ Kg8 34. Qh6 f6 35. Qxf6 Bc8 36. Rhg1, and Black has to give up the knight to stop the mating sacrifice on g7.
Attack and defense are finely balanced in the ensuing play, but White obtains a winning simplification after 51. Qh3 Qd7 (apparently fearful of White doubling on the h-file) 52. Qxd7 Rxd7 53. b6 Rb7 54. Kxa3, and Ljubicic is up a clear exchange and his b-pawn can’t be stopped in the long run. Black resigned.
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Get these guys an AARP endorsement deal.
With two Maryland stalwarts on its roster, the Komodo Dragons scored a spectacular result at last weekend’s massive Amateur Team East Tournament at its longtime home in Parsippany, New Jersey, barely losing out on tiebreaks after tying for first in the 277-team field with a 5½-½ match score.
Dragon Denis Strenzwilk, a longtime friend of the column, reports that the team’s average age was 65 and that all four members boosted their ratings coming out of the weekend. Congrats to Strenzwilk, a spry 75-year-old, Maryland GM Larry Kaufman (68), William Michael (75) and Karl Dehmelt, the baby of the group at 58.
And congrats also to U.S. GM Gata Kamsky, sole winner of the always-strong Capelle le Grande Open at the northern French coastal town. Today’s diagram shows Kamsky’s fine winning combination against Kazakh GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev on his way to an undefeated 7½-1½ result. Black was already in trouble but was hoping for some counterplay against White’s apparently trapped bishop.
But Kamsky had other ideas, wrapping up the point with 37. Rh8+! Kg6 (Kxh8 38. Qe8+ Kh7 39. Qxe4+ Kg8 40. Bxd5+ Kf8 41. Qe6 and mate is unstoppable) 38. Qe8+ Kf6 39. Qxe4+!!, and if 39…Kxe4, 40. Bc2 is mate; Kazhgaleyev resigned.
Ljubicic-Clever, 28th World Correspondence Chess Championship, 2013-2016
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Be7 8. Qf3 Qc7 9. O-O-O Nbd7 10. g4 b5 11. Bxf6 Nxf6 12. Bg2 Bb7 13. a3 Nd7 14. g5 b4 15. axb4 O-O 16. h4 a5 17. b5 a4 18. Kb1 a3 19. b3 Rfc8 20. Rh3 e5 21. Nde2 Qa5 22. Ka2 Rc7 23. Qe3 exf4 24. Qxf4 Bf8 25. h5 Ne5 26. Qd2 Rac8 27. Rg3 Rc5 28. g6 hxg6 29. hxg6 Nxg6 30. Bh3 R8c7 31. Bf5 Ne7 32. Bh7+ Kxh7 33. Rh1+ Kg8 34. Qh6 f6 35. Qxf6 Bc8 36. Rhg1 Nf5 37. exf5 Rxb5 38. Nxb5 Qxb5 39. Nd4 Qe5 40. Rg6 Qe3 41. Qh4 Qc3 42. Rb1 Bxf5 43. Rg2 Qh3 44. Qg5 Rf7 45. Nxf5 Rxf5 46. Qg6 Rf7 47. b4 Qc8 48. b5 Qc4+ 49. Rb3 Rb7 50. Qh5 Qf7 51. Qh3 Qd7 52. Qxd7 Rxd7 53. b6 Rb7 54. Kxa3 Black resigns.
• David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
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