US Chess Correspondence

In June I started an email correspondence tournament though the US Chess Federation. I played 6 games, with the longest lasting over 3 months. The official time control was 30 days for each 10 moves and we would send emails back and forth with our next move.

One of my correspondence games was just featured by US Chess in their monthly newsletter. I was very surprised to see that!

Here is the writeup from US Chess:

Here Matt wins from the white side of a Caro-Kan to start +3=2=0 so far in his first US Chess correspondence tournament, 2021 Electronic Knights section 21EN11. Matt introduces a couple nice tactics at moves 20 and 24 to gain a clear advantage, and then a winning one.

Game

Here is the game with my annotations

Joe
12345678abcdefgh
Matt
1. e4c62. Nf3d5 As black I usually play the Caro Kann. This is not how I would expect white to play. It is interesting to see how things have changed in my play in just a few months. 3. Nc3Bg44. h3... This is a move I do not usually play any more. It is a fine move, but I would rather do something like d4 to sieze the center or Be2 to stop the pin. 4... ... Bxf35. Qxf3e66. d4... I would have liked to play this earlier and also push e5, which is more typical of a Caro Kann. 6... ... dxe47. Qxe4... I debated what to take this with. Should I capture with the Queen or the Knight $2 I think both work well, but it would have been nice to get my Knight over to the kingside if my plan was to castle over there. 7... ... Nf6 This would have been another reason to do 7. Nxe4 so I would not lose a tempo here having to move my Queen to safety 8. Qh4Nbd79. Bd3... I need to finish development and allow castling. 9... ... g610. O-OBg711. a4... I honestly was not quite sure what to do here. I knew black was going to castle next. With a4 I thought I could start pushing my Queen-side pawns and take space on this side of the board. Something like Re1 or even developing my dark-squared bishop may have been better. 11... ... O-O12. Bg5Qb613. a5... Since my pawn was here anyway, let's attack that Queen and make it move back 13... ... Qc714. Bf4... Keep up my plan of annoying the Queen 14... ... Qc815. Bg5... And back to where I was 15... ... Nd516. Nxd5cxd517. Rac1f518. c4dxc419. Bxc4Nf620. d5... This was an interesting move. I was thinking that if black does 20. ... exd5 then I could follow up with 21. Bxd5+ with a discovered attack on the Queen. 20... ... Nxd521. Bxd5... I still have a discovered attack here forcing the Queen to move which means my Bishop is not really threatened by exd5. 21... ... Qd722. Bc4h523. Rfd1Qe824. Be7... Attacking the Rook with protection from my Queen 24... ... Bxb225. Bxe6+Kg726. Bxf8+... Tightening my grip on the King and winning the exchange. 26... ... Qxf827. Rc7+... Black resigns. The engine says it is now mate in 6. 1-0