My playing career, roughly 1974-1985, overlapped significantly with the over-the-board portion of Tony Doyle’s, 1970-1983, when he was one of the top players in the country. He was Irish champion in 1974, and played in three Olympiads, among many other distinctions.
But many readers, even those who knew him well as an over-the-board player, will be unfamiliar with his record in correspondence chess. He won a World Championship semi-final (1985-1995) without losing a game, and scored +3 in the later World championship 3/4 final (1989-1996), finishing in 7th place, 1 point short of a GM norm. He became a Correspondence Chess IM in 1991 and was one of the initial awardees of the Correspondence Chess Senior International Master (CC-SIM: between IM and GM) title when it was created in 1999.
Here, with Tony’s notes, for which many thanks, is a game from his early CC career, from an event in which he recorded his first CC-IM norm.
Günter Voß (GER) — Tony Doyle
EU/M/633 ICCF corr 1983
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. O-O Be7 7. Re1 b5 8. e5 Nxe5 9. Rxe5 d6 10. Re1
10. Rxe7+ winning material is not a good idea—after 10… Qxe7 11. Bb3 c5 White is facing an avalanche of pawns.
10… bxa4 11. Bg5
Better is 11. Nxd4=.
11… O-O 12. Qe2 h6 13. Bh4 g5 14. Qxe7 Qxe7 15. Rxe7 Nd5 16. Re4 c5! (diagram)
If now 17. Bg3 then 17… f5 and … f4.
17. Nxg5 hxg5 18. Bxg5 Bf5 19. Re2 Rfb8 20. b3 axb3 21. axb3 d3 22. cxd3 Bxd3 23. Re1 Rxb3
Black is winning and the rest of the game is a matter of technique.
24. Nd2 Rb4 25. f3 f6 26. Bh6 Kh7 27. Be3 f5 28. Ra3 Bb5 29. Bf2 Rb2 30. Nf1 f4 31. g4 Nb4 32. Rd1 Re8
0-1