Chess books should be used as we use glasses: to assist the sight, although some players make use of them as if they conferred sight. José Raul Capablanca

In this blog, I would like to share some of my games from the USCF Around the World friendly tournament. Funny enough, I played against Germany, well, and not to forget against Switzerland, Hungary, Netherlands, Finland, Cuba, and Peru.

Thomas played 7 unbelievably strong moves, and I had some sweat on my forehead.

But before delving into the details, let’s clarify the US-friendly matches.

Friendly Matches are captivating team versus-team chess contests involving teams affiliated with different nations. Here, the overall team outcomes matter. And this open tournaments are making everyone eligible to participate. Well, because it’s a friendly tournament to have fun and promote correspondence chess. As an individual you contriubute with your result to the whole team result. And you earn the bragging rights.

The International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) is the organization responsible for running these friendly matches and sponsoring the events. The ICCF, an international body overseeing correspondence chess events, has ICCF-US as its American branch.

International Master Dennis Doren serves as the ICCF-US Friendly Match Organizer. If you’re interested in joining, please reach out to him. These matches are a lot of fun and a great learning experience, fostering new virtual connections and promoting chess.

Now, let’s dive into my games: Germany vs USA goes first, of course.

Germany

My opponent, who was nominated to play on three boards by the German team (which is a testament for his strength) played the Trompowsky Attack. 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 White prepares to exchange the bishop for Black’s knight, inflicting doubled pawns upon Black in the process.

The second game was played with the Dutch Defense, which is an aggressive and ambitious opening that vies for control of the e4 square. I was surprised because usually it’s played against 1.d4. The Leningrad Variation is characterized by the fianchetto of the dark-squared bishop. The mainline starts with the moves 1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nf3 g6 4. g3 Bg7 5. Bg2 d6 6. O-O O-O 7. Nc3. However, as we can see due his moves the position transposed to the Leningrad variation. A GM level might have different thoughts here.

Switzerland

Switzerland maintains its 2-point lead with 9 remaining games. There is still time to catch up and go ahead! Best of luck USA!

I played on one board (two games) and I had the pleasure to play him before.

The first one -where I played Black- I finished with a drawn.

And with the second game with White I contributed with a winning point to Team USA success.

Sorry Switzerland, only 1 points lead now. We will get there.

Peru

In this game the Closed Sicilian was played, A chess opening that arises after the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3. It is a variation of the Sicilian Defense in which white doesn’t open the center with an early d2-d4. Instead, white often fianchettos the light bishop and plans to slowly build up on the kingside 1. The move g3 is not played in this variation.

I rarely play c5, but I think it caught my oponent a bit off guard. The final nail in the coffin was his tactical blunder with move 31.

Don’t miss the puzzle and game of the week

Amici Sumus

I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s post. Feel free to share your favorite chess strategy or ask any questions you may have.

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