Ann Arbor Chess Club

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

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

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 :)