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.

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.

Universal Winter Swiss - Day 1

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