January 2005 G/45 Championship

General Comments

I did more poorly than I was expecting (2 wins, 2 losses). But much more important than that is the fact that I quite simply did not have any fun. Not even a little bit. I played only children - the oldest of my opponents was no more than 12, the youngest around 6. I HATE playing children. If I win, I feel like Kramer in the Seinfeld karate episode. If I lose, I feel like a complete idiot. I'm not sure which feeling is worse, but I am sure that win, lose or draw - I definitely enjoy myself much better when I play adults. I understand and accept that in my rating class, some games with children are unavoidable ... but four out of four, come on now!

In addition to my personal feelings, playing with kids has the additional disadvantage that they are always mis-rated. They generally play mostly other scholastic players, so that their ratings are skewed and not representative of their actual results. Furthermore, they are generally improving so fast that their ratings are always lagging their current playing strength, sometimes by quite a bit.

An additional consideration that decreased my enjoyment of the tournament was the playing site. Scottdale is a poor location; Anthony's Pizza was closed, so the nearest food was further than a 10 minute drive away. Furthermore, the playing area was too small.

To end my bitch session on a positive note, I will give well-earned kudos to the TD and organizer - all rounds were paired on time and without error, rounds started and ended flawlessly, and the entire event went off without a hitch. A nice plus was that the boards and pieces were provided by the club, which made the start of rounds very easy - all you had to do was set your clock and shake hands.

Without further prelude, here are the four games with some off-the-cuff commentary. Note that the comments below are either superficial ideas that just occurred to me or variations that I analyzed during the game. I will update this post once I get a chance to analyze the games in detail.

Round 1

Ananya Roy (1018) - ALD (1499)
Giuoco Piano [C50]
Lost

1. e4 e5 [I pondered whether to play my usual 1. ... c5, but decided that a kid learning the game now would probably be much more up on all the latest Sicilian theory than I could hope to be, so I decided on 1. ... e5 instead. Of course, this could have backfired if my opponent had taken me down obscure Ruy Lopez variations.] 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 [Boy, did I luck out. I felt like cheering when I saw this.] Bc5 4. d3 Nf6 5. Bg5 [5. c3, 5. Nc3 and 5. O-O are all more common, but the text move is OK too. However, it turned out to be more successful for White than she had any right to expect simply because I failed to notice that anything unusual had happened and that the line we were in was very different from what you usually see in the Giuoco Piano. Two thoughts: (1) I know I am out of practice and that's why I had problems navigating through this opening correctly, but (2) back in my day a 1000 rated player could not have successfully done so either. The times, they are a-changing.] O-O [This is incorrect and is the cause of Black's future problems. The correct plan is ... d6, ... Be6, and ... Qe7, preserving the option to castle queen side depending on how things develop. Also 5. ... h6 is very playable.] 6. Nc3 [Not just the natural move, but clearly the strongest move in this position, with the strong threat of 7. Nd5.] Bb4 [The best might be 6. ... Be7 relieving the pin (Van der Zande - Beers, 2001). I didn't want to pull the bishop back, but moving it again this way is no good either, especially since White is obviously just going to castle so that the problem of Nd5 is still not solved. Either 6. ... d6 or 6. ... h6 is still very good.] 7. O-O Bxc3 [The bishop has had to move three times to prevent Nd5. A wonderful illustration of Nimzowitsch's chess principle that the threat is stronger than the execution. White never got to play Nd5, yet Black's position is already somewhat inferior.] 8. bxc3 d6 9. d4 [9. Rb1] Bg4 [9. ... h6] 10. Bb5 Bxf3 [Not best; brings the queen to bear on f6.] 11. Qxf3 exd4 12. Bxc6 bxc6 13. Bxf6 gxf6 [12. ... Qxf6 is objectively better and I knew that at the time, but I thought that keeping the queens on the board gave me better practical chances. White: 0:12, Black: 0:15] 14. Qg4+ Kh1 15. cxd4 Rg8 [15. ... Qe7] 16. Qf5 Rg5 17. Qf3 Qe7 [17. ... f5] 18. h4 Rg6 19. h5 Rg5 20. Rfe1 c5 21. e5 Rag8 22. exf6 Rxg2+ 23. Kh1 Qd8 24. Re7?? [24. Qxg2 was necessary.] R8g5?? [Missing 24. ... R2g4! The elapsed times at this point were: White: 0:23, Black: 0:32] 25. Rae1 Qg8 26. Re8 Rg1+ 27. Kh2 R8g2+ 28. Kh3 Black resigns???? [DUH! There's 28. ... Rxe1 29. Rxg8 Rxg8 (Not 29....Kxg8??? Qa8+, which was the only thing I had seen.), when because of the disheveled pawn structure the queen might be slightly stronger than the two rooks, but there is still everything for me to play for. If only I had played one more move before resigning, I would surely have seen 29....Rxg8. Ouch! Elapsed times: White: 0:30, Black: 0:40]

Round 2

ALD (1499) - Christopher Roberts (893)
QGD Semi-Slav Defense [D43]
Won

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 e6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bf4 [5. e3, 5. Bg5] Nbd7 6. e3 Qa5 [6. ... Be7] 7. a3 [7. Nd2] c5 [Black's last two moves have not been the most accurate.] 8. Bd3 cxd4 9. exd4 Nb6 10. b4 Qa6 [White: 0:06, Black: 0:07]11. c5 [I thought this won the queen; I overlooked Black's strong (but in hindsight obvious) reply. The rust continues to show.] Nc4 12. Qb3 b5 13. cxb6ep axb6 14. O-O Be7 15. Rfd1 b5 16. Ne5 O-O 17. Be2 Bb7 18. a4 bxa4 [White: 0:22, Black: 0:21]19. Rxa4 Qb6 20. Rxa8 Rxa8 21. Nxc4 dxc4 22. Bxc4 Qc6 23. d5 exd5 24. Bxd5 Nxd5 25. Nxd5 Bf8? [Too timid. Black could have won a piece here. White: 0:31, Black: 0:26] 26. h3 Rd8 27. Ne3 Bxb4? 28. Rxd8 Bf8 29. Qd5 Qb6 30. Qd4 Qe6? [This allows a textbook finish, but due to the material deficit Black is lost in any event.] 31. Rxf8+ Kxf8 32. Qd8+ Qe8 33. Bd6+ Black resigns [White: 0:37, Black: 0:35]

Round 3

Harrison Ling (1116) - ALD (1499)
Sicilian [B33]
Won

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. Bd3?? Be7?? [Rust!] 7. O-O?? O-O?? 8. Re1 d6 9. Be3 Bd7 10. Qf3 Rc8 11. Nxc6 Rxc6 12. Bxa7?! [This pawn is poisoned.] b6 13. Bb5 Rc5 14. Bxd7 Nxd7 15. Qe3 Qa8 16. Na4 Ra5 [White: 0:05, Black: 0:10] 17. Nxb6 Qxa7 18. Nc4 Rxa2 19. Rxa2 Qxa2 20. Qc3 Rc8 21. b3 Qa6 22. Ra1 Qb7 23. f3 Bf6 24. Qe1 Bxa1 25. Qxa1 Ra8 26. Qb2 Qa7+ 27. Kf1 Qa1+ 28. Qxa1 Rxa1+ 29. Ke2 Ra2 30. Kd3 Nc5+ 31. Kc3 Nb7 32. Kb4 Kf8 [Not best, but irrelevant.] White resigns [White: 0:14, Black: 0:21]

Going into round 4, I had 2 points and no other player in the Under-1500 category had more than that. So if I could win the last game, I would be assured of at least a portion of the prize (which had been increased from the advertised $50 to $64 because there were more entries than expected).

Round 4

ALD (1499) - Will Lugar (1115)
QGD Slav Defense [D15]
Lost

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 a6 5. Bg5 Nbd7 6. e3 e6 7. Bd3 [This was played in Janssen-Ginzburg, 2001. More usual (and better) is 7. cxd5.] Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Qc2 h6 10. Bh4 Re8 11. Rac1 b5 12. c5 Qc7 [White: 0:06, Black: 0:07] 13. Bg3 [This was just dumb. Where is the queen threatening to go? a5! So why just push it along in that direction. Better to just lock up the queen side with 13. b5.] Qa5 14. a3 Qd8 15. b4 a5 16. Ra1 a4 [White: 0:13, Black: 0:15] 17. Rfe1 Bb7 18. e4 dxe4 19. Nxe4 Nd5 20. Bd6 Bf6 21. Nc3 Nxc3 22. Qxc3 Be7 23. Bf4 Nf6 [White has had the advantage all game. At this point, I pretty much thought I had the game strategically won. I was now headed to the hole at d6 with my knight, but the move I selected was absolutely horrible tactically. So it's a clean sweep - all four of my games show clear evidence of rust. Ah, well, what could I expect.] 24. Nd2?? Nd5! 25. Bh7+ [This bishop is less valuable than the other one.] Kxh7 26. Qd3+ Kg8 [White: 0:26, Black: 0:26] 27. Be3 Nxe3 28. fxe3 Bf6 29. Ne4 e5 30. Nd6 Re7 31. Re2?? [The end.] exd4 32. exd4 Rxe2 33. Qxe2 Bxd4+ White resigns [White: 0:35, Black: 0:35. And that was that. No prize for me.]

Additional analysis of all four games is here.