Ed Trice vs. John Vehre, Correspondence game from 2001

[GothicInventor]

Ed Trice vs. John Vehre


1. e4 e5
2. d3 Nh6
3. h3 g6
4. Cf3 Nc6
5. c3 d5
6. exd5 Qxd5
7. g4 e4
8. Cf4 Qxd3+
9. Cxd3 exd3
10. Qxd3 Be6
11. Nd2 Rd8
12. Qc2 Ae7
13. f4 Ah4
14. Ac5+ Kg8
15. Af2 Axf2
16. Kxf2 Bxg4
17. Be4 Bf5
18. Bxf5 Nxf5

{and here is where the game left off, without a move having been played in 5 years before John and I met up again!!}

19. Nf3

[Panzerschiff]

Hi Ed,

Finally I'm getting off of my procrastinating "you know what" and get this posted on the board.

19...Bh8-g7

[GothicInventor]

20. Ni1-j3

I almost did not see your move there John, glad you're back to playing this very old game!

[Panzerschiff]

Hello Ed,


Another move to add to the record. You may be away on the trip you mentioned and I hope all is going well with that. I've had a fairly busy week and now have a time schedule set up for adding our new library automation system. We are migrating from something called Galaxy to Polaris. Our old system has been pretty reliable, but is will be ten years old this summer. Oh, can't forget my move can I?

20...Ce8-d6

[GothicInventor]

Hello John,

Just got backl from Iceland late Sunday night and boy did I have terrible bronchitis by the time I landed! I finally seem to be getting my voice back though.

It looks like already my play is forced here, so:

21. Re1

[Panzerschiff]

How was the trip? Iceland in June should not have been too unpleasant. Seems like their temperatures should be something like maritime Canada and the Gulf Stream should ameliorate some of the cold. Still Bronchitis is not much fun. My brother used to be quite suceptible to that when he was younger. Not being the bookish type like yours truly he spent a lot of time outside even in crappy weather!

Anyway the move 21...,Cd6-d3+

[GothicInventor]

Hi John,

22. Qxd3

I thought you might try to whittle this down to a purely chess ending. Iceland was great. I wore short sleeves one day when it was just about 60 or a little below. The water pressure in the showers over there is like a religious experience! The first day there, after I took a short nap, I went into the shower, and just turned on the water like I would in my own home, and... BAM! I was nearly pinned to the back wall of the shower as a jet from about 200 nozzles in the shower head came firing at me! I was like a salmon swimming upstream to get back to the handles to turn it down. It was awesome!

The sun also did not set the whole time we were there. I remember it being 11:45 PM while we were at a restaurant/bar and it looked like about 6 PM on a fall day. The sun actually does dip below the horizon, but not far enough that the earth conceals the sunlight. At around 3 AM it rises again. Pretty wild!

As you can imagine, we have tons of pictures from our stay, and the Summer 2006 Gothic Chess Review, coming out at the end of June, will be the most interesting issue published so far. I'll let you know when it is out.

[Panzerschiff]

Hi Ed,

It was a little tough deciding between keeping things on by playing to tuck my king away with ...h6 and ...Kf8-h7. I'm beginning to have regrets like Capablanca had in his game with Janowsky where he eshewed the fianchetto, because of possible ridicule. I think back in 2001 I had originally intended 19...,i7 and to bring out the bishop the other direction. I am not sure why I chose the other bishop move, outside it might have covered the back rank around my king. Anyway I will retake the queen with 22...Rd8xd3.

Yes the long days would be part of the Icelandic scene. I don't know if you ever watched Northern Exposure when it was on TV 15 years ago or so, but it had an interesing episode with the Midnight sun. Seems like there also was a recent murder mystery with that as a theme as well. Gene Hackman or somebody like that played a somewhat "dirty" cop investigating a murder in Alaska. I think the movie was "Insomnia". I haven't been that far North myself and Lake Waubaganuchi (sp?) in Western Ontario is probably as far as I have gone. Maybe 50 degrees North. There the sun was up to about 10PM and twilight another 30 minutes or so during the June trips my family takes to fish there.

[GothicInventor]

Hi John,

Let me guess, you were the Capablanca dude and I was Janowsky

23. Re8+ Bf8 (forced) 24. Njh4

I think the rules state if you have a forced move I can make it for you, but double check that for me. White still has ways to lose from here, I already figured out one series of "normal looking" lines where the pawn structure dictates the play in Black's favor. The only way around that was this very temporary pin of the Bishop while I regroup and start to get my remaining pieces onto better squares. If I did all this correctly, Lucena of the 80-square board is my salvation

[Panzerschiff]

23 Re1-e8+ Bg7-f8
24.Nj3-h4 Nf5xh4

If 25.Nf3xh4 then Kg8-g7


Yes sometimes the old postal players would use a statement like when 23...Bg7-f8 then 24 Nj3-h4, but there never was a specific format that you had to use. Sorry for the slight delay again, but was spending a good long weekend with the Origins game fest in Columbus Ohio over the Holiday weekend. Finally catching up on everything!

I did have a good time and was able to play 4 naval miniature battles, a Star Fleet Battles game, a small Navia Dratp tournament (a chess variant that combines Shogi, Xiangqi, Chess and Fantasy elements) and to end up a game called "Attack" which is a lot like Axis and Allies, but with a free form set up. I also took in a few seminars and was able to meet a few game designers of my favorite games like Seekrieg 5 and Star Fleet Battles. Of course also had to come away with a few new games as well! :-) One nice thing about this convention is a lot of new releases hot off the press can be purchased as well.

It looks like the World Open had an interesting finish. Looks like Kamsky is back to play for real? Is he detached from his father these days?

[GothicInventor]

Hi John,

conditions accepted.

25. Nxh4 Kg7 26. Ke2

Again I think this is the only move for white in this position. I can show losses for many other seemingly plausible continuations. Makes it interesting!

Speaking of Naval Battles, did you hear what George Bush is doing to that poor cadet who just graduated from the Academy? The school physician told Bush's White House Staff that the kid had two belly buttons, so Bush ordered him into the "Naval Reserve"!



About the World Open: GM Gorgi Kacheshvili was one of those in the 9-way tie for 1st place. He was the first GM to play Gothic Chess with me, back in 1999 at the Marshall Chess Club in New York.

And Gata is getting pudgy. He no longer looks like the pimply kid the last time I saw him. And he was travelling solo, no longer tugged at the elbow by his father or coach.

Well, that's all for now. And when you get a chance, come onto GothicChessLive.com and play some of the young players who are there around noon-1 PM Eastern. I feel bad since I often have work to do and can't dedicate more time to game play. Saturdays should start picking up again as we start having tournaments with free prizes, so post some stuff on BrainKing and challenge some players there to come to the live site!

It's free and we built it for you guys!

[Panzerschiff]

Hi Ed,

25 Nf3xh4 Kg8-g7
26 Kf2-e2 Rd3-d8

Yes, we all can't keep that teenager look forever! That middle age spread likes to come in at some point. Did Gata end up with a law degree, or is he back to playing chess again professionally? He certainly has played a few tournament lately and seems to be recovering well from his rust when he played in Holland earlier this year.

I'll have to sit down with the site and try it out. Time however always is of the essence. That is why I always liked correspondence chess. I could sit down with it when the opportunity arose to do analysis.

Interesting issue of chess life. Nice to see the emphasis on women's play. When I first played chess you seldom saw a woman in a tournament at least not in Ohio. Now while they still aren't all that numerous at least it isn't like spotting the loch ness monster when you see women playing in a tournament.

[GothicInventor]

Hi John,

Sorry this is long overdue. Between vacation and this post getting buried from other replies in the same topic.... that is my excuse

26. Ke2 Rd8

27. Rxd8

If 27...Nxd8 then 28. f5

I am not too sure what Gata has been doing, so I don't know if he has a law degree or not. Next year the World Open will be at Valley Forge since Bill did not reserve the hotel for a few years in advance, so there is a chance of it being lower attendance.

[Panzerschiff]

Hi Ed,

If move accepted


27. Rxd8 Nxd8

28. f5 Bf8-e7


I hope you had a good time on the vacation. I am taking a week off around my birthday now which is tomorrow as I usually do. Not really doing much except catching up on reading, etc. I'll probably have a trip later perhaps a long weekend using one of our time share certificates.

I did end up winning my 2nd Embassy chess game against George. He ended up timing out in a position that he considered losing. I wasn't so sure, but it would have been nice to see how the complications came out.

Anyway I hope all is well with you.

[GothicInventor]

Hi John

27. Rxd8 Nxd8 28. f5 Be7 29. Nj5

Yeah sometimes George does that. He told me in a recent email that his IP over there in Greece has basically been dropping the ball (and the connection!) rather frequently, because of their inability to handle the demand. The compromise was to limit every user to no more than a certain number of minutes of connectivity per day, otherwise they could not guarantee the service!

Fortunately we have already experienced these growing pains in this country.

That's all for now, try and stay out of the heat. Yesterday I saw 2 trees fighting over a dog.