Mating Combination

It has been a long time since I last posted. In a position with a small material advantage, I found a mating combination.

July Pride and Points Tournament

Mike Carrel (founder of the Carrel Chess Club) hosted a 5 round G/30 tournament Saturday, July 12th. The tournament was the second monthly action tournament for the Carrel Chess Club.

Here are some random observations:

1. 20 people showed up on a Saturday when there was a competing tournament in Toledo
2. Of the 20 players who played on 7/12/08, 8 were new to tournament play at CCC
3. 11 players ratings increased an average of 62.8 points each
4. 8 players ratings decreases an average of 36.8 points each
5. The 19 players gained an average of 21 points each
6. 1 player played his first tournament

Congratulations to the top 2 ratings gainers (both gained over 100 points)!
1. Alan Sun gained 341 points!
2. Mandy Lu gained 171 points

Alan Sun broke the CCC record of points gained in a single tournament. The old record had been set by John Zhang with 300 points at the June 28th Action.

Mandy Lu has gained over 100 points in both tournaments, and has now gained 325 points in 15 calendar days! Also, she is the only 2 time member of the 100 point club.

The complete 100 point club is:
1. Alan Sun 341 pts 7/12/2008
2. John Zhang 300 pts 6/28/2008
3. Jacob Schneider 188 pts 6/28/2008
4. Mandy Lu 171 pts 7/12/2008
5. Mandy Lu 154 pts 6/28/2008
6. Rodney Dison 141 pts 6/28/2008

Of note: The cumulative ratings gain from this tournament was 400 points, which lagged behind the 449 total points gained by the field in the 6/28/08 tournament.

June Pride and Points Tournament

Mike Carrel (founder of the Carrel Chess Club) and I teamed up to run a 5 round G/30 tournament yesterday, June 28th. The tournament was the christening tournament for the Carrel Chess Club in its new permanent location.

Here are some of the highlights as I see them:

1. 28 people showed up for the inaugural tourney
2. We were only 15m behind schedule in spite of a printer problem
3. In the top section:
--- 9 player ratings increased with an average gain of 43 pts each
--- only 5 players ratings dropped with an average loss of 36.8 pts each
4. In the bottom section:
--- 7 players played their first rated tournament (average rating 324)
--- 3 players ratings increased an average of 214 pts each
--- 4 players ratings decreased an average of 23 pts each
--- 1 player graduated from provisional

Congratulations to the 4 biggest ratings winners (all of them were up over 100 points):
1. John Zhang gained 300 points!
2. Jacob Schneider gained 188 points
3. Mandy Lu gained 154 points
4. Rodney Dison gained 141 points

Additional congratulations to:
1. Manmohan Das for winning the open section with 4.5/5
2. John Zhang for winning the U700 section with 4/5!
3. Joy Chen for the biggest upset of the day. Joy won her first game in spite of a deficit of 537 rating points!

Snow Day Chess: Part 3

This position came up in a 5 minute game I played today. I missed the winning combination. Black to move and win.

 

Snow Day Chess: Part 2

In this position I was black and had worked my opponent into a corner. At this point I I had mate in 4. I played the first 2 moves right, and then botched the mate in 2 and lost in the end.

 

Snow Day Chess

Since my school had a snow today, I had the day off and decided to get in some chess games this morning. This position came up in a 5 minute game, where I was black. It is black to move and mate in 4.

 

I missed the mate in 4, and instead found mate in 5.

2007 MCA Class A Championships- R1

Prong,C (1840) - Jarosz,S (1959)
2007 MCA Class Championships (1), 13.01.2007
Sicilian Defense: Scheveningen Variation [B80]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6
This is the Scheveningen Variation of the Sicilian Defense. I had recently decided to stop playing the Keres Attack because I had not been scoring well with it, but I hadn't found time to learn another line yet.
6.Be3 Be7 7.f3 Nc6 8.Qd2 a6 9.Bc4
Typically this bishop is placed on d3, but on c4 the bishop will have to retreat after Qc7.
9...0-0 10.0-0-0 Qc7
In typical Sicilian fashion kings are castled on opposite sides of the board. Black typically attacks with queenside pawns, meanwhile white attacks with a kingside pawn storm.
11.Bb3 b5 12.g4 Nxd4 13.Bxd4 Nd7 14.h4 Nc5 15.g5 Bb7 16.h5 Nxb3+ 17.axb3 Rac8 18.Rdg1
White needs to tear open a line on the kingside and should probably wait to bring the second rook to the kingside. Playing h6 forces g6, which weakens the dark squares around the black king. Then Bf6 practically forces black to trade bishops and allows white to open the g-file with gxf6.
18...e5 19.Be3 d5
Threatening a pawn fork on d4.

 

20.exd5
Nxd5 was correct here, and white maintains a slight edge.
20...Bb4
This is the move that white overlooked. The c3 knight is attacked 3 times now, but defended only twice.
21.Kb1
White really doesn't have time for this. The best defense to your opponent's attack is frequently counterattack. Therefore, g6 is correct, as it forces open lines in front of the black king. White would then have compensation for his pawn defecit. 21...Bxc3 22.bxc3 Qxc3
White is about to go down a pawn. Therefore, I followed the axiom of not trading pieces when behind, and thereby chose to keep the queens on the board. 23.Rh2 Bxd5 24.Qxd5 Qxe3 25.Rhg2 Rfd8 26.Qb7
White is still trying to find ways to keep the queens on the board in hopes for finding drawing chances.
26...Rb8 27.Qc6 Rdc8 28.Qd6 Qxf3 29.Qxe5 Re8
Black determined that taking the h5 pawn was dangerous while the white queen was on the b8-h2 diagonal, as Rh2 and Rgh1 might come next.
30.Qd6 Rbd8 31.Qc7 Rc8
Qxh5 winning another pawn or Rd1+ followed by a rook trade or Qxh5 are both preferable here.
32.Qh2 a5 33.g6 fxg6 34.hxg6 h6 35.Rf2 Qe4 36.Qd6 a4 37.Qd7 axb3 38.Qf7+ Kh8 39.Qxb3 Re6 40.Rgf1 Rxg6
Qxg6 and black is two pawns up with every chance of winning. Black was under 10 minutes left on his clock when he played this horrible blunder.

 

41.Rf8+ Rxf8 42.Rxf8+ 1-0

2007 MCA Class A Championships

This was the last big event I played, so I have been very inactive this year. Hopefully, I will find time to study and regain the energy and drive to resume my pursuit of moving through Class A on to Expert. My rating descended 2 points from 1840 to 1838 after scoring 2/5 with wins over Stan Jarosz and Zoran Stojanovski. I was disappointed in my score. I was hoping for a plus score, but -1 isn't that bad since this was my first chance to play in a Class A event.

Metro League 2006- R2

Prong,C (1852) - Dishman,M
2006-2007 Metro Chess League (2),
All the King's Men, Warren, 10.27.2006
King's Gambit Accepted [C34]

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 Nc6
To quote GM Gallagher, "This move has never really caught on, probably because it does little to address black's problems.
4.d4 Bb4+?
This can't be good since it allows white to build his pawn chain with tempo. Black should try d5, and then on exd5 he plays Qxd5 and has himself developed a piece with tempo.
5.c3 Ba5 6.a4
A cute trap that I should have resisted playing. White is hoping to get in b4 and then a5 where blacks dark squared bishop is trapped. The simple Bxf4 is probably best for white.
6...Nf6 7.e5
White continues to build his pawn chain with tempo.
7...Nd5 8.Bc4
White tries to keep black busy so that he can work in his trap.
8...Ne3 9.Bxe3 fxe3 10.b4 Nxb4
Black will get two pawns for the knight (three pawns if you count white's gambit pawn) and leave white with a fractured pawn structure. In addition, black will have only one piece developed.
11.cxb4 Bxb4+
Fritz rates it equal, but as I heard Ben Finegold say once, "A piece is worth a million pawns."
12.Ke2 Blocking the advanced pawn.
12...d5?


13.Qb3
White continues to find ways to develop and thereby gains tempo or material. 13...Ba5 14.Bxd5
White regains one of his lost pawns.
14...0-0 15.Na3 Bd2 16.Nc2 Bg4 17.Bxb7
Now white has regained a second pawn
17...Rb8 18.Qd5 Qe7 19.Rab1 Be6 20.Qe4 g6?
This move is probably unnecessary. It would have been better to keep improving the position. i.e. c5 and black is making threats to win the Bb7.
21.Nxe3 Bf5
Black needlessly gives away another pawn here.
22.Nxf5? gxf5 23.Qxf5 Bh6 24.Qh5 Bg7
I wanted the black bishop here so that the queen would not protect h7 when black moved the f-pawn.
25.Be4 f5 26.Bd5+ Kh8 27.Ng5 Bxe5
I totally missed this move, but as it turns out... it didn't matter anyway.
28.Nf7+ Rxf7 29.Rxb8+ Kg7 30.Qxf7+
Ending any hopes black had of winning material with a discovered check. 30...Qxf7 31.Bxf7 1-0