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Chess Life Online 2010 August The February Check is in the Mail
Chess Life Online 2010 August The February Check is in the Mail | The February Check is in the Mail |
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| By Alex Dunne | |
| February 1, 2010 | |
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It's official
(finally) -- the US Team has qualified for the 17th Olympic Finals
to be played on the webserver. The lineup for the final has yet to be
announced but the games from the qualifying round are now available. GAME OF THE MONTH Before playing over this game, first imagine yourself on a boat in the middle of a stormy ocean. Picture yourself dangling off the bow just inches from terrifying waves, holding on by one wet hand. Lightning is striking all around you. OK ? Now you are ready to play over this game from Board 1 with Grandmaster Bokar. 4147 FRENCH DEFENSE (C07) White: Jason Bokar (2571) Black: Jon Halldórsson (2495) 17 Olympiad 2006 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.Ngf3 cxd4 5.exd5 Qxd5 6.Bc4 Qd6 7.0-0 Nf6 8.Nb3 Nc6 9.Nbxd4 Nxd4 10.Nxd4 a6 11.Re1 This is currently the most common move. Bokar faced 11. Bb3 in Ruben-Bokar, 10 NAICC 2005 and after 11...Qc7 12. Qf3 Bd6 13. h3 00 14. Bg5 Nd7 the game was drawn shortly. 11...Qc7 12.Qe2 Bc5 13.c3 h6 14.Nf5 This is new. Most common was 14. Bb3 as in Rosso-Grabner, 33 WCCC which continued 14...Bd6 15. Nf3 00 16. Ne5 b5 17. Ng4 and drawn shortly. 14...Kf8!? Rather than just castling, Black intends to use his Rook aggressively, believing that his King is safe on f8. It's an aggressive plan, but objectively 14...00 seems better. 15.Ng3 Jones-Speelman, Staunton Mem 2007 retreated to d4 here. 15...b5 16.Bd3 h5!? The winds begin to blow about the ship around here. Both sides will be attacking. 17.Be3 Bd6 18.a4 h4 19.Ne4!? White, too, refrains from defense and seeks activity, and activity is what he gets! 19...Bxh2+ 20.Kh1 Bb7 21.Bc5+ Ke8 22.axb5 h3! 23.g3 Qxc5 24.bxa6 Bxe4+ 25.Bxe4 Nxe4 26.Qxe4 Ra7 27.Re2 Bxg3 28.fxg3 Rh5 Material is even but White's heavy pieces have more coordination. White is winning. 29.Qa4+ Kf8 30.Qa3 Ke8 31.Qxc5 Rxc5 32.b4! Black will not be able to combat the advancing White Pawns. 32...Rxc3 33.Rb2 Rc6 34.b5 Rb6 35.Kh2 e5 36.Kxh3 Ke7 37.g4 Ke6 38.Kg3 f6 39.Kf3 g6 40.Ke3 f5 41.Kd3 Kd5 42.Ra4 fxg4 43.Kc3 e4 44.Kb4 1-0 Bokar finished with +2 =7 -0 Ken Reinhart demonstrates an eternal lesson: in the French Defense the bad Bishop is the one on c8. 4148 Reinhart finished +3 =5 -1 There has been a lot of analysis lately (Edwards, Moody) claiming that White wins against the two Knights Defense. Here is further evidence. 4146 Keith Rodriguez finished +3 =6 -0 Robert Rizzo's Dragon proves superior in the endgame against his Nicaraguan opponent. 4145 Rizzo finished +1 =7 -1 Checkmate is easy - just attack with more pieces than your opponent can defend with. 4144 Millstone ended with +5 =4 -0 Black engineers a cute endgame, first winning a Rook and then sacrificing all his remaining pieces to queen a Pawn. 4143 Corky scored +5 =3 -1  JANUARY RESULTS John Collins Charles Jacobs 08C31 5-1 Walter Muir Inoel Cardenas 09W35 4 ½-1 ½ Swift Quad Jesse Turner 09SQ08 4 ½ - 1 ½ TOP 40 RATED USCF CC PLAYERS BLANCO, CESAR 2607/15 CULLUM, CHUCK 2486 DULIBA, EDWARD P 2480 O'HARE, CIARAN 2447 O'CONNELL, CHRIS 2436 VAN ENK, STEVEN 2433 BRANDHORST, WES 2432 GREENE, DAVID 2423 COOK, RANDY 2421 WILSON, ABE 2412 MIETTINEN, KRISTO 2403 ROSE, BLEYS 2395 CONCHA, HUGO 2391 TRACZ, JAMES 2385 BRACK, FRANK 2383 BROWER, WALTER 2379 LANGLAND, THOMAS 2373 DAVES, DANA 2369 SCHULTHEIS, DON 2365 LEVINE, JOEL 2361 KEATING, ROBERT 2358 BUSS, MICHAEL 2355 WALTERS, GARY 2352 SWAN, PETER 2349 FASS, ROBERT 2348 CORARETTI, BEN 2340/16 ADAMS, GARY R 2339 BAFFO, JEFFREY 2335 ANDERSON, L. 2320 SOGIN, DAVID 2315 MORAN, CORY 2310/8 RODRIGUEZ, KEITH 2310 SCHAKEL, CORKY 2310 BALLOW, JOHN 2309 WOODARD, DANIEL 2305 STUEBER, GUIDO 2304 RYAN, PATRICK 2300 GREENE, SANFORD 2289 PRIETO, ALBERTO 2287 INGERSOL, HARRY 2285 CHARLES JACOBS FIRST IN COLLINS EVENT 08C31  SICILIAN DEFENSE (B99) White: Thomas Babcock (2092) Black: David Greene (2409) [B99] John Collins 2008 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Be7 8.Qf3 Qc7 9.0-0-0 Nbd7 10.g4 b5 11.Bxf6 Nxf6 12.g5 Nd7 13.f5 Nc5 14.f6 gxf6 15.gxf6 Bf8 16.Rg1 h5 17.Rg7 Qa5 18.Kb1 Qb6 19.Bh3 b4 20.Nd5 Qb7 21.Re1 Bd7 22.Ne7 Bxg7 23.fxg7 Kxe7 24.Rf1 f5 25.gxh8Q Rxh8 26.Qg3 Kd8 27.Qxd6 Qc7 28.Qxc7+ Kxc7 29.exf5 e5 30.Ne6+ Nxe6 31.fxe6 Bb5 32.Rf7+ Kd6 33.Kc1 Rg8 34.Kd2 Rg1 35.Rf2 Ra1 36.b3 Rxa2 37.e7 Ra1 38.Rf6+ Kxe7 39.Re6+ Kd8 40.Rxe5 h4 41.Rd5+ Ke7 42.Rd4 Rh1 43.Rxh4 Rxh2+ 44.Kc1 Kd6 45.Rh7 Kc5 46.Bf5 Rxh7 47.Bxh7 Kd4 48.Kd2 Bc6  White resigned in this position rather than having to defend what he believed was a drawn position. What do you think, Armchair Analysts - any true winning chances for Black ? US TEAM QUALIFIES FOR 16th OLYMPIAD FINALS The final, which will be played by post, will have the following teams: Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Israel, Italy, Brazil, France, England, Ukraine, Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, and the USA. This will be the last Olympiad played by post. There will be four boards per team and the event will start June 10, 2010.  KRISTO MIETTINEN= SIM Kristo Miettienn will be awarded the title of Senior International Master at the ICCF Congress in Kemer, Antalya, Turkey, 2010. Two norms are needed for this title. Kristo earned his first in the Reg Gillman Memorial and his second in the 11th North American Invitational CC. For his showing there Kristo will be given a spot in the World Championship Finals. Go get ‘em, Kristo ! SICILIAN DEFENSE (B93 ) 4142 2010 ABSOLUTE The 2010 Absolute has started. Participants are in order of rating: Abe Wilson (2412) Kristo Miettinen (2403) Dana Daves (2369) Gary Walters (2352) Keith Rodriguez (2310) John Ballow (2309) Sanford Greene (2289) Harry Ingersol (2285) Gordon Magat (2281) Barry Endsley (2272) Humberto Cruz (2259) Danny Horwitz (2256) James Rhodes (2248) There is a $500 prize fund thanks to the generosity of Corky Schakel, Keith Rodriguez, Robert Rizzo, Abe Wilson, Dave Sogin, and the USCF. CLASSIFIED ADS LEARN CHESS BY MAIL ! Lessons given by mail, telephone, ICC - many different ways. I specialize in players rated 800-2100 who would like to improve their game. Contact me for information. Alex Dunne, 324 West Lockhart St., Sayre, PA 18840 or [email protected] AN UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT In a strong all-expert tournament one player became convinced another was using a computer to generate his moves. That player then wrote a letter to the other participants and to me accusing that player of illegally using a computer. That is NOT the way to handle the problem. The proper way is to inform only the CC Director. Openly accusing another is wrong for a variety of reasons. In this particular case the accuser was almost certainly wrong. Emotions can sometimes blind us and cause mistakes to be made. ST. THOMAS AND PRINCE ISLANDS CHESS STAMP Click here for a complete pdf index of Alex Dunne's "Check is in the Mail" columns. Also browse uschess.org's Correspondence Chess Area for more information. |
