Roscoe's Public Notes

It looks like 2008′s strange Summer of Silence, in which I won an unusual number of correspondence chess games because my opponents went mysteriously silent – they simply quit playing and let their clocks run out, is being followed by an Autumn of Silence. Now one game does not make a trend: I realize that. But after so many wins by forfeit from June through early September, this one coming less than a week into the new season does make me wonder, ya’ know?

This morning I was notified by the club under whose auspices this game was being played that I had won it, my opponent playing the White pieces had run out of time while I had over a month remaining on my clock. Though the game had only advanced through fourteen full moves, it still features an exciting segue from the opening phase into an interesting middle game and is worth sharing with you.

Immediately below, find the board we were assigned and our move record. Serious study should always be given to the unusual placement of the major pieces of a Fisher Random Chess game before the first move is made; it may well provide traps to be avoided and opportunities to be exploited that the standard game doesn’t.

1.d4 h6 2.e4 d5 3.e5 e6 4.f4 Bh7 5.Nd2 O-O 6.Ndf3 b6 7.Be2 c5 8.Bb5 Nc7 9.a4 Nxb5 10.axb5 cxd4 11.Nxd4 Qc4+ 12.Nd3 Bxd3+ 13.cxd3 Qxd3+ 14.Ke1 Qe4+
Black Win

After White’s 7.Be2 we see that he has established a dominant center presence with his pawn island at f4, d5, and e4. And with two of his major pieces (a Bishop and Knight) out on the board, he appears ready to get aggressive on my old butt. All I’ve done so far is castle King-side.

Making the decision to attack the right side of his central pawn island, I push my c-pawn, 7…c5. Skirmishing in that part of the board for awhile finds us trading pawns, a Bishop, and a Knight apiece; it finds me bringing my Queen out early and placing his King in check three times; it finds me flushing his King out into an unprotected part of his back rank; and finds me a pawn up while potentially threatening his h1-Rook, depending on how he chooses to get out of my 14…Qe4 check.

The final board position of this game which ended too early is below.