*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ IECC CHESS BITS & PIECES *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Published by the International Email Chess Club Devoted solely to E-Mail Correspondence Chess *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Volume 1, Issue 14 November 1995 *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ THE FOUNDER'S CORNER By Lisa Powell As the founder of IECG, I naturally encourage membership in both organizations. Both organizations offer somewhat different programs, with definite advantages to belonging to both IECC and IECG. IECC continues to be experimental, and is willing to consider new activities, as well as modification of existing IECC Programs. One caveat. New members of IECC are welcome to join IECC Chess Academy if -- repeat IF -- they have joined IECC to participate in other IECC activities, as well as IECC Chess Academy. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ IECC MEMBER OF THE MONTH Each issue we introduce to our readers a different member. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Name: Robert G. Buice, Jr. Age : 25 Single Work: Pharmaceutical Science Ph.D. student Functions in IECC: VP Web Communications I am basically new to chess. My father taught me to play when I was seven, but he was only vaguely familiar with the game. I therefore did not learn of castling or en passant. In High School I tried again and learned all the rules, but none of the strategy or tactics. I joined the USCF and achieved a preliminary rating of about 1000, but dropped out after just a few tournaments. Progress in chess requires one of two things: 1. Steady and consistent progress as demonstrated by increasing ratings (something which almost never happens). And/or 2. Steady encouragement and advice from better players. I found that in tournament chess I met people so briefly and in such intense competition that I was broken down more than built up. Just about six months ago, I saw the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer" and it reminded me just how much I was fascinated by chess. I happened to be working a bit with the Internet and discovered the Free Internet Chess Server and the IECC. FICS allowed me to have a 24 hour supply of people to play with. Some of which seemed to play as poorly as me. Thank goodness! I was able to play enough that I got "hooked" on the game. >From the Usenet groups I received suggestions for good books to read and learned the basic strategy and tactics. I then joined IECC which is allowing me to slowly learn to calculate variations without the time pressure and psychological pressure of some blood thirsty 8 year old waiting for trash me. (I speak from experience!) The Chess Academy and the organization of IECC has allowed me to sneak into chess while avoiding the intimidation of the traditional paths to chess. I am deeply concerned with the novice point of view in chess and I hope we can all work together to help other beginners into the game and not scare them off. After all, one of the major chess writers said that he believes that anybody of average intelligence can be a chess master if he has the dedication and puts in the time. I declare that I am that average person. Of course I have to save a little time for grad school, bicycle racing, literature and free-form jazz. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ IECC GAME OF THE MONTH Bill Wall A SICILIAN NAJDORF QUICKIE by Bill Wall Lisa Powell - Riley Hughes, IECC 1995 [B95] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cd 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Be2 [More common are 7.f4, 7.Qf3, 7.Qe2, or 7.Qd2] 7...Be7 [7...Nbd7 8.Qd2 h6 9.Be3 b5 10.a3 Bb7 11.f3 Be7 12.O-O O-O 13.Kh1 Rc8 14.Rg1 (1-0, 34) Al Hadrani-Mendosa, Moscow 1994] 8.0-0 [8.Qd3 Nbd7 9.O-O-O Qc7 10.f4 h6 11.Bh4 b5 12.Bf3 Bykov-Tseitlin, USSR 1968; 8.f4 Qc7 9.O-O O-O 10.f5 Nc6 11.Nxc6 Qxc6 12.Rf3 Re8 13.Rg3 exf5 14.exf5 Bxf5 (0-1, 33) Brambilla-Ravagnati, Italy 1984; 8.Qd2 Qc7 9.O-O-O b5 10.Bf3 Bb7 11.Qe3 Nbd7 12.Rhe1 O-O 13.Bxf6 Bxf6 14.g4 Rac8 (0-1, 21) Feldman-Spassky, Leningrad 1949] 8...Nbd7 [Black should probably just castle] 9.Qd2 [Or 9.a4 first to prevent ...b5 and a Black queenside expansion] 9...Qc7 [Again, 9...O-O or 9...Nc5] 10.a4 [Preventing 10...b5] 10...h6 [Black probably thinks it is too dangerous to castle and wants to kick the White Bishop away] 11.Be3 b6 [Black develops his other Bishop to control the long diagonal] 12.f3 Bb7 13.Rfd1 [White controls the half-open d-file] 13...Rc8 14.a5 [White continues to grab more space on the Q-side] 14...b5 [If 14...bxa5 15.Nb3 recovers the pawn] 15.Bxb5!? [White has the opportunity to pick up 3 pawns and attack the pieces and king still in the center] 15... axb5 [Black might want to try to get his king to safety and play 15...O-O, giving up the pawn but getting the other Black rook in the game] 16.Ndxb5 Qb8 [16...Qc4 is probably better. After 17.Nxd6+ Bxd6 18.Qxd6 Rc6 and try to castle afterwards] 17.a6 [Probably better than just 17.Nxd6+ Bxd6 18.Qxd6 Bc6 19.Qxb8] 17...Bc6 [17...Ba8 fails to 18.Ba7] 18.a7 [Better than 18.Nxd6+ Bxd6 19.Qxd6 Qxb2] 18...Qa8 [Not 18...Qb7 19.a8=Q Rxa8 20.Rxa8+ Qxa8 21.Nc7+ and 22.Nxa8] 19.Nxd6+ Bxd6 20.Qxd6 Qb7 [A weaker alternative may be 20...e5. Black is running out of moves] 21.b4 [White need not worry about the b-pawn. If Black were to play 21...Qxb2 22.Qxc6 Rxc6 23.a8=Q wins] 21...Ra8?? [21...Qa8 needs to be played so that the Black Bishop has an escape route after 22.b5] 22.b5 [White has several winning methods. After 22...Bxb5 23.Nxb5 Qxb5 24.Rab1 and 25.Rb8+ wins. White could add some torture with 23.Rdb1 and 24.Nxb5. Black did the right thing and resigned.] 1-0 *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ ALKEHINE TRIVIA by Bill Wall Alexander Alexanderovich Alekhine, former world chess champion, had an interesting and strange life. He was born on October 31, 1892 in Moscow. His father was a wealthy landowner, a Marshall of the Nobility and the member of the Duma. His mother was an heiress of an industrial fortune. His older brother, Alexei, played chess and was able to draw Pillsbury when Pillsbury gave a simultaneous blindfold display in Moscow on 22 boards. Alexander learned chess from his brother and mother. Until World War I, he spelled his last name Aljechin. At age 16 he entered the Imperial High School for Law in Moscow and was exposed to more chess. At age 17 he traveled to St. Petersburg and won a tournament that gained him a master title. In 1914, at the age of 22, he won his first major tournament when he tied for first place with Aron Nimzovich in St. Petersburg. A few months later another major tournament was held in St. Petersburg in which he took third place behind Emanuel Lasker and Jose Capablanca. Czar Nicholas II conferred the title "Grandmaster of Chess" to Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch, and Marshall after they took the top five places at St. Petersburg. In July-August of 1914 Alekhine was leading an international chess tournament, the 19th German Chess Federation Congress in Mannheim, Germany with 9 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss when World War I broke out. He was taken to Rastatt, Germany as a prisoner of war. He feigned madness and the Germans released him as unfit for military service in September, 1914. Alekhine made his way back to Russia where he served in the Red Cross on the Austrian front. In 1915 he was wounded and captured by the Austrians. He had suffered a contusion of the spine and was hospitalized at Tarnapol where he developed his blindfold chess skills. After the war the Russians decorated him for bravery. At the end of the war he finished his legal training and worked at the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department as a magistrate. In 1919 he traveled to Odessa and was briefly imprisoned in their death cell suspected of being a spy. In 1920 Alekhine returned to Moscow and married a Russian baroness several years older than he. He had already fathered an illegitimate daughter in 1913. Alekhine started working in a film studio intending to be an actor. In October, 1920 Alekhine won the first USSR chess championship in Moscow. In 1921 Alekhine joined the Communist Party and became a translator for the Communist International and the secretary of the Communist Education Department. He then left his wife and the Soviet Union and settled in Paris where he married a Swiss Comintern delegate, Anneliese Ruegg. A few months later he abandoned his older second wife and went to Berlin. He won three straight tournaments in Triberg, Budapest, and The Hague. In Budapest he popularized what is now called the Alekhine's defense. In 1922 he took second in London, behind Capablanca, and first at Hastings. In 1923 he tied for first at Carlsbad. In 1924 he took 3rd place in New York, behind Lasker and Capablanca. In 1925 Alekhine won a tournament in Baden-Baden. This was the first international tournament in Germany since World War I. In 1925 Alekhine became an naturalized French citizen, entered the Sorbonne Law School, and wrote his thesis on the Chinese prison system. He did not get his PhD or law degree, though, only completing two of the four stages required for the degree. In February 1925 Alekhine broke the world blindfold record by playing 28 games blindfold simultaneously, winning 22, drawing 3 and losing 3. In 1926 Alekhine beat Max Euwe in a match and challenged Capablanca for the world championship. Alekhine had just married for the third time to another person much older than him, Nadezda Vasiliev. She was the widow of a high-ranking Russian officer. Capablanca accepted the challenge and began their world championship match in Buenos Aires on September 16, 1927. By November 29, 1927 Alekhine beat Capablanca with 6 wins, 25 draws, and 3 losses. The only time-out was when Alekhine had 6 teeth extracted during the match. Alekhine became the 4th official world champion of chess after Steinitz, Lasker, and Capablanca. All the games in Buenos Aires took place behind closed doors. There were no spectators or photographs. Alekhine avoided Capablanca's challenge of a rematch and took on Bogoljubov at Weisbaden in September, 1929. Alekhine won with 11 wins, 9 draws, and 5 losses. He avoided Capablanca by insisting that the winner get $10,000 in gold, just as he got on Buenos Aires. But after the stock market crash, there were no backers. At the 1930 Chess Olympiad he scored his first 100% score when he won all 9 games as board one for France. From 1929 to 1932 Alekhine took first place at San Remo (performance rating of 2812), Bled, London, and Pasadena. In 1933 he played 32 people blindfold simultaneously in Chicago, winning 19, drawing 9, and losing 4 games. He traveled the world giving simultaneous exhibitions, including Shanghai. He was made an honorary Colonel in the Mexican army and appointed as chess instructor for the Mexican army. In 1934 Alekhine married for the 4th time to a lady 16 years older than he, Grace Wishart. She was the widow of an Englishman and retained her British nationality. He had met her at a minor chess tournament which she had won. Her prize was one of Alekhine's books. She asked him to sign the book and their relationship developed from that moment. In 1934 Alekhine defeated Bogoljubov for the world championship in Baden-Baden with the score of 8 wins, 15 draws and 3 losses. He then accepted a challenge from Max Euwe. On October 3, 1935 the world championship match between Alekhine and Euwe began in Zandvoort for $10,000 to the winner. On December 15, 1935 Euwe had won with 9 wins, 13 draws, and 8 losses. This was the first world championship match to officially have seconds. In 1936 Alekhine played in Nottingham which was won by Capablanca and Botvinnik. Alekhine ended up in 6th place. His game with Capablanca was the first time they had met since the world championship match in 1927. Alekhine asked for a rematch and got it in 1937 where Alekhine defeated Euwe in Holland with 10 wins, 11 draws and 4 losses. At the 1938 AVRO tournament in Holland, the top eight players in the world participated. This was the strongest tournament ever held. First place was $550. Alekhine, for the first time in his life, came ahead of Capablanca. Capablanca, for the first time in his life, scored below 50%. Flohr, the official challenger to Alekhine in the next world championship match (called off because of World War II) came in last place without a single win in 14 rounds. Alekhine was representing France on board 1 at the chess olympiad in Buenos Aires when World War II broke out. As team captain of the French team, he refused to allow his team to play Germany. He returned to France to enlist in the army and became an interpreter. When France was overrun he tried to go to America by travelling to Lisbon and applying for an American visa. To protect his wife and their French assets, he agreed to cooperate with the Nazis. He wrote six articles critical of Jewish chess players and participated in Nazi chess tournament is Munich, Salzburg, Warsaw, and Prague. By 1943 Alekhine was spending all his time in Spain and Portugal asthe German representative to chess events. After World War II he was not invited to chess tournaments because of his Nazi affiliation. In 1946 he was about to accept a match title with Botvinnik. On the evening of March 23 or early March 24, 1946 Alekhine died in his hotel room in Estoril, Portugal. Some say he died of a heart attack. Others say he choked on an unchewed piece of meat. The body was not buried for three weeks as no one claimed the body. Finally, the Portuguese Chess Federation took charge of the funeral. Less than a dozen folks showed up for his burial. In 1947 the FIDE Congress voted for Euwe to be the world champion since Alekhine died. However, the Soviet delegation was late for this vote. The next day, after protest from the Soviet delegation, the title was rescinded in favor of a match-tournament which Botvinnik won. In 1956 the USSR and French Chess Federation agreed to transfer his remains to the cemetery in Montparnasse, Paris. FIDE provided the tombstone. It is in the shape of a chess board made out of red granite and there is a bust of him made out of marble. The birth and death date on Alekhine's tombstone is wrong. The tombstone reads: ALEXANDER ALEKHINE 1ST NOVEMBER, 1892 25TH MARCH, 1946 CHESS WORLD CHAMPION 1927-35-37 TO THE END. In world championship play, Alekhine won 43 games, drew 73 games, and lost 24 games for a total of 140 games, with a 56.8% win ratio. He was world champion for 17 years, playing in 5 world championship matches. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ CHESS TRIVIA AND ODDITIES by Bill Wall In 1973 the police raided a chess tournament in Parma, Ohio, arresting the tournament director and confiscating all chess boards and chessmen as evidence. The charges were allowing gambling (chess tourney and cash prizes) and possession of gambling devices (chess sets). At the 1970 US Open in Boston a player was paged while playing one of his games. When he returned to resume the game his opponent asked what was so urgent to get paged. The player responded that his home had just burned down. He stayed and finished the game. In the 1960s the Pittsburgh Correctional Facility's chess team, the Walled Knights, won the Pittsburgh City Team Championship twice. By they way, they were always the home team. In 1972 the state chess champion of Nebraska was named Rich Chess. George Koltanowski, world blindfold chess champion and memory expert, was on tour with his famous blindfold knights tour. The organizer picked him up at his hotel, took him to the exhibition, and returned near the hotel to have a late supper. The organizer left the restaurant after being assured that George could get back to the hotel 2 blocks away. At 2 am the organizer got a call from Koltanowski, apologizing for waking him up, but he forgot what hotel he was staying at. The Scheveningen variation of the Sicilian Defense (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be2 e6) was named after a city in Holland where is was played in an international tournament in 1923 between Gene Maroczy and Max Euwe. The word Scheveningen was also very important during World War II. When rumors were that Germans were invading Holland disguised as Dutchmen, the border police asked those entering their country how to pronounce Scheveningen. It seems only native Dutch people could pronounce Scheveningen correctly. The International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) holds correspondence olympiads where countries are represented by a team of correspondence chess players. A few years ago one player from Peru made up a team and tried to play all five games himself. His "team" did not do so well. The recent Dzindziashvili fist fight isn't the only case in chess where boxing and chess have gone together. In one of the world championship matches held in Moscow, a chess reporter was barred from entering the playing hall because he did not have the right credentials. The reporter took a swing at the guard and knocked him down. He was promptly arrested and probably not treated so well. In one of the US Opens in the early 1970s, a chess player had just lost his game and, by himself, set up the game to analyze at the table. A player sitting next to him told him to leave the playing area, this was not a skittles room. Ignoring the player, the lone nice guy was replaying his loss quietly. The player next to him told him to go away. Our lone kibitzer replied, "who died and made you king?" The player then swept all the pieces off the other guy's board with his hand. This was promptly met with a right hook that knocked the player off his seat to the ground with his clock still running. The fight had to be broken up by the tournament director. The chess federation of Zimbabwe was in existence before the country. The Zimbabwe Chess Federation joined FIDE in December, 1979. Zimbabwe did not become a country until April, 1980. In 1961 Robert Scrivener won the Mississippi State Championship at the age of 80, the oldest state chess champion. Cosmonaut Vitaly Sevestianov became the first person to play chess in space. In 1970 aboard Soyuz IX, he played a chess game with the ground controllers with a special peg chess set. The game was a draw. He invented the Soyuz-Apollo cocktail (25% vodka, 25% gin, 50% brandy). One drink and you are in orbit. He was president of the USSR Chess Federation from 1976 to 1986. Chess is the second oldest sport or game to have a world championship. The first world chess championship was held in 1886. Billiards was the first sport to have a world championship, first held in 1873. The briefest world champion was Mikhail Tal, who was world champion for 1 year, 5 days. The longest reign was held by Emanuel Lasker, world champion for 26 years, 337 days. Vassily Smyslov was a candidate for the world championship for 33 years, from 1950 to 1983. Gary Kasparov became the youngest world champion at 22 years, 210 days. Steinitz was the world's oldest chess champion until he lost his match in 1894 at the age of 58 years, 10 days. The average lifespan of world chess champions is 66 years. The average lifespan of unsuccessful challengers is 56 years. The Kasparov-Anand match had the most draws at the start of a game before a game was won - 8. The fewest draws was in the Steinitz-Tchigorin world championship match in 1889. There was only one draw, the last game. The longest draw was 124 moves in the 5th game of the Karpov-Korchnoi match in 1978. The game ended in a stalemate. The first Karpov-Kasparov match had the most draws, 40. The same match had the most consecutive draws, 17. The shortest draws both lasted only 10 moves, games 21 and 22 in the Botvinnik-Petrosian match in 1963. The first time a draw counted half a point was the Dundee International in 1867. Up until 1867, tournament games that were drawn had to be replayed. The 1929 International Rules of Chess required players to play a minimum of 30 moves before agreeing to a draw. This was also the USCF rules until 1952. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Information Resources By Mike Power VP Communications You can get the latest IECC activities and news updates from: 1- news group rec.games.chess.play-by-email 2- ftp site at 'ftp.pitt.edu' in the area 'group/chess/NEWS' 3- World Wide Web page at: 'http://kerouac.pharm.uky.edu/rgbIECC/IECC.html' 4- email access to ftp site or WWW site (see Newsletter Vol.1, No. 11 & 12 or contact me for more details (however there have been problems with the mail server site) 5- direct mailings from me if you can't get the any of the above to work 6- vapor-ware for the future would be a listserver to handle #5 for me and I'd appreciate any suggestions people might have on this. All the best & let me know if you have problems, Mike Power IECC VP Communications ************************************************************************** Notes on IECC Archives By Ken Boys *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Inspecting, correcting and archiving IECC's completed games is now more than a full-time job for one person. We need more help for this important function. We now have three people, in addition to myself, who are contributing to our efforts and we are in need of several more. Because a certain percentage of game scores arrive with errors in them, they must be checked before they are fed into a database. This will be fully explained when you apply to help. Send me a note if you are interested in contributing to our club's Archives. To reduce the percentage of reported games which need correction or format alteration, please report your completed games in the below format. Note the few alterations which are necessary for the PGN file. [Site "M-21"] [Date "1995.01.28"] [Year, Month, Date] [Round "1"] [White "Fisher, Bobby"] [Black "Botvinnik, Mikhail"] [Result "1-0"] 1.Nf3 Nc6 2.g3 h6 3.Bg2 e5 4.d3 Bc5 5.e4 Nge7 6.Be3 b6 7.d4 exd4 8.Nxd4 0-0 9.c3 Bb7 10.0-0 Ng6 11.Nxc6 Bxc6 12.Bxc5 bxc5 13.f4 f6 14.Qh5 Qe7 15.Qxg6 1-0 Notes: [Site "M-21"] Swiss tournament = [Site "Swiss #?"] Quad tournament = [Site "Quad #?"] Pyramid Match = [Site "Pyramid"] Trio Match = [Site "Trio #?"] Class tournament = [Site "CL-?"] Knock Out = [Site "KO-?"] Match = [Site "M-?"] Game [Single rated game] = [Site "G-?"] [Round "1"] Use the number "1" for all games except in Matches, Swiss tournaments and Knockout tournaments. In those, please identify the proper round number. [Date "1995.03.03"] [Date "Year.Month.Day"] [White "Fisher, Bobby"] [White or Black "Last and First Names "] [Result "1-0"] if White wins [Result "0-1"] if Black wins [Result "1/2"] in the case of a draw. 1.Nf3 Nc6 2.g3 h6 3.Bg2 e5 Previous descriptions of this report indicated an unnecessary space between the move numbers and the moves. Example; 1. Nf3 Nc6 2. g3 h6 3. Bg2 e5 = Incorrect ^ ^ ^ 1.Nf3 Nc6 2.g3 h6 3.Bg2 e5 = Correct *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ IECC CHESS ACADEMY +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* Toshi Takeuchi, Senior VP IECC Chess Academy, is taking a leave of absence to attend to his graduation, complete experiments and to write his thesis. He will be relocating to San Francisco in January, at which time he will most likely be free to plunge once again into chess. Meanwhile, Bill Wall, Joe Bulko and Lisa Powell are working individually with students. Most -- but not all -- of the students are graduated Newbies. The program right now is advertised in rec.games.chess.play-by-email: Information about the IECC Chess Academy The basic idea of IECC is to make competitive correspondence chess via email enjoyable for all members -- especially lower-rated members who feel they need help in improving their chess skills. 1. How to open a chess game. Many players encounter problems with games before they reach the middle game. This Academy course -- where the student plays two games with the instructor, one with White, one with Black -- explores the ideas of an opening, and what one must do to enter the middle game with good chances. 2. Developing an opening repertoire. This is an extension of course #1. It is our contention that too many players with lower ratings use the smorgasbord approach: a little bit of this opening, a little bit of that opening. We think that concentration on the fewest possible openings pays more dividends. 3. How to analyze a game -- or a critical position in a game -- that you have played. This course is the heavy stuff. Strategy and Tactics. ------------ "I found that the Chess Academy helped me to slow down and to think more about how I opened my games. This has helped to get into the middle game on at least a level footing." Andrew Nugteren -------------------- Norbert Fogarasi I am currently instructing to pairs of players under the IECC Chess Academy Course #3: Strategy and Tactics. In this session, the players play two Email games against each other, and after every fifth move, they send the scoresheet and their comments/analysis to me. I then look over it, and send my comments and analysis. If I see that the game has gone off on a tangent which is clearly worse for one side, I may advise the players to continue on a different line. Even though one of the pairs' games have slowed down, both sessions have been extremely successful, and I feel that all the players have benefitted greatly from this experience. As a matter of fact, I was surprised at the quality of chess that was produced in most of the games. Here are some of the comments of the participating players: "Thanks for your comments. This exercise has been quite enjoyable, competitive and instructive. Thanks for taking the time. " Dave LeClair " Norbert: Thanks for your detailed comments on our games. In game 2, I'm learning (the next few moves will undoubtedly drive the point further home) about not breaking open the position as I did. Up to now I didn't appreciate how crushing an attack Black gets." Brian Moran ----------------------------------------------------- *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* IECC ..... The Friendly Chess Club! *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*