T 43 Round 1: Primates 3 - Team Capablanca 1

Tournament 43 has arrived and the Primates have returned more or less intact. Trond has returned after taking the summer off and visiting Norway (welcome back, Trond!), and Darren has not been heard from nor signed up for T43. I hope all is well and we hear from him soon. Other than that, Tom, Curt, “The Other Bob” & I are all “tan, ready and rested” for T43 with Round 1 commencing this weekend.
We are in the Maple Division and face “Team Capablanca” in Round 1. The other teams included in our division include: “Zwishenzugs”, whom we have never faced and team “4hourslife” against whom we have squared off in a previous tournament. The Division looks to be pretty tough as 2 teams have an average above 1990 (max average is 2000), and we have an average at around 1980.

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Round 1 Wrap up: Primates 3 - Team Capablanca 1

Speed kills. That should be the theme for the last game in our match, which pitted Tom v Bgolev. What an unlikely result, but not in the way you would think. We were leading 2 - 1 going into the last game. Tom had Black v Bgolev and they played a g3 variation of the King's Indian in the most Karpovian style (which I always hated and one of the reasons I never played the King's Indian - that whole variation is such a. well. it should be banned along with the Petrov). Tom got a great position, but then he went off the rails and dropped a piece. Should have been game over at that point, but his opponent went deep into time trouble and gifted the piece back. The seesaw battle continued until Tom pinned Bgolev's queen with a rook and it was game over. Wow.

So we head into Round 2 tied for first, which really isn't notable except for the fact that historically we are slow starters and tend to pick up speed as the tournament progresses. Perhaps this is a good sign for T43. For Round 2 we are paired against "Team 4hourslife", whom we have faced in T41. This will be the first game back for Trond after taking the summer off. Welcome back , Trond, and good luck!