Ah, the trouble a chess player will go through for a woman who has read Art of Attack….
Archive for February 16th, 2010
A Game for Two
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010USATE 2010 Wrap-up
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Round Five at Board 1
Well, it was fun while it lasted and definitely feels better than 2008 when we lost only to the infamous GGGgs to finish 5-1 or 2007 when we made it to Board 1 in Round 5 only to lose to Beavis-and-Buttvinnik. We played on Board #1 the last two rounds, entering Round 6 with the only 5-0 record, but we lost to the excellent Cambridge Springers, a perennial top team with the deadly Joe Fang going 6-0 5.5 on Board 2 (alone winning the second board prize after winning a nice ending against our Scott Massey). Bob Rose won on Board 4, so we definitely had a shot at it. But Ed Allen drew his lower-rated opponent on Board 3 and Steve Stoyko lost a difficult but drawable ending against Bill Kelleher on Board 1 (getting distracted by his cell phone buzzing in his pocket, which resulted in a critical 10-minute penalty — though, of course, at any other tournament he probably would have been forfeited….) With a host of 4.5 teams behind us — several of whom won their matches to go to 5.5 — we got knocked out of the prizes entirely. Updated: For complete team results, see the NJSCF website with final standings and complete results.
I’ll update as more news or links roll in. Meanwhile, here are some good blogs with USATE coverage (if I’ve left one out, let me know via comments):
#631 My USATE Games
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010Over the weekend, I reluctantly played in the 40th U.S. Amateur Team East tourney at Parsippany & scored 3.5/6.
Here’s the day by day rundown:
Saturday
I blundered a piece to FIDE Master/opera singer Nathan Resika on move 12 but beat a 1400 in 17 moves.
Sunday
I defeated a 1300-rated octogenarian in 14 moves & lost an exciting game to 11-year-old expert Justus Williams, of the famous I.S. 318 in Brooklyn :
J. Williams 2066 – J. Moldovan 1824
A13 English Opening
Dutch Defense
1. Nf3 e6 2. c4 f5 3. g3 b6 4. Bg2 Bb7 5. O-O Nf6 6. d3 Be7 7. Nc3 O-O 8. Qc2 Bb4!? (N) 9. a3 Bxc3 10. Qxc3 Qe7 11. b4 d6 12. Bb2 Nbd7 13. h3 e5 14. Rae1 a5 15. Kh2 axb4 16. axb4 Ra7 17. Rg1 Qe8 18. Nh4 Bxg2 19. Rxg2 Qh5 20. e4 fxe4 21. dxe4 Raa8 22. Nf5?
22…Nxe4! 23. Ne7+ Kf7 24. Rxe4 Kxe7 25. f4 Nf6 26. Re1 Ng4+ 27. Kg1 Qxh3 28. c5 Rac8 29. Rge2
29…Kd8?? (29…Rf5! =+) 30. fxe5 Nxe5 31. Rxe5 dxe5 32. Qxe5 Qd7 33. Qg5+ 1-0
Yesterday
I dispatched a fellow 1800 in 17 moves & drew U.S. Correspondence Champion Paul Fielding!!
J. Moldovan 1824 – P. Fielding 2209
D23 Queen’s Gambit
Mannheim Variation
1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 dxc4 4. Qa4+ c6 5. Qxc4 Bf5 6. g3 Nbd7 7. Bg2 Nb6 8. Qb3 e6 9. O-O Be7 10. Nc3 O-O 11. Bg5 Ne4 (N) 12. Bxe7 Qxe7 13. Rfd1 Rac8 14. Nh4 Nxc3 15. bxc3 Bg4 16. Rd2 c5 17. Rad1 cxd4 18. cxd4 Rc7 19. Bf3 Bh3 20. Ng2 Bxg2 21. Kxg2 Rfc8 22. e4 Rc3 23. Qb1 Qa3 24. Rd3 g6 25. d5 Qd6 26. dxe6 Qxe6??
White is winning here but I only saw 7 moves of a very long sequence, not the 3 subtle follow-ups required by the Q & R.
27. Rxc3 Rxc3 28. Rd8+ Kg7 29. Qb4!! Rc8 30. Qf8+ Kf6 31. Qh8+ Ke7 32. Qf8+ Kf6 33. Qh8+ Ke7 34. Rxc8 Nxc8 35. Qxh7 Nd6 36. Qh4+ Ke8 37. Qh8+ Ke7 38. Qh4+ Ke8 39. Qh8+ (+-) 1/2-1/2
Of course, the Q+B & 5 should overcome Q, N & 4 but I didn’t feel like grinding for another 2 hours.
The Williams & Fielding games will likely be re-visited at a future date but, for now, here is the complete set of 6, with light notes, in java-replay & zipped PGN.
Kenilworth 5-0 Heading into Round 6
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Goeller – Hellenschmidt
Black to play and win (he missed it)
Black to play and win (he missed it)
In Round 5 of the US Amateur Teams East, our Kenilworth team made it to Board One with a perfect record. I was able to win my game (see “Board One Blunder-Fest” for details) and I thought at the time it was rather well-played. The rest of the team drew, so we won the match and they will play for the championship in the final round (the only team at 5-0, with Bob Rose on Board Four this time). Though I’m still happy with the result, I’m none too happy with the game, which looks like a blunder-fest under the harsh glare of the computer. But that’s what late round games can be like.
I had to go teach a class (can you believe Rutgers has classes on Presidents Day?), so I wasn’t able to find out what happened in the last round. If anyone knows results, please post them in comments.
ChessBase show: Ftacnik’s Hedgehog brilliancy
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010The Hedgehog is a system against the English Opening that’s easy to underestimate.
In 1982 Lubomir Ftacnik, today part of the ChessBase team, produced a remarkable
brilliancy with it against Lev Polugaevsky, one of the world’s very strongest
players at the time. It is the subject of this week’s Playchess
presentation by Dennis Monokroussos. See you on the server!
Linares R4: three draws, Topalov and Grischuk lead
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010Our GM analyst Anish Giri sent us the following message: “Topalov: novelty, draw; Aronian: ending, technical, still draw; Grischuk: strange prep, maybe even worse, draw.” That may be the shortest round wrap-up ever. Indeed after some very exciting games the three draws in round four were fairly uneventful. Draw ratio so far: 83%. Games, results, pictures.
Move by Move: Training with ChessBase Magazine
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010In addition to
reports on top tournaments and games analysed by world class players,
every issue of ChessBase Magazine contains,
lots of training designed to help ambitious club players. There is, for
example, the column “Move by Move” by the English grandmaster
Daniel King. We
have put together some screenshots to show you how it works in practical
terms.
12-year-old beats Super-GM in simul
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010This is what happens when you travel half-way around the globe, accept more and more opponents in a strong simul, agree to play with white and black pieces, and start at 1 a.m. body time. You blunder a game against a 12-year-old and make it into the Canadian press. Alexei Shirov showed great sporting spirit in this Ottawa simul. Gordon Ritchie reports.
Aeroflot Open – the guessing game
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010Five players lead with 5.0/7 points in the A groupe of this prestigious Moscow open tournament – two Vietnamese and three Russians. Eleven GMs from various nations following half a point behind. The female players start at place 48. There are a lot of very nice but uncaptioned pictures on the official tournament site. Thanks for the help in identifying them – there are still a few names missing.
Linares R3: three draws, Topalov and Grischuk lead
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010In today’s round all games were drawn, but all of them were very interesting! Gashimov continued his opening discussion with Grischuk in the Qd3 line of the Poisoned Pawn Variation; Gelfand-Vallejo was a Slav sideline which led to very dangerous play; and Aronian-Topalov saw both sides miss opportunities to improve their chances. Commentary by GM Anish Giri.