Friday, November 14

Vote to Support Earth vs Space

(Earth vs Space game after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Bf4 c5 4.e3 Nc6 5.Bb5 Qa5+ 6.Nc3 Ne4 7.Bxc6+ bxc6 8.O-O Nxc3 9.Qd2 Ne2+ 10. Qxe2 Ba6 11. Qe1 Qb6 12. dxc5 Qxc5 13. c4 Bxc4 14. Qc3. Black to move.)

Six weeks have passed since the opening move of the correspondence chess match between International Space Station resident Greg Chamitoff and his challengers on Earth. The team of earthlings led by elementary school champions from Bellevue, Washington has captured White's c4 pawn and must now withstand counterplay on the c-file, targeting the backwards c6 pawn. Of course, White threatens b2-b3 next move. Humanity needs to protect the queen, finish developing and castle before White's attack materializes. Do we have enough time?

Please vote on move 14 by 1pm on Saturday. You do not have to be a USCF member to participate. The team leaders from Stevenson Elementary School selected three candidate moves: Qb6, Qb5 and e7-e6. I won't reveal which one I chose; try to calculate two moves ahead and see which option makes the most sense.

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