I just finished another ICC correspondence game. I lost and this now makes me 1-4 in this section. I have been playing in chess tournaments off and on since November of 1974. That is a total of 33 years! Not once during that time have I played the Black side of a Catalan, until now. I used MCO 14 as my guide and tried a line that should have given White only a slight advantage. He varied from the "book" line on move 13 when he captured the pawn on c6. MCO 14 says that he should have played 13. Qc2 with a slight advantage. I was curious about what would happen if White took that pawn and I found out. I thought that I would get a decent position, but it didn't work out that way. His 16th and 17th moves surprised me and thus were not in my analysis of this position after recapturing my pawn on b6. I thought that I effectively countered White's threats but I overlooked a Knight fork and went down the exchange on move 22. After that my plan was to keep my remaining Rook on the board and to trade off the queenside pawns. That plan failed. On move 33 I considered playing Kf6 but then found an interesting line with a trap. My original analysis failed to find the one move that saved White from this trap! It was only after playing 33... b4 that I found the one move that saves White from either checkmate or a Knight fork on his King and Rook that won the Rook and blockaded his passed pawn. White found his saving move on move 36 and played it leaving me down the exchange and a passed pawn. I resigned shortly afterward. My ICC correspondence rating dropped to 1557 after this loss. White's rating went from 1670 to 1681. This is yet another chess game in which I intended to play the Cambridge Springs defense and White avoided it! I'm giving up on that and will be looking at the Gruenfeld defense. I'm not posting this game to my chess site because I don't plan on playing the Catalan as White but may find myself transposing into it from an English opening or Reti. I shouldn't see it again as Black because I don't intend to answer 1. d4 with 1... d5 again. Here is the game in PGN.
[Event "ICC correspondence 2007Seven.02.18"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.08.25"]
[Round "-"]
[White "AntonioMendonca"]
[Black "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[Opening "Catalan: closed, main line"]
[ECO "E09"]
[NIC "CA.04"]
[Time "18:02:53"]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O Nbd7 7. Qc2 c6 8.Nbd2 b5 9. c5 a5 10. e4 Nxe4 11. Nxe4 dxe4 12. Qxe4 Nf6 13. Qxc6 Bd7 14. Qb6Qxb6 15. cxb6 Rab8 16. Bg5 Rxb6 17. Rac1 Bc6 18. Ne5 Bxg2 19. Kxg2 Nd5 20.Bxe7 Nxe7 21. Nd7 Rc6 22. Nxf8 Kxf8 23. Kf3 g6 24. Ke4 Rb6 25. Rc5 a4 26.Rfc1 Nd5 27. Rc8+ Kg7 28. Ra8 Nb4 29. a3 Nc6 30. f4 h5 31. Rc8 Ne7 32. R8c7Nd5 33. Ra7 b4 34. Rxa4 bxa3 35. bxa3 Rb3 36. Ke5 Re3+ 37. Kd6 Re2 38. Ra7{Black resigns}1-0
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