Randy's Chess Blog

Valley Chess September Open - Summary

2008-10-01T20:50:00.020-07:00

I won the Valley Chess September Open, which finished yesterday!

Name

R10

Randy Ho

1928

W10

X12

8.5

Kevin James Musil

1807

H--

W11

W12

8.0

Peter J Fenger

1624

H--

W12

W11

7.0

Hossein Ameri

1757

W11

H--

U--

5.5

Richard Smouse

1526

H--

U--

3.5

Cortez Schenck

1038

H--

W12

W10

3.5

Filip Bendisz

unr.

L10

W12

U--

3.5

Soren Aletheia-Zomlefer

1155

W12

W11

U--

3.0

Louis F Zajicek

unr.

H--

U--

3.0

Harry Wexler

1576

W12

U--

H--

U--

2.5

Jacob Al Cavaleri

844

B--

L12

H--

U--

2.0

Mateusz Bendisz

unr.

L10

W11

U--

1.0

As you can see, I was in 2nd place for most of the tournament. I overtook 1st place only after the last round. There were only three games which I felt that I played well. Rounds 6, 8, and 10. Here is a summary of my games.

In Round 1, I was Black in a Bogo-Indian Defense.

In this equal position, I played 16...Rfe8, "hanging" my pawn. My opponent took the bait. The game continued 17. Qxe5 Bh3 18. Qxe7 Rxe7 19. Bg2 Bxg2 20. Kxg2 Rxe2, and soon my rooks were very active. I won.

----

In Round 2, I was White in a Four Knights Opening. My opponent mixed up his openings and blundered on move 6.

Here, he played 6...Nxe4?? I was able to keep the extra piece. 7. Qxe4 Re8 8. Bd3 g6 9. O-O d6 10. Nxc6 Rxe4 11. Nxd8 1-0. For extra credit, reconstruct the first 6 moves of the game.

----

In Round 3, I was Black in a Colle-type Opening.

We reached this King and Pawn endgame. I judged that I had winning chances due to my protected passed pawn, but apparently not. My opponent easily held the draw.

----

You can read about Round 4 in the previous post. I lost that game.

----

In Round 5, I was White in a Closed Sicilian. I was totally outplayed in the opening. I had a very bad position. My f-pawn was very very weak, and to make matters worse, I was down to 9 minutes.

Then a miracle happened. He played 20...Bxf4?? 21. Rxf4! Qxf4 22. Qxe3 Qxe3+ 23. Bxe3 and I eventually won because my Bishop pair made themselves felt.

----

In Round 6, I was Black in an opening resembling the Maroczy Bind of the Accelerated Dragon.

In this position, I found 18...Rxc4+! 19. bxc4 Qa3+ 20. Kb1 Bf5+ 21. Qc2 Qb2# 0-1

----

In Round 7, I was White in a French Winawer. I won the Exchange on move 16, but there was still a lot of game to be played.

Here, I played 28. f5! breaking through and I eventually won.

----

In Round 8, I was White in a Alapin Sicilian.

White has a positional advantage, and is up a pawn. The game concluded 24. Nd4 Nc4 25. Bxg6 Bxe5 26. Bxe5 Nxe5 27. Qxe5 Qxe5 28. Rxe5 fxg6 29. Rae1! 1-0

I imagine that most players around my rating would have captured the pawn on e6, but 29. Rae1 is stronger, as confirmed by Rybka.

----

In Round 9, my opponent did not show up and I won on forfeit.

----

In Round 10, I was Black in a King's Indian Defense. I was happy with the way I played in this game, because I did not try to overpress and deliver a knock out punch. I just played solid moves, improving my position little by little, and trying to take play away from my opponent.

Here, I played 29...Bc3! and my Rooks took over the file. I won in 72 moves.

Round 4

2008-09-13T22:34:00.019-07:00

K. Musil - R. Ho

Valley Chess Sept Open (4)

Coffee Buzz, Ahwatukee, 9/9/08

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5

The Trompowsky Opening. A good choice, because I was not familiar with the lines.

2...c5 3. c3 Qb6 4. Qb3

Already on move 4, I had to make a big decision that would determine the character of the game. I had to choose between cxd4, Qxb3, Nc6, Ne4, or maybe something else? Unfortunately, all moves looked the same to me, so I chose one at random.

4...Nc6 5. e3 d6

I should have considered 5...Ne4 6. Bf4 g5 7. Bg3, which looks better than what happened in the game.

6. Nf3 Be6

Not a bad move -- It develops with tempo, but I later regretted placing the Bishop here.

7. Qa3

This move surprised me. I was expecting 7. Qxb6. The Queen looks awkward on a3, but Black has no effective way to exploit it.

7...Bf5

I had some trouble finding the right squares for my pieces. How to develop my dark square Bishop? 7...g6 is probably met by Bxf6, weakening the d6-pawn. Or 7...h6 8. Bf4 g5 followed by Bg7, and it's psychologically hard for Black to castle kingside. In the end, I opted for Bf5, e6, Be7, although in this plan, White can still play Bxf6.

8. Nbd2

A fine move. The Knight is heading to c4.

8...cxd4 9. Bxf6!?

A zwischenzug! Apparently my opponent did not want me to play ...Ne4.

Here, I spent five minutes on 9...dxe3 trying to make it work. During the game, I saw 9...dxe3 10. Nc4 exf2+ 11. Kd1, and Black's initiative is gone. When I couldn't see a way to continue the "attack", I gave up. When I put this position in Rybka, it prefers Black. 11...Qc7 12. Bh4 d5 13. Ne3 Be4 14. Bxf2 Qf4, and I guess Black's piece activity and two pawns more than enough compensation for the piece. Although a famous international master once said that a piece is worth nine pawns.

Anaylsis Diagram - after 14...Qf4

9...gxf6 10. Nxd4

The second moment (the first one was on move 4) where I had to make a big decision. These kinds of positions demand a good understanding of chess as opposed to calculating ability. Should I play Nxd4 or Bd7?

10...Bd7? Following the rule of Never Trade, but moving backwards is passive.

11. Nc4 Qc7 12. Nb5 Qb8?

Here, I let my guard down. It was psychologically difficult for me to play Qd8, returning the Queen to its original square. Also, with Qb8, the d6-square is protected for a third time. So I played Qb8 automatically and quickly.

13. Be2?

White had a tactical shot 13. Nb6! winning the Exchange.

13...Ne5?

It was not too late to play 13...Qd8.

14. Nb6!

White sees it the second time around. One interesting point is that 14...Bxb5 is met by 15. Bxb5 CHECK.

14...axb6 15. Qxa8 Qxa8 16. Nc7+ Kd8 17. Nxa8 Bc6

The idea was that if White takes time to defend g2, then I can play ...Nd7 (protecting b6) and try to win the Knight in the corner.

18. Nxb6 Bxg2 19. Rg1 Nf3+

Hoping that my Bishop pair would be an asset.

20. Bxf3 Bxf3 21. Rg3 Bh5 22. Nd5!

Making it difficult for Black to free himself.

22...Kd7 23. a4 Bg6 24. a5 Kc6 25. Nf4 e5 26. Nxg6 hxg6 27. h3 Be7

I was in a hurry to activate my rook. Better was 27...d5, giving my Bishop more scope.

28. e4 Ra8 29. c4 Kc5

I played this before White could play b4 and lock my King in.

30. Rb3 Ra7 31. Ra4.

It is funny that Rybka suggests 31. O-O-O!

31...Bd8 32. Rba3 Kd4 33. f3 Kc5 34. Ke2 Ra8 35. Kd3 f5 36. b4+ Kc6 37. Ra1 Bg5 38. exf5 gxf5 39. Rg1 Bf6 40. Rh1

40...b5

An attempt to confuse the issue.

41. cxb5+ Kxb5

Here my opponent almost played 42. Rha1. I would have played 42...e4+ discover attack on his rook. (Rybka says 42...d5 is stronger (=), but I don't get it)

42. Ra2 Kxb4 43. Rb1+ Kc5 44. Rb7 Kd5

Seeing no good way to protect f7 (Rf8 was out of the question), I decided to play actively.

45. Rb5+ Kc6 46. Rb6+ Kd5 47. a6 e4+ 48. fxe4?

Apparently 48. Ke2 is much better.

48...fxe4+ 49. Ke2.

Of course, not 49. Ke3?? Bd4+

49...Bd4 50. Ra5+

50...Ke6??

It is a pity that I fought hard being down the Exchange to get a playable position (okay, maybe it's still lost), only to blunder badly in time trouble. 50...Bc5 was better.

51. Rb4!

Black loses the e4 pawn here. Both players were blitzing out their moves. Eventually, Black had two connected pawns, and White had a Rook. Black seemed to be holding the position together for dozens of moves, but then White found the key move:

In a position similar to this, White played Re8!. In order to save the e-pawn, Black has to play ...e3 allowing Kd3, or ...d3 allowing Ke3, winning in both cases. Black lost both pawns and played until checkmate.

1-0

Rounds 3 and 4

2008-09-10T08:17:00.003-07:00

Last night my opponents got tougher. I drew a 1700 and lost to a 1800. Here is a position from one of my games.

White to Play

Back to Chess

2008-09-02T21:42:00.008-07:00

Today I played in the Valley Chess September Open. It is ten rounds -- two games every Tuesday night in September. Tonight was rounds 1 and 2. There are several reasons that I played.

1. The time control is G/60 rather than the usual G/30,

2. The location (Coffee Buzz) is close to where I live, and

3. Playing chess is good therapy for my brain.

For the first time in my life, I didn't get into any time trouble! I am very proud of myself for this.

Stay tuned for annotated games.

An Accidental Checkmate

2007-12-23T19:36:00.003-07:00

I was playing a 5-minute game on ICC tonight. I had a winning endgame, but the problem was that I was down to 1 second on my clock (Yeah I know, I need to move faster), and my opponent had almost two minutes. No problem, I thought. I will just promote my pawn to a Queen and sacrifice it for the pawn on g6 and get a draw.

In the picture above, I have just played 57. a7, and I premoved 58. a8=Q. When my opponent played 57...Ne6???, my BlitzIn made a DING sound to indicate the game was over. Turns out that 58. a8=Q was checkmate.

Oops

2007-10-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

Oops, it appears that my USCF membership has expired :(
Since I was rarely playing in any chess tournaments anyway (Valley Chess once every three months is not very frequent), I don't have a strong motivation to renew. So I am temporarily retired from tournament chess. I will still continue to play on ICC though. My handle there is Googly.

Congratulations to Joel Johnson

2007-08-22T23:55:00.002-07:00

...for winning the United States Senior, which ended recently. I know Joel from Valley Chess (I play there once every three months).

Valley Chess Championship

2006-12-18T19:21:00.002-07:00

The Valley Chess Championship ended yesterday. The tournament was a ten-round Swiss, held over five weeks. Time control was G/30.

Final Standings
1 Joel Johnson 10-0
2-3 Pete Karagianis, Randy Ho 6-4
4-5 James Beauregard, Richard Smouse 5.5-4.5
Total 18 Players

Official Crosstable

----------------------

In Round 1, I was White against Andrew Kelly. I think that I misplayed the opening just a little.

White is pinned all over the place. I got lucky, because Black blundered with 13...Nd4? which allowed 14. Nxe5. I think that if Black had played f6 first to protect that pawn, then Nd4 would have been very crushing. After that blunder, my position freed itself up and I eventually won.

In Round 2, I was Black against Joel Johnson.

For the last 15-20 moves, I felt uncomfortable pressure. If I ever want to be good at chess, I need to learn to defend these types of positions. The patzer inside me revealed itself when I lashed out irrationally with 37...Bxe5?? 38. fxe5 Qxe5, and White won quickly.

In Rounds 3 and 4, I took Half-Point Byes, because Ben was visiting Phoenix that weekend.

In Round 5, I was White against Alexis McKenzie.

In this position, I won material with 18. Na5, and I eventually won.

In Round 6, I played Joel Johnson again, this time with White.

I played the interesting move 31. g4!? Jenny would approve. But I did not follow through properly. Joel played 31...Bg5. Now I should have played 32. gxf5 here, instead I played 32. Bxg5 and I eventually lost on time. Pete was very interested in this position. After the game, he was trying to find a win for White.

In Round 7, I was Black against Dan Marsalone. I played a Sicilian Dragon against him.

The game continued 25...f3 26. Bxf3 Bxf3 27. gxf3 and White lost on time. I think that I would have played 27...Qg5+ winning the Rook on d2.

In Round 8, I was Black against Pete Karagianis.

I was getting squeezed, but this time I tried not to do anything rash, like I did in Round 2. In this position, I saw a glimmer of hope and played 27...Nxd5 winning a Pawn. The game continued 28. exd5 Bxd3. But then I made a few inaccurate moves and soon found myself in ZugZwang and lost. 29. Qd7 Bb5 30. Qg4 Notice how White's Rook and Queen prevent Black's Rook and Queen from activating.

I showed up four minutes late to Round 9, and Tournament Director Joel had already made the pairings. He decided to give me a Full Point Bye instead of redoing the pairings.

In Round 10, I was Black against Josh Zhu. I found myself in slight difficulties after move 16.

My d-Pawn is about to fall. What can Black do? I felt that 16...d5 was my only chance, so that's what I played, without calculating everything till the end. That move turned out well for me, because I soon got the type of position that I am comfortable in. Eleven moves later, I had the following position.

I think that Black wins material here. The game continued 28. Rxd8 Qxe3+ 29. Kh1 Nxd8, Black has won a piece. Then a weird thing happened after I was trying to checkmate him with a Queen and Bishop. It was the second time in my USCF career that I moved my Queen to a square where it could be taken for free. Fortunately, I was still winning after I hung my Queen, so I won.

Ben Finegold Visit Day 2

2006-11-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

In the semi-finals of the blindfold knockout tournament, Ben was Black against Sonny Kamberi. Unfortunately for Sonny, Sonny hung a Bishop in the middlegame and resigned. Sonny forgot that Ben had a Queen on b6.

Then, in the finals, Ben had White against GM Jaan Ehlvest.

As you can tell from the picture, the opening was a King's Indian. Also notice that the game was being played outdoors and the kids were wearing T-shirts. Wow, it is nice and warm in Arizona in November.

Ben was doing very well, but then............

In this position, all Ben had to do was play Qxf3 and he would have been two pawns up with no compensation for Black, an easy win for someone of Ben's caliber........

However, Ben hallucinated. He saw a quicker win and went for it. He played Qe8+ Kh7 and now, Rc7?? supposedly pinning and winning the Queen. Apparently, Ben thought that his Queen was on d8, not e8, and realized his mistake right after he moved. The game continued Qxc7 Bc6 Qa7+ Resigns.

Ben Finegold Visiting

2006-11-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

Ben is in Phoenix this weekend for some chess-related stuff. Today was a busy day.

Here is a picture of Ben (left in the yellow shirt) playing blindfolded against Atoufi. Ben won.

In the evening, they held a 16-player, 4-round swiss blitz tournament. Here is Round 3, where Ben was playing Grandmaster Sergey Kudrin. The game ended in a draw, when Kudrin accidentally stalemated Ben.

In Round 4, Ben was on board 1 against Grandmaster Jaan Ehlvest. Ben was lost on the board (K+R+N+P vs. K+R) but Ehlvest offered a draw while low on time and Ben accepted. Behind them are Jeremy Silman (International Master) and Kudrin. Ehlvest and Kudrin both ended up with 3.5, whereas Ben had 3. But to Ben's credit, he had the most difficult pairings (e.g. he had to play both Ehlvest and Kudrin, whereas Ehlvest and Kudrin did not play each other).

After the blitz tournament, Ben held a simul. Out of 35 games, Ben officially had 34 wins and 1 draw. But the 1 draw has an interesting story to it. Ben was lost against an 800-rated player (in the picture, Ben is at that player's board). At one point, the guy had two Queens on the board and a pawn about to promote. But Ben used his magic and tricked the guy and conjured up a winning position! But he felt very bad for the kid, so he sacked his Queen for a Pawn for an instant draw.

Here is a picture of the final position of another one of the simul games. The final move was: f8=N Double-Check Mate!

Ann Arbor Chess Club

2006-04-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

Tonight, for the first time in my life, I came in first place in the Ann Arbor chess club blitz tournament. Five people showed up: me, Jennifer Skidmore, Atulya Shetty, Larry Foti, and Chris Schmidt.

Jenny and I went to a new Thai restaurant beforehand, called "No Thai". It is located on South University and Forest. I liked the food. For those of you who like spicy food, they have five levels of spiciness. I chose the second highest (Yoga Flame). It wasn't too bad. The highest one was called Death -- I was too afraid to try that one.

The blitz tournament was a double round-robin, and I scored 7/8. I lost to Chris Schmidt in the first round, but won my final seven games. This was a tremendous improvement over my previous showing two weeks ago at the city club, where I scored a lackluster 2.5/9.

1 Ho 7-1
2 Shetty 5.5-2.5
3 Skidmore 4.5-3.5
4 Schmidt 3-5
5 Foti 0-8

Round 1: Ho-Schmidt was a Sicilian Dragon by transposition. White lost on time in a nice position.

Round 2: Bye

Round 3: Shetty-Ho was a King's Indian Classical Variation. White accidentally hung a knight (touch move) and did not recover after that.

Round 4: Ho-Foti. White won a rook early on. Black lost on time.

Round 5: Skidmore-Ho was an Alekhine's Defense. White lost on time.

Round 6: Schmidt-Ho was a Danish Gambit.

1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. c3 dxc3 4. Bc4 cxb2 5. Bxb2 d5 6. Bxd5 Nf6 7. Bxf7+ Kxf7 8. Qxd8 Bb4+ 9. Qd2 Bxd2+ 10. Nxd2 Nc6 11. Ngf3 Rf8 12. e5 Ng4 13. Nc4 Be6??

I saw White's 14th move, but missed his 15th move. Oops...

14. Ng5+ Ke7 15. Ba3+ Ke8 16. Bxf8 Bxc4 17. Bxg7 Nd4 18. Rc1 Ba6 19.Nxh7 Kf7 20. Nf6 Nxf6 21. Bxf6 c6. I got lucky this game. Later in the game, Black had a perpetual, but White avoided the perpetual and instead got checkmated.

Round 7: Bye

Round 8: Ho-Shetty was a Sicilian. 1. e4 c5 2. f4 d6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. Bb5 Bd7 5. d3 e6 6. O-O a6 7. Bxc6 Bxc6 8.c4 Nf6 9. Nc3 Be7 10. Ne2 O-O 11. Ng3 b5 12. b3 bxc4 13. bxc4 d5 14. e5 Ne8 15. Qe2 dxc4 16. dxc4

In this position, Atulya played 16...Bxf3, I guess because now Qd4+ picks up the rook. I missed this move, but fortunately for me, I found 17.Qxf3 Qd4+ 18.Be3, which blocks the check and now the rook on a1 is protected. There followed 18...Qxc4? 19. Qxa8, and White was up a whole rook. White went on to win the game.

Round 9: Foti-Ho was a Philidor. The game was close, but Black won a pawn and then shortly after that, White lost on time.

Round 10: Ho-Skidmore was some sort of Slav. We got down to a Queen+Knight endgame. Then after queens got traded, my Knight ran rampant throughout the board and wreaked havoc.

Wiener-Rubenstein Memorial Day 2

2006-04-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

Today, I went 1-1 and ended up with 3 points. I tied for first place Expert and won a $18.75 prize.

In Round 4, I was Black against ten-year-old Atulya Shetty. We followed a line in the King's Indian that we played against each other a week ago in our training game. Atulya revealed his home preparation by deviating with 14. Rc2! A few moves later, I miscalculated.

In this position, I thought that 15...Ncxe4 would win a pawn outright, since the Knight is pinned to the Rook, so that's what I played. However, White played 16. Nxe4! Rxc2 17. Bg5! and now, Black must lose a piece for the Exchange that he just won. My miscalculation was not fatal though. The material count remained the same (Black got a rook and a pawn for two pieces).

Later in the game, I was about to take control of the center with my pawns.

However, White played 28. Bf5! winning the Exchange. I did not put up much resistance after this, probably because I was in time pressure. I resigned on move 36. 1-0

In Round 5, I was White against John Robertson. I played the Keres Attack against his Scheveningen. The game was going along okay, nothing extraordinary.

In this position, White is up a pawn, but Black played 29...Ba5! A tough move to meet in time trouble. I played 30. Nc3 d4 31. Re4. During the game, I was wondering if 30...Rab8 was any good, but now I see 31.Rc1 saving everything. Anyway, I remained a pawn up and won on time in a favorable Rook endgame. 1-0

Wiener-Rubenstein Memorial Day 1

2006-04-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I am playing in the Wiener-Rubenstein Memorial at All The King's Men. The tournament is five rounds of G/75. After the first day, I am 2-1. My brain felt tired all day, and I found myself in ridiculous time trouble all three games. I predict that the same will happen in both of tomorrow's games. I would like to thank Ben and Kelly for giving me a ride today, and thank the Shetties for giving me a ride tomorrow.

In Round 1, I was Black against Jason Dobry. The opening was a c3-Sicilian by transposition. The game was going along fine, but White started to find himself in trouble after 18. Nc5.

The game continued 18...Bg6 (threatening Bxc5 followed by Nd3+) 19. O-O, and now Black won material with 19...Ra8 20. Bb6 Nc4. The game concluded 21. N5a4 Nxb6 22. Nb5 (22. Nxb6 Bc5+) Rxa4 0-1

In Round 2, I was White against Kelly Finegold. The opening was an Alekhine's Defense that transposed into a Scandinavian Defense. After 15 moves, I found myself with a position that I liked.

The temptation was too great -- I played 16. Nfxg5. But then Kelly surprised me with 16...Nd5. Oops, it's tough when I can't see one move ahead. I tried to complicate the position with 17. Bxd5 exd5 18. Nf3. The idea was to get three pawns and an attack for the Knight (18...dxe4 19. dxe4 Queen moves 20. Qxh6). Black declined the piece with 18...Kh7 and remained a pawn down. I won a Knight vs. Bishop endgame in a time scramble. 1-0

In Round 3, I was White against John Brooks. The opening was an f4-Sicilian. I was able to liquidate into a favorable rook ending.

I was happy with my position here, but somehow I lost the game 0-1. I will need to conduct a thorough investigation and make sure it never happens again :)

Universal Winter Swiss - Day 2

2006-02-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

I went 1-1 today, and ended up with 3 points. I tied for 2nd Place Expert and won a prize of $25. The good news is that I did not have any draws in this tournament.

In Round 4, I had a tough game against Tom Manion. I was White in a Petroff Defense. He decided to defend the threat of checkmate in a very provocative way.

Black has just played 17...Re5. I responded with 18. f4, figuring that if the rook moves away, I will play Qxg7 checkmate. Then he surprised me with 18...c5! Oops, it's bad when you don't see anything. Now in damage control mode, I decided to spice up the position by sacrificing my Queen for a Rook and Knight with 19. Qc4 Nd6 20. Bf2 Qe7 21. fxe5 Nxc4 22. Bxc4, but that did not turn out well. I eventually got checkmated with no time on my clock, and 30 seconds on his clock. 0-1

In Round 5, I had the White pieces against Daniel Libby. The opening was an Accelerated Dragon. (Yes, I played the Open Sicilian)

We got into a Queen ending, where I had an extra pawn, but it was doubled. My guess is that with best play, it is a draw. Black has just gotten out of check by playing 32...Qf6. After thinking for some time, I evaluated the resulting King and Pawn ending to be a win for White, so the game continued 33. Qxf6+ Kxf6 34. Kd5 Kf5 35. c5 bxc5 36. Kxc5 Kf4 37. Kd5 Kg3 38. c4 Kxg2 39. c5 Kxh3 40. c6 g5 41. c7 g4 42. c8=Q h5 43. Ke4 Kg3 44. Qc3+ Kh2 45. Kf4 Kh1 46. Qe1+ 1-0

Perhaps 32...Kf7 would have held the draw?

Universal Winter Swiss - Day 1

2006-02-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I decided to play in a chess tournament at All The Kings Men after a nine-month break from tournament chess. The tournament is called Universal Winter Swiss, and it is five rounds of G/90. After the first day, I am 2-1. My brain felt tired all day, so I played mainly intuitively, calculating very little. We'll see if this strategy will hold up tomorrow :)

In Round 1, I was paired against Forrest Reddick. I was Black in a Closed Sicilian. After thirty moves, the following position was reached.

Material is even, but Black has some advantages, such as control of the center, control of the e-file, and maybe a safer king. White now played 31. c3, threatening to win the Exchange by Bc2. Black responded with 31...Ng5 with a threat to h3. The game concluded 32. Rh1 Qf3+ 33. Kg1 Re1+ 34. Rxe1 Rxe1+ 35. Kh2 Rxh1# 0-1

Round 2 was a total disaster. I was White against International Master Ben Finegold, and I elected to play the f4-Sicilian against him. I chose a faulty plan of winning the dark-squared bishop for a knight (losing several tempi in the process), and then shortly thereafter, I found myself stuck with a Jenny Bishop.

In a difficult position, White has just blundered with 17. Be3. (17. Nf3 was better) Black now won material with 17...f6 18. Ng4 h5 19. Nf2 Nxe3 20. Qxe3 Nd2. I played on and on and on, and yet, Ben said after the game that I resigned too early :) 0-1

Round 3 was a game that I felt bad winning. I was Black against Glenn Smith. The opening was kind of like a Sicilian Dragon Yugoslav Attack. After White's furious attack died down, I found myself with the following position.

In my opinion, White has an edge, due to the advanced kingside pawns and more space. (If this was Bughouse, White would be totally winning...) Black has just played 35...Rb4, attacking both the Knight and Pawn. I was expecting 36. Nc3, but my opponent surprised me with 36. Rc3!? I automatically assumed that I could not take the Knight because of back-rank mate. What a clever move, I thought. After thinking for a while, it occurred to me that there is no back-rank mate! (Rc8+ Kh7!) So I took the Knight 36...Rxa4 and won five moves later. 0-1

Chess Problem That I Made Up

2006-02-02T23:54:00.000-07:00

White to Play and Win

Here is a chess problem that I composed all by myself, as a homework exercise.