To my surprise, quite many! I found 83 Cochrane games incl. 28 white wins. I have uploaded this selection (PGN):

http://remixshare.com/download/r0p33

(only ~12 seconds delay)


[Event "CM.1997.0.00031"]
[Site "IECG"]
[Date "1997.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Koch, Christian"]
[Black "Kulashko, Alexei"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C42"]
[WhiteElo "2393"]
[BlackElo "2390"]
[PlyCount "55"]
[EventDate "1997.08.01"]
[EventType "corr"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nxf7 Kxf7 5. d4 c5 6. dxc5 Nc6 7. Bc4+ Be6 8.
Bxe6+ Kxe6 9. O-O d5 10. Nc3 d4 11. Na4 Qc7 12. e5 Nd5 13. f4 Rd8 14. f5+ Kf7
15. Bg5 Qxe5 16. Bxd8 Nxd8 17. Re1 Ne3 18. c3 Qe4 19. Qe2 Be7 20. Rad1 Nc6 21.
cxd4 Bg5 22. Nc3 Qh4 23. g3 Nxd4 24. gxh4 Nxe2+ 25. Nxe2 Nxd1 26. hxg5 Rd8 27.
b4 Nb2 28. Ng3 1-0

I guess that kills the idea that the Petroff is killing centaur chess.

The whole idea of centaur chess is killing chess in my not so humble opinion

Well, I don't want to play centaurs myself. It's like trying to talk to a manniquin.

It's like driving for 26.2 miles (42 km. for you European types). It's like playing Madden NFL instead of playing actual football. It's like tweeting about U2 instead of going to a U2 concert. It's like cyber-chatting on Yahoo instead of kissing the girl next door.

It's like a thing that shouldn't be...

I feel the same way myself. But if centaurs increase the total number of chessplayers I don't have a huge objection to it. Just so long as it is out in the open. I dropped 200 ICCF points to centaurs because I didn't know I was playing them.

I don't buy that. If anything, centaur chess will eventually be so played out that people will lose interest and go back to OTB chess. The figures I posted are reflecting a trend towards more and more draws as computers and software get stronger. Stands to reason that when nobody can beat anybody on ICCF, the concept will die off.

About the only thing centaur chess killed is playing human-only CC games, at least on ICCF since computer use is legal.

I am about to start the "Traditional" Correspondence Championship of Canada. There are 7 players, including one ICCM. We play by postcard; databases are allowed, but no engines.

It is all a matter of trust, of course. But no money is at stake, so why bother to cheat?