Anand annotates an ICCF game
Sunday, October 6, 2013: Harvey Williamson's win over World Champion Tunc Hamarat
ICCF SIM Harvey Williamson recently won his game against ICCF World Champion GM Tunc Hamarat in the Candidates stage of the 32nd World Championship Cycle
Harvey kindly agreed to share his impressions of the game.
1- Hello Harvey, I had the pleasure of meeting you last year when we played a 2-game correspondence chess match. Please introduce yourself to our readers.
I am 48 years old and live in Manchester. I moved here two years ago from London. I work for the BBC on its news and sport station, Radio 5 Live. I have been playing correspondence Chess for over twenty years. I started playing Chess when I was about six. As well as playing Chess I work on the development of the Hiarcs Chess engine. I have recently returned from Japan where Hiarcs defended its world title, more details
here
2- You recently defeated ICCF Correspondence Chess World Champion and good friend Tunc Hamarat in the 32nd Candidates tournament. Few people in the world can claim such a great accomplishment. Would you please share your strategy facing a World Champion?
My strategy against Tunc was similar to all the other games in the candidates section. I try to play aggressively with white and find a way to win. I was quite pleased when he played the French defence as I have quite a good record against it in my games. It was one of those games where everything seemed to go right for me. 8. dxc5 is not played as often as other lines and I liked the look of it and so decided to give it a try.
3- FIDE World Champion Viswanathan Anand has annotated your win against Hamarat, that can only add to the satisfaction of victory. How did you get the FIDE World Champion to comment on your win against an ICCF Correspondence Chess World Champion? I guess he does follow correspondence chess...
I have known Vishy for a few years now. We 1st made contact at the start of his title defence against Topalov. I have met him several times since then at the London Classic and we chat regularly on Skype. I promise I did not ask for his help during the game v Tunc ;-) . When the game was over I asked if he would be willing to add some brief notes and as you can see he did.
4- Have you had a chance to discuss Correspondence chess in general with Anand? Does he have an opinion about this type of chess?
I know Vishy looks at played ICCF games. I am sure he has found some useful ideas in some of them. I know a few FIDE GM's play correspondence Chess. It would be nice if someone from the 2700+ club entered an ICCF event!
5- What are your plans in the near future, any new tournaments?.
I already have the SIM title. It would be nice to get the GM title in the next few years. At the moment I am doing quite well in a candidates section of the World Championship. It would be great to play in a final.
6- I am sure you will follow Anand-Carlsen along with the whole chess community. Any predictions? It would be fun to see Anand face the French defense against Carlsen...
Not long until the match starts now. Of course I will be following it. I think it will be a lot closer than some people are predicting. It would be great if that line was to come up over the board in Chennai. I have just managed to get a similar position in another of my games...
Thanks Harvey, I wish you the best in your future events. Thanks for sharing this game with us.
Our readers may view the game here online, or download it in CBV format. Of course you may also view Anand's annotations below
[Event "WCCC32CT03"]
[Site "ICCF"]
[Date "2013.09.08"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Williamson, Harvey D."]
[Black "Hamarat, Tunc"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C11"]
[WhiteElo "2491"]
[BlackElo "2604"]
[Annotator "Anand"]
[PlyCount "87"]
[EventDate "2012.09.20"]
[EventType "corr"]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Be3 Be7 8. dxc5
O-O 9. Qd2 Bxc5 10. O-O-O Qa5 11. a3 a6 12. Bxc5
12...Qxc5 (12... Nxc5 13. Qe3 {Leko-Wang 2013}) 13. Bd3 Re8
(13... b5 14. Bxh7+! {is a nice trap})
(13... f6 {given how the game goes, perhaps Black should do this})
14. Ne2 b5 15. Ned4 Rb8 16. c3 Nxd4 17. Nxd4 Qb6 (17... b4 18. axb4 Rxb4 19. Bxh7+!) 18. b4
{The key move. Kills any counterplay Black may have had} Qc7 19. Bc2 Nf8 20. h4 {
the rest is almost clinical} a5 21. h5 Bd7 22. Rh3 axb4 23. cxb4
{now the c file is added to Black's list of problems} Rec8 24. Qf2 Be8 25. Kb1 Ra8 26. Qh4
Ra6 27. Kb2 Nd7 28. h6 (28. Rg3 {is easier}) 28... g6 29. Bb3 Rb6 30. Re3 Qd8
31. Qg3 (31. Qxd8 Rxd8 32. Rc3 {should also win}) 31... Nf8 32. f5 Bd7 33. fxg6
Nxg6 34. Bc2 Qe7 35. Rf1 Be8 36. Bxg6 hxg6 37. h7+ Kh8 38. Qf4 Qf8 39. Rh3 Qg7
40. Qg5 Rb7 41. Rc1 Ra8 42. Rhc3 Rba7 43. Rc8 Rxa3 44. Rxe8+
{After move 18, Black couldnt do anything. Perhaps the whole line after 13...Re8 is unplayable?}
1-0