Home Page 
Chess Life Online 2014 April Lenderman Wins Long Island Open
Chess Life Online 2014 April Lenderman Wins Long Island Open | Lenderman Wins Long Island Open |
|
|
| By Bill Goichberg | |
| April 3, 2014 | |
 The 8th annual Long Island Open, played March 28-30 at Ramada Inn MacArthur Airport in Holtsville (Suffolk County), was the largest open tournament ever held in New York’s Suffolk or Nassau counties. 202 players competed for a $12,000 guaranteed prize fund, easily surpassing the previous record of 161 set at the 2012 Long Island Open.The Open Section included four Grandmasters and three International Masters, and the GMs, Aleksander Lenderman, Giorgi Margvelashvili, Ioan Chirila, and Mikheil Kekelidze, showed why they had the four highest USCF ratings in the field, scoring 4-1 to share the top four prizes. They won $750 each, except for Lenderman, who won the title and an additional $100 on tiebreak. Four players tied for the Under 2300 class prizes: 11-year old New York State JHS Champion David Brodsky (whose rating reached 2200 for the first time), 11-year old WFM Akshita Gorti, 11-year old Aravind Kumar, and 13-year old Zachary Tanenbaum. The Under 2100 Section was won by 14-year old Warren Wang and the Under 1700 saw a 5-0 sweep by 9-year old Erik Brodsky, David’s brother. No, this was not a scholastic tournament! The Under 1300 Section was won by Timothy Zhigulin and the Under 900 Section by Vicente Quispe. Full results and prizes are available at www.longislandopen.net. Three teams tied for the mixed doubles prizes, receiving $300 each ($150 per player). Aleksander Lenderman was a winner here too, along with Ella Papenek as they scored 6 ½ out of 10. The other teams with the same score were Sarah Ascherman-Mike Hehir and Evelyn Zhu-Robert Guevara. The tournament was sponsored by the Continental Chess Association and directed by Bill Goichberg and Harold Stenzel. Lenderman, Alex-Kekelidze, Mikheil 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 a5 5.g3 d5 6.Bg2 dxc4 7.Qc2 Nc6 8.Qxc4 Qd5 9.Qd3 Qe4 10.Qxe4 Nxe4 11.e3 0-0 12.a3 Bd6 13.Nc3 Nxd2 14.Nxd2 e5 15.d5 Ne7 16.Nc4 Bd7 17.Ne4 Ra6! 18.Rc1 f5?  18...Rd8 kept the game roughly equal, maybe chances for a slight edge for white. 19.Ned2!? Since black wants to eventually play f5 19...f5 (19...b5 20.Nxd6 cxd6 21.Rc7) 20.e4 With chances for an advantage. 19.Nc5! 19.Ng5 b5 20.Nxd6 Rxd6= 19...Bxc5 20.Nxe5 Bd6 21.Nxd7 Rd8 22.Nc5 Rb6 23.Nd3 a4! A good move, the one that I underestimated. It has a hidden idea, that I completely missed. 24.Rc3?! I was too obsessed with the fact that I thought rb3 had to be played, forcing Ke2, and tying me down, followed by trying to improve the knight via g6 to e5, and if f4, then nf8, d7, etc- to e4 taking advantage of f4 played. Of course that's too slow and black has a simple idea of Rb5 attacking the pawn which for some reason I missed. 24.Ke2 Ra8 25.Rc4 Rb5 26.Rhc1 Nxd5 27.Rc5! Bxc5 28.Bxd5+ Kh8 29.Nxc5 (29.Rxc5?? Rxc5 30.Nxc5 Ra5) 29...Raa5 30.b4 axb3 31.Nxb3 Rxd5 32.Nxa5 Rxa5 33.Rxc7 Kg8 34.Rxb7 Rxa3± White has winning chances but black has good drawing chances too. 24...Ra8!  Now the reality sunk in. I wasn't sure if I was that much better anymore and I had to play carefully. Luckily it was a G60 game and my opponent had only about five minutes left against my roughly 20 minutes 25.Rc4 Rb5 26.Nb4 Bxb4+ 27.Rxb4 Rxb4 28.axb4 Rd8 28...a3 29.bxa3 Rxa3 30.0-0 Rd3 (30...Rc3) 31.Rc1 Nxd5 32.Bxd5+ Rxd5 33.Rxc7 Rb5 34.Rc4± 29.Ke2 Nxd5 30.Rd1 c6 31.b5 Kf7 31...Kf8!? Was a trappy move 32.Ra1! But the drawback of Kf8 is that now after cxb5 Rd1, Ke6 can't be played to defend the knight on d5. 32.Rd4? Nc3+!! 33.Kd3 (33.bxc3?? Rxd4 34.cxd4 a3-+) ) 32...Ra8 33.Ra3! And white still maintains serious winning chances due to a better pawn structure and the bishop and of course the time situation. 33...Ke7 34.bxc6 bxc6 35.Bxd5 cxd5 36.b3] 32.Rd4 Now this move works. I must confess. While I saw a3, I completely missed the Nc3+ idea. Luckily here it doesn't work. 32...Ke6 32...Nc3+? 33.bxc3 Rxd4 34.exd4 a3 35.bxc6 bxc6 36.Bxc6 a2 (36...Ke6 37.Ba4! a2 38.Bb3++-) 37.Bd5+ And here is the difference. After Kf8 there would not be this check.; 32...a3!? Was worth a try 33.Bxd5+ cxd5 34.bxa3 Ke6 35.Kd2 Ra8 36.a4 Kd6 With some drawing chances though of course in a practical game it's very unpleasant to try to hold it. 33.Rxa4 cxb5 This loses by force as I can trade into a winning pawn endgame. Though Mikheil had a few seconds left here. 33...g6± Was a way to struggle on in a difficult endgame. 34.Rd4  34...Rd7 34...g5!? Maybe last try to fix the pawns for example in this line: 35.Bxd5+ 35.f4!? gxf4 36.exf4 Rd7 37.Rxd5 Rxd5 38.Bxd5+ Kxd5 39.Kf3 h5 40.h3 b4 41.g4+- 35...Rxd5 36.Rxd5 Kxd5 37.f3 37.Kd3?? g4-+ Shows it's still not too late to lose :) 37...Kc4 38.e4 fxe4 39.fxe4 Kd4 40.Kf3 b4 41.b3 Ke5 42.Ke3+- 35.Bxd5+ Rxd5 36.Rxd5 Kxd5 37.Kd3+- And I win quickly after that, realizing my 4 on 3 pawn majority on the kingside, whereas black can't do much with his double pawns on the queenside. 1-0 |