Musings from USATE 2011 Or “I am getting the band back together!”

Rust is toxic.

Mark came back. Don came back. I managed to cajole, plead, harass Tom, Mark & Don until they relented. Now Tom plays a bit (couple tournaments a year), but Don and Mark both were returning to tournament chess after a prolonged absence. Therefore, they were bound to be rusty --- couple that with 3 days and 6 rounds of chess, fatigue will set in and blunders will come. For Don, his inaccuracies were early but he managed to shake off the rust after the first couple rounds. For Mark however, he had the opposite problem as his mistakes came in the last round. Unfortunately they also came late and they came big. Fortunately, my fatigue was relatively mild and was less apparent than my opponents’, especially in the last round.

Who killed the heat?

I guess the global recession has hit hotel chess scene as the Main Ballroom of the Hilton was a decidedly balmy 50 degrees on Saturday noontime. I can understand the rational: billions of little heat producing chess machines all in one space will challenge any air conditioning system. However, even a couple hours into Round 1, the temperature had not climbed one iota and I was still shivering like a little kitten in a room full of Rottweilers. However, by the end of the tournament things had returned to normal as Sunday & Monday were much more tropical climes as the Air conditioning gods had decided to frequent other places. Thankfully I had donned my customary short sleeved shirt and was able to adapt.

Theme: Sit on them until they give you things

If you have read my post from last year’s USATE, you know that USATE has this species of murderous IM-trained little chess thugs who love to slay the older generation. You will also know that I fare a bit better than most of the older generation as I have adapted to defeat these nefarious mini-giant killers.

My guiding principles are simple:

One - don’t go tactical on these kids (it is a death sentence FOR YOU)

Two - steer toward the endgame (kids don’t know squat about endgames. Endgames are boring, they hate them).

Three - sit on them until they give you things. Trust me it works every time.

For example, Don played one of these little minions from hell in Round 5. They blitzed through 17 moves of the Ruy Lopez Marshall Attack. The kid took all of 3 minutes for those 17 moves. THAT IS CRAZY.

Give up on 1. e4. Throw it away. 1.Nf3 is the antidote. Even Tom who has never played 1.Nf3 in his life tried it without any prior preparation against a kid only 100 points lower rated. Now admittedly he only drew, but he had all the play, was a whole hour ahead on the clock and stated afterwards that it was the easiest game he had played all tournament.

Scenes to a cheat

True story. I heard this antidotally, but from a trusted source. In the final round of the tournament, one of my friend’s teams was playing a kids team. He finished pretty quickly and sat down to watch one of his teammates play and subsequently noticed that the opponent’s father was standing behind his teammate. He thought it odd but initially gave it no mind. But as the game went on he noticed that the kid would look to his father quite a bit and that his father seemed to be making hand gestures. He summoned the TD and a major brouhaha ensued outside as the father – in broken English – claimed he had the right to “coach” his son while denying that he was giving his son advice on moves. Unfortunately because my friend did not quietly tell the TD, who could then observe the behavior, the TD could do little except expel the father from the playing hall. Unbelievable that this kind of behavior would occur, especially at a “fun” tournament like Amateur teams.

Primates take a Holiday!

We wrapped up tournament 46 in solidly middling fashion, with Steve playing like a superhuman on Board 4, Fabio getting the hang of the 45 45 league, and me playing like a complete chucklehead. As a result we missed out on the playoffs (but to be fair we were only 3rd in our division). Ironically, I somewhat reluctantly decided to join a U2200 team "Rhenium" but more as a role player (or as I prefer to call myself a "scrubstitute"). But as it turned out, Team Rhenium had their board 4 suspended from league play after Round 2 due to numerous forfeits, and thus I became a "starter". Furthermore, Team Rhenium proved tough competition, plowing through their opponents undefeated, winning the division and going to the playoffs. Whilst I truly enjoyed playing 2 matches a weeks, my schedule is decidedly busier now that to play on 2 teams would prove problematic. Therefore with an open invitation to play on Board 4 for Team Rhenium in Tournament 47 (I don't know what the Team Captain Paulkov is thinking, he must be delusional), I have decided that the Primates are going on vacation for a bit, but will return once Paulkov realizes the errors of his ways.

I have truly enjoyed this team and the players who played alongside-whether just for 1 tournament or for many. Thanks, guys!

No fear though, as I still have many stories to tell. You can also follow Team Rhenium here:

http://chesselements.blogspot.com/

The Oddest Post-mortem I have ever seen

I will protect the names of the innocent and guilty, basically because I am lazy.

Long time ago (close to 20 years, I think), I went to my first major tournament. A good friend of mine, a Senior Master now long retired from competitive chess, wanted to go play in a “big” tournament and asked if I was interested. So we headed off with him playing the Open section and me playing in a lesser mortal section (where I did quite well, thank you very much – but that is a different story). Anyway, one of the games my Senior Master friend played against was this older IM. Now for years, this IM had had stories swirling around him about the validity of his IM norms and possible “payments” towards earning said IM norms. In other words, this IM was considered by some as a decidedly shady character but still a very strong player (and would have crushed me a hundred times over).

So my friend and the IM square off – my friend has black. And during the game my friend is slowly getting beaten, and realizing this decides that rather than getting tortured for hours, he would go for a riskier continuation – which ultimately did not work and he quickly went down in flames. I had wrapped up my game and watched the latter part of the game, including the “flame out” part.

After the game concluded, the IM asked my friend if he would like to go over the game (i.e., a post-mortem). Sure, he replied, and I gladly tagged along. After all Senior Master and an IM were going to conduct a post mortem – what an incredible learning opportunity for me. So they sit down and begin to go over the game and IM completely dominates the conversation. OK, I think, he won the game, probably within his rights. But then the IM says, “And according to Alekhine”… and then speaks GERMAN for a good minute or two. I think, "What???????" I look over at my friend, who is impassive. The IM then goes over a couple more moves and then repeats this with “And Botvinnik stated…”and then says something in RUSSIAN. Again, I look over at my friend, still impassive. And I am thinking to myself: "Wow, I have a lot to learn about conducting post-mortems."

So the post-mortem lasts a couple more minutes, during which my friend says absolutely nothing. They shake hands and part. As we are walking away and not within earshot of anyone, I ask if that how all post-mortems go between titled players. My friend gives me this look like I am crazy and says, “Absolutely not. I stopped listening when he quoted Alekhine and started thinking of the ways I could kill him.”

Why are chess players so crazy?

Why indeed? What is it about chess that seems to attract the crazy ones? I was chatting with an old friend from Europe who used to play competitively (to the point of reaching FM and earning an IM norm before deciding to pack it in before he lost his sanity), and we both commented about the U.S. and the number of decidedly odd chess players. Now for those who don’t know me well, I never tell anyone I play chess. I am more than happy to tell them I play old man soccer, used to race bikes, played water polo in college – sure those “crazy” passions I am more than happy to talk to people about. But, chess? Absolutely not. I have close friends who have no idea I play and take it so seriously. And those who know that I do play, I explain it this way: I am just learning it so that I can encourage and teach my kids to play while still being able to beat them. The average non-chessplaying John Q Public would understand and accept this answer without thinking I am just a maladjusted lunatic, so that is what I tell everyone.

But getting back to my original question: Why? Is it that chess makes them crazy? Does Chess encourage crazy behavior? Or is it just the fact that it attracts crazy people here in the U.S.? I don’t know.

Perhaps I’ll just play No Limits Hold ‘em Poker like lots of other better-adjusted chessplayers.

T45 wrap up & Looking Forward to T46

Every blog (and I suppose every “Blogger” by extension) must go through that period of inactivity for any number of reasons. I noticed the other day – actually one of my friends noticed and pointed it out – that I had not updated the Primates blog since the start of the last tournament. Given that, here is a wrap up of the last tournament. In summary, we were so close but soooooooo far. Curt, who had taken a break from playing the 45 45 league in T45 said it best when he observed that we were much more competitive than the final score would indicate. We lost most of the rounds 1.5 – 2.5, so while we didn’t earn Match Points we did have plenty of game points. We finished midpack in our division and did not qualify for the playoffs.

So T46 has started and the lineup has changed quite a bit from past years. Bob, Tom & Trond have all decided to take a break from the league due to the demands on their time. Cesar initially was on the T46 team but earned a 5 tournament suspension due to an accumulation of forfeits. From the “old days” Curt is back, playing as a “backup backup” player. In their places, new Primates have arrived: Merciful, Sammj & Upsan. Welcome, gentlemen.

After two rounds, we are 1 – 1 and, if things go well, we should be competitive (but then again, I say that every tournament).
From Round 2, I nominated Upsan’s game for “Game of the Week” for his patient and very clinical endgame technique.
Check it out and see if you agree:
http://www.4545league.org/pgnplayer/pgnplayer.php?id=39076

Finally, I am not sure that I’ll be posting weekly updates. Anyone who has read a chess tournament article realizes that a tournament can only be written up in so many ways. Instead, right now I am leaning towards just outright “genteel chess pontifications”, while highlighting great teammates’ games I watch from the sidelines.

Round 1: Primates 1.5 : Tellurium 2.5

For our first round match, we squared off against the #1 seeded team, Tellurium, which is a uniquely comprised team in that they have their 1st & 2nd boards rated above 2200, then their next two boards around 1700. So for them to do well in this tournament, their top boards really have to produce consistently every round, while their lower boards try to win points when they can. I’ll be interested to see how they fare with this setup. So Tom and I squared off against 2 masters and lost. I held my own pretty well for a good 35 moves, but missed a pretty simple tactic then it was all down hill after that. Cesar unluckily got nicked for a half point draw, not being able to convert a rook & pawn ending whilst being a pawn up. The good news was that Cesar was never in any trouble during the game despite having the black pieces this round. Bob had the game of the round, defending against a pretty scary attack right from the start, calmly repulsed the attack and converted nicely in the endgame.

So we lost the match by a half point; but as I told the team, every point counts. If we can avoid an off round, I think we could in fact win this division. In round 2, we play team “Mediterranean Warriors” in what could be described as a “Geography Battle” (i.e., Mediterranean v Caribbean). I wonder if the 4545 TDs have a sense of humor and placed us in the same division on purpose?

T45!

Tournament 45 is here and hope springs eternal. Curt is taking the tournament off, so we have the newest addition to the Primate team - Cesaralexander. Welcome - Cesaralexander!

We are in the Maple Division and if we all play to ability, we should be pretty competitive. Round 1 starts Tuesday, so stay tuned!

T44 Wrap Up

Tournament 44 wrapped up its regular season and so did the Primates. It is pretty easy to provide updates when "the going is good", quite another when things are not going your way. Last time we left our intrepid chess warriors, they had triumphed over their erstwhile first round opponents. Here is how the rounds have gone since:

Round 2: Lost to the Runners, 3 - 1. Bob and I drew, Tom and Curt lost. I had mentioned in an earlier post that we lack a "rival"; seeing as we have faced off against the "Runners" now a slew of times, they now represent the closest thing to a rival. I drew "Chiiwen" in this game, which now numbers the 5th time we have split the point (plus we each have a win).

Round 3: Lost to STC Identity 3 - 1. Tom and Bob drew (Bob's was an "agreed" draw). Curt and I lost. I got completely outplayed in an NvB endgame. Bleah.

Round 4: Got off the snide and beat the Runners 2.5 - 1.5. Once again I drew Chiiwen. I think it was 3 draws and a win for us, but I cannot recall.

Round 5: We got crushed 4 - 0 by STC Identity. I again got completely outplayed in an NvB endgame. Bleah. Second time in 3 rounds (I see a trend), so it is back to the endgame books for me.

Round 6 came and went, we were out of the playoffs. Overall we have not been particularly sharp, but I believe it has more to do with the positions we have gotten (from the obvious department of "duh"). What I mean is that each of us excel in certain positions resultant from certain opening variations, and whether by accident or by design, we just haven't gotten those positions. Also, hats off to our competition this round. Every round has been tough, both the Runners and STC Identity have the potential to go very deep in the playoffs - even win it all. As Curt had noted in an email earlier this week, we have made the playoffs 3 times out of the last 5 attempts - a pretty good average. I guess I should expect a down tournament from time to time.

Musings from the USATE

Tom and I ventured off to the snowy landscape of Northern New Jersey to participate in U.S. Amateur Team East, one of the largest annual chess tournaments held on the East Coast. USATE is a six round event held over President’s Day Weekend (and Valentine’s Day OBTW for all you married folks) with a luxurious 40/2 SD/1 time control which has participants ranging from GM’s to little, little kids. Rather than recap the weekend (others have done so far better than I ever could), here are some stray thoughts (sprinkled liberally with attempted humor):

1. 4545 play (or any online chess activity) is a good complement but no substitute for Over the Board play (OTB). My first 2 rounds were pretty rough as I shook off my recent OTB chess inactivity (Hey, I got a wife & 2 young kids, a fairly demanding job and I coach soccer pretty much year round. I am happy I can disappear for a whole weekend to do something as esoteric as play chess even once a year). However, I will say that slow online play does provide benefit to your tournament chess, but you must play over the board in a slow time control in order to avoid be rusty – for me it was readily apparent in the early rounds. HOWEVER, I will say that once I shook off my rust, I played fairly error-free and quite well, largely due to all the work and studying and playing I have done on the computer. In fact, as I saw lots of other players apparently suffer from “chess fatigue”, I began to get into a rhythm, improving with each game. Therefore, in my estimation (and Tom’s as well) the best path to no kidding, real chess improvement involves both forms of playing.

2. Kids. I watched more of my contemporaries (and teammates) get mowed down by kids this past weekend than I think I have seen in a looooonnnnnnng time. It was amazing. I actually don’t mind playing the under-18 (or actually under-12) crowd as I think my style really suits playing hyper-aggressive, super-tactical little balls of energy. Having said that, two things really bother me about playing kids.
• Kids are super underrated. Nothing worse than sitting across from some IM-trained, mega-booked up kid who has a played a billion scholastic games against other super underrated IM-trained, mega-booked up kids. Talk about an incubator of chess-killing machines. One of my games from USATE with a SEVEN YEAR OLD went ~ 18 moves into theory. When I was seven, I couldn’t even SPELL theory – much less know the moves. I would recommend to the USCF that you might look to have an alternate rating calculation when kids are playing that enables them to earn/lose higher ratings points when they play while also minimizing the points their opponents gain/lose. I believe this would more accurately reflect the true nature of the situation when a kid sits down to play a game, and most importantly cushion the older generation’s collective egos after we get crushed by a kid who isn’t even in middle school yet.
• (The following is meant tongue in cheek and with a grain of salt) Kids don’t know diddly squat about Chess Etiquette but should. Note to you all you chess trainers – take 15 minutes and teach your kids a little chess etiquette vice spending it on the latest Theoretical Novelty on move 15 in the King’s Indian Bayonet. No kidding, after the fifth time your star pupils, who is sporting your Chess Academy’s T shirt, asks for a draw (on my move for the 5th time) when he is 600 points lower rated and down material with no compensation, don’t be surprised if I don’t react politely (as opposed to the first four times I declined the offer with replies like “Hmmm, let’s play on for a while” or “No, thanks”). And hey all you kids, I know you are taught to play to the bitter end in scholastic events, but give us old codgers a bit of credit that we can mate your solitary king with a queen, a rook and a whole plethora of minor pieces. Really, we might be sporting more hair on our backs than on our heads nowadays and drooling at the chess board, but we still can muster that capability between naps during the game. This is not some scholastic event and we do not have a rating possessing only three digits.

3. There were noticeably less GMs/IMs and other hugely strong teams. I might be wrong about this, but I guess one of the unintended consequences of the economic downturn is the fact that GMs/IMs are less apt to spend precious money to play in a tournament that offers little financial reward (I would venture the Ebay market for chess clocks and USATE plaques is probably as “depressed” as a house in South Florida). Another side effect of the lack of strong teams was the fact that there were a higher percentage of kid’s teams, and therefore a greater chance to play kid’s teams. We in fact played kids teams in three successive rounds.

4. Steven Doyle & his crew have created a tremendous tournament and chess environment that truly captures the adage “We play chess for the fun of it,” which stands in direct opposition to the many events that require large entry fees in order to offer huge prize funds to attract folks to play. Although Steven may not in fact use the term “Festival” to describe USATE, I think “Festival” perfectly describes this wonderful event.

Round 1: Primates 3 – Friends of Punk 1

Round 1 went pretty well with Tom and Curt doing all the heavy lifting, both of whom winning in distinctly different ways (some might say polar opposite). Ironically both games were Ruy Lopezes – Tom with white & Curt with black. However that is about where the similarities ended as Tom picked up an early pawn, then another and very efficiently converted his advantage. Curt on the other hand had to endure all sorts of pressure (Curt’s game definitely demonstrated why the Ruy is often deservedly referred to as the “Spanish Torture” for Black) before his opponent overreached attacking Curt’s kingside fortress. Curt finally converted after a long and grueling 3+ hour session.

On Board 4, Bob had the misfortune of being extremely busted in the opening due to a tactical oversight, then valiantly fighting back for 20+ moves to reach and even R+P endgame, only to lose in the endgame when his opponent was able to penetrate with a passer. Unbelievably bad luck, but one that I have had experienced with all too common frequency.

As for me?? Well, I had the easiest game of all with my opponent gifting me the forfeit win. On any other week I would have gladly accepted the free point; but as I am prepping for US Amateur Team East (with Tom), I was looking forward to “sharpening the blade” a bit. At least I got a couple of pretty solid, focused studying in while preparing for the game – as opposed to the hours of mindless blitz which usually fill my ICC time.

Primates gear up for Tournament 44!

The gang returns intact – with the exception of Don, who continues to concentrate on his Masters studies program. Tom, Curt, Trond, Bob & I average a solid 1990 rating, with Trond serving as the primary backup player. The 1990 average rating will not makes us a #1 seed in any division, but on the other hand we are not in any danger of becoming too highly rated as a team to compete in the U2000 section. I am intrigued to see with whom we are placed in our division, as now that we have become one of the “regular” teams (i.e., a team with a fairly solid composition and has played in the last 5 – 10 tournaments). I do not think we have any particular rivals, despite the fact that the 45 45 league has a host of other “regular” teams. Perhaps over time we will develop a “rivalry”, as there exists the real potential to face the same opponent regularly -- which I think brings interesting challenges as well as the potential for real chess learning and improvement.

I also signed up to play for a team in the U2200 division with the expressed understanding that I would be only playing ~3 rounds (plus playoffs if required). With the lack of OTB tournament play on my calendar, 45 45 will just have to serve as my way of staying in shape chess-wise for the near term.

Finally on a completely different note, I received an email asking me if I wanted to play on an over 40 soccer travel team playing in Wilmington, NC, next month. My wife said it was “OK” with her, but to be fair I have not touched a ball in about a month since fall season ended. I am squarely on the fence on this one.

Primates crash out the first round of the playoffs, lose to “the Lucky Ones” 2.5 – 1.5

As I told the team after the match, we were so close --- and that went especially for me. Tom and Bob were the first to play and while Tom drew in a Rook and Pawn endgame, Bob did not fare as well; so it was up to Curt to draw us level. To his credit, he played his best game of the tournament and perhaps one of his best games I have seen him play in the 45 45 league. I immediately nominated it for Game of the Week; frankly if Curt doesn’t win it, I would be surprised.

Thus, it was up to me – and we had drawing odds, having the better tiebreaks. My opponent, an FM from Canada who had White, would have to win the game for the Lucky Ones to advance.
The early portion of the game went very well for me, but it was not to be as I completely fell apart in time pressure (again). And while I was slightly upset for not being able to win the won game (unquestionably one of my weaknesses), I had a great tournament overall and am already looking forward to Tournament 44. As it stands now, the entire team is returning, so we should be competitive to do well.
Again thanks to Tom, Trond, Curt & Bob for being great teammates and making my job as Captain very easy.

Again we had no forfeits, we made the playoffs and most importantly we enjoyed the royal game.

One final note: The OTB version of the Primates will be heading to Parsippany, New Jersey, to play in the US Amateur Team East in February. Don is taking the year off, so Tom and I will be pairing up with a couple of old friends. For those unfamiliar with “USATE”, this tournament is not one to play in if you wish gain massive points (I think on average I tend to play incredibly underrated kids in 4 of the 6 rounds), but it is tournament where you play for the enjoyment vice the money purse. In fact I am looking to play a bigger tournament sometime this winter as I feel I have made significant improvement and want to “cut my teeth”. Not sure where yet, but stay tuned!

Late Breaking News: Trond wins Round 5 GOTW!

I completely forgot to mention in the last installment, but Trond won Game of the Week honors for his critical win in Round 5, despite the fact that:
a) he had black
b) he was a 200+ point underdog
c) he was shaking off rust faster than a 1957 Chevy Nova at the beach after taking the summer off

For those interested in the game, here is the link:
http://team4545league.org/pgnplayer/pgnplayer.php?id=33294

Of note is that Curt’s aggressive victory in Round 6 is also up for GOTW. If you want to see how aggression can pay off, here the link to that game:

http://team4545league.org/pgnplayer/pgnplayer.php?id=33308

Round 6: Primates win 3.5 – 0.5, qualify for playoffs on tiebreaks

I never thought the division would end up as close it would; nor did I expect that we would qualify for the playoffs on tiebreaks. Truthfully I figured that if we won, we would qualify – and that was my only goal. However (to our benefit), things are never as simple as it would first appear, especially when it comes to the great game of chess. First we came out smoking, winning our first three games, while the division-leading Team Zwishenzugs struggled, trailing 1 – 2 with a game to go. They had to win in order to win the division outright, while we had to await to see how other teams did in their games in the case that we didn’t win the division. As games for Round 6 continued to wrap up and make the playoff picture clearer, I figured that all Tom would have to draw his last game to ensure we made it – which is what Tom did with ease. Thus we captured the last playoff spot with 4.5 match points.
We now face the #1 seed, Team “The Lucky Ones”, in Round 8 (Playoff Round 1). I actually think we have a reasonable shot at advancing.

On a completely different note, my old man soccer team crashed out of the playoffs on Penalty Kicks after dominating the entire 90 minutes. Grrrrrr. We even had 2 goals disallowed on rebounds for (incredibly) offsides. I also had my header blocked on the goal line on a corner kick by a defender with his hands (ala Terry Henry). We had more shots skitter away or hit the post, while the opposing team never even got a shot on goal. Unbelievable.

Round 5: Primates triumph over Division-leading Zwishenzugs 2.5 – 1.5

In the final game of the match with the match tied at 1.5, Trond produces a clutch win over Superpeon. Trond had Black against an opponent rated 200 points higher, and this represented his first of Tournament 43. With my "Grandmaster Draw" versus SuperJEM and Curt's odd forfeit win (his opponent just "defaulted"), we earned a critical match win in our pursuit to make it to the playoffs. If my math is correct, we are still in the hunt for one of the two playoff Wildcard spots. Round 6 against Team Capablanca will prove to be the deciding round – win and we are in! This match win inched us closer to team Zwishenzugs; now we trail them by only half a match point with one round to go.

Tom’s win in Round 2 earned Game of the Week (GOTW) honors. Additionally, his exciting win in Round 4 earned Runner-up honors for GOTW. Well done, Tom! Here is a link to the game:

http://team4545league.org/pgnplayer/pgnplayer.php?id=33266

I nominated Trond’s win over Superpeon for Round 5 GOTW. Here is the link to the game and decide for yourself.

http://team4545league.org/pgnplayer/pgnplayer.php?id=33294

Round 4: Primates triumph over Team “4HoursLife” 3 - 1

We had a very nice, solid performance in Round 4. Bob earned a really nice win as Black when his opponent rashly sacrificed a bishop for a truly speculative attack. To Bob’s credit, he calmly accepted the piece, then proceeded to negate White’s counterplay and converted the full-point. On the complete opposite side of the chess spectrum, Tom’s game was a truly scary affair, with Tom as Black defending v the English attack in a Schevenigen-type position. It boiled down a race to mate the other guy, and Tom was just one move quicker than his opponent. I gotta tell you, Tom has had some fantastic results lately – even the game he lost to a much higher rated opponent in Round 3 was very interesting. Trond had the unfortunate luck to face an opponent 200 point higher rated than him. I haven’t looked closely at the game yet, but watched the tail end of it. So going into my game, we were up 2-1 and only needed to draw to win the match – and I used that fact to great advantage. We went into an interesting Tarrasch --and I don’t play 1.d4, but I am getting more and more Queen Pawn’s Openings -- then got into what I thought was a pretty even position where I offered my opponent the opportunity for draw by repetition or possibly go astray. He of course could not accept the draw as his team would lose, so he bravely opted to try and mix it up. Unfortunately for him, it left him dangerously unguarded on the kingside and I managed to convert with an interesting attack. So we won 3 – 1.

So now we have played four of the six rounds and it cannot be said that our division in Tournament 43 even remotely resembles our division in T42. Not even close. In the last tournament, all four teams were tightly packed; any team theoretically would or could capture the #1 slot and advance to the playoffs. You could never predict how each round would end up, we were that closely matched. In fact the division winner was not determined until the last 2 games of the division were played. Tournament 43 is just the opposite. Team “Zwishenzugs” remain undefeated at 4 – 0 heading into the penultimate round. We trail them by a full point and half but are solidly in second place. For us to capture the division, we must beat them this round, then beat our last round opponents AND have Team “Zwishenzugs” lose or draw. A tall order, if you ask me. I think our best chance rests with capturing one of the wildcard slots.

One note: The Game of the Week for Round 2 has not been determined (yet). We patiently await whether Tom’s game is selected. Also, someone (not from our team either) nominated Tom’s win from this round for GOTW. Very nice!

Primates lose 1 – 3 to “Team Zwishenzugs”

Out top three boards all went down in flames as we faced the #1 team in our division, “Team Zwishenzugs”, with Bob earning the sole victory on Board 4. I felt especially badly for Trond, who had a fantastic game and looked like he was on course to win his first game after an extended layoff, when he went astray. Tom also had a great game early on, only to succumb to the greatest of endgame dangers – connected passed pawns. The game is worth looking at as it provides an interesting study of unbalanced material (in this case Tom had 2 rooks + 3 minor pieces v Queen + Rook + minor piece). The computer loved Tom’s position for a long time, but I felt it was one of those positions where it would coordination of his pieces could prove to be problematic.

Couple notes:
- Curt rightly nominated Tom’s smashing win in Round 2 for Game of the Week. We are still awaiting final determination, but I truthfully cannot see any other game earning the accolades (biased or not).

- I was cruising through various stuff on ICC Sunday night and noticed that Darren still has not logged in since September. Nor has he responded to previous emails. I hope all is well. If anyone has any info, please feel free to drop me a note or comment. Thanks.

Round 2 Wrap up: Primates tie with Team “4hourlifes”

I would argue that Tom’s spectacular win which earned us the 2 – 2 tie made up for the other three rather less than spectacular results from myself, Trond and Curt. Curt and I both had great positions, almost crushing positions, and we both were unable to translate to a win due to overlooking ONE MOVE. In fact, my game went from crushing to me having to hang on and draw a pawn down Rook+Pawn endgame. Meanwhile Curt made his poor opponent suffer for as long as he could, but could not crack the position open and convert. Trond, though, suffered from a tactical blindspot in a completely even game and suffered the loss for it.

So going into Tom’s game, we were trailing by half a point and needed him to win just to draw. Unlucky for his opponent, Tom was in top form and completely dominated the game. Here it is:

http://team4545league.org/pgnplayer/pgnplayer.php?ID=33266

After 2 rounds we are securely in 2nd place, just half a point off the lead. We square off against the #1 team, team “Zwishenzugs” in our division in Round 3. I am taking the week off, so good luck to all!

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!

Playoff Semi-finals: Primates lose to Discovered Mates

We square off against the Discovered Mates and for me I play against Andres Hortillosa, an expert from Minnesota.

As stated in prior entries, one of the best benefits to the 45 45 league is that it provides you incentive to study/prepare for specific games. For example, if you know your opponent plays a certain line in the Dragon, you can really prep for the game, which will (hopefully) translate over into stronger OTB play. In this match, I knew Andres plays the mainline Ruy. Now let me digress for a second: I am fascinated by the Ruy from both sides (same with the King’s Indian). I find the richness and variety that these defenses produce truly intriguing and can spend hours poring over games and analysis – which I cannot say the same about other defenses (Petrov’s & Queen’s Indian for example). So, when I saw that Andres would go for the Ruy, I leapt at the chance to play it. And the game was memorable, but not the way you would think. We delved 19 odd moves into theory, got into a very interesting middlegame with chances for both sides, and then he tragically “mouse-slipped” his queen (meaning he had a mouse slip and placed his queen accidently where he would lose it for no compensation) and resigned. Really not the way I wanted to win.

Our 2 lower boards have both lost, Darren in an interesting Scandinavian where his opponent’s 2 bishops proved to be stronger than Darren’s Bishop+Knight combination. Curt also lost in another interesting Ruy Lopez, this Ruy being a Marshall attack, where Curt could have sacrificed his queen for incredible winning chances (but in fairness to him, I never would have seen it either – only after having Fritz look at it did I see the idea). So we sit at 1 – 2 with Tom’s game tonight. So in fact we may draw, but I have to check the tiebreak situation.

Well Tom played his game and could not quite pull off the victory. His opponent, knowing that Tom needed to win, played the Berlin variation of the Ruy. Tom responded with the Worrall Attack, sacrificed the exchange, picked up a pawn and was threatening to grab another when he hung a piece. I suspect Tom was overpressing as he had declined his opponent’s earlier draw offer. So another season closes with our defeat in the quarterfinals. Not bad as we had to claw out of the cellar after the first 2 rounds in the tournament in order to qualify for the playoffs. I have 3 goals for every tournament:
No forfeits
Make the playoffs
Most importantly: Have fun & enjoy the camaraderie of team match play.
We achieved all three goals and I am already planning for Tournament 43, which will start in about a month’s time.