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This month we showcase a game by Kari Tikkanen, the winner of the
John F. Cleeve Memorial Tournament. This tournament was organized
by the Canadian Correspondence Chess Association (CCCA) in memory
of John Cleeve, one of its leading members and organizers who for
many years dedicated much time and effort to further Correspondence
Chess in Canada, NAPZ, and ICCF.
Kari Tikkanen is 43 years old, married, and has three sons. By
profession he is a general practice physician at a health center
in Iisalmi, a town of 23,000 inhabitants in the middle of Finland
where he lives. Kari learned the moves of chess in ‘71 and began
correspondence chess the same year. Clearly he was serious about
chess! Just four years later he won the OTB Finnish Junior chess
championship, and in ‘85 became Correspondence Chess Champion of
Finland. Other successes in CC followed. He received the IM title
in ‘94 through the Heitmann Memorial tournament, and the GM title
in ‘99 for his excellent performance in the John Cleeve Memorial.
Like many chessplayers whose professions demand much time, Kari
has primarily stayed with postal chess and plays in OTB tournaments
only once or twice a year. But even during these brief excursions
OTB, he has managed to gather the national and FIDE master titles.
He has played in the Finnish League since ‘85 for the team Kuopion
Shakinystävät (KSY: translation is Chess Friends of Kuopio).
The KSY team has won four silver medals and one bronze medal since
that time, but the Finnish championship has still eluded them. There
is always next year!
Kari describes his performance quite modestly "I did lose one game
to Dr. Nimtz, who took second place, after a dubious theoretical
novelty on the black side of a Caro-Kann defence, but only because
my opponent found a most profound refutation. ..... Otherwise the
tournament went very smoothly for me".
Kari Tikkanen’s win over Dr. Klaus Engel contains a very instructive
theme. A double edged position is reached where White has a lead
in development and is rapidly building pressure on the f-file, while
Black tries to block the f-file and take advantage of White’s weak
squares on the e-file. At a critical time, Black slips slightly
and allows White to open the position with the thematic Knight offer
18.Nfg5! Attempts to block the lines of attack are to no avail,
as White opens the way for his remaining pieces with the clearing
sacrifice 21.Rxf5! A well played game by the winner. (Annotations
are by Kari Tikkanen; my comments are noted with VVP
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