The New York Knights Blog

2011 New York Knights Season Recap

2011-12-11T12:54:00.000-08:00

Destiny and anti-climax are rarely seen together, the latter usually paired with a dominant performer, but they made a joint appearance at the USCL final. For the second straight year, the closing minutes of the USCL Championship were devoid of risk for the victors. Giorgi Kacheishvili had effectively clinched the match for the New York Knights on the 57th move of his game against the Chicago Blaze’s Mesgen Amanov, with his extra piece and chromatically correct bishop/rook-pawn, though Amanov’s resignation would not come for another 40 moves.

New York sailed through the first eight weeks of the regular season and backed into the second seed after consecutive 2.5-1.5 defeats in weeks 9 and 10. Kacheishvili’s incredible 5/5 with black on board 1 (spurring him to his first league MVP award) and John Fedorowicz’s ultra-solid play on board 2, with pinch-hitters Irina Krush and Pascal Charbonneau delivering critical wins, anchored the top half for New York.

During the championship run of 2009, US #54 Yaacov Norowitz held board 4 and Matt Herman contributed a solid 50% on board 3 (and yet the Knights finished only 5-5!). The 2011 Knights fielded a patchwork team on the bottom boards, rotating Herman (who played quite erratic chess during the regular season) and Leif Pressman on 3 and the three juniors Michael Bodek, Justus Williams and Ben Gershenov on 4.

Chicago began the season 8-0, utilizing the “GGGg” strategy of three strong grandmasters on boards 1-3 and an underrated junior on board 4. An incredible 14/16 on boards 3 and 4 made them nearly impossible to beat. With draw odds/colors clinched, Miami and Chicago nicked them before the playoffs.

The Boston Blitz quickly revealed the Knights’ flaws in their quarterfinal match – an identical rematch of their week 2 tilt. Kacheishvili hung an exchange against Jorge Sammour-Hasbun and Fedorowicz’s Sveshnikov was demolished by a Marc Esserman novelty. Herman was unable to consolidate an extra pawn, hung a piece and then was forced to “sacrifice” another to keep the game going against his USCL nemesis, Vadim Martirosov. Michael Bodek, who had managed to beat Ilya Krasik from a completely lost position in their first encounter, looked to hold New York’s only chance to avoid an embarrassing 4-0 whitewash. There was no question, however, that New York was going home and that Boston would face Philadelphia or Manhattan in their quest to reach a 3rd USCL final.

Fabled “curses” in sports are often the product of a “narrative fallacy”, the desire to fit facts into a neatly packaged story, constructed with hindsight and strengthened by “confirmation bias”. Much like the stunning reversal in baseball’s AL East this September, however, it was impossible to avoid the real-time sense that this was not Boston’s year. As documented by Marc Esserman, Martirosov mis-evaluated a sacrifice that would have forced mate in 3

Herman-Maritrosov, after 43. Kh4

and within a half-dozen moves was staring down the barrel of mate and resigned. That Bodek and Krasik traded errors and Krasik had, first, successfully prevented black’s pawns from advancing and, at the brink, could have been rescued by a shocking stalemate trick

Bodek-Krasik, after 78. ... e2??

was irrelevant. The crowd felt the shift in momentum and, in a cruel twist, Krasik saw the stalemate idea one move too late and when Bodek recaptured correctly on d3 it was over.

Manhattan shocked Philadelphia in the other quarterfinal, overcoming the 3/4 All-Star duo of Jay Bonin and William Fisher.

The Boston match proved two things: anything is possible till the clocks are stopped and the tremendous advantage of draw odds. The Knights made the finals in 2006 and 2009 without that edge but in 2011 it provided a comfortable margin in the Eastern Finals against the Applesauce. New York played for two results on boards 1, 2 and 4. After Irina Krush converted against John Bartholomew on board 2 and Justus Williams overcame a few hiccups to beat James Black on board 4, with Leif pulling yet another rabbit from his hat against Farai Mandizha on board 3, not even Kacheishvili’s fatigue-induced blunder on board 1 could prevent New York from returning to the Finals.

Chicago’s also got through their toughest test in the quarterfinals, advancing 2-2 against a very strong Dallas team. The critical game was Sam Schmakel overcoming Jeffrey Xiong’s preparation in a Bg5 Najdorf Sicilian and the resulting hour time deficit. Xiong missed at least one clear win and eventually blundered a rook. In the West Finals, Chicago dispatched a gritty Los Angeles Vibe team, despite a loss on board 4 and getting nothing with white on board 1. Josh Friedel’s GOTW-winning effort on board 2 against Zhanibek Amanov gave Chicago their first Finals appearance.

One of the dangers of fielding a team full of rising young stars is that they happen to find themselves competing for national and international titles. The weekend of the USCL Final provided a double whammy, where 5 of the 10 Knights were called away, with Justus and Michael in Brazil, coached by Fed, and Ben was competing in the nationals in Dallas, where Pascal would also be coaching. Chicago also had some significant challenges, as Schmakel was in Dallas (where he won the 10th grade title), and Eric Rosen on his way to an IM norm at the World Youth. The effects on both teams were significant – Chicago couldn’t bring out the GGGg lineup that had served them so well, and the Knights, well, we had some more pressing lineup challenges.

One of the great things about a 10 player roster is you can always find a way to field a legal lineup. Well, maybe not. Our 10th player, John Fernandez, who hasn’t played in the USCL since 2005, was there to allow us to have the very frightening Kacheishvili/Charbonneau/Herman/Fernandez lineup (Average 2400.75!), but with the performance of the youngsters, the captain had decided not to field him this season. That left a lineup of Kacheishvili/Krush/Herman/Pressman, which would have been wonderful except for the fact that it wasn’t legal. After a protracted discussion, we ended up with the most equitable outcome, playing Fernandez on board 4.

With both teams fielding sub-optimal lineups, the Final was always going to be interesting, but perhaps the Knights had not intended for it to be as interesting as things turned out. A bit of a digression about the Marshall Chess Club, the home of the Knights for all seven seasons: it is always a hotbed of chess activity. You can count on a tournament going on every day, with lectures, folks hanging out, studying, playing blitz, wheeling and dealing, and everything else that makes it great. That often, however, means that setting up proves a challenge, especially with WiFi in a very old building, or the occasional disruption from one of the many members. Lo and behold, at 2:57PM, the WiFi went down for all four players. After many minutes of rebooting routers, re-pairing wireless connections, and rebooting machines, nothing would work. In a panic, the team decided to head to the nearest place with reliable Internet for 4 – Fernandez’s home office. Now, his place is no stranger to US Championship team play, having hosted the US Amateur Team East Champs in 2005 when Eli Vovsha, Sam Benen, Evan Rosenberg and Josh Bromberg competed in the US Amateur Team Playoffs, but this time, Fernandez was both hosting and playing. Finally, with almost a half hour off their clocks, the Knights began play.

Fernandez chose a very solid positional line against Gopal Menon’s Philidor on board 4, doing everything he could to keep moving quickly and overcome the time disadvantage. Fernandez was incredibly rusty, having not played a USCL game for 2,224 days (certainly a record), and only played one tournament (Bermuda this year) since the summer of 2004. The rust showed as things got a bit out of hand as he pushed for a win.

Fernandez-Menon, after 24. ... Qd6

While Fernandez had seen 25. f5!, the move necessary to keep everything together, he couldn’t find a clear continuation after 25. … e5 26. Bc5 Rxc5 27. Bxc5 Qxc5+ 28. Kh1 d4 29. Ne4 Qxa5 with moves like b5 coming for Black, and panicked with 25. Rg3?, and then further compounded the error with 27. Qf3?. Menon converted quite easily.

Herman got into his usual time trouble against Angelo Young on board 3, in a game where both players maintained a high degree of tension for 30 moves. Black sacrificed his c6 pawn with 24. ..d4 (instead of the "safer" 24. ..f5), looking to sharpen the struggle and bury the a1 Bishop. Young, who at one point was ahead a full 45 minutes on the clock, drifted into time trouble and had only 54 seconds remaining after 29. ..Nc5.

Young-Herman, after 29. ... Nc5

He responded 30. Qf3 and after 30. ..e4 31. Qg2 ed 32. cd Nd3 33. Rd1 de 34. fe

Young-Herman, after 34. fxe3

Herman had regained the pawn with a close to winning advantage. Choosing to keep queens on in Young's time pressure, he played 34. ..Ba7 instead of 34. ..Qe4 which would have led to a favorable ending. Young tried to save his position with a tactical blow, the stunning 35. Bf6 (35. Bd4 would have been better, though white was still defending after 35. ..Bd4 36. Rd3 Ba7 37. Rd8 Rd8 38. Qf3 g6), but after 35. ..Be3 he erred with the mouseslip Qg2-f2. The league rejected the takeback request given the time situation and Young allowed his time to run out. If he had instead chosen 36. Kh1, black had an easy win after 36. ..Nf2 37. Qf2 Bf2 38. Be7 Rd1 39. Rd1 Re7, as the h4/g5 pawns fall quickly and a2 is permanently weak.

Board 2 was a sharp melee in the Queen’s Gambit Declined, where after some amazing Bishop tactics (Bc1-f4xe5xg7xf8xa3 for Irina, and Bc8-f5-e6xd5xg2xf1-h3 for Gurevich), Black ended up with a slight advantage. Fortunately, Bishops of Opposite Colors endgames have tendencies to be drawish, even with rooks on the board, and Irina kept a cool head and hauled in the half point.

On board 1, Giorgi began an early fight for the initiative in the Grunfeld against Amanov's g3, though Amanov missed his best chance on move 22

Amanov-Kacheishvili, after 21. ... Rc2

When Bg2-f1 would have challenged the integrity of black's queenside and led to a comfortable game. Instead, Amanov sought refuge in a minor-piece endgame, trading off rooks and queens over the following 5 moves. On move 29, Kacheishvili could have gone after white's a2 pawn with Nb6-a4/Bc3-b4/Na4-c3, but chose to create a passed d-pawn with f7-f5!?. Four moves later, instead of Nd2-f1, Amanov should have restrained the d-pawn with Nd2-f3, meeting d6-d5 with Bc1-e3 and asking black how he intends to make progress. The last chance for an "easy" defense was with 36. Bc6 (instead of 36. f3). Amanov took his knight on a deadly tour and after 38. ..Bf7

Amanov-Kacheishvili, after 38. ... Bf7

His pieces could not coordinate to stop the d-pawn. The doomed knight was finally trapped with 44. ..Be6, and concurrent with Irina's draw on board 2 made the rest a mop up.

The 2011 United States Chess League Champion New York Knights: GM Giorgi Kacheishvili, Matthew Herman, IM Irina Krush, John Fernandez

Week 1: On the scoreboard

2011-09-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

We defeated the Baltimore Kingfishers 2.5-1.5, led by victories on boards 1 and 4 from Giorgi and Justus. Fed was pressing all game against Enkhbat but took a draw on board 2 to clinch the match. Baltimore's lone win was scored against me on board 3, a smooth performance from Defibaugh. During last year's regular season, we lost so many close matches that getting one by a narrow margin was a good reminder that we can still be clutch.

Justus was first to finish, collecting a piece against Balasubramanian in a Philidor. Giorgi followed with a nice mating attack against Margvelashvili. Fed grabbed a space advantage in the opening and was always for choice until his pragmatic decision to draw. I was soundly outplayed by Defibaugh on board 3, who took control of a queenless middlegame and swapped to a rook and knight endgame that he converted without giving me any chances.

It's great to be bailed out by teammates but I'm still looking for my first win since the 2009 Finals!

We face the defending champion Nor'Easters on Tuesday. New England knocked us out of the playoffs last year but was nicked for its first ever loss by the Boston Blitz this week. Our match with them should be a dogfight.

Let the games begin!

2011-08-27T21:37:00.001-07:00

Very excited about the new USCL season. We are bringing back the core of our team (Giorgi, Pascal, Irina and Fed) on the top boards and going with some fresh faces on 3 and 4.

The New Knights

NM Leif Pressman (2232 USCL / 2381 USCF / 2301 FIDE) and I will be sharing time on board 3 for the Knights. Leif has been a very active player at the Marshall Chess Club, having notched over 1200 games as a NM. He recently tied for 6th at the World Open U2400 (won by former Knight FM Alex Ostrovskiy) and notched a solid 50% at the New York International. The last 9 months have seen him gain 160 FIDE points and he'll be a formidable weapon for New York.

NM Justus Williams (2165 USCL / 2265 USCF / 2172 FIDE) returns to the Knights after a short, though impressive debut season in 2010. Since then, he's won the National K-8 Championship and shared the NY State High School Championship (along with teammate Ben Gershenov, winning their individual encounter). His crushing performance (13.5/14) at the blitz championship of the latest running of the US Chess School (http://main.uschess.org/content/view/11362/639/) should put everyone on notice!

NM Michael Bodek (2199 USCL / 2334 USCF / 2207 FIDE) is the 2011 US Cadet Champion, having scorched the field with a 5.5/7 score, losing only to co-Champ New Jersey's FM Arthur Shen. He continued his hot streak during the first half of the recently completed Metropolitan Chess International, scoring +2 =4 -0 against IM-level opposition, before losing some steam at the end. He's gained a remarkable 1005 USCF rating points (1329 -> 2334) since January 2008.

NM Ben Gershenov (2072 USCL / 2279 USCF / 2168 FIDE) is the lowest rated member of the Knights...as of last September. He's gained over 200 USCF points in the last 12 months and, like Leif, scored 50% at the New York International. His recent trip to Europe alone netted him 61 FIDE points and we look for this reigning NY State High School co-Champion to be a dangerous board 4.

Last but not least is John Fernandez (2134 USCL / 2129 USCF / 2156 FIDE), an original Knight (his scrappy draw against Ilya Krasik was a critical part of the Week 1 draw against Boston back in 2005, the Knights' first-ever match!) who returns after a 5 year hiatus. John co-organized the successful and long-running New York Masters tournaments with league president Greg Shahade.

Eastern Semifinals: Spectacular Frustration

2010-11-03T02:13:00.000-07:00

There will be a new USCL champion. Monday night marked the end of a terribly disappointing season for the New York Knights (5-6), as we lost 2.5-1.5 to the incredibly consistent New England Nor'Easters, who at 10.5-0.5 are smashing every USCL team record.

After a 4-1 start to the season, we backed into the playoffs with a +0 -3 =2 finish, losing each match by the 2.5-1.5 margin that was emblematic of missed opportunities this year.

I was unfortunately unable to watch the match, given wifi problems (thanks, Telecom Italia) while in Rome, but managed to connect shortly after New England had advanced, so these impressions will perhaps lack some chronological flavor. It was a match where NY was better for most of the game on boards 2 and 3, equal on 1 and while worse, had compensation on 4. In short, the sort of match that we won last year en route to the championship and that New England has made a habit of winning this year.

IM Sam Shankland won a topsy-turvy game on board 1 against GM Alex Lenderman, a fourth straight victory for Shankland and another difficult result on top for the Knights.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Ne4 4. g3 d5 5. Bg2 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Qc2 Nd6 8. Nbd2 Nc6 9. b3 b6 10. Ba3 Bb7 11. Rac1 a5 12. cd ed 13. e3 Nb5 14. Be7 Qe7 15. a4 Nb4 16. Qb1 Nd6 17. Rc3 Rac8 18. Rfc1 Ne4 19. Ne4 de 20. Nd2 f5 21. Bf1 Kh8 22. Nc4 Nd5 23. R3c2 Rf6 24. Ne5 Nb4 25. Rd2 Rd8 26. Bc4 g6 27. Qb2 Bd5 28. Rdd1 Kg7 29. Rc3 c5 30. Rdc1 cd 31. ed Rc8 32. Bd5 Rc3 33. Qc3 Nd5 34. Qc8

Lenderman can hold easy equality with 34. ..Rf8! 35. Qc6 Rd8 but, perhaps influenced by the match situation, plays for a win.

34. ..f4?! 35. Qa8! Rd6 36. Rc8 Nf6 37. Qb8 Rd4 38. gf!

38. Rc7? Rd1! 39. Kg2 f3 40. Kh3 Rd7! (if 41. Nd7 Qe6 is mate in 2) and black is better.

38. ..Nd5?!

Allowing white a spectacular sequence, but it is hard to improve. If 38. ..e3 39. fe Qb4 40. Qc7 Kh6 41. Nf7 Kg7 42. Ng5 Rd7 43. Qc3 +/-

39. Rg8 Kh6 40. Rg6! Kh5

A supremely critical moment. White has only one move that wins and four that draw.

41. Nc6?!

This is not it! 41. Rg4! was the only winning move (h3, Rg5 and Qf8!? also draw) with the idea Qc8-f5.

41. ..Rd1!?

Also drawing was 41. ..Qc5! 42. Rg5 Kh4 43. h3 Rd3 44. Kg2 Ne3 45. Kh2 Rd2!! (diagram) 46. Rc5 Rf2 with perpetual.

42. Kg2 Qc5??

Losing! Forced was 42. ..Ne3! 43. fe Rd2 44. Kf1 Qa3 and white has no better than perpetual after 45. Qe5.

43. Qe5 Kg6 44. Qg5 Kf7 45. Ne5 Ke8 46. Qh5 Kd8 47. Qd1! Kc7 48. Qg4 Kb7 49. Qf5 e3 50. Qh7 Ka6 51. Qd3 Kb7 52. fe Ne3 53. Kf3 Nd5 54. h4 Nf6 55. Kg2 Qc1 56. Qf3 Kc7 57. h5 Qc2 58. Kh3 Qf5 59. Kh4 Ne4 60. Ng4 Kd6 61. Qe3 Kc6 62. h6 Kb7 63. Qc1?

63. ..Qg6?

Lenderman's last chance to resist was 63. ..Nf6! after which there is no clear win for white!

64. Qb2 Ka6 65. Qg7 Qd6 66. Qg8 Qe7 67. Kh3 Qb7 68. h7 Nd2 69. h8Q Qf3 70. Kh4 Qh1 71. Kg5 Nf3 72. Kf6 Qa1 73. Ne5 1:0

On board 2, GM Pascal Charbonneau overpressed a slightly better endgame and, having to play for a win while worse, hung a piece (see diagram: Ne6??) and lost a difficult game to IM Robert Hungaski.

On board 3, FM Alec Getz was better from almost the outset with the black pieces, but allowed FM Christopher Chase to escape into a slightly worse endgame. Getz looked well on his way to victory when disaster nearly struck on move 38.

Getz played 38. ..Kf5?? (38. ..Kg6 was the only move and then 39. Rb8 Bd4 and black should eventually win as in the game) 39. Nh6 Kf6 and Chase, looking to repeat the position, played 40. Ng4?? overlooking a forced win after 40. Ng8!! as 40. ..Kg7 41. Rb7 Kg8 42. Re8 is mate and other continuations allow a deadly knight fork on e7. Getz found 40. ..Kg6! and forced resignation a few moves later.

NM Alex Ostrovskiy fought hard for a win against NM Alex Cherniack's Winawer French, but had at best a perpetual and was in fact losing in the final position where Cherniack forced perpetual.

Spectacular drawing tries could be found early

22. Bf5 Nf5 23. Nh4 Ra6 24. Qg2 g5 25. Rg5 hg 26. Qg5 Ng7 27. Ng6 Qc2! 28. Qh6 Qd3 with perpetual or

25. Qh3 Ng6 26. Ng5 hg 27. Qh5 Nh4 28. Rf4 gf 29. Bf5 ef 30. Qh8 Ke7 31. Qh4 with perpetual

In the final diagram, 38. ..Rb6! 39. Rd7 Kb8 wins for black as his king is perfectly safe and white's will perish.

In the other Eastern semifinal, Boston made quick work of Baltimore, seizing a quick 2-0 lead with the white pieces on boards 2 and 4 that, coupled with draw odds, sufficed to advance (Baltimore's GM Sergey Erenburg, one of the top performers in the league this year, won in "garbage time" on board 1 and Zimmer-Martirosov was drawn on board 3).

On board 4, Boston veteran NM Ilya Krasik won a very clean game as white against Baltimore's NM Adithya Balasubramanian. Krasik tells it best as he used some of Erenburg's analysis in ChessBase Magazine to achieve a winning position from the opening and converted it with precise technique.

Board 2 was the early front-runner for game of the week (and another contender for Game of the Year, though we shall have to see what transpires tonight) as IM Marc Esserman demolished IM Tsegshuren Enkhbat in 22 moves!

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. g4!? Bd7!

The main line. Having provoked g2-g4, black retreats his bishop away from white's advancing pawns and retains control of the e6 square.

5. c4 e6!?

Enkhbat deviates from his 2009 game against Charbonneau where he played 5. ..Na6 and after 6. cd!? should have played 6. ..Nb4! but instead was worse after 6. ..cd and lost in 45 moves.

6. Nc3 Ne7 7. Nf3 Ng6?!

Enkhbat has an ambitious positional plan to enact a blockade on the dark squares with Bf8-e7, Ng6-h4 and h7-h6, but he presumably he did not see far enough ahead when playing Ng8-e7.

8. h4 Be7 9. h5!

9. ..Nf8

Condemned by commentators as too passive, but Esserman's point is revealed after 9. ..Nh4 10. Rh4!! Bh4 11. g5 h6 12. Nh4 hg 13. Qg4!! gh 14. Qg7 Rh5 15. Be2 Rf5 16. Bg4 when black can safely resign. White now has a very pleasant space advantage.

10. g5 Na6 11. c5!

Nine of the first eleven moves are with pawns!

11. ..Nc7 12. Be3 b6 13. b4 bc 14. bc Rb8 15. Rc1!

Prophylaxis against Nc7-b5.

15. ..Rb2 16. Bd3 Qb8 17. Nd2 f5

Enkhbat lashes out, forcing Esserman to immediately decide whether he wants to risk his space advantage by opening up the game with an exchange on f6.

18. gf!

18. 0-0 would have sufficed for a stable advantage, but black can definitely fight on.

18. ..gf 19. Qg4 Kf7

Enkhbat envisaged a harmonious rearrangement of his pieces with this king move and Nc7-e8, covering the entry squares on the g-file...

20. Rg1 Ne8

All that remains is for black to play Be7-d8 and f6-f5 and, though worse, he is still kicking.

21. Bh7!

Shattering black's illusions.

21. ..Bd8

Either capture on h7 leads to mate (21. ..Nh7 22. Qg6 Kf8 23. Bh6 or 21. ..Rh7 22. Qg8)

22. Bg8!

and Enkhbat resigned, denying viewers the spectacular finish of

22. ..Ke7 23. Qg7!! (23. ef is a quicker mate, but this is most picturesque) Ng7 24. Rg7 Ke8 25. Bf7 Ke7 26. Bg6 and the bishop completes the h7-g8-f7-g6 diamond, giving mate.

In a bit of chess irony, the Bh7-g8 maneuver (with the black bishop!) in the Caro-Kann was pioneered by David Bronstein (Porreca-Bronstein, Belgrade 1954) who also championed the g4/c4 assault in the Advance Variation.

MVP Race - Redux

2010-09-23T07:29:00.000-07:00

The current MVP system is easy to understand/follow, with points being given for wins, deducted for losses, bonuses for scoring with black and benefits to playing (and winning) on higher boards.

Given that the USCL is a team "tournament" and that match points are what counts, I propose a different system.

Plus Score + Number of Match Points "Contributed"

How does this work in practice? If the other three players on your team score either 0, 0.5, 2.5 or 3, your game has no theoretical bearing on the match outcome (though this doesn't quite reflect reality). You should still get the benefit, however, of winning and be penalized for losing, but all boards should be treated equally as should the piece colors. In the "central" cases, however, your game is a key determinant of the match's outcome.

If your teammates score 1.0/3, -1/3 if you lose or draw and +2/3 if you win

If your teammates score 1.5/3, -1 if you lose, 0 if you draw and +1 if you win

If your teammates score 2.0/3, -2/3 if you lose, +1/3 if you draw or win

This has the advantage of the aggregate score being zero-sum across the league, also allowing us to measure "LVP" and use the maximum gain from one season to the next to measure "most improved".

All numbers are scaled 3x to remove the fractions.

Maximum score over the course of a year is +60, minimum is -60.

League Leaders

+13: David Vigorito, Craig Jones

+12: Robert Hungaski, Eugene Perelshteyn, Daniel Naroditsky, Daniel Rensch

+11: Hikaru Nakamura

+10: Pascal Charbonneau, Alex Ostrovskiy, Joel Benjamin

-15: Jonathan Schroer, Slava Mihailuk, Eric Rodriguez

-13: Bryan Smith, Arthur Shen, Robert Perez

-11: Denys Shmelov, Spencer Finegold

-10: Carlito Agner, Angelo Young

Week 5: Happy Birthday!

2010-09-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night got off to a celebratory start, as GM Pascal Charbonneau and super Knights fan Beth Windsor had organized a surprise birthday party for GM Alex Lenderman (who turns 21 on Thursday!), FM Alec Getz (who unfortunately could not be there, but turned 17!) and Mrs. Ostrovskiy (Alex Ostrovskiy's mom). Sandwiches from Lenny's, birthday cake and champagne provided by Marshall Chess Club manager Marcus Fenner set the tone for a great night.

The Knights have followed a very simple formula en route to a 4-1 record, with 15/20 game points: win with white and draw with black. After tonight's match, the Knights are a staggering 9.5/10 with the white pieces and a very respectable 5.5/10 with black.

I took a short hiatus from blogging this week, as work and preparing for my first USCL match this year (with the black pieces against an IM, no less!) provided a full plate.

The match flowed well, with Pascal quickly achieving a winning position against GM Larry Kaufman on board 2, while Alex Lenderman, though overlooking a pin tactic, seemed to fully neutralize GM Sergey Erenburg's white pieces on board 1. On board 4, NM Alex Ostrovskiy (New York State Champion!) was establishing a considerable space advantage on the white side of an Alekhine against NM Ian Schoch who had scored two crazy victories in his first two outings this season. Meanwhile, on board 3, IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat and I were battling it out in a very strategically complex Slav/Grunfeld.

As the match wore on, Pascal demonstrated highly accurate technique against Kaufman and though his game was technically the last to finish, its result was never in doubt. Alex Lenderman traded down into a bishops-of-opposite-colors endgame and played precisely to establish an unbreakable blockade. On board 4, Schoch missed a few critical moments and put his queenside knight into a self-pin, immediately resigning with Ostrovskiy on the verge of an extra piece with no compensation. These positive results lifted some of the pressure from what I felt to be an enormously intense battle, with both Enkhbat and myself drifting into deep time pressure. With the tension reaching its apex, a more-or-less forced liquidation appeared on the board and, like Lenderman, I had reached a BOOC ending. When the smoke cleared, I had a nominal edge but with the match nearly in hand and the clock nearing midnight, I offered Enkhbat a draw which he graciously accepted.

On to the games!

Erenburg-Lenderman

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nd2 e6 5. Nb3 Nd7 6. Nf3 Qc7 7. Be2 f6 8. 0-0 fe

This natural move appears to be a novelty.

9. de 0-0-0 10. Nbd4 Ne5 11. Re1 Nf3!?

Also possible was 11. ..Bd6!? 12. Ng5 Re8 13. f4 Nf7 14. Nge6 Re6 15. Nf5 Nf6 16. Nd6 Qd6 17. Bg4 Ng4 18. Qg4 Rhe8 19. Bd2 h6 with near equality.

12. Bf3 Qd7

Not a bad move - in fact it may be black's best. Fortunately black's position is solid enough that the following pin tactic only regains white's lost pawn.

13. Ne6 Be6 14. Re6! Nf6 15. Qe2 Bd6 16. Bg5 Rde8 17. Re1 Re6 18. Qe6 Qe6 19. Re6 Kd7 20. Re1 Re8 21. Re8 Ke8 22. Be3 Be5

Erenburg begins to make some progress, but Alex comfortably holds the draw.

23. c3 a6 24. Be2 Kf7 25. h3 Ne4 26. Bd3 Nd6 27. f4 Bf6 28. Bc5 Be7 29. Bh7!? g6 30. Bd6 Bd6 31. f5 g5

Alex was banking on this blockade when he "sacrificed" the h7 pawn.

32. Kf2 Bf4 33. Ke2 Kf6 34. Bg6 Be5 35. Kf3 a5 36. Ke3 Bg3 37. b3 Bh2 38. Kd3 Bd6 39. c4 dc 40. Kc4 Ke5 41. a4 Bb4 42. g3 Be1 43. g4 Kf6 44. Kc5 Bf2 45. Kd6 b5!

White's 2nd extra pawn is as meaningless as the first.

46. Kc6 ba 47. ba Be1 48. Kd5 Bf2 49. Be8 Be1 50. Bb5 Bf2 51. Be8 Be1 52. Bb5 Bf2 53. Be8 0.5:0.5

Charbonneau-Kaufman

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 c5 6. Be3 Qb6 7. c4!?

Rare. More popular is 7. Nc3 and either 7. ..Nc6 8. 0-0 or 7. ..Qb2 8. Qb1! with sharp play.

7. .. Qb2 8. Nbd2 Nc6 9. cd cd??

9. ..ed! was forced. 10. dc would follow with an interesting game ahead.

10. Nc4 Qc2 11. dc!?

White is winning in all of these lines, but Pascal's first chance to quickly end the game was 11. Qc2! Bc2 12. dc de 13. cb Rb8 14. Rc1 Bb4 15. Kf1 Ba4 16. Nb6!! (diagram) Rb7 17. Na4.

11. ..Qd1 12. Rd1!?

Again, Pascal had an opportunity to win in style with 12. Bd1 de 13. cb Bb4 14. Ke2 Rb8 15. Ba4 Kf8 16. Rhc1 Rb7 17. Na5!! (diagram).

12. ..de 13. Nd6 Bd6 14. ed bc 15. d7 Kd8 16. Ne5 Nh6 17. Nc6 Kc7 18. d8Q Rhd8 19. Nd8 Rd8 20. Rd8 ef 21. Kf2 Kd8 22. Rc1!

Cutting off the king. The rest is a matter of Pascal's precise technique.

22. ..Ng8 23. Rc4 Ne7 24. Bf3 Nc8 25. Rb4 Nb6 26. a4 Kc7 27. a5 Nd5 28. Bd5 ed 29. Ke3 Bc8 30. Kd4

30. ..Kc6 31. Rb8 Kc7 32. Rb3 Be6 33. Kc5 g6 34. Rb4 h5 35. g3! d4 36. Rd4 Bd7 37. Rf4 Be6 38. Rb4 Bc8 39. Kd5 Be6 40. Ke5 Kc6 41. a6 Kc5 42. Rb7 Bc4 43. Ra7 Kb6 44. Re7 Ka6 45. Rf7 Bf7 46. Kf7 g5 48. Kg6 h4 49. g4! 1:0

Ostrovskiy-Schoch

1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 3. c4 Nb6 5. ed cd 6. Nc3 g6 7. Be3 Bg7 8. Rc1 0-0 9. b3 N6d7?!

Not bad, but 9. ..e5 and 9. ..a5 are more popular.

10. Nf3 Nf6 11. h3 d5 12. Bd3 Nc6 13. 0-0 Bf5 14. Be2 Qa5 15. Qd2 Rfd8 16. g4!?

Ostrovskiy goes for it with this risky/aggressive move.

16. ..Bc8 17. Rfd1 dc 18. bc!?

18. Bc4! looked to put more pressure on black

18. ..h5!

Schoch is up to the task and challenges white's kingside pawn spike.

19. g5 Ne8 20. Bf1 Qf5?! 21. Qe2 Nd6?

Black had to go for the complications starting with 21. ..Bd4!? 22. Nd5 e5! 23. Bg2! Be3 24. Qe3 Bd7, though white has massive compensation for the pawn.

22. Bg2!?

22. d5! Na5 23. Nh4 Qd7 24. c5 Nf5 25. c6! and black gets overrun or 22. ..Ne5 23. Nh4 Qd7 24. c5 Nf5 25. Nf5 Qf5 26. f4! Nd7 27. Nb5 Nf8 28. Bg2 and white controls the entire board.

22. ..Qa5 23. Nb5

23. ..Nb5??

Shoch cracks under the pressure. Better was 23. ..Bd7!, waiting for white to show his hand.

24. cb Nb4?

Immediately losing a piece, but 24. ..Nb8 was depressing.

25. Bd2 Bf5 26. Qc4 1:0

Enkhbat-Herman

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Qc2 dc 5. Qc4 g6 6. Nc3 Bg7 7. e4 0-0 8. Be2 b5 9. Qb3 Qa5 10. Bd2 b4 11. Na4 Ne4 12. Bb4 Qc7 13. 0-0

13. ..Bg4N

A novelty! This tabiya was quite popular in the 60s and 70s, with luminaries such as Petrosian, Portisch and Simagin taking the white pieces and Hort and Larsen playing black. Portisch-Hort went 13. ..Na6 14. Ba6 Ba6 15. Rfe1 Nd6 16. Rac1 (Epishin played 16. Qa3 against Romanishin in 2000) Rab8 17. Ne5 (Petrosian played 17. Qc3 and won against "not-David" Bronstein at the Rio de Janeiro Interzonal in 1979) Bb5 18. Nc5 Nf5 with an eventual draw after 34 moves in 1966. More recently, players such as Mamedyarov have chosen 13. ..Be6 for black, following Suetin's play in 1968 against Antoshin. The idea of Bg4 is simply to maximize black's activity, while keeping pressure on white's center and hoping to disrupt white's development with the pin on the e2 bishop. I wasn't thrilled with 13. ..Be6 14. Bc4 Bc4 15. Qc4 when 15. ..Rd8 is met by 16. d5!, though of course black has other choices. Probably best is 15. ..Nd6, but I wanted to keep the N on e4.

14. Rad1 Nd7!

Played after a 30-minute think. My original intention was 14. ..Qb7 15. Rfe1 a5 16. Ba3 Qb3 17. ab Nd6 18. Nb6 Ra7, but I saw an interesting possibility to keep queens on and solve some of black's problems (primarily what to do with the b8 knight and the e7 pawn) with one move.

15. Qc2!?

A pragmatic choice from Enkhbat. If 15. Be7!? Rfe8 16. Bh4 g5!! 17. Ng5! Be2 18. Qf7 Kh8 19. Ne6 Re6 20. Qe6 Bd1 21. Rd1 Ndf6 (diagram) =/+ . Alternatively, 16. Ba3 Rab8 gives black tremendous activity for the pawn, with potential for the d7 N to hop f6-d5-f4 or to b6, forcing white to fix black's pawn structure, while harassing the queen.

15. ..Nd6 16. h3 Bf5 17. Qc1 Qb7!?

Also playable was 17. ..Nb6 18. Nc5 Nd5, but I wanted to keep the N stuck on a4 for a while and keep the white bishop out of a6.

18. Ba3 Rfd8 19. Rfe1 Rab8 20. b3! Be4!

Trying to regroup by putting the B on d5 and the Nd6 on f5.

21. Ne5! Bd5! 22. Bf1 Nf5 23. Nc5

Also possible was 23. Nd7 Qd7 24. Nc5 Qe8!

23. ..Nc5 24. Bc5 a5!

Preventing white from going Qc1-a3, Bf1-a6 and squeezing the life out of black and also preparing an eventual a5-a4, cracking open white's queenside.

25. Qc3 Ra8! 26. Nc4 Bc4!

It looks counterintuitive to trade the monster bishop on d5, but white's N was a great piece and this allows black to gang up on d4. The prior three exclaims refer to near-only moves for black. White did a fantastic job in building pressure on black's position.

27. bc!?

Or 27. Bc4 e6!

27. ..e6!

28. Rd3!?

Possible is the crazy-looking 28. g4! Nh4 29. Qg3 g5 30. Bd3 Ng6 31. a3! when tactical means justify white's seemingly antipositional play. One line runs 31. ..Rd7 32. Qe3 Rad8 33. Qg5 Bd4 34. Bd4 Rd4 35. Bg6 hg 36. Qd8 Rd8 37. Rd8 Kg7 with a double-edged endgame.

28. ..Rd7 29. Red1 a4 30. Qe1 Rad8 31. Qe4 Nd6 32. Bd6?!

Objectively best is 32. Qe1, when black can do no better than to repeat the position with 32. ..Nf5. If 32. ..Nc4 33. Rb1 Qa8 34. Rb4 Nd6 35. Ra3 and white can fight on, as dictated by the match situation.

32. ..Rd6 33. d5 cd

It was possible to keep the position unbalanced with 33. ..c5!?

34. cd Rd5 35. Rd5 Rd5 36. Qa4 Rd1 37. Qd1 Qb4

Black can still squeeze by pressuring the f2 point, but with the match in hand (Pascal was easily winning), I offered a draw and this was accepted by IM Enkhbat.

0.5:0.5

Week 4 Roundup / League Overview (part 1)

2010-09-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

Another exciting week of USCL play. The GOTW contest, which til this point has been less than competitive, ought to pick up steam and controversy this week, with a number of sparkling games and upsets taking place. We are now 40% through the season and the playoff picture is starting to emerge.

In the East, New England (3.5-0.5, 9.5) and New York (3-1, 12) have emerged as front-runners, with Baltimore (2.5-1.5, 10) and Boston (2.5-1.5, 8) close behind, while Manhattan (1-3, 4.5) and Carolina (0.5-3.5, 5.5) need to make a mid-season surge to remain viable.

Out West, Arizona (4-0, 11.5) and San Francisco (3-1, 10.5) have created some distance from the field, though Chicago (2.5-1.5, 8) remains within striking distance. Storied franchises and perennial contenders Dallas (1-3, 6.5) and Miami (0.5-3.5, 5.5) have a lot of ground to make up to stay in the hunt.

What has separated the best from the rest? After four weeks, it looks to be the performance on board 2. The top 4 teams in the league (Arizona, New England, San Francisco and New York) happen to have the top 4 scores on board 2 (though not necessarily in that order), while the bottom 4 teams (Miami, Carolina, Manhattan and Seattle) have 4 of the bottom 5.

This was also the case in the regular season for 2009 (board 2 being most significant as a predictor of team result). In 2008, board 3 was most indicative.

On to the games!

The Philadelphia Inventors (1.5-2.5, 7.5) drew the Baltimore Kingfishers (2.5-1.5, 10) in a rare match where all the games were drawn! On board 1, GM Magesh Panchanathan drew GM Sergey Erenburg in a relatively placid game, where first minor pieces, then rooks left the board leaving a drawn queen and pawn endgame. Board 3 saw FM Karl Dehmelt play the Panov-Botvinnik against IM Ray Kaufman's Caro-Kann. In a very theoretical line, Dehmelt played a dubious novelty (17. Rc1 vs the standard 17. 0-0-0) and soon his king was far away from the action developing on the queenside and in the center. Instead of the critical 25. ..Kd7, Kaufman acquiesced to a 3-fold repetition with 25. ..Kf5, returning to that square on move 27. Board 4 was the next to finish, where NM Ricky Selzler was unable to convert his slightly better position against IM Richard Costigan into a concrete advantage and a drawn N vs B endgame soon resulted. The longest and most exciting game of the match was a battle between GM Larry Kaufman (2008 World Senior Champion) and FM Thomas Bartell, an early front-runner for league MVP. Bartell chose the rare 10. ..h6 (10. ..c6 and the sharp 10. ..ed are more popular) and quickly found himself in a difficult position with little space and even less counterplay.

Kaufman chose 21. f5!? which soon netted him a pawn, but 21. e5! would have nearly won the game on the spot. If 21. ..de 22. Re5 Qb6 23. Na4 Qc7 24. Re6! decides or 21. ..d5 22. cd cd 23. Rc1! and white's positional advantage is overwhelming. Bartell was able to escape into a pawn-down endgame. On move 35 (diagram), Kaufman had a chance to win in style with 35. Nd8!! cb 36. Be2! when the c-pawn and the lineup on the d-file will cost black at least a piece. Instead, 35. Kg1 kept black on life support.

Bartell defended resourcefully and move 58 began to seize the initiative with ..h4, weaving the beginnings of a net around white's king. Kaufman bailed out on move 67 and forced a 3-fold repetition draw.

St. Louis (2-2, 8.0) drew a bizarre match against Miami (0.5-3.5, 5.5), last year's Western champions who need a strong finish to get back to the playoffs. A big problem this year for St. Louis' top heavy lineups has been the lack of production on board 4. Shocking, then, was the ease with which Spencer Finegold achieved a winning position with the black pieces against NM Andres Santalla and, more surprisingly, his decision to take a draw (diagram) when after 21. Bc5 Nc3! 22. Be7 Rd7 23. Rd2 Re7, black not only has a clean extra pawn, but superior pieces as "compensation".

Next to finish was GM Ben Finegold getting into opening trouble for the second consecutive week with the black pieces and Miami's GM Renier Gonzalez was up to the challenge and finished him off in style. In a sharp Grand Prix (diagram), Finegold played the disastrous 19. ..Bd5 and was lost after 20. c4! Bc6 21. Rd1!. Forced was the "greedy" 19. ..Ba2! 20. Rd1! Kd5! 21. c4 Bc4 22. Nb3 Ke4! 23. Nd2 with perpetual.

GM Hikaru Nakamura's homage to the late, great Bent Larsen was as volatile as the legendary Grandmaster's own play and quickly landed him in a difficult position. Already up two pawns, GM Julio Becerra missed an opportunity for an immediate knockout (diagram).

28. ..Re5! 29. Ne5 Qh2 30. Kf1 Qh1 31. Ke2 Ne3! 32. Kf3 Qh5! 33. Kf2 Qd1! would have been a picturesque finish. Instead, after 28. ..Ne5?! 29. Ne5 Qg7?! (29. ..Qd6! would have been better, with the idea 30. d4 f5!!) 30. d4 f6 31. b4! fe 32. ba Rd8 33. Qe5 Qe5 34. de, Nakamura had escaped into a likely drawn R+P endgame, though he still had to demonstrate some technique (keeping the pawn on g2). This game was the last to finish as Becerra played on to the bitter end (50-move rule draw), though the drama had been lost for the spectators long prior to the official result.

The Archbishops needed a win on board 3 from IM Michael Brooks against All-Star NM Eric Rodriguez. Brooks chose the rare 7. a4 in the Ne7 Winawer (as played by Fischer in the first game of his match against Larsen - more usual is 7. Qg4) and Rodriguez chose Korchnoi's 7. ..Qa5 treatment. Brooks innovated by finally playing 9. Qg4, rather than the usual 9. Nf3, which has been championed by GM John Nunn and netted him a sparkling victory against Tiger Hillarp Persson in 2000. Both players seemed a bit out of sorts as Rodriguez eschewed castling and Brooks refused to take the proffered g7 pawn. Perhaps influenced by Rensch's convincing win against Abrahamyan in last week's GOTW, Rodriguez played the creative but incorrect 13. ..Ke7?! (diagram), which was not necessary as the e6 pawn is taboo after 13. ..0-0! due to the pin on the Qg4.

After 14. h4 h6 15. Nh3 Be8 16. Nf4 Bf7 17. Ng6 Bg6 18. Qg6, Brooks had won a pawn but Rodriguez fought hard and after queens left the board was close to being equal (diagram)

Unfortunately, Rodriguez chose a too-passive regroupment, starting with 28. ..Rc8 29. Rf3 Ke8 30. Rf1 Rc6 31. Rb1 Rb6 32. Rb6 ab and now white's extra pawn would tell after 33. h5! as it is impossible to avoid zugzwang given the plan of Ke2-f3-g4-f5 and Bd2-c1-a3. Instead, 28. ..a5! would prevent a rook exchange (29. Rf3?! Rf3! 30. Kf3 Nc7! and black creates an outside passed pawn ensuring at least a draw) and give black sufficient counterplay.

Monday night's final match was an exciting battle between two teams headed in opposite directions. The Arizona Scorpions (4-0, 11.5) defeated the Dallas Destiny (1-3, 6.5) by a narrow 2.5-1.5 margin to cement their grip on the West. Most games in this match were at critical moments simultaneously, so I'll aim to avoid a too-chronological narrative. First to finish was IM Julio Saddora refuting FM Warren Harper's interesting but incorrect exchange sacrifice with precise, aggressive play (27. ..d5 and 28. ..d4 were star moves) on board 2, giving Dallas an early lead. FM Keaton Kiewra risked the condemnation of opening theoreticians and certain GOTW judges when he played 1. e4 c5 2. a3!? against FM Robby Adamson (whose league excellent recap post this week beat me to the punch!). After the standard 2. ..g6!, Kiewra surprisingly backed away from his enterprising opening and transposed (a tempo down) into "main lines" with 3. d4? and Robby took full advantage (see his excellent annotations at http://arizonascorpionchess.com/2010/09/week-4-recap-of-us-chess-league-by-robby-adamson/) . If you're going to say "A", you must say "B" - next time, play 3. h4!

IM Salvijus Bercys outplayed IM Levon Altounian in a Dutch, starting with the extremely nice 18. e4! in the diagrammed position.

After piling up and winning the e-pawn, Bercys had a chance to clarify matters on move 30 with 30. d5! (the bishop is taboo due to Rf8) cd 31. Qd5 and white's extra pawn should tell. Instead, after 30. Bg2?! Bg2 31. Kg2 Rad8 black organized a defense in a heavy-piece endgame and held the draw.

The decisive game, then, was a battle between two of the league's top board 4s, NM David Adelberg and two-time All-Star WFM Bayaraa Zorigt (looking to bounce back from an 0/3 2009 campaign after scoring 11.5/16 in 2007-2008, including 4-0 in the playoffs). It was classic USCL - sharp, sometimes sloppy but always entertaining. Zorigt had the better of it early, but missed 25. ..Bd4! (instead playing 25. ..Nd6) and the more straightforward 30. ..de! (instead 30. ..Ne4?? allowing 31. Nf5!). Adelberg seized the initiative with gusto, finding the strong 35. b4! / 36. e4! / 37. f5! sequence (see diagram) but failed to continue with 38. h4!! Rg4 39. Bh3, winning a piece. After 38. Kh2??, Zorigt had an excellent opportunity to turn the tables and level the match with 38. ..Qc7! after which white is forced to shed a pawn and close the beautiful a1-h8 diagonal with 39. e5 Nf5. Alas, it was not Dallas' night - Zorigt played 38. ..Nh5 and after 39. Qb2 f6 40. Qd2 Qc7?? (h6 was necessary) 41. e5! and white converted 15 moves later.

Week 4: Lucky

2010-09-14T05:31:00.000-07:00

The final score often fails to tell the full story and so it was Monday night when the New York Knights beat their cross-town (and not really, because we both play on what is technically the West Side of Manhattan) rivals, the Manhattan Applesauce by a 3.5-0.5 margin. There were no boring games as the advantage changed hands and clocks ticked toward 0.

New York quickly got into trouble on boards 3 and 4, where GM John Fedorowicz and Alex Katz (making his Knights debut) faced SM Greg Braylovsky and James Black.

Braylovsky found a novel opening plan against the BronxBattler.

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 e6 3. c4 b6 4. g3 Ba6 5. Nbd2 Bb4 6. Qc2 Bb7 7. Bg2 (69) Be4 (83)

Greg spent 12 minutes on Bg2 and his time disadvantage would later play a decisive role.

8. Qb3 Bd2 9. Bd2 0-0 10. 0-0 d6 11. Rfd1 Nbd7 12. h3!?N (45)

Played after a 13 minute think, this move (and associated plan) is new. More popular is 12. Rac1, after which Michael Adams has ably defended the black side of the resulting complex position.

12. ..Qe7 (80) 13. g4 Rfc8 14. Rac1 (27) a5 (78) 15. Bg5 Qe8 16. Qe3 (19) h6 (73) 17. Bf4 Bb7 18. g5 hg 19. Bg5 Rab8 20. h4 Ne4 21. Bh3 Nf8 22. d5! ed 23. Bc8 (5) Qc8 (54)

Braylovsky has achieved a much better position, but is dangerously low on time. Fedorowicz's position looks to be tough to crack, with strong squares (c5 and f8) for his knights, pressure on d5 and the c8-h3 diagonal for the queen.

24. cd Nc5 25. Kh2

An interesting idea was 25. Rd4 f6 26. Bf6!! gf 27. Kh2! when white's heavy pieces will overwhelm black's defenses. Black had the resource 25. ..Qf5.

25. ..Qd7 26. Qe7! Qc8 27. h5!?

Safer was a regroupment starting with 27. Be3 Ng6 28. Qg5, when it's hard to find black's compensation for the exchange. Braylovsky saw an opportunity to plunder white's queenside, but Fedorowicz calculated further!

27. ..Qf5 28. Rc5?

It was better to immediately capture the c7 pawn. 28. Qc7 Re8 29. Rc4! Re2 30. Rf4 forces 30. ..Qd7 and white maintains the extra exchange.

28. ..bc 29. Qc7 Re8! 30. Qb7 (2) Re2 (47)

The last critical moment of the game.

31. Kg3??

In desperate time pressure, Braylovsky misses the narrow path to a draw: 31. Qb3! Rf2 32. Kg3 Rf3 33. Qf3 Qg5 and white holds the balance.

31. ..Re4 32. Qb3 Qg4 33. Kh2 Qh5 34. Kg2 c4 35. Qc3 g4 36. Kf1 Rg5 37. Rd4 Rd5 38. Rh4 Qf5 39. Rc4?

39. Ne1! prolonged resistance

39. ..Rd3! 40. Rf4 Qh3 41. Ke2 Rc3 42. bc Qe6 0:1

The Knights got the better of extreme time pressure on board 4 as well, in a shocking turn of events that changed the complexion of the match.

1. e4 (74)

Alex arrived 15 minutes late and, unfortunately, stayed in severe time trouble throughout the game.

1. ..c5 (88) 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cd 4. c3 Nf6 5. e5 Nd5 6. cd d6 7. Bc4 Nc6 8. 0-0 Nb6!?

Rare. More popular is 8. ..Be7 9. Qe2

9. Bb3 de 10. de Qd1 11. Rd1 (71) Be7 (80)

Alex began spending lots of time trying to generate an advantage.

12. Be3 (63) Nd7 (78) 13. Ba4 (58) 0-0 (76) 14. Bc6 (52) bc (76) 15. Nbd2 (45) Ba6 (74) 16. Nb3 (30) Rfd8 (69) 17. Rdc1 (18) Rdc8 (66) 18. Nc5 (9)

Also worth considering was 18. Bc5!?

18. ..Bc5 (62) 19. Bc5 Bd3 20. Bd6 (5) Be4 (61) 21. b4 (3) a6 (60) 22. Nd2 (2) Bd5 (59) 23. Nc4 f6 24. f4 Kf7 25. Rc3 Bc4 26. Rc4 Nb6 27. Rc2 Ke8 28. Rd1 Nd5 29. Rf2 Kd7?!

29. ..f5 seemed most straightforward

30. Bc5 a5 31. a3 ab 32. ab Rcb8 33. Rf3 Ke8 34. f5 ef 35. ef g6! 36. Rh3?

36. g4! was necessary

36. ..h5! 37. Rb3 Nf6 38. Re3 Ne4 39. h3 Rd8 40. Rf1

Down to a minute and in a losing position, Katz looks for a miracle swindle...

40. ..Rd2??

And gets it! 40. ..Ra2! was the right way to double on the 2nd rank. Another tragic miss for James.

41. Re4!

and white is just up a piece

41. ..Kf7 42. Re7 Kf6 43. Rc7 Raa2 44. Rc6 Kg7 45. Rc7 1:0

Pascal won a smooth game on board 2 against IM Dmitry Schneider

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Bd6!?

This unsightly move has become quite popular. In the absence of an exchange on c6, the d6 square is a temporary home that allows black to cover e5 while completing his kingside development, before redeploying the bishop to a more active square.

5. 0-0 0-0 6. d3 h6 7. a3 Re8 8. Ne2 Bf8 9. Ng3 g6 10. Re1 Bg7 11. c3 a6 12. Ba4 b5 13. Bb3 d6 14. a4 Rb8

And...we have a Ruy Lopez.

15. ab ab 16. h3 Be6 17. Be6 Re6 18. d4 d5!

Black achieves this standard break and is close to equalizing.

19. ed Qd5 20. de Qd1 21. Rd1 Ne5 22. Nd4 Ree8 23. Bf4 Nfd7?!

First step in the wrong direction. More dynamic was 23. ..Nc4! 24. Bc7 Rb7 25. Ba5 Nb2 26. Rdb1 Nc4 27. Bb4 Nd5 when black is for choice.

24. Nc6 Rb6?!

Again, a less critical path. More accurate was either removing the offending knight with 24. ..Nc6 25. Rd7 Ne5 26. Rc7 Nd3 27. Bd2 Nb2 28. Raa7 Rf8 29. Ne4 Nc4 30. Bf4 Rbe8 31. Nd6 Nd6 32. Bd6 Re1 33. Kh2 Be5 34. Be5 Re5 when white's advantage is slight or 24. ..Rbc8 providing additional support for c7.

25. Nb4 Rb7 26. Ne4 f5 27. Be5 Ne5 28. Nc5 Rbb8 29. Ra7 Nc4 30. b3!?

Also playable was 30. Nc6 Rbc8 31. b3 Nb2 32. Rd7 Bf8 33. Nb7!?

30. ..Nb2 31. Rc1 Rbd8 32. Rc7 Rd1 33. Rd1 Nd1 34. Ncd3 Nc3 35. Nc6

Material balance has been restored, but white maintains a pull with his piece activity. Black falls headlong into a trap.

35. ..Re2?? 36. Ne7 Kh7 37. Ng6! Rc2

If 37. ..Kg6 38. Rc3! Rd2 39. Nf4 and white retains an extra pawn

38. Nf8 Kg8 39. Ne6 Ne2 40. Kf1 Rc7 41. Nc7 Nd4 42. b4 Kf7 43. f4 Ke7 44. Kf2 Kd7 45. Nd5 Kd6 46. Ne3

46. ..Ke6?!

More accurate was 46. ..h5 forcing white to trade at least a pair of pawns on the kingside.

47. g4! Bf6 48. Nc5 Kd6?

48. ..Kf7 was safer

49. Nf5 Nf5 50. Ne4!

The point

50. ..Ke7 51. Nf6 Nd4 52. Nd5 Kd6 53. Nc3 Kc6 54. h4 Nc2 55. g5 hg 56. fg Kd6 57. h5 Ke5 58. h6 1:0

With the match turning New York's way on the lower boards, the battle between Giorgi and GM Alex Stripunsky had less say on the outcome of the match than the high drama and creative play between the two grandmasters warranted.

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nd4 4. Bc4 e6 5. Nge2 Nf6 6. 0-0 a6 7. a4 d5 8. ed ed 9. Ba2 Bd6!?

Carlsen chose 9. ..Bg4 against Radjabov earlier this year. That game continued 10. f3 Be6 11. d3 Nc6 12. Nf4 Qd7 13. Bd2 Be4 14. Nce2 0-0 15. c3 b5 16. Bb1 Rab8 17. ab ab 18. Bc2 with a double-edged game that eventually ended in a draw. Kacheishvili's move order sets some additional problems for white, as he waits for the exchange on d4 to develop his c8 bishop.

10. d3 0-0 11. Nd4 cd 12. Ne2 Bg4 13. f3 Bd7 14. Nd4 Qc7 15. Kh1 Ba4

16. Be3?!

Too passive. More energetic was 16. Nf5 Bh2 17. Qd2! menacing the kingside. After 17. ..Be5! 18. d4 Bd6 19. Qg5 Ne8 20. Re1 white appears to have ample compensation for the pawn.

16. ..Rfe8 17. Bg1 Bd7

White's pawn structure may be slightly better, but black's pieces are much more actively placed and that allows him to grab the initiative.

18. c3 Re5! 19. f4 Rh5

Guarding d5 and hitting h2!

20. Qf3 g5!?

Giorgi not holding back. At this point in the match, it was quite possible black would have to press for a win, given the situation on the bottom two boards.

21. Be3 Bg4 22. Qf2 Re8 23. Bd2 Bc8

As GM Alex Lenderman put it "a real grandmaster move"

24. Rae1 Re1 25. Qe1 gf 26. Nf3 Bf5

Consistent, but also possible was 26. ..Bd7, intending to pressure white on the a6-f1 diagonal.

27. Bb1 Kg7 28. Qd1 Bg6?!

A bit slow. Possible was 28. ..Ng4!? 29. h3 Ne3 30. Be3 fe 31. Nd4 Bg6 with an extra pawn.

29. Qa4 Ng4 30. h3 Nh6 31. Qd4 f6 32. Qf2 Nf5 33. Kg1

33. ..Bc5?!

Why rush? White is in a sort of middlegame zugzwang, where most moves contain a positional or tactical concession. 33. ..a5, intending a5-a4 continues to put the squeeze on white. One venomous idea is 34. Bc1 a4 35. Bd2 d4!! 36. Nd4 Nd4 37. cd Rb5 38. Bc3 a3!

34. d4 Bd6 35. Bf5 Bf5 36. Ne1 Rg5 37. Qh4 Qb6 38. Bf4 Bf4 39. Qf4 Be4 40. Rf2 Qe6 41. Nf3 Rf5 42. Qc7 Qf7 43. Qf7 Kf7 44. Nd2 Rg5!?

Better to suffer in a pawn down R+P ending than get squeezed in N vs B.

45. Ne4 de 46. Rf4 f5 47. Kf2 Ke6 48. g4 fg 49. hg h5 50. Re4 Kd5 51. Kf3 Kc4! 52. gh Rh5 53. Re7 b5 54. Rc7 Kd3

54. ..Kb3 55. Ke4 Kb2 56. d5 a5 57. d6 Rh8 58. d7 Rd8 59. Kd5 a4 60. Kd6 a3 61. Rb7 Kc3 62. Rb5 a2 is also drawn.

55. b4 Rf5 56. Kg4 Rf1 57. Rc6 Rf8 58. Kg5 Ke4 59. Rc5 Rf1 60. Kg6 Rf2 61. Re5 Kd3 62. Rc5 Ke4 63. Rc6 Kd5 64. Rf6 Rc2 65. Rf3 Kc4 66. Kf7 Re2 67. Kf6 Re1 68. Kf5 Re8 69. Rh3 Re1 70. Kf4 Re8 71. Re3 Rf8 72. Kg3 Ra8 73. Rf3 a5 74. ba Ra5 75. Kf4 Ra3 76. d5 b4 77. cb Rf3 78. Kf3 Kd5 79. b5 Kc5 80. b6 Kb6! 0.5 : 0.5

Week 4 Preview

2010-09-12T09:10:00.000-07:00

The Knights are back in action in week 4 against their cross-town rivals, the Manhattan Applesauce, with some intriguing individual matchups in play.

On board 1, GM Giorgi Kacheishvili faces a former board 1 for the Knights, 2009 All-Star GM Alex Stripunsky. Last year, in their only USCL matchup, Giorgi was on the verge of winning before a mouseslip cost him a half-point.

If board 1 involved Knight history intrigue, board 2 is a little closer to home. GM Pascal Charbonneau faces former roommate IM Dmitry Schneider. Dmitry won a complicated game against Pascal in 2008, but Pascal struck back with a bit of home-cooking, destroying Dima's Two Knights Defense in convincing fashion.

GM John Fedorowicz faces another former Knight, SM Greg Braylovsky on board 3. Greg started his USCL career on a torrid 5.5/6 pace, though work and lineup specifics have kept him out of significant USCL action since 2005.

On board 4, less history but a rivalry nonetheless. Alexander Katz makes his USCL debut against James Black in a battle of two of the top scholastic players in the country. Alex won the U2400 prize at the 2009 National Chess Congress (scoring 4.5/6, losing only to your author), while James has provided some significant excitement in the first two weeks - winning a lost game in week 1 before losing a winning position in week 2. As usual in USCL play, this board may be the decisive factor in the match. Alex will be looking for revenge for his rapid-play loss to James this past weekend.

Week 3 Roundup

2010-09-09T07:10:00.000-07:00

It was an exciting and blunder-filled week 3 in the USCL, though a few spectacular games stood out amidst the chaos. With the season in full-swing, there were already gut-check matches for some storied franchises.

The Baltimore Kingfishers (2-1, 8.0) continued their road back to prominence with a 3.5-0.5 victory over the Carolina Cobras (0-3, 3.5). With IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat and IM Ray Kaufman dominating on boards 2 and 4 for Baltimore, Carolina's best chances to equalize the match were with the black pieces on boards 1 and 3. On the top board, IM Jonathan Schroer missed the incredible 20. ..Qf2! 21. Kf2 Bf5 22. Qg5 Bb1 23. Qf6 gf 24. Rb1 with an extra pawn, instead trading queens and being squeezed in a painful endgame by GM Larry Kaufman.

On board 3, NM Carlito Agner eschewed the free pawn offered by WGM Sabina Foisor with 34. Ne3?, instead playing 34. ..Rg6 35. Rg6 hg and again ignored it after 36. Qg3? and soon the game petered into a draw.

The Seattle Sluggers (1-2, 5.5) sent the defending Western Divison Champion Miami Sharks (0-3, 3.5) to a stunning third loss in a row to start the season. GM Varuzhan Akobian dominated two-time league MVP Julio Becerra in a Grunfeld to get things started for Seattle. Play on boards 2-4 was not so clean, with wild swings falling Seattle's way on boards 2 and 4 to compensate for a shocking loss on board 3, where FM Charles Galofre was the recipient of a gift from WGM Katerina Rohonyan. In the popular g4 sacrifice line of the Semi-Slav, Galofre has just played the rare 8. ..Nh6 (diagram). Rohonyan blitzed out 9. Rg7?? and after 9. ..Qf6! white was down a piece and could have resigned.

On board 4, Miami's Robert Perez was up two pawns before slowly bleeding away his advantage and eventually losing to Seattle's Alex Guo. In a must-win game on board 2, FM Marcel Martinez was pressing FM Costin Cozianu in a R+B vs R+N ending before dropping a piece with 60. Bd5??.

Cozianu frittered away his edge after 60. ..Nb4 61. Rd4 Rc5 62. Ke4 f5 63. Kf4 Nd5? (63. ..Rd5! was winning) and Martinez retained decent drawing chances (though not enough to save the match) after 64. Kf5 Nc7 65. Kg6 Rg5 66. Kh6 Rg2 67. b4 Ne6

Seeking to keep the black knight restrained, Martinez played 68. Re4?? (68. Rd1! would have sufficed), but lacked sufficient checking distance after 68. ..Kf6!, after which there was no way to avoid mate or a devastating loss of material. Cozianu finished nicely after 69. ba Rg6 70. Kh5 Ng7 71. Kh4 Nf5 72. Kh5 Rg5#!, giving Seattle a 3-1 margin of victory.

It's been a great start to the season for two of the league's newer franchises, the Arizona Scorpions (3-0, 9.0) and the New England Nor'easters (3-0, 7.5). Arizona took sole possession of first place in the West with a 3.5-0.5 destruction of another new team, the Los Angeles Vibe (1-2, 4.0). IM Rogelio Barcenilla won a smooth game on board 1 against GM Melikset Khachiyan, as did Amanda Mateer against NM Christian Tanaka on board 4. With an exciting and complicated draw on board 2 between FM Joel Banawa and IM Dionisio Aldama providing the winning margin, what's left, you ask? Merely an early contender for Game of the Year by IM Daniel Rensch whose 2/2 start has leaguewatchers forgetting his disastrous 2/10 debut. His foil was the dangerous WFM Tatev Abrahamyan who took the black side of a French Winawer.

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 Ne7 5. a3 Bc3 6. bc c5 7. Qg4 0-0 8. Bd3 Nbc6 9. Bg5

A rare move, championed by GM Lenier Dominguez against legendary GMs Artur Yusupov and Evgeny Bareev in 2006. More popular is 9. Qh5 Ng6 10. Nf3 Qc7 11. Be3 when after both 11. ..c4 and 11. ..Ne7, white has done quite well.

9. ..Qa5 10. Ne2 Ng6 11. 0-0 c4 12. Bg6 fg! 13. a4 Bd7!?

This logical move appears to be new. Yusupov and Bareev both chose 13. ..Qc7.

14. f3 Rf7 15. h4 Raf8 16. Bc1 Re8 17. Bd2 Ne7 18. Rfb1 b6 19. Nf4 Ref8 20. Nh3 Nf5 21. Rb4 b5!

With black now gaining a passed a-pawn, white has no choice but to assail the seemingly untouchable black king.

22. h5 gh 23. Qh5 ba?!

Better was 23. ..g6!, driving white's queen to either g4/g5 and making it harder for white to develop his h-file counterplay.

24. Ng5 g6 25. Qh3 Rg7 26. g4 Ne7 27. Kf2!

White makes his intentions clear. Ra1-h1 and crash through on the h-file. Who will get there first?

27. ..a3!

Abrahamyan goes for it.

28. Rh1 a2 29. Nh7 a1Q 30. Nf8! Qh1!

Forced! Black perishes after 30. ..Q1a3?? 31. Qh8 Kf7 32. Nd7 Ng8 33. Rh7! Rh7 34. Qh7 Ke8 35. Rb8.

31. Qh1

31. ..Bc8!

The knight is taboo! 31. ..Kf8 32. Qh8! Rg8 33. Qf6 Ke8 34. Bg5! Nc6 35. Rb8!! and white wins

32. Bg5 Nc6??

After walking a tightrope for the last dozen moves, Abrahamyan loses the thread, though her position may already be lost. After 32. ..Qd8!? 33. Ng6!! Rg6 34. Bf6 Rg7 35. Bg7 Kg7 36. Qh4! Kf7 37. Qf6 Ke8 38. Ra4! Qc7 39. g5! white has a big advantage. More practical chances, as defined by forcing white to find a more narrow winning path, were offered by 32. ..Qc7!? 33. Qh6! Kf8 34. Qh8 Rg8 35. Qh7!! (threatening 36. Rb8!!) Rg7 36. Bh6 Ng8 37. Qh8!! a6! 38. Rb8! Qb8 39. Qg7 Ke8 40. Qg8 Kd7 41. Qf7 Kc6 42. Qe8 Kb6 43. g5! a5! 44. Bf8! (diagram) when it will be impossible to stop white's g-pawn in this picturesque position.

33. Bf6??

Missing the immediate win to be had with 33. Qh6! Kf8 34. Qh8 Rg8 35. Bh6 Kf7 36. Qh7 Ke8 37. Qg8 Kd7 38. Qf7 Ne7 39. Bg5 Qd8 40. Rb8!

33. ..Kf8??

The knight is still untouchable! Forced was 33. ..Qc7! 34. Ng6! Rh7! 35. Qc1! Rh2! 36. Kg3! Qh7! 37. Nh4! Rh4 38. Bh4 Nb4 39. cb Qg6! when black may try to grovel in the BOOC ending. Instead, Rensch finishes in style.

34. Qh8 Rg8 35. Qh6 Ke8 36. Qh7 Rf8 37. Rb8! 1:0

The Nor'Easters (3-0, 7.5) maintained command of the East with a 2.5-1.5 victory over the New Jersey Knockouts (1-2, 5.0), dispelling the chatter about NE's easy schedule during the first two weeks. With GM Joel Benjamin creating magic on board 1 against US Junior Champion IM Sam Shankland and IM Dean Ippolito finding a three-fold repetition against IM Jan van de Mortel (in the position below, van de Mortel is winning a pawn after 50. ..Bc8!), New Jersey had to feel great about their chances. Unfortunately for them, New England's dangerous third and fourth boards, FM Christopher Chase and NM Alex Cherniack outplayed the Brothers Shen to win the match. [Ed: As David Vigorito correctly points out in the comments, van de Mortel's draw was the last game to finish, with the repetition draw providing the winning margin for NE, and was the most team-friendly/pragmatic decision. In most cases, I'm looking to highlight critical moments on the board and will occasionally get the match chronology wrong.]

Arthur Shen missed the venom in Cherniack's 23. ..Qe7 (diagram) and responded with 24. h4??. After 24. ..Nc5!, white's queen is trapped and he can safely resign.

Boston (2-1, 6.0) appears to have fully recovered from their week 1 debacle and is back to their traditional regular season dominance, dispatching the Manhattan Applesauce (1-2, 4.0) with a 3.5-0.5 drubbing. GM Eugene Perelshteyn held a comfortable draw on board 1 against GM Alex Stripunsky and WGM Anya Corke and NM Vadim Martirosov won smooth games against the volatile FM Andrei Zaremba and Shaun Smith. Board 2 saw the return of IM Marc Esserman, coming off a first-place finish in the New York State Championship. His face-off against IM Eli Vovsha, who started the season with two straight wins with the black pieces was another spectacular win for Esserman, his sixth straight with the white pieces in USCL play (and 9.5/11 lifetime).

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3!?

No Smith-Morra?

2. ..d6 3. d4 cd 4. Nd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bc4 e6 7. 0-0 b5 8. Bb3 b4!?

This line has an excellent pedigree, having been played by Anand and Najdorf expert Matthew Sadler, both in games against French GM Joel Lautier. Vovsha lost a tough game to GM Hikaru Nakamura in 2007 in this line, no fault of the opening.

9. Na4 Bd7 10. c3!

Lautier's improvement against Sadler and also played in Kudrin-Fedorowicz, US-ch 1999, a miniature where Kudrin followed Lautier's analysis to an 18 move victory. Nakamura chose 10. f4.

10. ..Nc6!?

Fedorowicz lost quickly after 10. ..Ne4? 11. Qf3 d5 12. c4 Nc6? 13. Ne6!!. Sadler survived a few more moves with 12. ..Qf6 13. cd! Qd4 14. Be3 Qe5 15. Bf4! Qf5 16. Rfe1 and white's attack offered tremendous compensation for the piece.

11. cb Nb4 12. Be3!

This logical move is new.

12. ..Be7!

Most prudent. If 12. ..Ne4 13. Rc1 Nc5 14. Nc5 dc 15. Ne6!! (calculated by Esserman during the game, diagram). Either capture loses as 15. ..Be6 16. Ba4! Bd7 17. Re1! creates a deadly discovery or 15. ..fe 16. Qh5! g6 17. Qe5! Nd3 18. Qh8 Nc1 19. Rc1 Qe7 20. Bh6 0-0-0 21. Bf8 Rf8 22. Qc3! and black's position is riddled with weaknesses.

13. Rc1 Ne4 14. Nb6!

Esserman spent a full 22 minutes weaving his way through the complications before uncorking this nice shot.

14. ..0-0

14. ..Qb6 15. Ne6 Nc5 16. Ng7 and if 16. ..Kd8 17. Bf7! or 16. ..Kf8 17. Bh6! and white's attack rages.

15. a3! Qb6 16. Ne6 Qb5 17. Nf8 Rf8 18. ab Qb4 19. Rc7 Nf6 20. Bd4 Bd8 21. Rc3 Be6 22. Re1 Re8 23. Rce3 d5 24. Bc3 Qb6 25. Bd5! Nd5 26. Qd5 h6 27. Rg3!

And the rest is a rout.

27. ..f6 28. Qh5! Kf8 29. Rg7! Kg7 30. Qe8 Bf7 31. Qe4 Qd6 32. Qg4 Kh7 33. Rd1 Qe7 34. Qd7 1:0

The St. Louis Archbishops (1.5-1.5, 6.0) got back to .500 by defeating the Dallas Destiny (1-2, 5.0) who, now two years removed from their back-to-back championships, are in an early fight for their playoff life. It was the first victory for St. Louis' impressive 3GM lineup, as GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Yury Shulman (recovering from his shocking upset defeat at the hands of Chicago's IM Florin Felecan in the week 2 Game of the Week) defeated GM Alejandro Ramirez and NM Tyler Hughes on the top two boards. Although Tony Rich nearly held a draw on board 4 against NM Nelson Lopez, the match could have had a dramatically different outcome. On board 3, FM Keaton Kiewra had a promising opening position against GM Ben Finegold after 18 moves (diagram)

After 19. f3!, temporarily preventing black from castling and securing e4 against the b7 bishop, white would have had a good opportunity to squeeze black's weakened pawn structure. Instead, after 19. Rac1?! 0-0! 20. Qd7 Qd7 21. Rd7 Be4, a drawish endgame was soon reached, snuffing out Dallas' chances.

Last, but certainly not least, was a marquee matchup between two previously undefeated teams, the Chicago Blaze (2.5-0.5, 7.0) and the San Francisco Mechanics (2-1, 8.0). Chicago's GM Dmitry Gurevich conducted a sparkling mating attack against IM Dmitry Zilberstein, providing Chicago the winning margin as boards 2-4 were drawn. [Ed: As Chaos correctly observes, after surviving an inferior opening, Andy Lee had winning chances against Gauri Shankar on board 4, before 45. Re4?? allowed the stunning 45. ..Reb3! which converted the game into a holdable R+P endgame.] San Francisco's best chance to level the match seemed to be on board 2, where FM Daniel Naroditsky was squeezing early MVP candidate IM Florin Felecan in a Pirc. In the position below, the prophylactic 14. c3! would have prevented Felecan's equalizing plan of Na6-b4 and d6-d5 and given white an opportunity to exploit the advantage indicated by his bishop pair and extra space. Instead, after 14. 0-0 Nb4! 15. Bc4 d5 16. Bb3 Nb6, black had untangled and comfortably held the draw.

Also of note was FM Steven Zierk's cute defensive move 18. ..h6!? (see diagram) against IM Angelo Young creating a rare sight - tripled e-pawns after 19. Ne4 Ne4 20. fe. Though Young played on for an additional 79 moves, once Zierk's king reached e6, the drawish outcome was never in doubt. [Ed: As correctly pointed out by Chaos in the comments, Young had a winning opportunity late in the game, but only after a gross blunder by Zierk - the endgame itself was drawn until that point.]

Week 3: Back on Track

2010-09-08T05:47:00.000-07:00

The New York Knights moved back above .500 with a convincing 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Inventors.

In a year where, through two weeks, black has scored 59% the Knights have been the outlier, scoring 3.5/4 with the white pieces. Last night continued that trend as the Knights won convincingly on boards 1 and 3, while holding draws from initially dubious positions on boards 2 and 4. Let's go to the games!

Board 4 was the first to finish as Justus Williams, making his Knight/USCL debut, introduced the league to his dynamic style with an intriguing opening pawn sacrifice against IM Richard Costigan.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. c3 Bg7 4. d4 cd 5. cd d5 6. ed!?

White transposes to a Panov-like structure. 6. e5 was another alternative.

6. ..Nf6 7. Bb5 Nbd7 8. d6

First played by the great David Bronstein in 1961 against Istvan Bilek.

8. ..0-0!

Exclaim for style! 8. ..ed promised a very dry game after 9. Qe2 Qe7 10. Qe7 Ke7.

9. de Qe7 10. Be2 Re8 11. Nc3 b5!

11. ..Ne4 held the possibility of a quick draw after 12. Ne4 Qe4 13. Be3 Nb6 14. Bd3 Qd5 15. 0-0 Bg4 16. Be2 Nc4 17. Bc4 Qc4 18. Ne5! (Arribas Robaina-Mellado Trivino, Hostafrancs 2002)

12. a3 Nb6!?

More traditional was 12. ..Bb7 denying white the e5 square. After 13. 0-0 a6, black has decent compensation for the pawn.

13. 0-0 a6 14. Ne5 Bb7 15. Bf3 Rad8 16. Nc6 Bc6 17. Bc6 Rf8 18. Bf4 Nh5 19. Be3 Nc4 20. Qe2 Qd6 21. Bf3?!

21. d5 seemed better, though after 21. ..Bc3 22. bc Ne3 23. fe Nf6 24. e4 Qe5, black's dark squared blockade ought to be enough to hold. Now the initiative passes to black.

21. ..Nf4! 22. Qc2 Bd4 23. Bd4 Qd4 24. Rfd1 Qf6 25. Rd8 Rd8 26. Rd1 Rd1 27. Bd1?

27. Nd1 offered the possibility of entangling white's queenside.

27. ..Ne6?!

After 27. ..Qd4, re-centralizing the queen, white would find it difficult to move.

28. Qe2 Kg7?!

28. ..Nd4 was more logical.

29. g3 Nd4 30. Qe4 Nd2 31. Qe3 Nc4 32. Qe4 Ne6 33. Qe2 Nd4 34. Qe4 0.5 : 0.5

Irina's game was next to finish, a smooth win and a great start to her season.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5 3. de d4 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. a3 Nge7 6. b4 Ng6 7. Bb2 Nce5?!

Including 7. ..a5 8. b5 is a critical nuance.

8. Ne5 Ne5 9. e3 Be6 10. c5 Ng4

10. ..Nc6 11. ed Be7 seemed to offer black some counterplay on the d-file

11. Bd4 Qh4 12. g3 Qh6 13. Bg2 c6 14. b5 Bd7 15. h3 Nf6 16. bc Bc6 17. Bc6 bc 18. Qf3 Nd7 19. 0-0 Be7 20. Nd2 0-0 21. Kg2 Rab8 22. Rac1 Rfd8 23. Rfd1 Bf8 24. Ne4 Qg6 25. Nd6! Nc5 26. Bc5 Bd6 27. Ba7 Ra8 28. Bb6 Ba3 29. Rc6 1:0

Giorgi won an easy game on the white side of a Kings Indian, as Smith's pawn pushes on the queenside accelerated white's play.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 0-0 6. Nf3 e5 7. 0-0 Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. Ne1 Nd7 10. Be3 f5 11. f3 f4 12. Bf2 g5 13. Rc1 a5? 14. a3 Ng6 15. Nd3 b6 16. b4 Nf6 17. c5 ab 18. ab bc 19. bc Rf7 20. cd cd 21. Nb4 h5 22. Nc6 Qf8 23. Na4 Bb7 24. Nb6 Ra2 25. Bc4 Ra3 26. Rc2!

26. ..g4 27. Qc1 Re3! 28. Be3 fe 29. Qe3 Bh6 30. Qe1 gf?! 31. Rf3 Ng4 32. Rcc3 Bf4 33. g3 Bg5 34. Be2 Nf6 35. Bf1 Qh6 36. Nc4 Rg7 37. Rb3 h4 38. Nd6 hg 39. Rg3 Bd2 40. Qf2 Bf4 41. Nf5 1:0

Fed held the worse end of a draw against Bartell.

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. d4 Bg7 4. g3 O-O 5. Bg2 d5 6. cd Nd5 7. O-O Nb6 8. Nc3 Nc6 9. e3 Re8 10. Re1 h6!?

10. ..a5 is standard, with the idea of 11. Qe2 e5 12. Ne5 Ne5 13. de Be5 14. e4 Be6 15. f4 Bc3! (Bocharov-Nepomniachtchi, Russia Higher League 2010)

11. Qe2

Now 11. ..e5 doesn't work as h6 is exposed after an eventual e3-e4.

11. ..a5 12. Rd1 a4 13. Ne5! Bd7 14. Nd7 Qd7 15. Ne4 Qc8 16. Bd2 e5 17. de Be5 18. Bc3 Bc3 19. Nc3 Ra5 20. Rac1 Qe6 21. Ne4 Qe7 22. h4 Re5 23. Nc3 Qe6 24. Nb5 Qa2 25. Bc6 bc 26. Rc6 Nd5 27. Nc7 Nc7 28. Rc7 Rb8 29. Qc2

Black needs to find 29. ..Rd5 to hold the balance. Instead...

29. ..Ree8?! 30. Rd6! Re6 31. Rc8 Rc8 32. Qc8 Kh7 33. Re6 fe 34. Qd7 Kg8 35. Qe8 Kg7 36. Qe7 Kg8 37. Qf6 Qb1 38. Kh2 Qe4

39. f3! Qc2 40. Kh3 and white will win another pawn, though the position remains difficult. Bartell tries a different path, but Fed's careful defense holds the draw.

39. Qd4?! Qc2 40. Kg2 h5 41. e4 Qc6 42. Kf3 Kf7 43. Kf4 Qc7 44. e5 Qc1 45. Kf3 Qc6 46. Ke2 Qc2 47. Kf1 Qc1 48. Kg2 Qc6 49. Kh2 Kg7 50. Qa7 Kg8 51. Qd4 Kg7 52. Qf4 Qb6 53. Qd2 Qc6 54. Kg1 Kh7 55. Qe2 Qc1 56. Kh2 Qc5 57. f3 Qd4 58. g4 Qf4+ 59. Kg2 Kh6 60. Kh3 Qc1 61. Kg2 Qf4 62. Kh3 Qc1 63. Kg2 0.5 : 0.5

Labor Day Action

2010-09-07T04:29:00.000-07:00

It was quite an active and successful Labor Day weekend for participants in the USCL. The New York State Championship was shared by GM Joel Benjamin (NJ Knockouts) and IM Marc Esserman (Boston Blitz) who both scored an undefeated 5/6, drawing their individual encounter.

Shocking the world, however, was NY Knight board 4 NM Alex Ostrovskiy who took clear third with 4.5/6, losing only to Benjamin while drawing GM Mark Paragua and beating fellow Knight FM Alec Getz. As the highest scoring NY State resident (Benjamin is from NJ and Esserman is from MA), Alex is the 2010 New York State Champion! Knight legend IM Jay Bonin scored an undefeated 3.5/6 to tie for 7th.

Further from home, GM Pascal Charbonneau won the "Battle at the Border" tournament in Alberta, Canada with a 5.5/6 score, defeating world #15 GM Hikaru Nakamura (St. Louis Archbishops)!

Yours truly tied with IM Ilya Figler with 4.5/5 to win the Marshall Labor Day tournament.

Week 3 Preview

2010-09-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Looks like Arun Sharma will not get his wish, for this week at least (see the last blog post).

In week 3, the Knights (1-1, 5.5) will take on the Philadelphia Inventors (1-1, 4.5), looking to bounce back from our first loss of the season. Philadelphia is also coming off their first loss, a 2.5-1.5 decision against Boston, proving once again that chess strength is not transitive (we beat Boston who beat Philly who beat NJ who beat us).

On board 1, GM Giorgi Kacheishvili faces IM Bryan Smith, a dangerous tournament player who has scored a number of victories in the last 12 months, including an undefeated 7/9 performance en route to winning the 2010 Philadelphia Open, undefeated =2nd at the 2010 Liberty Bell Open, =2nd at the 2009 Eastern Open and =1st at the 2009 National Chess Congress (where he defeated your author in a complicated round 3 game on board 1). Smith scored a shocking upset victory in week 7 with the black pieces against Giorgi last year, so expect both players to be out for blood.

On board 2, we see the return of legendary GM John Fedorowicz against FM Thomas Bartell, who is off to a 2/2 start (both wins with the black pieces), including his monumental upset of GM Boris Gulko in week 1 that has him tied for 1st in the MVP race. Fedorowicz and Bartell have faced twice in USCL history. John had a smooth win with the white pieces in 2008 and unfortunately missed a winning continuation last year en route to a draw with the black pieces in his only showing for the Knights. Should be quite a battle.

On board 3, Knights manager and 2010 US Women's Champion IM Irina Krush makes her 2010 debut with the white pieces against FM Karl Dehmelt. Dehmelt, who is nearly as old as Philly's board 1 and 2 combined, won a sizzling game in round 1, defeating Arthur Shen with a violent kingside attack after sacrificing/blundering a pawn in the opening.

On board 4, Justus Williams, the #5 ranked 12 year old in the country, makes his USCL debut against veteran IM Richard Costigan. Costigan's 41 games make him one of the most active USCL players, though his activity has leveled off the last two years. His career record is only 3/8 against the Knights, but in 2006 he scored an upset against GM Pascal Charbonneau in week 1 and drew IM Irina Krush in week 10 to bookend an impressive season. Justus may be the key to this match, as an upset (either draw or win) with the black pieces would put significant pressure on Philadelphia's top 3 boards.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Week 2: Bloodied

2010-08-31T04:13:00.000-07:00

It was impossible to top the score and difficult to surpass the emanating expectations from our week 1 whitewash of the Boston Blitz. Our regular season nemesis, the New Jersey Knockouts, was just the team to bring us back to earth, defeating us 2.5-1.5.

Never lacking in drama, the match went deep into Monday night, as the drawn game on board 2, coupled with an exchange of wins on 1 and 4 left FM Alec Getz battling FM Victor Shen in a complicated and exciting game that frayed nerves (most notably Alex Katz's and mine, prompting League VP Arun Sharma to request that at least one of us play next week!) and was classic USCL.

In the end, Victor Shen continued his dominance of the Knights and scored the winning points for New Jersey.

On board 1, GM Boris Gulko won a smooth game against GM Giorgi Kacheishvili, but nearly let things slip at the end!

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 c5 6. Nf3 d5 7. O-O cd 8. ed dc 9. Bc4 b6 10. Bg5 Bb7 11. Re1 Nc6 12. a3 Be7 13. Qd3 h6 14. Bf4
Bd6 15. Bd2 Rc8 16. Rad1 Rc7?!

16. ..Bb8 felt more circumspect, preparing to meet 17. d5 with 17. ..Na5 and the tactics are OK for black, with mass exchanges looming.

17. d5! ed 18. Nd5 Nd5 19. Bd5 Ne7 20. Be4!
Be4 21. Qe4

The symmetrical pawn structure should guarantee equality if black can untangle his slightly awkward pieces. Gulko makes that job near-impossible!

21. ..Rd7 22. Bc3 Ng6 23. Qg4 Kh7 24. g3!

Ending all pretense of Bh2 tactics and killing prospects for black's Ng6.

24. ..f5 25. Qa4

Also possible is 25. Qh5!, after which it's hard to find a single move for black!

25. ..f4 26. Re6 fg
27. Qe4 gf

The last dramatic moment of the game. 28. Kg2! ends matters cleanly. Instead...

28. Kf1??

Leaving the door open to a fantastic shot for black!

28. ..Bc5??

Giorgi misses his chance with this very logical move. Instead 28. ..Be5!! allows black to fight for a draw. If 29. Rd7 Qd7 30. Qg6 Kg8 then white is forced to play 31. Kf2 Qd5 32. Re5 Qf3 33. Ke1 Qf1 34. Kd2 Rf2 35. Ke3 Rf3 36. Kd4 Qd1 37. Kc4 Qa4 and now white has two choices. If 38. Bb4 Qb3 39. Kb5 a6! 40. Ka6 Qa4 41. Kb7 Qd7 is a perpetual as the b6 pawn is taboo. If 38. Kd5 Qd7, white must return to c4. If 38. b4 b5! 39. Rb5 Rc3 40. Kc3 Qb5, white is nominally better in the Q+P endgame, but it should be drawn. 29. Qg6 Kg8 30. Be5 Rd1 31. Kf2 Rf3! is also drawn.

29. Rd2?! Rff7?

29. ..Qc8! offered more resistance.

30. Qg6 Kg8 31. Bg7 Rg7 32. Re8 1:0

On board 2, GM Alex Lenderman was unable to generate a significant edge against IM Dean Ippolito and was arguably worse before accepting Dean's draw offer.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 dc 5. Bg2 c5 6. O-O Nc6 7. dc Qd1 8. Rd1 Bc5 9. Nbd2 c3 10. bc O-O 11. Nb3 Be7 12. Nfd4 Bd7 13. Nc6 Bc6 14.
Bc6 bc 15. Na5 Rfc8 16. Bg5 Bd8 17. Nc4 Ne4 18. Bd8 Rd8 19. Rd8 Rd8
20. Rc1 Rd5 21. Rc2 Kf8 22. Nb2 Ra5 23. Nd3 Ra3 24. c4 f6 0.5:0.5

On board 4, NM Alex Ostrovskiy moved to 2-0 with a fine victory over FM Arthur Shen.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd 4. Nd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nde2 Be7 8. Ng3 Be6 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O d5 11. ed Nd5 12. Nd5 Bd5 13. Nf5 Be6 14.
Qd8 Bd8 15. Nd6

Despite achieving the d6-d5 break, black has some problems in this endgame. The b7 and e5 pawns are weak, the queenside is a bit tricky to develop and white's majority is looming.

15. ..Bd5 16. Rfd1 Bc6 17. Nc4!?
Nd7 18. a4 Bc7 19. Bf3 Rad8?

It is a testament to the subtlety of this position and the depth of Alex's plan that this move is a blunder. A better try was 19. ..Nf6.

20.
Bc6 bc 21. a5! f5 22. Bb6! Bb6 23. ab

White has a dangerous passed pawn on b6, juicy weaknesses to target on a6/c6, phenomenal squares for the c4 N and a winning edge.

23. ..e4 24. Kf1!?

24. Ra6 was met by 24. ..Nb6! but 24. g4! both creates luft (threatening Ra6) and further damages black's already tattered pawn structure.

24. ..Nb8 25. Nd6 Rf6 26. Nb7
Rd7 27. Nc5

Another fantastic maneuver! GM Alex Yermolinsky eventually remarked that white was playing like a 2700 FIDE!

27. ..Rd5 28. b4 Rfd6 29. Rd5 cd 30. b5 Rb6 31. ba Na6 32. Ra6

And the rest is a mop-up!

32. ..Rb2 33. Rd6 Rc2 34. Rd5 g6 35. Nb3 Rc3 36. Nd2 Rc7 37. Ke2 Kf7 38. Rd4 Kf6
39. Rc4 Ra7 40. Rc2 Ra6 41. Nc4 h6 42. Ke3 Ra1 43. Kd4 Rg1 44. Ne3 Ra1 45.
h4 Ra4 46. Rc4 Ra2 47. Rc6 Kf7 48. Rc2 Ra5 49. Nd5 Ra4 50. Ke5 e3 51.
Rc7 Ke8 52. Ne3 Rh4 53. Rc4 Rh5 54. Ke6 Kd8 55. Nd5 Rh1 56. Kf6 Rf1 57.
Nb6 Rf2 58. Rc8#! 1:0

Board 3 - not the cleanest, but certainly the most exciting - was a slugfest between FM Alec Getz and FM Victor Shen, with Shen landing the knockout.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cd 4. Nd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nf3 h6 8. O-O Be7 9. Re1 O-O 10. h3 Be6 11. Bf1 Rc8 12. Nd5 Bd5 13. ed Nb4 14. c4
a5 15. a3 Na6 16. Bd2 Nd7 17. b4 f5 18. Qb3 Bf6 19. Bc3 Qb6 20. Nd2 ab 21.
ab e4 22. Bf6 Rf6 23. Rab1 Ne5 24. Qc3 Qc7 25. Qe3 Qf7 26. Kh1 Qh5 27.
Rb3 Qh4 28. Kg1 Rg6 29. Rc1 Nc7 30. Qd4
Ne8 31. c5 Nf6 32. Rbc3 Ra8 33. c6
Kh7

34. c7!?

Roundly criticized by the kibitzers, but 34. cb Rb8 35. Qa7 Nfd7 36. Rc8 e3!! gives black some life.

34. ..Rc8 35. b5 b6!?

Worth a shot in time pressure (Shen down to 2 minutes). White should "sacrifice" the exchange with 36. Qb6 Nd5 as the queenside pawns are soon irresistible. Instead, Getz's bluff works and he has a chance to gain the advantage.

36. Ra1? Nfd7! 37. Ra7 Nc5?!

Shen doesn't ignore a second opportunity and plays the intuitive exchange sacrifice. 37. ..Qf6! was called for and with Shen down to 70 seconds, black would be for choice.

38. Rc5! bc 39. Qe3 Nd7?

39. ..Qe7! 40. b6 Nd7 41. Qb3 Nb6!! 42. Qb6 e3! and black has at least a perpetual.

40. Nc4 Qe7 41. Qb3 f4 42. b6 e3 43. Bd3 e2 44. Bg6 Kh8!?

44. ..Kg6 45. Qb1! Kf7 46. Ra1! g6 47. Kh2! f3! 48. Qb3 also works for white

45. Ra1!?

Shen makes the pragmatic decision, but glory was to be had with 45. b7!! e1Q 46. Kh2 Rf8 47. Qf3! (diagram) when an extra queen cannot save black!

45. ..e1Q 46.
Re1 Qe1 47. Kh2 Nb6 48. Nd6 Qf2 49. Nc8 Nc8 50. Bf5 c4 51. Qc3?! f3!
52. Qf3 Qc5 53. Qf4

53. ..Nb6?

53. ..Nd6!? would have forced white to find the only move 54. Bg6! and created the 54. Qd6?? Qd6+! swindle possibility.

54. d6 Nd5 55. Qe5! 1:0

Week 2 Preview

2010-08-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

The Knights kickoff week 2 against the New Jersey Knockouts at 7PM on Monday night. Last year, New Jersey triumphed in both regular season matches but the Knights emerged victorious in the Eastern finals on their way to their first USCL championship.

On board 1, GM Giorgi Kacheishvili makes his return against the incomparable GM Boris Gulko (only Soviet and US champion, winning record against Kasparov, before last week 8-0 in league play). Giorgi's blitz heroics clinched the title last year and he's been an anchor for the team. This is the first-ever game between the two and Gulko is looking to get back in the win column after losing to FM Tom Bartell last week.

GM Alex Lenderman faces IM Dean Ippolito on board 2. Alex had an impressive debut for the Knights last week, defeating GM Larry Christiansen, while Ippolito is playing his first game of the 2010 USCL season for New Jersey. Alex's week 7 victory over Ippolito netted him GOTW in 2008, though Dean held him to a draw in week 2 last year.

FM Alec Getz and NM Alex Ostrovskiy play the super-dangerous Shen brothers (FM Victor and FM Arthur) on boards 3 and 4. Alec and Alex are coming off impressive week 1 victories against Boston. Victor played sparingly in 2009, but made the most of his games, defeating yours truly, All-Star IM Marc Esserman and IM Richard Costigan. Arthur made NM Yaacov Norowitz sweat out his USCL debut before faltering in time pressure.

Expect some hard-fought games!

Day 1b - League Roundup

2010-08-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

Time pressure and insane swings were the name of the game on Wednesday night.

The newly minted Manhattan Applesauce got things going against the always dangerous Carolina Cobras with a 2.5-1.5 victory. Due to a last-minute lineup change, Carolina was down a half-hour on two boards, but very nearly pulled off the upset. IM Jonathan Schroer pressed IM Dmitry Schneider on board 1 but could only draw, while NM Craig Jones overcame his time deficit to stun SM Greg Braylovsky on board 3. Manhattan's board 2, IM Eli Vovsha, provided the winning margin with his epic Grunfeld victory over FM Ron Simpson, but the real turning point in the match was on board 4, where Carolina's NM Udayan Bapat was pressing Manhattan's James Black on the white side of an Alapin Sicilian.

Bapat had gotten the better of Black, but in early time pressure (down to 18 minutes), he bashed out 23. Be4?!, missing the more immediate win to be had with 23. Re3! g6 24. Rh3 Kg7 25. Qc1! Nf5 26. Bc5 Bd5 27. Be3 Ne3 28. Qe3 and the threats of Qe3-h6 and c3-c4 should force black to resign.

Bapat was given another chance to end matters on move 28.

Still deep in time pressure, Bapat instantly took on b7, missing the crushing 28. Qf4! - after 28. ..Kg7 29. Rf3 Rf8, White would have a pleasant choice between the prosaic 30. Bf8 or the spectacular 30. Rh3 Rh8 31. Bf8!! (an incredible deflection) forcing mate as black cannot continue to cover both f6/h8.

Bapat unfortunately missed one more chance to end things on move 30 (Rd5!) and then tragedy struck. With Black drumming up kingside counterplay, Bapat looked to force a queen trade.

Black didn't miss his opportunity, responding to 32. Qc1 with the crushing sequence 32. ..Nf4! 33. Rg3 Ne2! winning a rook and the game.

The New England Nor'easters won their debut match against the Baltimore Kingfishers by a 2.5-1.5 margin, with smooth wins on boards 1 and 2 compensating for a wild loss on board 4.

Baltimore's NM Ian Shoch crazy rook sacrifice (rather forced from a practical standpoint, given his weaknesses on d4 and f4 and the match situation) on move 23 finally paid dividends as New England's FM Christopher Chase sense of danger betrayed him on move 31

Chase had navigated a tricky defense well and only needed 31. ..Rd5! to end matters. Instead, he went for 31. ..Na5 and after 32. Qh3 Kg7 33. Ne3! he was lost.

Everything went the San Francisco Mechanics' way against two-time league champion Dallas Destiny, looking to return to their former glory after missing the playoffs last year. After scoring an easy 2.5/3 on the bottom three boards to clinch the match, board 1 fell into their hands in incredible fashion.

Dallas' IM Puchen Wang had played a very nice game til this point, but spoiled things with 50. ..Ne6?? (50. ..Rd5 maintained the pawn advantage, though white can still fight for a draw) and after 51. Rf5 was forced to resign giving San Francisco's GM Patrick Wolff the full point.

The Arizona Scorpions kicked off their 2010 campaign by defeating the defending Western Conference champion Miami Sharks 2.5-1.5, behind IM Danny Rensch's masterpiece on board 3 against FM Eric Rodriguez and IM Dionisio Aldama's mating attack on board 2 against IM Blas Lugo.

Aldama has just played 30. Ndf5! leaving Lugo with a difficult decision and only 2 minutes left. Lugo needed to find 30. ..Qf4! guarding h6, hitting f2 and stopping white's attack in its tracks. Instead, after 30. ..Bc2?? 31. Nh6 Kg7, white had a surfeit of options: 32. Qd6 (played in the game) or 32. Nef5!! forcing mate. Aldama forced resignation on move 43.

A Night of Firsts

2010-08-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

That went well. The Knights began their title defense with their first ever 4-0 match victory, stunning their fiercest rivals, the Boston Blitz.

Three new Knights scored their first wins for New York and Pascal strengthened his already absurd record against Boston.

GM Alex Lenderman got things going on board 1, with a smooth victory over GM Larry Christiansen.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 0-0 6. Be2 e5 7. 0-0 Nbd7 8. Re1 a5 9. Bf1 c6

This line has a decent pedigree for black, with super-GMs Peter Svidler and Vasily Ivanchuk championing it as recently as December 2009.

10. d5 Nc5 11. Bg5 h6 12. Bh4 g5 13. Bg3 cd 14. cd Bg4 15. Rc1 Rc8 16. h3 Bh5 17. Bh2 g4!?

A committal choice from Christiansen.

18. hg Bg4 19. Qd2?!

19. ..Nh7?

19. ..Bd7! takes advantage of white's inability to properly overprotect the e4 pawn, making b7-b5 possible.

20. Qe3! Kh8 21. Nd2 f5 22. ef Bf5 23. Nc4 Nf6 24. f3!

Alex restricts black's Nf6 and his pieces quickly take up optimal squares.

24. ..Bh7 25. Nb5! Nd5 26. Qd2 Nf4 27. Bf4 ef 28. Ncd6 b6 29. Rcd1!

White's knights and heavy pieces control the center.

29. ..Bg8 30. Nc8 Qc8 31. Nd6 Qb8 32. Bc4! Bc4 33. Nc4 b5 34. Nd6 Na4 35. Re7! Qb6 36. Qf2 Qc6 37. Nf7 Kg8 38. Nd8!

What a career!

38. ..Qg6 39. Ne6 Bb2 40. Nf8 Kf8 41. Rb7 1:0

On board 2, Pascal, playing on minimal sleep dispatched SM Denys Shmelov

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. f3 0-0 5. e4 d5 6. cd ed 7. e5 Nfd7 8. a3 Bc3 9. bc f6 10. ef Qf6 11. Ne2 Nb6 12. Nf4 c5

13. dc?

13. a4!? (Aleksandrov-Kravtsiv 2010) appears to be superior, with the idea a4-a5, driving away d5's defense.

13. ..Qc3! 14. Kf2 Qc5 15. Be3 Qd6 16. Rc1 N8d7 17. g3 g5 18. Nd3 h6 19. Kg2 Nc4 20. Bd4 Nf6 21. Nf2 b5

22. Qd3?

The natural 22. Bd3 seems to give white a decent position.

22. ..Nh5 23. Qb3 a6 24. Bd3 Ng7 25. Rhe1 Nf5 26. Bf5 Bf5 27. Rcd1 Rf7 28. Ba1? Qa3! 29. Qa3 Na3 30. g4 Bd7 31. Re5 Nc4 32. Re2 Raf8 33. Rd3 b4 34. Ra2 a5 35. Rd5?

Following the game, Pascal said that his initial reaction "..was Bd7-c6, but then I saw something better"

35. ..Ne3 0:1

On board 3, Alec won a very nice positional game against NM Vadim Martirosov

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 Bb4 5. Bd2 Be7 6. Bg2 0-0 7. 0-0 c6 8. Qc2 b6 9. Rd1 Bb7 10. Nc3 Na6 11. a3 Rc8 12. Bf4 dc 13. Ne5 Nd5 14. Nc4 Nf4 15. gf Nc7 16. e3 Nd5 17. Rac1 Rc7 18. Ne5 Bd6 19. Ne4 f6 20. Nd6 Qd6 21. Nc4 Qe7 22. b4 Rfc8 23. f5 Kh8 24. fe Qe6 25. Qe4 Qd7 26. Qh4 Rd8 27. e4 Ne7 28. Qg3 Nc8 29. e5 Ba6 30. Ne3 Ne7 31. d5! Nf5 32. Nf5 Qf5 33. ef Rf7 34. dc Rd1?

34. ..Rdf8 put up more resistance. Now white finishes in style!

35. Rd1 Qf6 36. Qb8 Rf8 37. Qf8!! Qf8 38. c7 1:0

Alex Ostrovskiy capped the night by defeating Ilya Krasik with the black pieces on board 4.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cd cd 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Bf4 Nc6 6. e3 a6 7. Bd3 Bg4 8. f3 Bh5 9. g4 Bg6 10. h4 Bd3 11. Qd3 e6 12. Nge2 Nd7 13. Bg3 b5 14. Rc1 Rc8 15. Kf2 Nb6 16. a4 Nc4 17. Qb1 b4 18. Ne4 N6a5! 19. Ng5 h6

20. b3?

20. Ne6!? fe 21. Nf4 Qf6 22. b3 recovers the piece for white and keeps him in the game.

20. ..hg 21. bc gh 22. Be5 Nc4 23. Qd3 a5 24. Nf4 Rh6 25. g5

Supposedly a "smart-move" slip, but likely the best anyway.

25. ..Qg5 26. Rcg1 Qe7 27. Bg7 Bg7 28. Rg7

28. ..Kd7?

Giving away the win! 28. ..h3! is much more direct, preventing white from easily coordinating his pieces.

29. Rcg1?

Krasik sees the right idea...one move too late.

29. Nd5!! ed 30. Qf5 Qe6 31. Rf7 Kd6 32. Qf4 Kc6 33. Rc4!! dc 34. d5!! Qd5 35. Qh6 Kc5 36. Ra7! Qd2 (only) 37. Kf1 Qd1 38. Kf2 and black can either immediately force a perpetual, or try to play for a win with 38. ..b3 but white has the saving 39. Rb7! and black must go for the draw.

29. ..h3 30. Nd5 ed 31. Qf5 Qe6 32. Rf7 Kd6??

Giving white another chance to draw. Much better was 32. ..Kc6! preventing white from repositioning his Q to the optimal f4 square with tempo.

33. Qf4 Kc6 34. e4??

Krasik's last chance was 34. Rg8!! Qe3 35. Qe3 Ne3 36. Rc8, though white must take the perpetual due to the strength of black's h-pawn.

34. ..Qd6?

34. ..Kb6 would have made life a lot easier

35. ed?

Looks dangerous, but 34. e5! forced black to give back the piece with Ne5. If black was greedy with 34. ..Qe6 35. Re7!! Qe7 36. Qh6 Kb7 37. Rg7 leads to a crazy position where black's passed pawns should be enough to hold off the white queen.

35. ..Kb6 36. Rgg7 Rb8 37. Qc1 Qh2 38. Kf1 Nd2 39. Ke1 Re8 40. Kd1 Qe2 41. Kc2 Nc4 42. Kb1 Qd3 43. Ka1 Qd4 44. Kb1 Na3!

The queen will guard a7 after the king moves to a6.

45. Qa3 0:1

USCL 2010!

2010-08-21T04:50:00.001-07:00

A new season is upon us. The last time the New York Knights were in action, Giorgi Kacheishvili was conducting the black pieces in an Armageddon blitz game against Miami's Julio Becerra. With the clock well past midnight, Giorgi converted a better position in a Sicilian and brought the 2009 USCL title to New York.

Eight and a half months later, the USCL has three new teams (New England, St. Louis and Los Angeles) and unfortunately lost its Tennessee franchise.

The Knights have undergone some changes, turning over half the roster by adding GM Alex Lenderman, FM Alec Getz and the 3-headed board 4 of NM Alex Ostrovskiy, Justus Williams and Alexander Katz.

We lost Knights veteran and US Chess legend IM Jay Bonin, 2009 Rookie of the Year Yaacov Norowitz (surely the league's most underrated player last year and one of the world's best blitz players), NM Evan Rosenberg (whose stunning performance at the New York International in June netted him an IM norm) and NM Raven Sturt.

As the USCL has abolished the "alternate" roster spots, we also said goodbye to SM Greg Braylovsky (a Knight legend from the earliest days of the USCL who has taken his talents to the Manhattan Applesauce) and SM Igor Sorkin.

To kick-off the season, the Knights have the "home court" against their long-time rivals, the Boston Blitz. The Knights defeated the Blitz last year en route to the championship and lead the series 6.5-5.5.

Board 1 features USCL powerhouse GM Alex Lenderman (11/12 in league play, 2/2 against GMs) against living legend GM Larry Christiansen (3-time US Champion, 20.5/34 in league play). Christiansen's wild game against Giorgi in last year's playoffs proved to be a deciding factor in sending NY to the semifinals.

Board 2 sees noted Boston-killer GM Pascal Charbonneau (6.5/8 all-time against Boston) against SM Denys Shmelov. Pascal recently had a disappointing performance in New England (http://main.uschess.org/content/view/10621/598/) and is sure to want to score some regional revenge.

FM Alec Getz (#4 rated 16-yr old in the US) makes his debut for the Knights on board 3 against Boston veteran NM Vadim Martirosov (who beat your author in last year's quarterfinals in a crazy game). Alec is in the middle of an impressive year, winning the National High School Championship and netting an IM norm with 5.5/9 at the Philadelphia Open a few months ago.

NM Alex Ostrovskiy is playing his first game for the New York Knights against the ever-quotable and dangerous NM Ilya Krasik on board 4. Alex gained an incredible 228 rating points in 11 months (June 2009 - May 2010) to become the #2 rated 14-yr old in the US, trailing only San Francisco's FM Daniel Naroditsky.

Unless I am mistaken, it appears to be the first time that any of these individual matchups has occurred, so look out for some fireworks!

Champions!

2009-12-08T12:06:00.000-08:00

...It was past 1:00 am and Giorgi was getting ready to play black in a sudden death heads-up match against Miami's board 1, Julio Becerra. Memories of our 2006 final against San Francisco rushed back, when Pascal was in a similar situation with the black pieces against Josh Friedel. But that's getting ahead of myself.

(approximately 7 hours earlier)

The New York Knights and Miami Sharks had similar paths to the final, overcoming draw odds and "upsetting" higher seeded teams to win their respective conferences after middling regular seasons. There were no lineup surprises from our end, as we went with the dynamic GM tandem of Giorgi Kacheishvili and Pascal Charbonneau on 1 and 2, legendary blitz specialist Yaacov Norowitz on 4 and I rounded things out on board 3. Miami's board 1 was no shocker as GM Julio Becerra has been the best and most prolific overall performer in USCL history, despite a subpar 2009 regular season. Miami put veteran IMs Blas Lugo and Alejandro Moreno Roman (a fantastic name!) on 2 and 3. Their lineup was capped by one of the league's most consistent and strongest board 4s, NM Eric Rodriguez, an opponent I've faced since our days in Florida as far back as 1996!

Board 1 saw Julio launch a vicious attack against Giorgi's trademark Caro-Kann.

Becerra - Kacheishvili

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 c5 6. Be3 cd 7. Nd4 Ne7 8. c4 dc!?

Standard is 8. ..Nbc6 9. Qa4 a6 10. Nc3 dc 11. 0-0-0 where popular choices are 11. ..Qa5 and 11. ..Qc8 with a full battle ahead.

9. Qa4 Qd7 10. Nb5 Nd5 11. N1c3 Bb4 12. 0-0-0!? Bc3 13. Nd6 Kf8 14. Qc4 Be5 15. Nf5 Na6!?

This move looks logical, covering the b4 and c5 squares and threatening Ra8-c8, but also worth considering was 15. ..Nc6 16. Bc5 Kg8 17. Kb1 Qc7 18. Ne3!? Nb6! and black seems like he'll untangle with g7-g6 and Kg8-g7.

16. Bc5 Ke8 17. Kb1 Rc8 18. Qe4 Rc5

Also possible was 18. ..Nc5 19. Qe5 f6 20. Qd4 ef 21. Rhe1 Kf7 22. Bc4 Rhe8 23. Bd5 Kf8 and black is holding.

19. Qe5 f6 20. Qd4 Ra5 21. Bc4 Nac7 22. Ne3 Kf7 23. Bb3 Rd8 24. Qh4 Kg8 25. Rhe1 Ra6 26. f4 g6 27. g4!?

Also interesting was the direct 27. f5 gf 28. g4 f4 29. Nd5 ed 30. Qf2 when white will mop-up black's pawns or 29. ..Nd5 30. g5! f5 31. g6!! and black's position collapses.

27. ..Kg7?

27. ..Rd6! offered holding chances. Now white is winning.

28. f5! Qf7 29. g5! fg 30. Qg5?!

Tricky, but white could have won a piece with 30. Qd4 Qf6 31. Qf6 Kf6 32. fe Re6 33. Rf1 Kg7 34. Nd5 Nd5 35. Rd5 Rd5 34. Bd5, though black's kingside pawns might have provided some kicking chances. Both players were in deep time pressure.

30. ..Rad6??

Much better was 30. ..Re8!, where if 31. fe Rae6 and the tables are turned on white.

31. fe??

Immediately winning was 31. Nd5 Nd5 32. fe Qf6 33. Rd5! Rd5 34. Qf6 Kf6 35. Bd5 Rd5 36. e7.

Now black could battle on with 31. ..Qf4! 32. Qf4 Nf4 33. Rd6 Rd6 34. e7 Ne8 35. Ba4 Kf7 36. Nc4 Re6 37. Ne5 Ke7 38. Bb3! and black has a pawn for the exchange. Instead, the game ends immediately.

31. ..Qe7?? 32. Nf5! 1:0

So Miami took a 1-0 lead, but other events were transpiring on board 3.

On board 3, Moreno Roman chose a Kramnik specialty against the Slav.

Moreno Roman - Herman

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bf6 Qf6 7. g3!?

More popular are 7. e3 and 7. Qb3/c2

7. ..Nd7 8. Bg2 dc 9. 0-0 e5!?

Vallejo Pons held Kramnik without difficulty after 9. ..Be7 in the 2003 edition of Linares.

10. d5 Nb6 11. Ne4 Qe7 12. dc bc 13. Qc2 Qc7!?

Also possible are 13. ..f5 and 13. ..Qe6 which I had opportunity to play later that night.

14. Ned2 Be6?

14. ..Bd6 15. Nc4 Nc4 16. Qc4 should be +/=

15. Ne5! Qe5 16. Bc6 Bd7!?

I also could have tried 16. ..Ke7 17. Ba8 Na8 18. Nc4 Qc5, but white is in good shape after 19. Rfc1 and it's harder for him to go wrong.

17. Ba8 Na8 18. Nc4 Qe6

The critical juncture in the game. White has a nominal material edge (R+2p vs 2B), but needs to pursue his temporary lead in development if he wants to have a comfortable game. Best was 19. Rfd1! Be7 20. Qd3 when black has trouble getting his pieces out (something I misjudged when playing ..Qc7). Instead, probably based on a miscalculation, white lets his entire edge slip with one move.

19. Nb3? Nb6! 20. Nb6 ab 21. Qc3?!

White was certainly not intending 21. Qe6 fe! or 21. Rfd1 Be7, but he needed to bail out. He likely missed black's simple response.

21. ..Be7!

Of course if 22. Qg7 Bf6 traps the queen.

22. Rfd1 0-0 23. Rac1 Rc8 24. Qd3 Bc6 25. b3 Bc5 26. e3 Re8

The first in a weird sequence where I amazingly refuse to play either Qg4-f3 or Qf5-f3, immediately forcing material gains. This move, with the ideas of eventually taking on e3, preventing e3-e4 and the Re8-e6 lift does nothing to spoil the win, however.

27. Qc4 Qh3?

This can be called a mistake as 27. ..Qf5! 28. Qe2 Qe4 wins on the spot. I'd seen the game continuation, which also wins, though white can give back an exchange at points and grovel down a piece.

28. Qf1 Qg4 29. h3 Qf3 30. Kh2 Re6! 31. Rc4 Bd6! 32. Rcd4 Bc7 33. R4d2 Re3! 34. Rd8 Kh7 35. Qg1 Bd8 36. fe Qe2 0:1

That win tied the match at 1, leaving us with what appeared to be slightly better positions on boards 2 and 4. If only things were that simple...

Board 4 was a matchup of two of the league's best, with Yaacov saving the fight for the middlegame.

Norowitz - Rodriguez

1. d4 Nf6 2. e3 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. Be2 0-0 5. 0-0 d6 6. b3 c5 7. Bb2 b6 8. c4 Bb7 9. Nc3 e6 10. Qc2 Na6 11. Rad1 Qe7 12. Qb1 Rfd8 13. Qa1 Rac8 14. dc Nc5 15. Nd4 a6 16. h3 h6 17. Rfe1 Ne8 18. Rd2 f5 19. Bf3 e5 20. Bb7 Qb7 21. Nc2 b5

Rodriguez gets in the programmed b6-b5 break and has gained space on the kingside. White has the d5 square as compensation.

22. cb ab 23. Nb4 Rd7 24. Red1 g5!?

Black must have believed he needed to win for the team, so went with this commital push. Also possible were waiting moves.

25. Ncd5

I had a preference for 25. Qb1 (on this move and later), eyeing black's weakened kingside light squares

25. ..h5 26. f3 Rf7 27. Rf1 f4 28. Qd1 Qa7 29. Kh1 Bh6 30. Rc2

Yaacov plays prophylactically, removing the R from the c1-h6 diagonal, but also possible was 30. ef! gf 31. Qb1 Kg7 32. Rg1 when it is white who attacks!

30. ..Ng7 31. e4 Nge6 32. Nd3 Rcf8 33. Nc5 Nc5 34. Qe2 Rb8 35. b4 Ne6 36. Rfc1 Qb7?

Safer was 36. ..Bf8

37. Rc6 Bf8

Yaacov's logical play should be crowned with 38. Be5 after which black can practically resign. Instead...

38. a3? Qd7 39. Rb6 Rb6 40. Nb6 Qd8

Eric has neutralized white's queenside probes and begins his kingside counterattack.

41. Nd5 g4! 42. fg?

White's sense of danger deserted him. Easier was 42. Qf2.

42. ..Qh4! 43. gh??

43. Rf1 was called for.

43. ..Rg7??

Throwing away the win and possibly the match. After the thematic 43. ..f3! 44. gf Ng5 45. Rc3 Nh3 46. Rc7 Rf3!! 47. Qf3 Ng5 48. Kg2 Nf3 49. Kf3 Qh3 50. Kf2 Bh6! (white threatened Nf6 and Rh7#) and white cannot save the b2 B or the game.

44. Rf1 Ng5 45. Nf4

45. Qe1! trading queens seemed much better

45. ..ef 46. Bg7 Bg7 47. Qb5 f3! 48. Qe8 Kh7 49. Qg6 Kh8 50. Qe8 Kh7

0.5 : 0.5

After that double-edged battle, the season rested on Pascal's Scotch against IM Blas Lugo.

Charbonneau - Lugo

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cd 4. Nd4 Bc5 5. Be3 Bb6 6. Nf5 Be3 7. Ne3 d6 8. Nc3 Nge7 9. g3

White could also try 9. Qd2 and wait to see where black will place his king.

9. ..0-0 10. Bg2 f5 11. 0-0 Kh8 12. ef Nf5 13. Ncd5 Ne3 14. Ne3 Be6 15. f4 Qd7 16. Qh5 a6 17. Rae1 g6 18. Qd1 Rae8 19. c3 Qf7 20. b3 Qg7 21. Qd2 Re7 22. h3 Rfe8 23. g4 Bf7 24. g5 Be6 25. Kh2 Kg8 26. Ng4 Bg4 27. hg Re1 28. Re1 Re1 29. Qe1 Qd7 30. Kg3 Nd8 31. Bd5 Kf8 32. Qe3 c6 33. Bf3 Ne6 34. f5?!

Perhaps 34. c4 was worth a try.

34. ..gf 35. gf Ng7 36. Qf4 Qf5 37. Qd6 Kf7 38. Qf4?

38. Qc7 Kg6 39. Qb7 Qg5 with a draw had to be better than the game.

38. ..Kg6 39. Qf5 Kf5 40. Kh4 Kf4 41. Bg4 a5??

41. ..Nf5! was a much better try for black. If 42. Bf5 Kf5, the K+p endgame is a win after 43. b4 b6. If 42. Kh5 Ng3 43. Kh4 Ne4 44. Bc8 Nd6, black has a much improved version of the game, as d6 is a much better square for the knight than g7 and should be winning.

42. Bc8

Now 42. ..Nf5 43. Bf5 Kf5 44. c4! is drawn

42. ..b6 43. Bd7 c5 44. a3??

44. c4! Ke3 45. Kg4 Kd4 46. Kf4 Kc3 47. Ke5 Kb2 48. Bg4!! Ka2 49. Bd1! Kb2 50. Kf6 is drawn.

44. .. Kf3??

44. ..Nf5 wins again! 45. Kh5 Ng3 46. Kh6 Ne4 47. Kh7 Kg5 48. Kg7 Kf4! 49. Kf7 Ke5! shoulder blocks the white king and black wins after 50. Bg4 Nc3 51. Ke7 a4 52. ba Nd5 53. Kd7!? Ne3!! 54. Kc6 c4 55. Be2 Ke4!

45. Bc6 Ke3 46. Kg4 Kd3 47. Bd5 Kc3

47. ..a4!? 48. ba Kc3 49. Kf4 c4 50. Bg8 is still drawn, though black has the fun.

48. a4 Kb4 49. Bf7 b5 50. ab Kb5 51. Kf4 a4 52. ba Ka4 53. Ke5 Kb4 54. Bg8 c4 55. Bh7 c3 56. Bd3 Kb3 57. g6 c2 58. Bc2 Kc2

0.5 : 0.5

With that lucky escape, the match was tied at 2 and headed to a blitz tiebreak. As noted on http://www.uschessleague.com/, this is the fourth consecutive year that the finals have gone to a blitz tiebreak (the first being our loss to San Francisco in 2006).

I liked our chances, given that we had three of the world's best blitz players going and I'd also get a free shot. Anything can happen past midnight, though, and in the first game, Yaacov had black against Eric Rodriguez. After a Petrosian-like exchange sacrifice, Yaacov looked to have a comfortable game with dark-square control and a dangerous passed b-pawn. Eric drummed up some impressive counterplay and could have equalized with 42. Bb1!, with ideas of Re6-f6.

Instead, Eric played 42. Rh1 and lost after 42. ..Qc4 as his kingside attack came to nought.

Having eliminated Rodriguez, Yaacov took the white pieces against Moreno Roman. Moreno Roman's 14. ..c5! secured key central dark squares and he gradually dominated the entire position and converted.

With Yaacov gone, I took a crack at Moreno. We repeated our earlier slow game and I "improved" with 13. ..Qe6, but then ensured a difficult defense by capturing 14. ..cb after 14. b3. With perfect squares for all his pieces Moreno soon won back his pawn and was pressing. I defended tenaciously, but missed my one opportunity with 39. ..Nc3! (instead playing 39. ..Qe7?), which would have kept an interesting fight going. Instead, Moreno shortly won and grabbed the black pieces against Pascal.

Pascal again repeated the Scotch, but blundered with 22. h4 and then again with 23. Bb4. He put up admirable resistance, including the spectacular 28. e6, but had lost too many pawns as Moreno scored a stunning upset, bringing Miami one win away from the 2009 title.

In 2006, we were also down to our board 1 (Pascal), who survived a completely lost (forced mate on the board) position against David Pruess and eventually went on to reach the finals against Josh Friedel. This time, Giorgi's task would be tougher. He had to go +3 against strong opposition and started with the black pieces against Moreno.

After 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. d4 Bg7 4. dc Qa5 5. c3 Qc5 6. Na3 d6 7. Nb5 a6 8. Be3 Qc6, Moreno could have gone for 9. Na7!?, securing the two bishops. Instead, after 9. Nfd4, Giorgi got a comfortable position and steadily took control of the game. Moreno dropped a piece with the disastrous 19. Bh6 and lost without much of a fight (though Giorgi missed his first mate in 2 of the blitz tiebreak with 27. ..Rf7 instead of 27. ..Qg1!! (which was also available after 28. Nh4). Mate appeared on the board 7 moves later and next up for Giorgi was IM Blas Lugo.

Blas chose the rare 3. ..Ba5 after 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Bb4 3. Nd5, leading to a crazy position after 4. b4 c6 5. ba cd 6. cd. The dubious 9. ..Na6 was all Giorgi needed to secure a comfortable technical edge, which he converted without consequence (though 24. Rc4! would have won on the spot).

So the entire 2009 season would come down to Becerra vs Kacheishvili.

Becerra - Kacheishvili

1. e4 c5!

No Caro-Kann!

2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cd 4. Nd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Qd2 Be7 8. 0-0-0 Nd4 9. Qd4 0-0 10. f3 a6 11. h4 b5 12. g4?!

Standard is 12. Kb1. Now Giorgi gets an opportunity to transform to a standard Najdorf structure with b5-b4 and e6-e5.

12. ..Qa5 13. Kb1 b4 14. Ne2 e5 15. Qd2 Be6 16. Nc1 Rad8 17. Bf6 Bf6 18. g5 Be7 19. Bh3 Qb6 20. h5 d5 21. Nd3 de 22. fe Rd4 23. Qg2 Bc4 24. g6 Bf6 25. Bf5 a5 26. gf Bf7 27. Nf2 Rd1 28. Rd1 Rd8 29. Nd3 a4 30. Qe2 b3 31. Nc1 ba 32. Ka1 Rb8 33. b3 ab 34. cb Bg5 35. Qb2 Be3 36. Ne2 Bb3 37. Rd3 Bc4 38. Qb6 Rb6 39. Rd2 Ba5?

39. ..Bd4! and mates

40. Ra2 Ba2 41. Ka2 Rb6 42. Nc1 Bc3 43. Nd3 g6 44. hg hg 45. Bg4 Kg7 46. Nc5 Kh6 47. Ne6 Rb2 48. Ka3 Rg2 49. Bd1 g5 50. Kb3 Ba1 51. Kc4 g4 52. Nd8 Kg6 53. Nb7 g3 54. Kd3 Rb2

and Becerra resigned, making the Knights the 2009 US Chess League Champions!

Knights Move Past New Jersey to League Championship: Wrap Up by Irina Krush

2009-11-19T03:32:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

I have to say…I am completely wiped out. And I wasn’t even playing. I think that gives you an idea of how difficult our road to victory was.

The match started off on a good foot. I was pleased to see Yakov’s opponent being “creative” with 1.d4 g6 2.Nf3 Bg7 3.e3 Nh6!?.

Joel tried to surprise Giorgi with the Caro-Kann Fantasy variation, but seemed to be surprised himself with the relatively rare 3…Qb6!? By move five, Giorgi was up about twenty five minutes on the clock, and nothing he hadn’t seen before had showed up on the board. Joel made a fairly surprising decision to recapture on d4 with the queen, instead of the sharper 7.Nxd4, and the game went into a queenless middlegame. I was confident that Giorgi would be adept at handling this kind of position.

Matt’s opening went even better. In fact, it stayed at the “opening” stage for quite some time, since he played his first fifteen moves instantly, while his opponent, Mackenzie Molner, burned through fifty minutes. So we had a huge time advantage on this board, as well as a promising position, as Molner failed to pose any question marks to the 7…Nc6!? variation of the Bg5 Najdorf.

But of course Pascal’s opening caused some worry. The “staid” Four Knights Game became incredibly sharp when Dean chose 4…Nd4, then later 9…0-0-0. Pascal was aware of a Vallejo-Dominguez game from a few years back where White played the safe and natural 10.Be3 and the game ended in what looked like a forced draw. He didn’t want to enter such a line, so he deviated with the plausible move 10.Bc4, but after Black sacced on e4, it started to look really scary…and I was like, please God, don’t let this be an example of another self-immolation with the White pieces. Are we really just going to get crushed in fifteen moves with White, despite playing the Four Knights!?!?

Out of dire necessity, and maybe because he enjoys sacrificing his queen, Pascal pulled 13.Nxd4!? out of his Canadian fur hat. To be honest, I had no idea what sort of compensation he was counting on for the queen. But at least the queen sac changed the nature of the game. White would get a few pieces and a few pawns, and even a good chance to castle!!

Yakov’s game was smooth, and over quite quickly (Yakov still had forty minutes left on the clock). He got a strong knight on d5 and zeroed in on the weak f6 square, winning a pawn, then two, and finally mating Sean Finn in a double rook endgame.

The other three games were tense, seesaw affairs. Dean made a mistake (wasn’t so obvious, though) right after the queen sac with 14…Bg4 instead of 14…Bxc2 with advantage to Black, and Pascal wound up getting great compensation for the queen. He made many natural moves and some nice ones (like 19.b4), and Black was struggling to stay on the board. Some of the cuter points never came up, but for example Pascal pointed out after the game that Black could never play …b6 (an otherwise desirable move, kicking away the well-placed Nc5) because of Ba6+ and Bb7 and the Black queen will be snared. Isn’t that a nice word? Snared? Coming upon the black queen from behind like that…tricky, tricky Pascal.

It was quite a turnaround. From how things stood in the opening, I never would have dreamed that the board we’d have winning chances on would be Pascal’s board!

Meanwhile, let’s stop by some of the critical moments in Giorgi’s game. After the game, Giorgi expressed wonderment as to what positional considerations underpinned the move 12.Nc4, which allowed Black to simply trade the knight (nope, it won’t get to enjoy the fine d6 square), and leave White with two pretty ineffective minor pieces and Black with a magnificent outpost on e5 for his knight. He expected 12.Bc4 (White is fine with trading bishops) and thought he still had to work for equality there. Black had a very comfortable game after 12.Nc4, the kind I thought Giorgi could play for an eventual win, but he went astray with the too “deep” 17…Rf8. His idea was very nice and all, planning to keep the king centralized on e7, but he missed the simple Ne6 idea (once White’s knight gets to f4), taking advantage of the awkwardness of the rook on f8. After 17…0-0 Black just has a positional advantage. With the continuation in the game, Giorgi was forced to repeat moves with …Ng4-e5 to avoid being worse.

I was a little surprised that Joel declined the repetition and went hunting the h-pawn with Rh3. At that point, Matt was not doing too well, and Pascal’s game was still unclear, so I didn’t think a draw on board one was bad for New Jersey, given their draw odds. Plus, I didn’t see what would happen if Black defended their h-pawn with …h5.

Matt’s promising opening, unfortunately, fizzled into something less than promising. The first critical moment in his game occurred after 18.g4, attacking the bishop on f5. I was gone from the room at that moment, and came back fifteen minutes later to find his bishop on e6. And I was like, oh no, that’s not where the bishop is supposed to be! It was perfect on the h7-b1 diagonal, that’s why you brought it there in the first place. I mean, I understood that Black had some concerns about Bg2 and the attack on the d5 pawn, but it just couldn’t be, it just couldn’t be, that you’d have to retreat to e6 because of that. I thought that 18…Bg6 was correct, and that Black would always have counterplay based on the …Rxc3 exchange sacrifice, with two such strong bishops on their side. So 18…Bg6 is quite fine, but Pascal suggested the immediate 18…Rxc3!? 19.bxc3 Be4! 20.Bg2 and later the computer filled it in for me: 20…Qb6!! with the idea that on 21.Bxe4 there is 21…Bf4 22.Rd2 and the simple 22…dxe4, with advantage to Black. Well, what can I say? I was just very sad for that lovely bishop to retreat into its dark hole on e6. The position is very dynamic in nature, so you have to strive to play it dynamically, every move.

After that misjudgment, Matt’s position hovered between =/+= for many moves. To be honest, I guess I was overly pessimistic about it. Matt was never seriously worse, and he did a fine job of neutralizing White’s slight plus. Psychologically, it was hard for me to cope with the turn of events…where we went from having the initiative and a huge time lead to defending an endgame with zero active counterplay, a passive bishop, and pawn weaknesses. We still had the time lead, though, which was no small thing, and I knew that this type of dry, technical position was not Molner’s cup of tea.

By the way, I’ll mention the other interesting moment in this game. It was after Molner’s 29.Be4. The fact of this move actually appearing on the board was surprising to me, though I had noticed it. It just looked so suspicious, setting yourself up for a pin on the e-file. Matt instantly replied with 29…Bc6, and I wanted to cry. Wasn’t 29…Re8 at least worth some consideration? White is forced to take the d5 pawn and after 30…Kc7, White is pinned, and has three pieces that will make fine targets on the a8-h1 diagonal; Black also has ideas of getting back their pawn with …Bxg4. I didn’t know exactly how good it was for Black; that depended on whether White could find an effective response on move 31, but I felt that Black should be fine.

However, my intuition let me down! Actually, White saves himself with 31.Kd3! (the only square that works), managing to defend himself against all of Black’s threats and remaining up a pawn. So it was a good thing Matt didn’t go for that…although calculating it would still be a good idea, since it’s a potential winning try J

After a bit more maneuvering around (I like Matt’s a5-a4 advance, precluding White’s own a4 ideas), White offered a draw in a position in which he apparently didn’t see how to make progress. I was surprised. By that point, New Jersey really needed to win board three. Dean was losing, and Joel…well, it’s hard to say, since their game kept swinging from one side to the other, but I think at that moment Joel was not at one of his crests. But Mac was short on time, and didn’t have much to work with anymore. The queenside was locked, and Black was sturdily defending their one weakness on d5. The comp gives it as =0.00, so I guess a draw is a fair result, but still…

After Joel continued the game with 23.Rh3, it seems like Giorgi again reacted in an unnecessarily deep way, activating the rook with 23…Rd4 instead of the simple 23…h5. Black certainly “activated” his pieces, if activation means getting a rook trapped in your opponent’s camp, and could have been punished for that if Joel had found the pretty 30.Be6! with a big edge for White. Instead, the tables turned once again after the cooperative 30.Nd3? Within a few moves, it was Black who had built up a dominating position, which he duly spoiled with 35…Nd6?. I know the knight usually wants to be blockading the passed pawn on that square, but in this case the effective thing to do would have been to blockade it with the king, after 35…Nd4+ and 36…Kd6. There wouldn’t be a glimmer of counterplay in sight. Instead, a few more moves passed, and Giorgi blundered the pawn on g6, giving White a superior position. Joel eventually turned that into an extra pawn, and it was starting to look terrible for Black. In time pressure (to be fair, Joel had been in severe time pressure for a very, very long time), Joel blundered with 54.Bd1?, letting Black into the game, and compounded that with 55.Kg5?? which not only loses an exchange as happened in the game, but a whole rook that Giorgi failed to take!! 55…R6-c5+ followed by Nf5+ picks up a rook (Giorgi probably missed that 55.Kf6 leads to mate in one after 55…Rf4). Thankfully I missed all these horrors, because at that point I was completely focused on Pascal’s game. Pascal was very close to winning, and since Matt had a draw in hand, all we needed was a win from Pascal. However, it remained elusive…Dean put up some stiff resistance, finding the resource 30…Qg4! with the idea of hiding the queen on d1 from a discovered attack by the rook (for example, after 31.g3 Qd1+ 32.Kg2 a4 and White’s rook can’t find Black’s queen for their planned rendez-vous!). Of course, at various points in the game White was winning, but it was never that trivial, and it proved unexpectedly tricky in the R+B+ pawns versus Q+ P endgame that Pascal went for, because of that …Qg4 move.

By the time the win had slipped through Pascal’s fingers, however, Giorgi had profited from all the time trouble mistakes to wind up in a position of strength that he used to steer the game to the needed result. So behind a win from our board four, Yakov Norowitz, the Knights overcame New Jersey’s draw odds with a score of 2.5-1.5 to advance to the USCL finals.

I just wanted to say a few words about how proud I am of our team. At the end of the match, the celebration was quite subdued, because we were all …exhausted.

I’m fond of an expression I once heard in a Charlize Theron movie…I think it was North Country. “Win or lose, leave your blood on the ice.” I don’t know if we left everything we could, but we left a lot.

Stay tuned for our battle against Miami for the League Championship.

Eastern Conference Finals: Victory!

2009-11-18T21:08:00.001-08:00

We defeated the New Jersey Knockouts, top seed in the East, 2.5-1.5 to clinch our spot in the finals, where we'll face the red-hot Miami Sharks.

It was our third match against NJ this year, after losing the first two by the thin 2.5-1.5 margin.

Board 4: NM Yaacov Norowitz -Sean Finn
Board 3: IM Mackenzie Molner - NM Matthew Herman
Board 2: GM Pascal Charbonneau - IM Dean Ippolito
Board 1: GM Joel Benjamin - GM Giorgi Kacheishvilli

Norowitz- Finn
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 Bg7 3. e3 Nh6!?

Finn tries an interesting setup, though his follow-through was slightly passive.

4. g3 0-0 5. Bg2 f6

Why not f7-f5?

6. e4 Nf7 7. 0-0 e5 8. c4 d6 9. Nc3 Nc6 10. Be3 f5 11. de!

Exclamation given because this move is not only reasonable but also fits Yaacov's style.

11. ..Nfe5 12. Ne5 Be5 13. Qd2 Bg7 14. Rad1?!

Solid, but 14. Bg5 seemed to cause black some development issues. For instance, 14. ..Qd7 15. Rae1 or 14. ..Bf6 15. Bh6 Re8 16. Rae1 Kh8 17. ef Re1 18. Re1 Bf5 19. Nd5 and white is much better.

14. ..Qf6 15. Nd5 Qf7 16. b3 fe 17. Be4 Re8 18. Bg2 Ne5?!

Why not 18. ..Bf5?

19. f4 Ng4?! 20. Bd4!

A few slightly dubious moves from black and white looks poised to trade off black's best piece and win material.

20. ..Bd4

Also possible was 20. ..c6 21. h3 Nh6 22. Bg7 Qg7 23. Nc3 Nf7, covering d6, but black still has issues after 24. Rfe1 (preparing Nc3-e4).

21. Qd4 c6 22. h3 cd 23. Bd5 Be6 24. hg Bd5 25. Qd5 Qd5 26. Rd5

White should win this endgame, though Finn created some optically dangerous threats with his rooks.

26. ..Re3 27. Kg2 Rae8 28. Rf3 Re2 29. Rf2 R2e3 30. Rd6 Rc3

Black eyes g3
31. Kh3! Ree3 32. Rg2 g5!!?

If his victories over WGM Shahade and WIM Battsteg were not enough, this move alone demonstrates Finn's potential. Black looks to create a g-file tomb for white!
33. fg Re1 34. Rdd2?! Kg7?

Finn misses his chance to make white's life difficult. 34. ..Rh1 35. Rh2 Rg1! 36. Rdg2 Rd1 leaves white's kingside in a funny configuration, though white should be able to eventually untangle.
Norowitz senses that the new danger is to black's king!

35. Rd7 Kg7 36. Rgd2 Rg1 37. R2d6 Kg5 38. Rg7#

A stunning mate.

1:0

This victory gave the Knights a 1-0 match lead. On board 3, a starkly different battle was taking form.

Molner - Herman

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd 4. Nd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Nc6!?

Our previous game had gone 7. ..Nbd7 8. Bc4!? Nc5 9. e5 h6 10. Bh4 g5?! (10. ..de 11. fe g5! was good) and Molner went on to win a crazy game.

8. e5 h6 9. Bh4 g5 10. fg Nd5 11. Nd5 ed 12. ed (1:26) Bd6 (1:35)

All theory, but Molner, who to this point had used only a few minutes, sank into thought.

13. Qe2 (1:10) Kf8 (1:35) 14. 0-0-0 (1:02) Nd4 (1:36) 15. Rd4 (1:01) hg (1:36) 16. Be1 (0:40) Bf5! (1:31) 17. Bc3 (0:18) Rc8 (1:27) 18. g4 (0:17) Be6? (1:17)

Rightly criticized by Irina as too passive! Black has two alternatives, 18. ..Rc3 and 18. ..Bg6.

On 18. ..Rc3 19. gf! (not 19. bc? Be4! 20. Bg2 Qb6! and black is much better, as pointed out by Pascal) Rc5! 20. Bg2 Rh2 21. Rh2 Bh2 22. c3! white will soon pick up the d5 pawn and the likely outcome is a draw.

Much better was Irina's first inclination (and mine as well) 18. ..Bg6!

White doesn't have time for "solid" moves like 19. Qd2 Be4! -+ or 19. Qe1 Bc5 20. Rd1 d4! 21. Bc4 Qc7! and white loses a piece. The only alternative is the "natural" 19. Bg2 Rc3! 20. bc Qa5! with ample compensation. Black only needs to see 21. Rd5 Qc3 22. Rd6 Qa3! regaining the sacrificed material or 21. Bd5 Qc3 22. Qc4 Qe3 23. Kb1 b5! 24. Rd3 Bd3 25. Qd3 Qd3 26. cd Bh2, and though the resulting endgame could be drawish, black has all the fun.

19. Bb4 Bb4 20. Rb4 Qc7 21. Qf2 b5 22. h3 Rh6 23. Bd3 Qc5 24. Qc5 Rc5 25. Kd2 Ke7 26. Ke3 Kd6 27. c3 Bd7!

Against a2-a4

28. Rd4 Rc8 29. Be4! Bc6

29. ..Re8 30. Rd5 Kc7 31. Kd3!

30. Bg2 Re8 31. Kf2 a5 32. Rhd1 Rf6 33. Bf3 a4 34. a3 Re5 (0:40) 35. R1d3 (0:03)

The only remaining moment of interest. Molner offered a draw after playing his 35th move. At the time, Giorgi looked at least equal and Pascal's game was chaotic. Given the time cushion, I intended to wait, "bughouse-style", to see if we could secure at least one point on boards 1 and 2 before accepting the draw (the position is dead drawn). 39 minutes later, I did, though adventures remained on our top two boards...

0.5:0.5

After the draw, New York led 1.5-0.5.

Charbonneau - Ippolito

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. Bb5 Nd4 5. Bc4 Bc5 6. Ne5 Qe7 7. Nf3 d5 8. Bd5 Bg4 9. d3 0-0-0 10. Bc4!?

Howell played 10. Be3 against Jumabayev at the World Junior Championship a few weeks ago and went on to win

10. ..Ne4! 11. Ne4 f5 12. Bg5 Qe8 13. Nd4 Bd1 14. Nf5 Bg4?!

14. ..Bc2 seemed to give black better chances

15. 0-0 Bf5 16. Nc5 Rd6?!

16. ..Rd4!? 17. Be3 Rh4! 18. g3 Qh5! and black's position is very attractive

17. Rfe1 Qc6 18. Re5 Bg6 19. b4! Re8 20. Rae1 b5 21. Re8 Be8 22. Be6 Kb8 23. Bg4 Bf7 24. Re7 Qd5 25. h4 a5 26. Nd7 Rd7 27. Rd7 Qa2 28. Bf4 Be6 29. Be6?

White had an immediate win after 29. Rd8 Kb7 30. Bf3! c6 31. Rb8 Ka6 32. c4!

29. ..Qe6 30. Rc7 Qg4! 31. Rf7 Ka8 32. ba Qd1 33. Kh2 Qc2 34. a6 Qd3 35. Rg7 b4 36. Rb7 b3 37. Be5 Qe4 38. f4 Qe3 39. Rh7 Qf2 40. Kh3 Qe3 41. g3 Qe4 42. Rb7 Qf5 43. Kg2 Qe4 44. Kf2 Qc2 45. Kf3 Qd3 46. Kf2 Qd2 47. Kf3 Qd3 48. Kf2 Qd2 49. Kf3 Qd3

0.5:0.5

New York led 2-1, needing only a half point from Giorgi

Benjamin-Kacheishvilli

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3 Qb6!

Benjamin presumably planned on surprising Giorgi with the so-called Fantasy variation, but Giorgi's immediate Qb6 response set Joel deep into thought.

4. Nc3 de 5. fe e5 6. Nf3 ed 7. Qd4 Qd4 8. Nd4 Bc5 9. Nf5 g6 10. Be3 Be3 11. Ne3 Be6 12. Nc4? Bc4! 13. Bc4 Nd7 14. 0-0 Ne5 15. Bb3 Rd8 16. Rf2 Ne7 17. Raf1 Rf8?!

17. ..0-0 retained a strong pull

18. Ne2! Nc8?!

18. ..Rd2, forcing white to exchange rooks, seemed better

19. Nf4!

Now Nf4-e6 is threatened

19. ..Ng4 20. Rf3 Ne5 21. R3f2 Ng4 22. Rf3 Ne5 23. Rh3

Benjamin avoided a repetition, not trusting his teammates to score 1.5 on the other three boards.

23. ..Rd4!?

23. ..h5 also looked OK

24. Rh7 Nd6 25. Nd3 Re4 26. Nc5 Re3 27. Rd1 Ke7?

After this, black's rook becomes inextricable. Better was an immediate 27. ..b6 28. Rd6 bc.

28. h3 b6 29. Kf2 Nf5 30. Nd3?

Benjamin missed 30. Be6! bc 31. Bf5 Nc4 (only) 32. Bg6 Re6 33. Bh5 Nb2 34. Rb1 Rf6 35. Kg3 Nc4 36. Rb7 Ke6 37. Ra7 with an extra pawn, though matters are far from clear.

30. ..Nd3 31. cd Re5 32. d4 Re4 33. d5 c5 34. Kf3 Re5 35. Rd2 Nd6?

35. ..Kd6 36. h4 Nd4! and black is much better

36. Bc2 Kf6 37. g4 Nc4 38. Rf2 Rd5 39. Kg3 Ke6 40. Bg6 Nd6 41. Bc2 c4 42. Rh6 Ke7 43. Re2 Kd7 44. h4 c3!? 45. bc Rc8 46. Re3 Rdc5 47. Rd3 R8c6 48. Bb3 Ke7 49. Kf4 b5 50. h5 a5 51. Re3 Kf8 52. Rd3 Ke7 53. Re3 Kf8 54. Bd1??

54. Rf6 would have maintained an edge for white

54. ..Rc4?

The key theme in this game turned out to be rooks getting themselves trapped in strange places. After 54. ..Kg7! 55. g5 Rf5 56. Kg4 Rc4 57. Kh3 Ne4!, black's pieces run wild and white cannot avoid material loss.

55. Kg5??

55. Kf3 held the balance, though by this point, it was clear that white needed a victory.

55. ..Ne4??

As pointed out by Irina, the simple 55. ..R6c5 won a rook on the spot, as 56. Kf6 is met by 56. ..Rf4 mate.

56. Re4 R4c5 57. Kh4 Rh6 58. Rf4 Rd6 59. Bb3 f6 60. Rf3 a4 61. Bc2 b4 62. c4 Ra6 63. Rf1 Kg7 64. Rb1 Rc4 65. Bd3 Rac6 66. Bc4 Rc4 67. Rd1 f5! 68. Kg5 Rg4 69. Kf5 Rg2 70. Rd4 Ra2 71. Rb4 Kh6 72. Kg4 Rg2 73. Kh4 Rh2 74. Kg4 Rg2 75. Kh4 Rh2

0.5:0.5(!)

With that draw, the Knights punched their ticket to the USCL Finals, 2.5-1.5!

Knights Advance Against Boston: Wrap Up by Knights Manager Irina Krush

2009-11-09T23:21:00.001-08:00

Hey, guys..

Tonight we had a very tense match against Boston.

Actually, now that I think back, there was a point where I felt we were doing well on all boards. Yakov had implemented his …Bd3! trick and had Ilya Krasik on the ropes. Pascal had found …Bf7! and sent Eugene into a deep think, during which I figured out that Black is very, very okay. I wasn’t following Matt and Giorgi’s games too closely, but I knew that they had everything under control; in fact, they both had the bishop pair advantage. I was pretty sure that Giorgi had a stable advantage.

But then Yakov, avoiding some repetitions but unsure how to make progress, embarked on a risky pawn grab, and basically completely handed over the initiative to white. White no longer needed to castle with that rook developed to g1! It was probably still fine (actually, I just checked it with the computer; yes, it was still fine, but black had to find only moves to defend), but obviously such a turn of events was very difficult to handle psychologically and Yakov faltered with 29…Bg6? after which Ilya was just winning. I saw the position after 31.Nxe6 Re8 and thought the game was done. I mean, White has an extra piece on the board and though Black is threatening to win it back, you just feel white has something there. Well, I have to admit, I wasn’t trying too hard to determine how white should win, but indeed white had a win: 32.Bf3 followed by 33.Rf1, trapping Black’s queen.

I was surprised by 32.Bf5. It just didn’t look like a very ambitious move. With white’s king so exposed, black wasn’t risking much of anything in the queen + rook endgame. If I saw nothing else, I’d be leaning towards moving the queen out of the pin (32.Qd5) and taking on e6 with the bishop. But again here, White’s king is a long term problem, so I can see why white didn’t go for that.

I thought Yakov would even have chances in the queen + rook endgame, but apparently it was pretty balanced; white committed no more mistakes, and this game finally ended in a draw, to my relief.

Eugene spent all his time, but didn’t find any reasonable plan for White. I can’t really blame him. It turned out that after 27…Bf7!, black gives back their extra pawn but acquires control of the important d and e-files, plus their queenside majority is mobile and highly unpleasant. Pascal played that part of the game quite well. 29…Qd6 and 30…b4 were natural moves, but he followed it up with a nice pawn sac to get a strong passed pawn on b3. Black still needed to work to convert his advantage; Pascal came up with the plan of …c4 and putting the queen on c5 to pin white’s rook. At first, I wasn’t too convinced by it, but then came the brilliant move 35…Rf8!! I really loved this move, and of course it made perfect sense with Black’s previous moves. I didn’t even consider this idea, since black takes their rook off the open file and places it onto a file that is still blocked! Pretty paradoxical.

So with …Rf8, Pascal forces a trade of major pieces on f2, and is easily winning the bishop endgame…the b3 pawn should just queen. 39…b2?? was hard on the spectator (me). Black can just play …Bf7 and on Bf5 Kg7, then …Bg6, and queen that pawn without ever giving white the a2 square. Instead, it became a very close endgame that white nearly drew. But in the end, black achieved the ‘normal’ result.

Giorgi played a very nice game…and was completely winning when I started watching it closely, after Larry’s 45…h4. I had no idea to what extent it was winning actually; I still thought it was tricky. Larry’s a tricky player, and there he goes, after Giorgi’s king…so I was definitely not relaxed. White had a really nice move there 46.Rc6! getting Black’s queen off the c-file and acquiring the c4 square for his own queen after the follow up blow 47.Rxg6! So that was one crushing option…then 47.Rxg6 instead of Qd4 on the next move…then 48.Ra7 instead of Rxg6…Giorgi will probably be disappointed that he missed all these wins. Instead when he finally played Rxg6 (still a nice idea!), it was nowhere near as effective, and Black got big counterplay with …Kh7 and …Rg8. It was pretty scary to see Black’s rook arriving on the g-file…white had to start thinking about how not to lose, but fortunately there were still resources…Black could have drawn with 50…Rb-d8 instead of the final mistake 50…Qc1??. But at least Giorgi’s endgame technique was up to par. I always feel comfortable when I see him getting those two pawn up endgames :)

Matt unfortunately self-destructed in an equal endgame.

Giorgi was very happy with his win….so was Pascal, when he finished about fifteen minutes later…I think there is just something about winning for the team. You feel more, because you know how much the team needed you, and you know that your win makes such a huge contribution to the success of your team. They’re both great team players.

Stay tuned for our Eastern division final against New Jersey next week.

Eastern Semifinals: Knights defeat the Blitz!

2009-11-09T22:12:00.000-08:00

Whew! With the clock ticking toward midnight, that was the only response I, and probably the entire contingent of Knights' fans could muster. Seemingly in control of the match, with favorable positions on all boards, despite Boston's draw odds, we demonstrated once again that you cannot take anything for granted in the USCL.

On board 4, Yaacov looked headed for a slightly inferior endgame against Boston stalwart NM Ilya Krasik. Perhaps sensing the need for a victory, Norowitz decided on an interesting pawn sacrifice that soon paid dividends, as Ilya's king was caught in the middle. Norowitz soon had at least a draw in hand, when Ilya offered two pawns in a desperate bid to free himself. Krasik's resourcefulness paid off, as he soon developed massive counterplay against the black king. In Krasik's time pressure, Norowitz missed a cute perpetual idea and the game was drawn.

On board 3, I faced the dangerous veteran NM Vadim Martirosov, fresh off a win over NM Evan Rosenberg, in a Rossolimo Sicilian. After a slight opening inaccuracy from Vadim, my position was slightly better owing to a strong e4/d4 pawn center. When Vadim lashed out with b7-b5, hoping for queenside counterplay, I opted for the committal e4-e5, trading fluidity for the opportunity to bottle up black's kingside. At this point, I started playing second-best moves, allowing black to simplify, rather than grabbing what should have been a clean extra pawn. I held a slight edge, and then thought I could transpose into a slightly better rook and bishop endgame. In my haste, I essayed the terrible 29. Rc6?? which should lose on the spot to 29. ..Bg3!! (which would have earned Martirosov move of the week, if not game). Instead we entered what should have been a drawn endgame, where I proceeded to commit hara kiri. Martirosov didn't have to be asked twice and reeled in the full point, giving Boston a 1.5-0.5 lead.

On board 1, Giorgi started with 1. d4 but soon ended in a g3 Pirc against living legend GM Larry Christiansen. Giorgi was able to maintain a slight edge throughout and avoided some last-ditch swindle tactics, finally forcing resignation in a two pawn up rook endgame. With Giorgi's win, the match was knotted at 1.5, putting Pascal in a must-win situation on board 2.

Shortly into the match, board 2 looked to be the worst for the Knights, as GM Eugene Perelshteyn built an impressive position and time edge against Pascal in a Catalan. Pascal's prospects went from bad to worse after Eugene struck with 18. Nf7!. Dogged defense, however, paid off and by 29. ..Qd6, Pascal was no worse. After 35. .Rf8!, Pascal was likely winning in a remarkable turnaround. Time pressure began to take its toll as Charbonneau missed the instantly winning 39. ..Bf7 40. Bf5 Kg7!. Instead, after 39. ..b2?, a study-like endgame arose. With both players under two minutes, Pascal managed to round up white's a-pawn and cut off the white king, clinching the match for New York!

Week 10: Knights fall to Boston

2009-11-09T22:08:00.001-08:00

We closed the season with a "meaningless" 2.5-1.5 defeat at the hands of our upcoming playoff rivals, the Boston Blitz.

On board 1, Giorgi demonstrated that one of the best ways to refute a sacrifice is to accept it, holding steady against Jorge Sammour-Hasbun's onslaught. A cute exchange sacrifice forced a transition to an easily winning endgame.

On board 2, Irina looked poised to win game-of-the-week honors with a beautiful kingside attack, before faltering in time pressure. Shmelov hung in and didn't miss his opportunity, capturing the full point.

On board 3, Yakov easily held a draw with the black pieces against WGM Anya Corke. After the opening transitioned from a Trompowsky to an IQP structure, simplifications soon led to a bishops-of-opposite-colors endgame.

On board 4, Evan looked to be in reasonable shape in a queenless middlegame before dropping a piece to Martirosov's kingside pawn roller. Martirosov's technique was solid and he reeled in the full point, clinching the match.

Week 10 mid-match report

2009-11-04T18:45:00.000-08:00

Things look dicey on board 4, as Evan dropped a piece in a queenless middlegame against Vadim Martirosov, though he does have two pawns.

On board 3, Yacov's position against WGM Anya Corke has undergone multiple transformations, starting as a Trompowsky, then becoming a standard IQP and is now a symmetrical BOOC middlegame. We'll either see quick peace or violence!

On board 2, Irina is pressing Denys Shmelov's kingside with an aggressive opening. White's chances look superior.

On board 1, Giorgi is defending against Jorge Sammour-Hasbun's double pawn sac and it looks unbalanced.

Week 9: Playoff bound!

2009-10-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

Tonight the Knights beat the Baltimore Kingfishers 3-1 to clinch the #3 seed in the East. In the process, we moved over .500 for the regular season for the first time since October 1, 2006(!). Despite our middling regular season play, we've reached the playoffs for the fifth straight season (out of five), joined only by San Francisco in accomplishing that feat. Next week we play Boston in a preview of our first round playoff match.

On board 1, Giorgi got the better of an Advance Caro-Kann against GM Sergey Erenburg, soon building a massive time advantage. Erenburg was able to wriggle free and forced perpetual.

On board 2, another Advance Caro, Pascal dominated the opening and looked to be on a smooth path to victory before IM Enkhbat played a series of stunning moves (..Rh6 and ..Rh4 to start) that complicated the position. If black had found the natural 31. ..Qb5!, white would be forced to give back his material advantage after 32. Rcc3! (32. Qh6 Ba6 is winning for black) a4 33. Qh6 Ba6 34. Rcd3 Qc6 and black is perhaps even slightly better. Pascal found the accurate Rf3!, Kc2! and e6! to consolidate, reel in the full point and punch our ticket to the playoffs.

On board 4, Yaacov looked to have a comfortable +/= against Jared Defibaugh. Defibaugh defended well and after a tactical miss by Yaacov (29. Qb2! Bc2 30. Bb7!! +/-), Defibaugh had a queen for a rook, piece and pawn and due to white's temporary lack of coordination, good winning chances. The first try was 30. ..Bc2! 31. Rc1 Qd7 32. Rc2 Qd4 33. Kg2 Qd3 34. Rc8 Bf8 35. e6 g5!! and the black queen works miracles, forcing white to shed significant material. After the less accurate 30. ..Bf5, Yaacov improved his pieces and soon liquidated the queenside. Defibaugh's 33. ..a5!? would have been looked back upon as a extraordinarily devious trap if, after the natural-looking 37. Nd5??, black had found the stunning 37. ..Qe2! 38. Ne7 Kg7(h7)!! (not 38. ..Kf8 39. Rd8! Ke7 40. Bc6! and black has to force perpetual). White has a nominally crushing material advantage (rook/bishop/knight/two pawns for a queen), but cannot avoid severe losses and eventual mate!

On board 3, I had the black pieces against WGM Sabina Foisor, fresh off of an appearance at the US Women's Championship in St. Louis.

Foisor - Herman
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e3 Nbd7 5. cd?!

Foisor exchanges on d5, as did Andrei Zaremba in our week 3 match. Neither experiment seemed to have worked.

5. ..cd 6. Nf3 e6 7. Bd3 Bd6 8. Bd2 a6 9. Qe2 b5!

Black has won the battle for e4 (10. e4 b4!) and is better.

10. 0-0 Bb7 11. Rfc1 0-0 12. a3

White prevents b5-b4, but seems to have no concrete plan.

12. ..Ne4! 13. Ne1 e5!

It was tempting to go 13. ..f5, but white responds f2-f4 and can grovel for equality. With Foisor's pieces in retreat, it's time to open the center.

14. Ne4 de 15. Bb1 Qh4!?

Also possible was to interpose 15. ..cd 16. ed, when the game has a decidedly different flavor. Black would have a permanent positional edge, but also potentially free white's pieces. I decided instead to restrain the white N, Q and d2 bishop.

16. g3 Qh3 17. Bc3 Rae8 18. Qf1 Qh5

White's Q is out of moves, unless you count the fianchetto!

19. Ba2 Kh8 20. Rd1 Bb8 21. Bb4 Rg8 22. d5?

White tries to gain counterplay by pushing her d-pawn, but it was necessary to try to simplify with 22. de Ne5 23. Bd6. Now black has a free hand on the kingside.

22. ..f5 23. a4 f4!

The queenside is of no importance as white's king is under siege!

24. ab Ba7! 25. Ng2

A fianchettoed knight with no prospects is never a good sign. Now white has problems defending h2!

25. ..Nf6! 26. d6 Ng4 27. h4 fe

A critical moment. Those who have allowed Rybka to atrophy their calculation skills will declare that 28. d7 provides white sufficient counterplay. Time to take the red pill!

28. ..ef 29. Kh1 Rd8!! 30. Bg8 e3!!

31. Bd5 Bd5 32. Rd5 Qf7!! with threats of Qf3-g3-h3 and Qf3/e3-e2.

White is forced to play 33. Qd1 f1Q 34. Qf1 Qd5 35. Ba5 Rd7 36. Qf8 Qg8 37. Qg8 Kg8 38. b6 Bb8 39. Bc3 Rf7! (the Ng2 continues to be a source of discomfort) 40. Ne1 e4! and black is winning.

28. fe Ne3 29. Ne3 Be3 30. Kh2 Ref8! 31. Bg8 Rf1 32. Rf1 Qe2 33. Kh1 Bf2!

The last finesse. It was not too late to blunder the game away with the over-cute 33. ..Bg1 34. Kg1 e3 35. Bd5!! and wins. White decides to play til mate.

34. Kh2 Bd4 35. Kh3 Bc8 36. g4 Qg4 37. Kh2 Qh3#

0:1

Playoffs?? Don't talk about playoffs!

With New Jersey's win and Boston's draw, the first three seeds in the East are set, while Baltimore and Philly will battle for the 4th and final playoff spot in week 10 [Chris correctly points out that Queens has not been eliminated, though they need some help]. Amanda Mateer's stunning 300-point upset over Josh Sinanan means that 1/2/3/4 are up for grabs in the West, though Seattle is still in the driver's seat, with a one match lead. Miami has clinched at least the #4 seed with their draw against Boston.

Week 8: Draw death

2009-10-22T04:06:00.000-07:00

In week 8, the Knights inexorable sideways march continued, with a tense 2-2 draw against the cellar-dwelling Carolina Cobras. The white pieces went 4-0 as tight and tough losses on boards 2 and 4 were balanced by Pascal's masterful handling of the two bishops and space advantage on board 1 against IM Jonathan Schroer and SM Greg Braylovsky's steady victory against FM Ron Simpson on board 3.

This match marked NY Knights all-time MVP points leader Braylovsky's 2009 debut and NM Raven Sturt's 2nd match of the season, making him eligible for playoff action.

On board 1, a Bb5/Bb4 Four Knights led to a position where Pascal seemingly held all the positional trumps: space, two bishops, pawn breaks. Schroer's response was to, borrowing a phrase from John Fernandez, "barnacle" -- retreat his knights to f8 and d7, and shuffle his rook between e8 and d8, hoping that white could not defeat his fortress. With the match situation looking critical, Pascal finally began pushing his kingside pawns, eventually winning the f7 pawn. He temporarily sacrificed the exchange to reach an easily winning rook and pawn endgame.

On board 2, Irina solidly defended a Queens Indian Declined against FM Oleg Zaikov, but faltered in time pressure, as her weaknesses on the light squares and back rank proved too much to handle.

On board 3, Greg built a massive time advantage with the subtle 3. c3, a move that Simpson had apparently not prepared for. After a tactical hallucination (..c4), Simpson played with extreme resourcefulness, developing significant kingside counterplay. Greg was up to the challenge, eventually giving back his extra pawn to activate his knight. The very pretty Qd8 ended all of black's hopes and he lost on time.

On board 4, Raven and NM Craig Jones engaged in a move-order duel, as an English became a KID became a Maroczy Bind/Accelerated Dragon. Raven played quickly and confidently, building a dynamic position while Jones slipped behind on the clock. Unfortunately, Raven went for the positionally dubious ..d5, after which Jones' pieces activated and he soon won a pawn. Undeterred and perhaps assisted by some dubious technique from white, Raven soon developed massive counterplay and looked to be better in the rook, knight and pawn endgame. In mutual time pressure, though, Raven managed to lose back a pawn and could not hold the resulting rook and pawn endgame, as Jones reeled in the full point.

Playoffs?? Don't talk about Playoffs!

With two weeks remaining, the Knights are a half point ahead of fourth-place Baltimore, whom we will conveniently play next week. To modify the Russian adage, four results are possible. If the Knights can beat Baltimore, we'll practically wrap up 3rd, with a shot at 2nd if Boston loses to Miami (not San Francisco as pointed out by Ilya). A drawn match would also keep the Knights in good playoff position, but require another draw in week 10 to hold on to 3rd. A loss to Baltimore would have the Knights in 4th going into the final week, potentially needing a win against a motivated Boston team.

Week 7: Another draw

2009-10-20T17:27:00.001-07:00

The Knights again failed to break .500 with a 2-2 draw against the Philadelphia Inventors, with Evan Rosenberg's clutch victory on board 4 balancing IM Bryan Smith's upset of the red-hot Giorgi Kacheishvilli on board 1.

The match marked the 2009 debuts of recent HOF inductee GM John Fedorowicz and the ever-dangerous NM Evan Rosenberg, best known for his loss "to a can" and unusually measured blog posts.

On board 1, Giorgi played a strangely passive opening and Smith found the critical 15. ..b4!, highlighting his edge in development and the awkward placement of the white pieces. Smith's accurate play continued with 19. ..e5 and he soon won an exchange and converted the ensuing endgame.

On board 2, John played a very energetic game with black against FM Tom Bartell and agreed to a draw after 32 moves, but appeared to miss the promising 29. ..h3 that would have given him a permanent pull.

On board 3, Yaacov made his board 3 debut against IM Richard Costigan and turned a drawish middlegame into a favorable knight endgame, but missed an opportunity to win a pawn and the game petered out into a draw.

On board 4, Evan gained an optically favorable position in the Exchange Caro-Kann, but the rising Kavinayan Sivakumar soon developed counterplay. Sivakumar twice missed opportunities to simplify into slightly better endgames and went down in flames as Evan's kingside attack won an exchange, leaving white with little compensation.

Week 6: Implosion

2009-10-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

The Knights drew a disappointing match against the Baltimore Kingfishers, despite getting impressive victories from Giorgi on board 1 and Yaacov on board 4, as I imploded with the white pieces on board 3 and Pascal failed to hold a reasonably drawish position on board 2 against GM Erenburg. This drawn match left us at 3-3.

On board 1, Giorgi rattled off another impressive example of opening preparation, winning almost effortlessly vs GM Kritz on board 1 in a Hedgehog.

On board 4, Yaacov won a very steady game, finishing with a cute mating attack.

On board 2, Pascal ably defending a Hedgehog-like position before making some inaccurate simplifications that led to a difficult and then lost knight endgame.

My implosion on board 3 was in stark contrast to the prior week's effort against Naroditsky. In the 9. Nd5 Sveshnikov, Uesugi played the very interesting 15. ..Bd7, championed by Radjabov and avoiding the complications that usually follow 15. ..Rb8. Taking advantage of a series of subpar moves by your humble blogger, capped by 19. f3, Uesugi quickly developed a strong initiative and won in short order. A potential improvement was 19. Bd5, sacrificing a pawn for light-squared compensation.

Week 5: All systems go; back to .500

2009-10-01T15:55:00.000-07:00

Last night we beat the powerhouse San Francisco Mechanics by a comfortable 3-1 margin on the strength of a very classical +2 with the white pieces and =2 with black.

On board 1, as alluded to by Irina, Giorgi unfurled a devastating piece of preparation against Josh Friedel's Nimzo-Indian. In a rare piece-sacrifice line played before by both Aronian and Kharlov, Giorgi was soon up two pawns, with a massive edge on the clock and converted with precise endgame technique.

On board 2, Irina played the super-solid QGA and played a very strong game against new American GM Jesse Kraii. Kraii was unsatisfied with equality and blundered a queenside pawn which gave Irina winning chances in a rook and pawn endgame. With the match in hand, Irina played for a win without risk, unfortunately missing a very good try and had to settle for a draw.

On board 4, Yaacov again trotted out his trademark Nf6 Caro-Kann and reached a balanced double rook endgame against phenom Yian Liou. Sidestepping any tricks, Yaacov steered the game to a peaceful conclusion.

On board 3, I faced former World Under 12 champion FM Daniel Naroditsky, one of America's brightest stars. He chose to repeat a line that had arisen during my disappointing loss last year to Eric Rodriguez.

Herman - Naroditsky

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd 4. Nd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bc4 e6 7. Bb3 b5 8. f3 Nbd7 9. Be3 Nc5 10. Qd2 Bb7 11. 0-0-0 Be7 12. g4 Nfd7 13. g5 Ne5 14. h4 0-0

Against Rodriguez, I played 15. f4 and could only muster equality, before blundering a pawn and losing. White has better!

15. h5! b4 16. Nce2 a5

Pawn rushes against opposite-castled kings. This is definitely a Sicilian!

17. g6 a4 18. h6!

Now at least one kingside file will be opened.

18. ..Ng6!?

A very interesting choice, as black removes a knight from the center, while maintaining queenside threats.

19. Bd5!!

Computers seem to love 19. hg, but black has the very simple 19. ..ab! and after 20. gfQ Bf8, full compensation for the exchange.

19. ..b3

Black's a/b pawn duo mimics the advance of white's h/g tandem.

20. Nc3! a3?! 21. cb

The potential counterplay against the white king has dissipated.

21. ..ed 22. hg Re8 23. Qh2 Bh4

If 23. ..Nh4 24. Nf5 Bg5 25. Bg5 Qg5 26. f4 Qg2 27. Qg2 Ng2 28. Rh7!! and wins

24. Nf5

Kasparov has often said that a strong Nf5 is worth a pawn -- here it is worth a king!

24. ..de 25. Rd6 Nd7 26. f4!

The prosaic Qd2 also wins, but it is impossible to avoid a simple pawn move that deadens every black piece save the a8 rook!

26. ..Re6 27. Bd4! h5 28. Re6 fe 29. Nh6 Kh7 30. g8Q Qg8 31. Ng8 Rg8 32. Rg1 Ndf8 33. f5!

Black loses another piece and thus resigned.

1:0

Knights off to a FANTASTIC start!!

2009-10-01T04:51:00.000-07:00

Hi all, for a long time I have claimed I am about to post. I found the most lame way to do so, posting someone else's post! So without further ado, I hereby present Irina's post and make my first post on this blog. I continue to promise that I am about to post. Don't lose faith in the Knights!

Hey guys,

Did you SEE Matt’s game against Daniel Naroditsky!!?!? Oh my god!! I only saw it after getting home from the match. Thankfully, Matt was sitting on the opposite side of the room, and I never had an inkling of what was going on in his game…Well, actually, I did glance at his board once, the position was already totally crazy; I made a guess that he was doing alright, and stopped thinking about it, since there was no way I could evaluate it while playing my own game.
But back to his game. WOW!!! I had no idea we had such a killer on our team. I’ll let him tell you about it in more depth, but what stood out to me…first, Matt offered his light squared bishop twice in the game! (on b3 and then on d5). I also like the cold-blooded move 20.Nc3, dealing with Black’s threats on the queenside and simultaneously opening the second rank for operations by White’s queen. Then 26.f4 was another non-obvious move, taking a time-out in the attack to clamp down on any counterplay by Black.
I haven’t studied the competition closely, but to me…this game looks like GOTW winner. Go Matt!!
On to our other beautiful victory…right before the match, Giorgi told me he’d prepared the line that you saw in the game. He said he got so into the analysis that he stayed up till 3:30 in the morning working on it! And then it appeared on the board…I don’t know how far his preparation went, but I’m assuming it contributed a lot to the final result. Looking at the game from home, I’d describe it as: very good preparation, leading to a position ripe for finding knockout blows, which were found, and then precise endgame technique. This is Giorgi’s first win in the USCL, and now that he’s broken out of his mouse slips, move order mix ups, and one move blunders, I think we’ll get to see his real level of play. Because he is that strong.
Well, Matt won fairly quickly, and Giorgi was nursing two extra pawns in the endgame, so all that remained was for me and Yaacov to hold with Black.
My game with Jesse was a tense, strategic battle in the dxc5 line of the QGA. I’ll admit, I spent most of my day searching for equality for Black in the dxc5 QGA, and it was not the most inspiring day! I guessed this line was likely to come up, based on the fact that Jesse had played it before, and that Jesse enjoys playing endgames, and has a tendency to choose lines that transition from opening-endgame right away when given the opportunity (ie, his dxe5 against the King’s Indian, with which he won a very nice game against Bruci Lopez earlier this season). It’s the kind of line that is not much subject to concrete analysis, so even spending many hours on it with the computer doesn’t get you that far.
So why did I allow a line where Black has to fight for equality from the get-go, with very little prospective of playing for a win himself?
Well. If I can not defend Black’s position in the dxc5 QGA, an outwardly innocuous endgame line, how can I play the QGA at all? But the QGA…is my opening. I’ve played it since I was eleven years old. So I’ll defend it against the sharpest 7.Bb3 lines and against the dry, bore-you-to-tears 7.dxc5.
You know, 7.dxc5 has inflicted pain on me in the past. I didn’t appreciate its nuances, and I lost a number of games in it. But because I lost ,I was forced to learn how to play it. And I did learn. It’s actually a structure of position that I feel comfortable in now. And here’s the funny thing: I could have played into Jesse’s pet King’s Indian line, and tried to fight my way out of += there, but Jesse has so much more experience in it than I do. But in the 7. dxc5 Queen’s Gambit Accepted, I have more experience. So that’s why I chose to fight on this turf.
Actually, the game didn’t bore me to tears. We left ‘theory’ very early, when Jesse came up with the Nb3-Nfd4-Na5 setup, and I was left to my own devices. I think I reacted pretty well (Bd6-Nb6-e5), maybe optimally, because I got a very comfortable game. Somewhere along the way Jesse overpressed, maybe under the influence of how SF was doing on their Black boards, and his knight got stuck on c6. The game turned in Black’s favor. I didn’t do exhaustive analysis, but I think I should have won the rook endgame (56...Kd5 was just a blunder; 56...g5 seems to be a very good winning attempt).
Yaacov also reached some rook endgame, and his game ended in a quite logical draw.
So in the end we won 3-1. We could have gotten a little more out of that, but that’s okay. It was an important victory for our team, and as for me…I was glad to get in a match before leaving for Saint Louis! With all my traveling (three weeks in China and now two in Saint Louis), this is the only match I’ll have played until at least week Eight.
Yeah, for a ‘manager’ I’m not there that much. But I am always with the Knights in spirit! When I was in China, I followed their games live, because with the twelve hour time difference, the games were played during my mornings. That was convenient, except my own preparation didn’t advance that much during the Knights games 
Anyway, when I’m not there, Pascal takes care of the Knights for me. I leave them in the most competent hands you’ll ever find 
Good luck to San Francisco for the rest of their matches. I hope to face them one more time this season.

Week 4: Knights fall to New Jersey

2009-09-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

We lost a very tough match tonight against the surging New Jersey Knockouts, who are off to a perfect 4-0 start. By comparison, we are 1.5-2.5, clinging to the 4th and final playoff spot in the East.

New Jersey played very well on all boards and earned a well-deserved victory.

On board 1, Giorgi managed to wriggle out of a dead-lost position against Joel Benjamin. 18. Rf7! would have immediately ended matters. Instead Joel allowed Giorgi's king to escape to the queenside and, in deep time trouble, gave perpetual check.

On board 2, Pascal held a small pull throughout the game against living legend Boris Gulko, before eschewing 39. Nd8! for 39. b4?!

Gulko's active pieces put Pascal on the verge of defeat and he was forced to shed a knight to avoid mate. Gulko got careless with his extra piece and after 54. ..Ke6??, Pascal only needed to find 55. Nd5!!, immediately forcing a stalemate draw after 55. ..Bd5 56. b7 Bb7. Alas, it was not to be for the Knights, as Pascal instead played 55. Nf5?? and Gulko was able to round up the b-pawn while avoiding stalemate, securing the point.

On board 3, Mac Molner played a stellar game on the white side of a Najdorf, using nearly all of his remaining time to find the super-precise 21. Ne5!, temporarily sacrificing a piece to consolidate and win. Other moves would not have sufficed. For instance, 21. Bd3 Bh6! 22. Qg8 Ke7!! 23. Qa8 Qe3 24. Be2 Bb5 25. Qb7 Kf6 and white has to sacrifice back his queen to avoid mate.

On board 4, Yaacov played a very sedate game against rising junior Anna Matlin. She missed her chance for another upset prize with 34. ..e3?, dropping a pawn and leading to a lost endgame. Instead, the prophylactic 34. ..Kh6!, preparing 34. ..e3 would have led to at least a draw. For example, 34. ..Kh6 35. h4 e3 36. Qe7 ef 37. Kf2 Qb2 38. Ke1 Qc3 when white cannot avoid the perpetual. Yaacov's technique in the rook and pawn ending was impeccable and he scored the Knights' sole victory.

Week 3: Knights back to .500

2009-09-14T21:12:00.001-07:00

The Knights got into the win column in 2009 with a convincing 3.5-0.5 victory over their cross-town rivals, the Queens Pioneers.

On board 1, Giorgi got a promising position against Alex Stripunsky's Trompowsky and was close to winning with either 34. ..Re1 or 34. ..Nf4, but played 34. ..Re2 which led to a draw by perpetual check after 35. Ne5! R7e5 36. de Qg4 37. Kf1 Rb2 38. e6 Nf4 39. Qd4 f6 40. gf Qh3.

On board 2, Pascal prepared a nasty surprise for roommate Dmitry Schneider in a sharp line of the Two Knights Defense. After 14. Qh5!, Pascal was winning and Dima resigned before making his 21st move.

On board 4, Yaacov looked poised to deploy his trademark Stonewall, but Elizabeth Vicary had prepared a tricky move order with an early exchange on d4 and Qc7. In what looked to be a pawn blunder (given the times spent on each move), Liz soon got great compensation for her missing d5 pawn. Yaacov consolidated and luckily got a takeback on Qh4-h5 in the position below (he did not intend to move at all, but his hands brushed the touchpad). Instead, after the more reasonable Bc6, he traded pieces and ground out the full point in a rook and pawn endgame.

On board 3, I was paired against the red-hot FM Andrei Zaremba (Pascal and Dima's other roommate). In the first two weeks, Andrei has garnered multiple GOTW nominations, including a second place for his victory against IM-elect Marc Esserman. Zaremba had his third white in a row and I was looking to score my first points of the season after starting with a difficult loss to NM Victor Shen in week 1.

Zaremba - Herman

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. Nc3 e6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. cd?! ed 7. Bd3 Bd6 8. 0-0 0-0 9. Qc2 Re8 10. e4?! de 11. Ne4 Ne4 12. Be4 Nf6

12. ..h6 also warranted consideration, as the Bc1 has no natural home and Nd7-f6 and Bc8-g4 are coming.

13. Bf5?! Qa5N 14. Bc8 Rac8 15. Bg5 Ne4 16. Bh4 Qd5

Black's pieces have all found natural squares, with tempo. I briefly considered 16. ..Qf5 to prevent 17. Bg3, but white can simply play 17. Qb3.

17. Rfe1 Re6 18. Re3?

White's sense of danger is missing. 18. Bg3 was necessary, though black is for choice after 18. ..Bg3 19. hg Rce8.

18. ..f5!

Suddenly the Bh4 lacks for squares and the Re3 is in the path of the onrushing f-pawn.

19. Rae1 Rce8

Black threatens h6 and g5 so white tries to bail into an endgame.

20. Ng5 Ng5 21. Bg5 f4!

The bishop's troubles will live on.

22. Re6 Re6 23. Re6 Qe6 24. Qb3 Qb3 25. ab

Black wants to bring his king to d5 before white gets to d3. This was accomplished by combining threats to snare the g5 bishop with a timely f4-f3 push.

25. ..h6! 26. Bd8 Kf7 27. f3

If 27. Kf1, black has 27. ..f3!

27. ..Ke6 28. Ba5 Kd5 29. Kf1 Kd4!

If 29. ..g6 30. Bc3 b5 31. Ke2 b4 32. Be1! Kd4 33. Bf2 Kd5 34. Ba7 Be5 35. Kd3 Bb2, it will be nearly impossible to break white's blockade.

30. Bc3 Kd3 31. Bg7 h5 32. Kf2 Bc5! 33. Kf1 Ke3!

Eschewing the unclear pawn hunting after 33. ..Kc2 34. g4 fg 35. hg Kb3 36. g4 hg 37. fg Be7. Black should still be winning, but why allow counterplay?

34. Bh6

34. ..h4?!

Black must play concretely! In time pressure, I mistakenly saw and rejected the following as unclear. 34. ..Bd4! 35. g4!! Kf3 36. g5 Bb2 37. g6 c5 (only) 38. g7 Bg7 39. Bg7 b5 40. Bf8 c4 41. bc bc 42. Bb4.

It looks like white may have enough resources, but 42. ..a6! wins for black, as the pawns are one too many.

35. h3?

Andrei and I both saw the "obvious" h4-h3 idea, but white's best chance was to complicate with 35. Bg5! h3 36. Bh4! Kd3 37. Bf2 hg 38. Kg2 Be3!

and now either

A) 39. Kf1!? Bc2 40. Ba7 Bb2 41. h4 or

B) 39. h4 Ke2 40. Be3 fe 41. h5 Kd3 42. h6 e2 43. h7 e1Q 44. h8Q and black's advantage, if any, is minimal.

Now white can never create a passed pawn and he cannot abandon the kingside.

35. ..Be7!

Black's "bad" pawns restrain white's "good" pawns and restrict white's bishop activity.

36. Bg7 a6! 37 Be5 b5!

Slowly improving the position before deciding on a committal king move.

38. Bc3 Kd3 39. Be5 Kc2!

It's finally time to go after the queenside. White can only create harmless, disconnected kingside passers.

40. Ke2 Kb3 41. Kd2

Tantamount to resigning. 41. Kd3 c5 42. Ke4 c4 43. Kf4 b4 44. Kf5 still lost but demonstrated resistance.

41. ..Bg5 42. Kc1 a5

Time to roll.

43. Kb1 a5 44. Bc3 b4 45. Bd2 c4 46. Bc1

Allowing a cute finish.

46. ..c3 47. bc bc 48. Ka1 Bf6!

On any white move, c3-c2 is mate in two. Andrei resigned. 0:1

Week 2 Roundup

2009-09-11T15:51:00.000-07:00

We got on the board this week against a tough Seattle team, headlined by super-GM Hikaru Nakamura and sporting the second highest rated lineup in USCL history.

On board 1, Hikaru played a non-opening and received a full point due to an unfortunate blunder from Giorgi, who had played a stellar game til that point.

On board 3, Jay defended well against FM Michael Lee, finding 17. ..a5! and 18. ..b4 to secure at least equality.

On board 4, in his debut match, Raven took queens off early against NM Howard Chen and built some queenside pressure. He avoided the critical 21. b5!?, which would have led to the following forced sequence 21. ..cb 22. Ba5 b6 23. Bb6! (23. cb Kb7! =/+) Nb6 24. cb Kb7! 25. Ra6 Ra8! 26. Ra8 Ra8 27. Ra8 Ka8 28. Bf1 Bd8 29. Bb5 (29. Kf2!? Bb6 30. Ke3 Kb7 31. Bb5 is drawn) Bb6 30. f4 Be5 31. Kg2 Bb2 32. Bd7 Kb7 33. Be6 Kc6 34. Bf5, when black likely has enough to hold a draw. After 21. b3 and the critical 24. g4!, preventing black from g5-g4, a mutual fortress arose and peace was agreed.

Pascal played a star game on board 2 to secure the match draw for the Knights.

Charbonneau - Serper

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cd 4. Nd4 a6 5. Bd3 Nf6 6. 0-0 d6 7. c4 Be7 8. Nc3 0-0 9. Qe2 Re8

A justifiably rare move. Far more popular are Qd8-c7 and b7-b6.

10. Kh1 b6 11. f4 Bb7 12. Bd2 Qc7?

A novelty, and a bad one. White's attack begins to play itself. 12. ..Nc6 might be an improvement.

13. e5! Nfd7

14. f5!?

White's pawns lurch forward. Also strong was 14. Ne6! fe 15. Qh5! Nf8 16. Qe8 Nc6 17. Qh5 de 18. Be4! +-

14. ..Ne5 15. fe Bf6 16. Nd5

White plays the simplest line and is comfortably winning, but brutal and direct was 16. Rf6! gf 17. Ne4! Re6 (only) 18. Ne6 fe 19. Nf6 Kh8 20. Nh7! Nd3 21. Ng5! Nc6 22. Qh5 Kg8 23. Qg6 Qg7 24. Qe6 Kh8 25. Qh3 Kg8 26. Qd3 +-

16. ..Bd5 17. cd Nd3 18. Qd3 fe 19. Ne6 Qf7 20. Qg3 Ra7 21. Bc3 Nd7 22. Qd6 Qe7 23. Qg3 Bc3 24. bc Nc5 25. Rae1 Ne6 26. Re6 Qd8 27. Qe3!

And the rest is easy.

27. ..Rae7 28. Qb6 Qb6 29. Rb6 Rc7 30. d6 Rf7 31. Kg1 a5 32. c4 Rf1 33. Kf1 Kf7 34. c5 Ke6 35. Rb7 Kd5 36. Rc7 1:0

With that spectacular victory, the Knights drew even and pushed their record to 0.5/2.

I would be remiss if, after covering such a spectacular game, I didn't mention another worthy contender for GOTW, played by board 3 for our fierce rivals, IM-elect Marc Esserman of the Boston Blitz. Esserman conducted the white pieces with immense precision and energy -- the 10 move sequence of captures and checks is the longest in USCL history to end a decisive game.

Esserman - Simpson

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. 0-0 b5 6. Bb3 Ne4!?

A rare move, as black often follows 5. ..b5 with either 6. ..Bc5 or 6. ..Bb7.

7. Re1 d5?!

This may be too much. Also possible was 7. ..Nc5 8. Bd5! Bb7 9. d4 Ne6 10. Ne5 Be7 and black should be OK.

8. Nc3!

Black is slightly underdeveloped and Esserman wastes no time in facilitating the rapid deployment of his pieces. The forcing nature of the remaining moves is stunning.

8. ..Nc3

The machine-like 8. ..Be6 leads to the depressing 9. Ne4 de 10. Be6 fe 11. Re4 Bc5 12. b3! and white will pick up the weak e-pawns.

9. dc Be6 10. a4!

Esserman is not willing to settle for equality after 10. Ne5 Ne5 11. Re5 c6!

10. ..Rb8?!N

This is a novelty and it is a slight improvement on the awful 10. ..Ne7 played in 1939(!) in Buenos Aires. Given the speed at which the white pieces would flood into black's position following the opening of the a-file, 10. ..b4! was more circumspect. Play could continue 11. Ne5 Ne5 12. Re5 c6! 13. cb Bd6! (not 13. ..Bb4 14. Qg4! Bd6 15. Qg7 Be5 16. Qe5 with massive compensation for the exchange) and black should have equality.

11. ab ab 12. Ra6! Qd7

The most natural move, though in retrospect 12. ..Rb6 might have limited the damage. White emerges a pawn up after 13. Rb6 cb 14. Qe2! but black can survive. Esserman now unleashes a torrent.

13. Rc6! Qc6 14. Ne5 Qc5?

Black had to play 14. ..Qd6! with two potential outcomes

A) 15. Nf7! Kf7 16. Qh5! g6 17. Qf3 Kg7 18. Bf4 Qd7 19. Be5 Kg8 20. Bh8 Re8 21. Be5! (21. Re6 c6!!) c6! with compensation due to the limited activity of white's Bb3.

B) 15. Bf4 Be7! 16. Ng6 Qd7 17. Nh8 Kf8 with similar compensation

If Simpson tried 14. ..Qb6, two branches emerge

A) 15. Bd5 Bc5! 16. Be6 Bf2 17. Kh1 Qe6 18. Re2 0-0 19. Nd3 Qd5 20. Rf2 with two pieces for the rook. Better however, would be

B) 15. Nf7! Bc5!

and now, not 16. Re6? Qe6 17. Bd5 Qf6 18. Nh8 Qf2 19. Kh1 Kf8!! and black will soon bring his rook into the game with devastating effect, but

16. Kh1!

with a few choices

A) 16. ..0-0 17. Ng5!! (17. Re6? Qe6 18. Bd5 Qb6! and the discovery brings white nothing) and wins or

B) 16. ..Kf7 17. Qf3 Kg6 (17. ..Ke8 18. Bd5 Kd7 19. Be6 Qe6 20. Re6 Ke6 21. Qg4 +-) 18. Re5! h6 19. Bd5! and wins

15. Nf7! Kf7 16. Qf3

White also wins after 16. Qh5. Instead of the game-like 16. ..Ke7, black has the option of 16. ..g6, which loses after 17. Qf3 Bf5 18. g4! Be7 19. gf Bf6 20. Bd5 Kg7 21. Re6!

16. ..Ke7 17. Bd5 Rb6 18. Bg5!

18. Re5 also wins but the text gives black the possibility of losing in quicker fashion than the depressing Q+2p vs RR endgame that would have arisen after 18. ..Qd6 19. Bg5 Kd7 20. Be6 Qe6 21. Re6 Re6 22.g3!

18. ..Kd7 19. Be6

Also possible is 19. Re5, but the text contains a tiny practical trap.

19. ..Re6 20. Qf7 Re7?

Black could carry on a grim defense after 20. ..Kc6, but clings to the illusion of hanging onto his extra material.

21. Be7 Be7 22. Qe6!

After 22. ..Kd8 white can play the direct 23. Ra1! or the picturesque 23. Re5!

Simpson resigned.

1:0