Hey South Carolina,

We recently won a challenging vote chess game against Tough Custard. Throughout the game, lots of of people voted, pooled their ideas together, and helped analyze in our discussions. Only a handful of South Carolina members were regular participants though. So, I'm going to analyze our recent game, which was pretty interesting and instructive, and then at the end I'll include a short Vote Chess advertisement.

Game Analysis

Our Most Recent Game

Against 1.e4, I exclusively play the Caro-Kann, so I was out of book as soon as we voted to play the Sicilian, and I got to look forward to playing new, unfamiliar positions. Throughout the opening, I relied heavily on the knowledge of my teammates (especially KykSoHod, who seemed to have a very deep knowledge of the Classical Sicilian) to orient myself and understand what was going on. For me, this is one of the most enjoyable aspects of vote chess. I can try out new ideas and openings and lean on the knowledge of my more experienced teammates when things get weird. I also find that I learn pretty quickly this way.

10. f4 came as a surprise and took us completely out of theory. We determined that white probably planned on playing e5 at some point to open up the position a little, weaken our pawn structure, and create distant tactical opportunities. To relieve some of the pressure on our position (we had less space and less active pieces), we decided to try and trade off some of our minor pieces with 10...a6.

Tough Custard played the middlegame very well. In particular, the way they used tempo gaining moves in response to our 16... Qb4 in order to take control of the queenside and restrict our piece activity there was very instructive. They maintained their positional advantage into the early endgame, where they also gained a small material advantage.

It was clear at this point that white was probably winning with best play. However, it was still a complicated endgame, and we held on to hope that we could get a draw.

0-1!

Vote Chess Advertisement

I've had a lot of fun in our past few vote chess matches. I really enjoy being able to debate moves with the team, contributing to other peoples' analysis, and learning how to handle unusual situations from people with more knowledge than I have.

On top of that, participating in a vote chess game means that you get to take pride in your team's successes. Its very satisfying, not only when I find an interesting idea or a brilliant move, but also when one of my teammates does too.

If this sounds like your thing, please come join us in our rematch against Tough Custard to make our team the best it can be! We're going into an Open Sicilian right now, so I promise we'll have an interesting game.

South Carolina USA

Super Admins

Admins

Coordinators