NYS Championship
07 Sep '10 18:12I'd like to post my games from the recently completed NYS Championship where I played in the U1800. Though it was my first OTB tournament in a year and I was playing in the U1800 for the first time, my final result: 1W 2L 2D was a bit disappointing. In fairness as you will see, I had an easy win in my last game that somehow faded to a draw (in a position where I was still better; fatigue was definitely a factor). Then again, the "box" says I should have lost this one though the win isn't totally obvious (or at least wasn't obvious to those of us doing the post-mortem; no one found it). Openings were kinda fun though; I got to play a Budapest in game 1, an early piece sac against the Najdorf in my game 3 loss (I still think it was sound) and a Scotch Blumenfeld in game 5 (where I had a crushing attack). Anyway for your amusement and comment with light annotations:
2B. My beloved Budapest which:
3W. He chickens out of accepting (which many OTB players do);
3B. dxe4 is most common, but I decided to keep some tension;
5W. A deferred acceptance after all;
5B. Apparently a novelty though it seems reasonable;
8B. I started worrying about a3-b4 winning the Knight, so wood chopping commences. f5 is an alternative though it seems to leave me a pawn down without the usual Budapest compensation of White having doubled c-pawns;
10B. The e5 pawn is a goner but;
11W. My opponent finds a way to post an annoying knight on d6;
12B. Probably c5 would have been better preventing White from anchoring the Knight.
15B. When I played f5, I thought I could continue with Rf6-Nf7 getting rid of the Knight. Alas I realized that after Nf7, White could respond Bc4 and I'd drop the exchange or worse. Rushing to be "active", I play a bad move which could have been tactically refuted. Probably g6 was best aiming to get my King off the diagonal to g7; there really wasn't that much of a rush.
16W. Fortune favors the bold. I had missed that after 16 exf4 Rxf4 17 Re1 is a killer because I can't retreat my Knight because of back rank weakness caused by my trapped Bishop because of White's strong Knight outpost on d6. The "box" gives a number of lines which all wind up with me losing the exchange at least.
16B. Engines like Rb8 and then bringing the Bishop to b7, but this looks senseless to me; the pieces are just as much tied up in that setup as they are now. Instead, I try to maneuver to trade my bad and inactive Bishop for White's good one (yes, I've been reading Silman). I work towards that goal when:
18W. Manna from heaven. White trades his dominating Knight for my "bad" Bishop allowing me to connect Rooks to boot.
19W. Obviously he wants to seize the open file and get a Rook to the 7th. But I have a surprise for him.
20W. My best move of the game forcing the exchange of the Bishop for the Knight and getting great activity for my Rooks. It also leaves White with an inferior pawn structure in the a Rook endgame.
But I hate endgames and didn't like those where I had to cede my d7 pawn to win his on h2 or c5. So I offered the draw on move 25 which my young opponent first declined and then re-offered without making a move. I instructed him to make a move first (always willing to help those without proper etiquette skills) but accepted after his vanilla 26th move. Maybe the endgame experts here have a way to play for advantage; Rybka and Fritz have the final position right around 0.00 (but what do they know).
I'll post some more later; feedback would be appreciated.
2B. My beloved Budapest which:
3W. He chickens out of accepting (which many OTB players do);
3B. dxe4 is most common, but I decided to keep some tension;
5W. A deferred acceptance after all;
5B. Apparently a novelty though it seems reasonable;
8B. I started worrying about a3-b4 winning the Knight, so wood chopping commences. f5 is an alternative though it seems to leave me a pawn down without the usual Budapest compensation of White having doubled c-pawns;
10B. The e5 pawn is a goner but;
11W. My opponent finds a way to post an annoying knight on d6;
12B. Probably c5 would have been better preventing White from anchoring the Knight.
15B. When I played f5, I thought I could continue with Rf6-Nf7 getting rid of the Knight. Alas I realized that after Nf7, White could respond Bc4 and I'd drop the exchange or worse. Rushing to be "active", I play a bad move which could have been tactically refuted. Probably g6 was best aiming to get my King off the diagonal to g7; there really wasn't that much of a rush.
16W. Fortune favors the bold. I had missed that after 16 exf4 Rxf4 17 Re1 is a killer because I can't retreat my Knight because of back rank weakness caused by my trapped Bishop because of White's strong Knight outpost on d6. The "box" gives a number of lines which all wind up with me losing the exchange at least.
16B. Engines like Rb8 and then bringing the Bishop to b7, but this looks senseless to me; the pieces are just as much tied up in that setup as they are now. Instead, I try to maneuver to trade my bad and inactive Bishop for White's good one (yes, I've been reading Silman). I work towards that goal when:
18W. Manna from heaven. White trades his dominating Knight for my "bad" Bishop allowing me to connect Rooks to boot.
19W. Obviously he wants to seize the open file and get a Rook to the 7th. But I have a surprise for him.
20W. My best move of the game forcing the exchange of the Bishop for the Knight and getting great activity for my Rooks. It also leaves White with an inferior pawn structure in the a Rook endgame.
But I hate endgames and didn't like those where I had to cede my d7 pawn to win his on h2 or c5. So I offered the draw on move 25 which my young opponent first declined and then re-offered without making a move. I instructed him to make a move first (always willing to help those without proper etiquette skills) but accepted after his vanilla 26th move. Maybe the endgame experts here have a way to play for advantage; Rybka and Fritz have the final position right around 0.00 (but what do they know).
I'll post some more later; feedback would be appreciated.
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