Pawn Power In Correspondence Chess

Prakash, Om (1776) - Morcin, Tom (2033)

Result: 1-0

Site: Lechenicher SchachServer

Date: 2011.12.11

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H

Once Philidor said that pawns are the soul of chess. But now a days in the computer era it seems pieces play more in coresspondence games than paws. Still pawn movements in game can be decisive. Sometimes in the middle game you have to think of what pawn position are you going to get after the major and minor pieces including the king position which in turn decides the outcome of the game. Here is an example of that where my opponent played actively with pawns until the last moment where I used the pawn power to conclude the game. [...] 1.e4 e5 2.¤f3 ¤c6 3.¥b5 a6 4.¥a4 ¤f6 5.O-O ¥e7 6.¦e1 b5 7.¥b3 d6 8.c3 O-O 9.h3 ¤a5 10.¥c2 c5 11.d4 £c7 12.¤bd2 cxd4 13.cxd4 ¥b7 14.d5 ¦ac8 15.¥d3 ¤d7 16.¤f1 f5 17.¤g3 f4 18.¤f5 ¦xf5 19.exf5 ¤f6 20.¤g5 ¥xd5!? 21.¥d2 ¤c4 22.¦c1 £b7 23.b3 ¤b6 !? Until now it was book. It deviated from here.
(23...¤xd2!) 24.£e2 h6 25.¦xc8 ¤xc8 26.¤e4 ¥c6 27.a4! ¢h8? 28.¥c3 ¤d7 29.¥b2 ¢g8? 30.¦c1 d5 31.axb5 axb5 32.¤d2 e4 !? An Attack that turns out not well. 33.b4 ! Tactics! 33...¤f6 34.¤b3 ¥e8 35.¤a5 £a6 36.¥b1 Saving the bishop. 36...¤b6 37.£d2 ! Forcing the knight exchange and aiming for Pawn at f4.
37...¤c4 38.¤xc4 bxc4 39.¥xf6! e3! 40.fxe3 ¥xf6 41.e4!! £a3 42.e5 !! Setting a trap. 42...¥g5 43.h4 ! A diversion. 43...¥xh4 44.£xd5 ¥f7 45.£d2! f3! 46.f6!! gxf6 47.exf6 ¥xf6 48.£xh6 At this point all white moves should be accurate or black escapes with a draw.
48...¥d4 49.¢h2 ¥e5 50.g3! £b2 51.¥c2 Only move ¥f6 52.b5! ¥g7 53.£g5 ¥e6 54.£e7 !! Sacrificing an exchange for the killer pawns.
54...¥f5 55.£d8 ¢h7 56.£h4 ¥h6 57.£xc4 ¥xc1 58.£f7 ¢h6 59.£f8 ¢g6 60.£xf5 ¢g7 61.£g4 ¢f7 62.£xf3ќ £f6 63.£xf6 ¢xf6 A tablebase win now. 64.b6 ¥b2 65.b7 ¥e5 66.¢g2 ¥d6 67.g4 ¥e5 68.¥f5 ¥d6 69.¢f3 ¢e5 70.¥g6 ¢e6 71.g5 1-0

Powered by Aquarium