Carlos Avalos Teaches Me Lesson

I played 1000 correspondence chess games over a 20 year period from 30 countries and all 50 states in the USA. Only rarely did I actually meet any of my opponents face to face. In the 1989 USCF Golden Knights Postal Tournament, section 89N280, I had the White pieces vs Carlos Avalos Sarravia (his 2576 USCF Postal Rating at the time). About 15 years later at a chess tournament in Florida, a nice man came up to me and introduced himself to me as the Carlos Avalos, whom I had played many years before.

Avalos taught me a valuable lesson. This game pretty much cured me of playing 4.f3 in the French Defence Alapin Gambit Declined. Sometimes the variation results from a transposition, after say 1.d4 Nf6 2.f3 e6, but here this is a straight French Defence Alapin 3.Be3 Nf6. White gets a playable game after 4.e5 or 5.e5. Don't do what I did.

Sawyer (2176) - Avalos (2576), corr USCF 89N280, 18.01.1990 begins 1.d4 e6 2.e4 d5 3.Be3 Nf6 4.f3?! c5! Enterprising. 5.dxc5?! [Best is 5.e5 Nfd7=] 5...Qc7! 6.c3 [Better seems to be 6.Nc3 ] 6...Bxc5 7.Bxc5 Qxc5 8.e5 Nfd7 9.f4? [The last try is 9.Qd4=/+] 9...Qe3+ 10.Ne2

10...Nc5 [10...Nc5 Embarrassing. 11.Qd4 Nd3+ 12.Kd1 Nf2+-+] 0-1

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