Slips happen (and TJWO results)

IM Angelo Young - Michael Auger (I think!)
Oak Brook 2013
Black to move

Here (more or less) is the position of the weekend. I say "more or less" because I've reconstructed the above position (from the game between two of the tournament leaders in Round 4 of Tim Just's Winter Open) from memory, so a couple Black pieces might be incorrectly placed.  But all the pieces on the first four ranks are in their proper spots.

Immediately before the diagrammed position, Angelo (who is down the Exchange and a pawn, and who only has minutes left on his clock) played 1.Nf3-g1.  With forty minutes plus increment left on his clock, Michael (who would almost certainly earn his long-overdue National Master title with a victory in this game) now unhurriedly plays 1...e4. 

Can you spot White's subtle reply, which turned a totally lost position into a quick win?  And which blunder in chess history was this most like?  Of the examples on in the Wikipedia article on blunders in chess, I'd compare it to Petrosian's famous blunder against Bronstein.


Most players would be kicking themselves, but after the tournament, Michael was good-naturedly demonstrating 1...e4?? 2.Nxe2 to a roomful of players, laughing and marveling at his blind spot.  The ability to be critical of your play without being too critical of yourself makes chess much more enjoyable!

***

Oh yes, the prizewinners: the full list is here.  I'll call out the most notable performances.  Congratulations to Angelo Young, Angel Angelov, and the angelic Tommy Ulrich, all with 4½-½ scores in the Open Section.  And special congratulations to eight-year-old Aydin Turgut, who took first Under 2000 with a 3½-1½ score!!

Gee Leong and Nathan Beauchamp took home the big money of the weekend by splitting the Reserve Section title; Giorgi Vanderway (1080) won the Under 1400 prize.

In the Scholastic sections, Robert Barr (slightly underrated at 291!) won the Under 1200 section, and Trevor Tompkins won the Under 700 section.  See the full list of trophy winners here!

Three Illinois juniors win US Game/60 championship!

Congratulations to NM Adarsh Jayakumar, Tommy Ulrich, and Sam Schmakel!

The field included FMs Chow and Stamnov and NM Acosta. Here's the crosstable.

Congratulations to Loek Van Wely!

The Dutch grandmaster recently wrote an article for New in Chess about his American travels: playing in US events was a good way to spend time with special Facebook friends, but not an especially good way for unlucky Loek to make money (I'm paraphrasing from memory).

This Memorial Day weekend, however, Van Wely won six games and drew three: 7.5 points was good for 10,000 and clear first in the Chicago Open!

The event was strong enough to attract attention in Armenia.  (Translation here.)

My general impression: aside from tournament visitor Yury Shulman (who's been doing his part lately), we in Chicago need to up our level of play to compete with the rest of the world.  GM Mesgen Amanov was the top local finisher with 6 points out of 9.

Among local juniors in the Open Section, Adarsh Jayakumar drew GMs Ehlvest and Lein, and could have drawn GM Finegold (coulda woulda shoulda), NM Eric Rosen dropped IM Daniel Fernandez.  Tommy Ulrich had an even score after five rounds and gained a ton of rating points.

I scored 2 points out of 7 and appear to have gained a few points!

More results from the other sections as soon as I recover from my "chess hangover."  Full results here!