CICL: Big upset for Tornado Snakes

The East Division of the Chicago Industrial Chess League is going to be interesting this year!

Mark Coleman scores a convincing upset against yours truly.  (I have a backlog of recent losses to publish: it's therapeutic.)

Road trip: Kings Island Rd 1

Hey, it's a blog.

I had a casual dinner with Andrew Karklins at the Melrose a week ago Monday, and wound up playing him in Ohio on Friday. A perpetual cheapo salvages my iffy position.

Irrational Exuberance, or, Looking for Sacs in All the Wrong Places

Jim Abbott, the winner of this game, gained a ton of rating points at the Greater Midwest Classic.

My ...Bxh2+ was more than a bit too overoptimistic, and I understood this when I did it. But I still sacked the piece. Hmm.

David Franklin called this move "going Morozevich" (after the brilliant Russian GM who does something impulsive whenever the position bores him).

An argument for the fianchetto Grünfeld...

...is that some strong amateurs don't know about moves like 7...Nb6! It's annoying for the horsie on d5 not to have a buddy on c3 to trade lives with, and Black has to worry about White grabbing the center with tempo.

Incidentally, please let us know what you think of the various versions of this viewer.

A semi-correct game

Black mishandled the opening slightly, and White returned the favor with the slightly inaccurate 15.g4?!, which allowed the equalizing 15...Qc7, capitalizing on the weakening of the dark squares.  Otherwise, yawn.

4.Qc2 is an idea worth checking out: lots of strong players use it on occasion.  Sam impressed me in the postmortem with a couple variations that he assessed far more deeply and correctly than I.  Yes, masters have better instincts than we do, but they also analyze more variations more correctly than we do.

Agony column, installment 357

I think it was Raymond Floyd who once wrote an article for Sports Illustrated titled something like, "How Can a Pro Miss an Eighteen-Inch Putt?" I'm certainly no pro at chess, but I'd like to think I'm expert enough not to lose a bishop vs. knight ending when I have the bishop and I'm up two clean pawns with zero compensation.  Reality and "what I'd like to think" are two different things...

(The attentive reader may recall that I was the recipient of a similar gift in the final round of Kings Island 2012: the "equalizing injustice of chess" is a useful fantasy to maintain at times like these....)  I tried to squeeze my opponent in a dead equal position when we were both playing on delay, and received the loss I richly deserved.  Stubborn defense is often rewarded against careless play!

A streak of my own

My streak is even more impressive than Frederick Rhine's: I have just played 152 consective tournaments in which I have made at least one move worthy to be made by an absolute patzer.  (Sometimes these moves come by the dozen, but let's not talk about that.)

I have learned not to beat myself up too much over my very bad moves: the trick is to mix self-criticism with self-praise for the occasional good move. And sometimes the most creative player is not the player who wins: the following game is a great example.

The Black rook often "belongs" on a7 in the Chebanenko Slav (...typified by an early ...a6), including the Exchange Chebanenko.  If White can put a piece on b6, the Ra7 may feel a little silly.

This week, I'll post all the games from my last two tournaments.  Hey, it's a blog.

CICL East Division action

DRW Trading drew Rogue Squadron 3-3 thanks to this win by Lyle Hayhurst:

Field report: TJWO, Round 4 (ouch)

In which I get rolled convincingly....

Field report: TJWO Round 3

Field report: TJWO rounds 1 & 2

My very solid opponent came closer to winning than I did.  He withdrew from the Open after this round and entered the Booster Section, finishing second.

Now to Round 2.  After my blunder on move 24, I took Lady Gaga's advice and maintained my poker face. Then I lashed out emotionally on move 34 (the will to win is healthy, but maybe I'm crazy, just like Cee Lo).  Steven Napoli sees through the cheap shots and neutralizes the "attack" quickly.  He's much stronger now than he was a few years ago!

Vanity - take my rooks

Tim Just's Winter Open has already been rated: crosstable here.

My opponents in the first four rounds outplayed me fairly convincingly: I felt lucky to have drawn two of the four games. Ratings don't matter as much as people think: everyone has the right to play good chess!  I'll post those games later in the week.

Before the final round began, Wayne Clark awarded me my third consecutive participation ribbon. Not too many minutes later, I had lucked into an admittedly mundane winning position. But inspired by the evergreen ribbon, I sacked two rooks in the style of Anderssen (would you believe Berthold Anderssen?). And yes, if one is already a piece up, then one is really only sacking a rook and the Exchange....

Unlike Kieseritsky, my opponent was wise enough to decline the second rook.

"Why are you trying to play tactically against Giles?"

That's the question Angelo Sandrin asked me circa 1985, the point being that the chessboard equivalent of a street brawl was tailor-made for Giles's hypertactical style.  Even so, he was never afraid to take big risks in order to win, so our games were incredibly fun!

Sometimes I gave Morris a scare; sometimes he rolled me off the board.  The following game, the first time we played, was slightly atypical.  Normally, he would kill me tactically; here, he neutralized my showy demonstration, then ground me down positionally from a slightly superior ending.

Chicago Class vanity

I got outplayed by both of my opponents last Sunday. Psychologically, draws are not the most satisfying result, but drawing two games beats losing two games.  And in both games, both players were trying to win...

Try to predict White's move in the position below!

At the ICA Banquet the previous day, I had the honor of presenting the 2012 Broughton Award to Jim Brotsos. While Jim and I were bantering about his lifetime of service to Illinois chess, I had my iPhone in my hand, as I was about to read some email testimonials that Jim's friends had sent. Somehow, I managed to start playing a Peter Drucker audiobook in the middle of Jim's remarks.

Not having sufficiently learned my lesson, I forgot to turn my iPhone off before round 4. In the middlegame, I somehow triggered the iPhone in my pocket, and "Five Years" (the opening track of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars) began playing for the "benefit" of the players. For "Five Years," I was penalized ten minutes (which seems more than fair: I could have been forfeited).  My apologies to all!

Don't be an inconsiderate dope like me: turn off your cell phone before play begins. (I realize that family and work concerns make it mandatory for some players to be in touch at all times: put your phone on vibrate, and let the TD know what you're doing.)

Vanity: Kings Island Road Trip

GM Nikola Mitkov headed a contingent of Chicago players at this year's Kings Island Open. The site is a creaky but charming resort adjoining the amusement park in metro Cincinnati.

 This year's field was not as strong as last year's (most GMs chose to play in Detroit the week before), but still pretty darn strong. Once again, Kentucky GM Gregory Kaidanov took honors, splitting first with IM Goran Vojinovic of Ohio. Crosstables here! 

In Saturday's round three, I was playing next to nine-year-old David Peng, and I looked at his game almost as much as mine. As David was rolling up his second master of the event, I found myself thinking, "Is this kid already stronger than I am?" Wonder no longer: David's post-event rating is 2108, and mine is 2106. Even before his recent ratings jump, David was second only to Awonder Liang on the nation's top nine-year-old list. (As I noted a few days ago, both David and Awonder at age nine are substantially stronger than the twelve-year old Bobby Fischer. But this is a misleading comparison on many levels. Parents, chess is more than having a large number after one's name: you want your children to enjoy playing and enjoy learning. These young players simply love to play!)

***

Here are my games, not because they're particularly good, but because it's a blog. :-)  Constructive criticism is most welcome: that's how we get better!

Claire and I drove in Friday night: traffic was heavy, so I wound up taking a first-round bye (thanks to USCF Executive Director Bill Hall for conveying the message to Wayne Clark).

In round two, I was paired with fellow Chicagoan Tam Nguyen, who is on the cusp of a long-overdue National Master title.  I sacked a pawn for no particularly good reason and was fortunate to escape with a draw:

In round three, I was paired against the reigning Kentucky state champion, NM Davis Whaley.  Black made a Slav triangle and grabbed the Catalan gambit pawn.  At one point, I thought I had excellent wining chances, but the game fizzled out into a dead draw quickly.  Between Evanston and Kings Island, I had now drawn five consecutive games in eight days. (This after making a vow to myself not to offer or accept draws in unclear positions: sometimes there's nothing the players can do...)

Sunday morning, I won against NM Pappu Murthy of Ohio. 15...Nc7? is a cute idea, but the attempt to trap the bishop fails. The alert reader will probably notice several dozen faster wins that I missed (29.Qc4 with the idea of 30.a3 is one, Black's counterplay after 32.Nxd6 appears not be that fearsome, after all), but hey, I won. And yes, Black could have resigned a few moves earlier, but note that Black almost set up a kamikaze stalemate trap. (Queens and rooks are great for kamikaze missions, but monochromatic bishops are generally ineffective.)

Thanks to my style of boring opponents to death, I had a chance to Swiss-Gambit my way into the Under 2300 prize in the final round. NM James Mills of Indiana had other ideas. 15.Ne5!? is interesting: I think I was right to take on d4, but 16...Nf8 is too passive: better 16...Rac8. 18...Bg5!? is my attempt to deal with the coming incursion on c6. I saw White's beautiful 23rd move coming, but didn't appreciate its force until it was too late: 23...f5? is just psychological collapse. A nice win by Mr. Mills!

Now that you've seen all the weaknesses in my play, come exploit them this weekend at the Illinois Class in River Forest!

A bizarre ending

One of those games that demonstrates why Grandmasters are Grandmasters. I think there was a double blunder on move 44, but please don't trust this analysis. (If you're looking at this with a computer, please keep the horizon effect in mind: the engine's initial evaluation of the pawn ending may be wildly inaccurate.)

The biggest problem with the 2012 U.S. Open

...from my perspective, was that it was a nine-round event, not a five-round event. I began 4½-½ and made it to Board 3 (temporarily nestled between GMs Seirawan and Gurevich) until the young Oregon state champion Steven Breckenridge punctured my bubble. (And while I'm usually happy to publish my losses, no, I'm not sharing that embarrassment: it's on Monroi.).

Photo: Eileen Schmakel

I told Seirawan that the last time I played in a tournament with him, I had hair and he had an Afro. (There's a Lionel Ritchie-esque version of the Yasser-do in Al Lawrence's Chess Life Online article).

Travel photos and woodpushing

FM Michael Langer of Austin, Texas (the grandson of Lev Abramov, who captained the Soviet team in the famous USSR vs. World match in Belgrade) drove me to Mount St. Helen's on Tuesday. I was amazed that the devastation wrought by the 1980 eruption is still so evident: a dozen miles away, the remains of entire forests effaced by the eruption indicate the direction of the lateral blast. Closer to the volcano, stumps remain where the rest of the tree was vaporized.

The blast zone, many miles away:
everything in the valley was devastated on May 18, 1980

As bad as 1980 was, the Mount St. Helen's eruption was small potatoes compared to prehistoric volcanic eruptions in the Cascades.  One doesn't want to be around when Crater Lake blows again. (I've always wondered what Strangelovian continuity-of-government plans are in place for the Yellowstone Caldera "event": but we chess players do tend to be paranoid.)

Oh yes, chess.

Greetings from Vancouver, Washington

Looking west from the I-5 bridge: Columbia River and Mt. Hood

The US Open might as well be in the Loop: I keep running into Dmitry Gurevich and Harold Winston.  Former ICA President Al Losoff (whose Sears Tower office used to be around the corner from mine, and who lived across the street from my brother-in-law before moving to Nevada) is working the event, as is Wayne Clark.

"I've played ...a6 and ...h6, I must be winning..."

Our Illinois representative, NM Sam Schmakel, won his first two games in the Denker Tournament of High School Champions, then lost to #2 seed SM Atulya Shetty of Michigan.  The game is featured on Chess Life Online.  (Denker standings are here.) 

Sixth-grader George Li has an even score in the Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions and is paired against a fellow expert: no easy pairings in either scholastic event!  Barber standings are here.  Thanks to both George and Sam for representing our state so well.

Oh yes, the US Open.  Here are the standings after round two.

I had an excellent adventure last night: almost got mated twenty different ways, fianchettoed my rook, and was offered a draw while I was an Exchange and pawn up.  It didn't take me more than a minute to accept....

Self-analysis is cheaper than psychotherapy

I had narrowly escaped against NM Nolan Hendrickson at King's Island last year: one would think that I would have learned not to challenge him in an objectively dead-drawn ending.  (Right around the time I made the losing blunder, I told Albert Chow that the game would be over soon: I was right about the timing, but wrong about the result.)