A Human AlphaZero - Top 10 Of The 1990s - Isaev vs. Timoshenko, 1991
Correspondence chess is little appreciated by the larger chess community, but the battles can be some of the deepest and richest in chess. The strategic complexity and long-term plans often resemble the modern approach by neural-network engines like AlphaZero.Top players like Magnus Carlsen are in fact "huge fans" of the best correspondence chess players like former Correspondence Chess World Champion, Leonardo Ljubicic.
Appreciate it, huge fan of your games! @PHChess
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) May 30, 2020
The following deep and fantastic battle between two players most have probably never heard of, could, apart from a few subtle errors, easily appear to be a modern Stockfish vs. AlphaZero masterpiece.
Top 10 Games of the 1990s
- #1: ???
- #2: ???
- #3: ???
- #4: ???
- #5: Isaev vs. Timoshenko, 1991
- #6: Ivanchuk vs. Anand, 1991 (blog)
- #7: Nunn vs. Nataf, 1999 (blog)
- #8: Kasparov vs. Kramnik, 1996 (blog)
- #9: Kramnik vs. Shirov, 1994 (blog)
- #10: Passov vs. Sammour-Hasbun, 1991 (blog)
- See also: Top 10 of the 2000s, and Top 10 of the 2010s
The game begins with a sharp Sicilian Defense, but it soon resolves into a positional struggle revolving around the central light squares. Once the position reaches an opposite-color bishop middlegame, White seems to let up, thinking that the position may be clearly drawn.
Just as White lets up, Black unleashes a barage of pawn sacrifices and breaks including ...b4!, ...e4!, ...h3!!, ...b3!, and ...a4! which rip open lines for the dark-square bishop. Black's ensuing concluding rook sacrifice and mating combination (after a missed difficult defense by White) is deeply striking.
Lessons:
- In correspondence chess, deep evaluation is critical.
- In opposite-color bishop attacks, material is less relevant than targets and in-roads.
- When a first line (Rb3+) doesn't quite work, consider tweaks (...Qg2!!) to improve the line. Small details can change everything.
My notes are below and are partially based on notes in MegaCorr, a specialized correspondence database.
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I'm the Head of Community for Chess.com. I earned the National Master title in 2012, and in 2014, I returned to my home state of South Carolina to start Strategery: Chess and Games. In late 2015, I began working for Chess.com and haven't looked back since.
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