A Quarter Century Later...
Copyright © 2003 by John C. Knudsen.  All rights reserved.

March 27, 2003

I recently noticed that I have been playing correspondence chess for 25 years, from 1978 to 2003. That got me reflecting on some things and coming up with some lessons I have learned, which I would like to share with you.

I have played some 592 games during this time (an average of 24 games per year). My record is 261 wins, 180 draws, and 151 losses (59%). In the last five years, I have played 229 games (an average of 46 games per year!) and my record is 91 wins, 109 draws (!) and 29 losses, or 64%. I think I am getting better, as the level of opposition in the last five years has been significantly stronger than in the previous 20. During this entire 25 year period, I think I was away from correspondence chess completely for about three or four years in all.

As I was looking for a postal game from that first year, I couldn't find any losses, so the following will have to do, to show my pathetic level of play.

John Knudsen - Kerry Spangler [A07]
corr USCF, 1978

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 Bf5 4.0-0 e6 5.d3 c6 6.Nbd2 Na6 7.Nh4 Bg4 8.h3 Bh5 9.Ndf3 Qc7 10.g4 Bg6 11.b3 Nc5 12.Bb2 Ncd7 13.Nxg6 hxg6 14.e3 Bd6 15.Qe2 Nxg4 16.Bxg7 Rh7 17.Bb2 0-0-0 18.Ng5 Rh4 19.Nxf7 Bc5 20.Qxg4 Rxg4 21.hxg4 Rf8 22.Ng5 Qd6 23.Rae1 Nf6 24.Bh3

 ½-½

Not very inspirational, this level of play. The next game, which is my latest game to be completed, was concluded recently:

John Knudsen (USA) - Luis Lamarche Rodriguez (CUB) [E51]
2d Email Team Interzonal, Bd. 4, Game B ICCF Email, 2002

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Nf3 d5 6.a3 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 c5 8.Bb2 Nc6 9.Rc1 dxc4 10.Bxc4 Qc7 11.Bd3 e5 12.Qc2 h6 13.0-0 Rb8 14.dxe5 Ng4 15.c4 Ncxe5 16.Nxe5 Nxe5 17.Bh7+ Kh8 18.f4 Ng4 19.Rfe1 f5 20.Bg6 Qc6 21.Bh5 Nf6 22.Bf3 Ne4 23.Be5 Ra8

24.g4! This is a very strong move which wins. Re8 25.Rcd1 Qg6 26.Kh1 Ng5 27.Bd5 Nf7 28.Bb2 Kh7 29.gxf5 Bxf5 30.e4 Bg4 31.Rd3 Nd6 32.Rg1 1-0

What lessons have I learned?

Too many draws lately. This could be due to the strength of the opponents I am facing, but I have probably become more conservative (and chicken!) as I have grown older - I must work on this.

Have to get the game load down. It is hardly possible to play well with more than 10-15 games going electronically (vast majority email).

Eliminate the "good"/"bad" syndrome. Lately,  in almost every tournament, I play at least one incredibly bad game which I lose and have perhaps one to two decent games which I win. What is needed is to pay equal attention to all games, instead of concentrating on just a few of them. Hopefully, I can decrease the number of bad or drawn games that way.

Perhaps your experiences have been similar to mine - correspondence chess continues to be an inexhaustible fountain to me...