My First ICCF Tournament Game!

As an amateur chess player, I've had some experience playing daily chess games on chess.com. For example, I played in the 2024 chess.com Daily Chess Championship and advanced past the first round(though I threw harder than Shoei Ohtani in the 2nd round). However, I always wished I had more time to think through moves. One day simply didn't cut it. Lo and behold, I found the ICCF, or the International Correspondence Chess Federation! I was sold, and after playing(and getting flagged on) two free unrated matches, signed up for an amateur tournament. While it's still ongoing, I figured I would share the first game I completed. Here it is!

The Opening:

Already, I knew I could get a pretty good position if I played solidly. However, the surprises didn't stop there!

After the first few moves, I built up an advantage due to my opponent's weak pawns and early queen moves. Now onto...

Some Le Epic Tactics

...And I would go on to convert a winning endgame.

Final Thoughts

I've still got about 7 games remaining in the tournament, and something I probably should have learned earlier on, is that using engines and databases in ESSENTIAL for playing ICCF. Unlike chess.com daily games, ICCF allows for engine use and external resources for further analysis. Even with little analysis, opponents will be quick to punish your mistakes. 

Playing on ICCF has been fun, and I'm encouraged to continue playing and improving! It's definitely different to what I'm used to, but it's great for me when I don't have much time to play games at one time or OTB tournaments.

I hope y'all enjoyed my short little analysis. Have a nice spring with some good chess!