Results from Round 1

I think the theme of Round 1 is “endgame”. Ironically in the 45 45 League, I am sure that opening preparation plays an important role in the game, and obviously positional and tactical themes run rampant, but as I watched some of our team’s games, I saw a common theme of endgames impact. I think the major difference is that you can recover from bad positional play, or poor opening preparation or even missed tactics, but endgame play is technique which will directly cause a win/draw/loss. I have studied endgames a bit (nowhere near enough, but I do feel pretty comfortable). I am not an endgame expert, but I do play one on TV. For those who want the greatest return on an investment (meaning you don’t want to spend too much time on endgames), my first recommended book is Glenn Flear’s Improve Your Endgame Play. It is only 160 pages and you can plow right through it. You’ll get the basics, just play Fritz in some of the test positions and Bingo! My other recommendation if you have more time is Jeremy Silman’s Complete Endgame Course. Jeremy’s book is much longer and it is divided into what to know at whatever your rating/expertise is vice thematically like Glenn’s.

OK getting back to Round 1
Primates victorious over “Los Zetas”
Primates 2.5 v Los Zetas 1.5
Don cruised (Don usually makes it look easy), Tom lost, I had a good game, but Justin had THE game of the match, playing a FIDE Master 200+ points higher rated with the white side of a Dragon. It was a very interesting game to watch (Dragons usually are) and it quickly got very messy, with both players missing subtle tactics. It ended as a draw, with Justin up a rook for 3 pawns (I cannot fault him as I ironically also had a draw with a rook v 3 pawns). Besides the draw secured the match and our first victory in the U2200 League. Congrats, Justin! Not bad for your first match.


Lower Primates 1 – Runners 2
With Curt’s game yet to play, we trail the Runners 2 – 1, with Tom and Don both drawing and Bob getting into time pressure and missing a tactic which undid his position. To Bob’s credit, he hung tougher than I probably would have after dropping the pawn, as his position quickly deteriorated. He almost recovered enough to get to a playable Rook & Pawn endgame. Don played magician and wiggled out of a near dead lost endgame, sacrificing his bishop for his opponent’s last 2 pawns, leaving the poor guy alone with a knight. Don, in his typical humorous fashion, told me after the game, “I don’t think my opponent knows how to mate me with his knight.” Tom also drew, after suffering for most of the game, then getting to a King & Pawn ending where he at one point could have pulled out the victory. His position was study-like in nature (If I have time, I will post it). But in the end, Tom got a Queen & Pawn v Queen & Pawn dead drawn ending.

Good luck to Curt, who plays Friday @ 3:00 PM ICC server time.

Probably Wed I will post Round 2’s pairings.