I have active correspondence chess games in four different clubs. In one of those clubs I'm playing in three different tournaments and some players are playing in more than one tournament with me.
In order to keep myself organized during a session with these games, I record each opponent as I work on the game against him, then place a check mark when I've moved in his game and am ready to move on to another. You'll notice in today's list pictured above, two players get two check marks. These are guys who are playing in different tourneys with me, and the two marks mean I've moved in the two games against each.
And when a game ends I note that, too. Of all the games worked on today, I lost one, resigning to my opponent. Oh well, can't win them all, you know. I'm pretty confident that tomorrow's session will see me winning a game.
Midday yesterday I won this Correspondence Chess Club Tournament game with my Black Queen, defended and assisted by her Rook, delivering the mating move.
Our board at game's end is shown above, and our full move record is below:
I won this game playing White last night with peraaps the simplest, most basic checkmate possible. But it was so late at night when I pushed my Queen to the f8 square. I was almost ready to crawl into bed and far too tired to type up and publish a blog post. So ... here it is on Sunday morning.
Our board at game's end showing my attacking and well defended Queen on f8 and Black's poor defenseless King with no possible escape is above, and our full move record is below:
I don't very often end up with two Queens on the board, but when I do I like it!
It was my second Black Queen who checkmated the White King. As you can see, my first Black Queen remains down on her home rank. While White's attention was focused on his attack over on the left side of the board (as seen from Black's perspective) I was able to slip a pawn down on the other side of the board and promote it to my second Queen who would go on to checkmate the White King in short order.
Our board at game's end is shown above, and our full move record is below:
Earlier today my opponent playing the Black pieces resigned this game, giving me the victory with my White army. He was certainly right to resign when he did. After my Bishop captured his Knight at 27.Bxc4 he was left with only a Rook against my Rook and Queen.
Our board at game's end is shown above, and our moce record below:
... that just as my chess-Friday ended by winning a cc game with a combination checkmate involving Knight, Queen, pawns, and a Rook, my chess-Saturday should end similarly.
The two games were played against different opponents, in different tournaments hosted by different chess clubs, but still... In the Saturday night checkmate it is my Rook that making the primary attack, but the Queen, Knight, and pawns all play their parts by sealing off any possible flight squares to which the Black King could try to escape.
The board at the end of the Saturday night game is pictured above, and its move record is below:
In my Saturday morning mail was a notice that I'd won another correspondence chess club tournament game.
After my Black Queen captured his White Queen at 24...Qxd4 White resigned from our game giving me the victory by default. He was right to do this. After losing his Queen he had only one major piece left in his army, that lonely Rook on the f1 square. My Black army, on the other hand, had five major pieces including my Queen, the Bishop pair, and a Knight. With my overwhelming material advantage, checkmating his King was inevitable.
Our board at game's end is pictured above, and our move record below:
Tonight I won this correspondence chess game with a Knight-pawn-Queen-Rook combination checkmate. My c6-Knight is the attacking piece. Black has nothing that can capture that Knight, and every possible flight square to which his King might try to escape is covered by that Knight, or by the pawns on the 4th rank, or by my White Queen, or by my a1-Rook. So... checkmate
The position of pieces at games end is pictured above, and our full move record is below:
My opponent playing the White pieces simply let her clock run out in this Corrrespondence Chess game yesterday without making a move, giving me a win with Black by default. We were playing with the very relaxed time control of 5 days per move, so she had plenty of time to politely resign if she wanted to. But, nooo... she just silently walked away.
At least we'd made enough moves so this counts as a real game, and I do get credit for the win, so there is that.
The final position of the pieces is above, and our complete, but very short move record is below:
Email this morning brought notification that I'd won another Correspondence Chess game as my opponent playing White resigned, giving me the win by default..
My 14...Nxf3+, forking White's King, his Queen, and his Rook does look rather dramatic on the face of it. White's next move, of course would have been to capture that attacking Knight with his g-pawn.
But then I could have put his King in check again with another fork attack, my Black Bishop taking his f-pawn, the Bishop there being defended by my Knight at g4. After he moved his King to safety I'd have traded that Bishop for his e1-Rook.
This was my first time playing this particular opponent, and I'm rather surprised that he resigned the game to me when he did. Some guys are really attached to their Rooks, and losing one feels almost like losing a Queen to them. Perhaps he's one of those. Who knows?
At any rate, our board at game's end is pictured above and our full move record is below.
