Well, well...I can't comment on 8.h3 9.Qf3 and 10.g4 plan in the Nizky-Efremov game. It's an experiment of Nizky's, not mine! Correspondence chess is very different from the OTB one. Dubious moves bring consequences that lasts till the very end of the game. And Efremov punished him convincingly.. 
As for the Nichols-Trusewicz game, the losing move is 20...Qe8?. The only move in this exact position is 20....Qc7 and is well known. I have 14 high level correspondence chess games with that move since 2009 - all draws (Riccio with black played 4 of them - against Efremov, Gueci, Borstnik and Makovski, as well as one game with white against Kotlyanskiy. All well known names in the today's corr chess.).
So, the path to equality is well-known long time ago. The problem is when black wants to win with an inferior move. For example, 20...Qe8 was played in one corr chess game only..and the result was 1-0. In fact, the new move here is 22...Kg7. Does it looks like an improvement over the old 22...Rb8 in the Hladky-Sharland 2009 FICGS game. Not to me! Why try then? One never knows.. Probably Trucewicz never knew this game. 

Bibs is right - back to chess...

Here is a high level corr. game played recently to show that not all 6.Be3 vs Najdorf games end in a draw - unfortunately for our discussion it is Black who wins.




There is also a very interesting article in New in Chess Yearbook 95 from a corr. chess player about his adventures in the English Attack. You find enough ideas there for playing the line and winning it with either colour in OTB and corr.!

If it hasn't already come, then I believe the day will come that a player will be able to put together a fool-proof drawing repertoire in correspondence with black. 

Maybe it's the pessimism from Semi-Slav and Catalan analysis talking, but there are just certain openings I do not believe white will ever find a substantive advantage in at this point. All that's left, really, is practical advantages.

At the top levels, I'd have no doubt that CC is more drawish than OTB chess. Given that, the draw rate will be very high. 

With all that said though, people still regularly 6-0 the ICCF Open tournaments playing against other people that are also using engines. I wouldn't make such a sweeping generalization about the "death" of CC.

Tullius wrote on 07/02/13 at 17:17:31:


Did you try corr. chess yourselve or do you just copy/paste someone's opinion?

Does anybody have any knowledge of whether De La Villa will update Dismantling the Sicilian with a third edition?

Vass wrote on 04/17/13 at 08:35:32:

can't the same be said about 1.d4 and 1.e4 ? 

6. Be3 against Najdorf Sicilian is well known to be completely drawish in the world of the correspondence chess. Quite contrary to the OTB chess though, because the variations are wild and practically impossible to be remembered by heart.
Not that 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6 is significantly different..