The two biggest holidays of the year are upon us: Thanksgiving and Christmas. For those of us here in the Surber household, it means lots of food and family time remembering the things that we are grateful for in our lives. For this issue, I have chosen a single game to review from my recent expriments with correspondence chess. At one point in time I was playing six games at a time, but I have recently restricted myself to playing two at a time to better develop my concentration skills.
[pgn]
[Event “Let’s Play!”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2014.11.16”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Wesley Surber”]
[Black “1186”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “C02”]
[WhiteElo “1121”]
[BlackElo “1186”]
[Annotator “Surber,Wesley”]
[PlyCount “23”]
[EventDate “2014.??.??”]
[TimeControl “1”]
{I have noticed that my correspondence games are significantly shorter in ply
count than in live chess. Such is the case in the next game which was played
against an 1186 player and only lasted 12 moves.} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 c5
4. Nf3 Nc6 {These configurations tend to make me nervous because there are
many possibilities for White and Black, so I decided to continue with a French
variation.} 5. e5 a6 6. Na4 {My intentions were to go Nxc5 and put pressure on
Black’s King using my pawn and Queen combo as backup, but Black had other
plans.} Qa5+ 7. c3 {I made this move anticipating 7…Qb5.} Qxa4 $4 {A
devastating blunder for Black, and the game is lost for him.} 8. Qxa4 b5 9. Qd1
cxd4 10. cxd4 Nxd4 {Black begins chewing up material with little regard for
his position, which demonstrates the condition of his psyche following the
Queen loss blunder.} 11. Nxd4 Rb8 12. a4 {Black resigned. I congratulated him
on a nice game, but he was frustrated and replied that I was insulting him
because of the blunder. Despite the blunder, it had initially shaped up to be
a decent game.} 1-0
[/pgn]
#### In other news…
* The [FIDE World Chess Championship](http://sochi2014.fide.com) continues in Sochi, Russia. As of today, Magnus Carlsen leads Vishy Anand by one point heading into the final two games of the match.
* The [Saint Louis Chess Club](http://www.uschesschamps.com/aronian-vs-nakamura-live) is hosting a unique tournament between GMs Nakamura and Aronian for a share of a $100,000 prize. The tournament includes four rounds of classical chess followed by 16 blitz games to determine the winner.
* OMC Quarterly Review (Volume 1, Issue 2) will be available for free download on December 1st, 2014 here on the site.
* OMC Yearbook 2014 will be available for free download on January 1st, 2015 here on the site.