Thanks to Vince Hart for his wonderful work in yesterday's posts! Please scroll below to read Vince's coverage.
The Jonathan Kogen—Rafeh Qazi game from the ICA Denker Qualifier (state invitational high school championship) was extremely well played by both sides, and a draw seems logical. Here are some nice moments:
The Jonathan Kogen—Rafeh Qazi game from the ICA Denker Qualifier (state invitational high school championship) was extremely well played by both sides, and a draw seems logical. Here are some nice moments:
Kogen-Qazi
White to play
With 25.Re3, White envisions an attack on h7. There's no mate (White would have to bring the bishop on c1 to the a3-f8 diagonal), but it's not necessarily fun for Black, either.
Qazi avoids this with the cool defensive move 25...Qe7! 26.Rh3 h5! If White doesn't take en passant, the h-file buildup was pointless, but in that case, Black can exchange queens. So 27.gxh6 (the g5 pawn takes the h5 pawn as if it had only moved one square to h6: our silly en passant rule is only an option immediately after the opponent's pawn has moved two squares) 27...Qxh4 28.Rxh4 Bf6
Kogen-Qazi
White to play
So White has to move the attacked Rh4, no? No! Kogen plays a cool move of his own: 29.Be4!?, with the point that 29...Bxh4 is answered by 30.Bxc6, forking a8 and e8, and recovering the Exchange.
Black decided to work on the backward c-pawn instead: 29...Bxe4 30.Rxe4 Rac8 31.Bd2 (finally completing development!) 31...Red8 32.Re2 e4
Kogen-Qazi
White to play
White is temporarily a pawn up, but Black has the initiative. White played 33.Be1, which wasn't really necessary. White was probably concerned about the fork trick 33.a4 Rxd2? 34.Rxd2 Bxc3 (echoing the tactical theme of the previous diagram), but the pin 35.Rc1 wins. It doesn't really matter, however, as Black has plenty of activity after 33.a4 Bxc3 34.Bxc3 Rxc3 35.axb5 axb5 36.Rxe4 Rd2: in rook endings, rooks on the seventh rank often offer full compensation for a pawn.
Very well played!
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