An Accidental Checkmate

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

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

...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

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

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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

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

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!