Sunday, October 25, 2009

more Saturday scholastic chess and photos

Yesterday's CIS tournament at IS 318 was won by Miguel Garcia, Danny Feng and Randy Rivera, who all scored 4/4. Miguel magically won a worse but completely drawn rook ending (rook and f and h pawns against rook and g and h pawns (!!?)) to win the blitz playoff. Here's his pretty round three victory over former 318 player Markel Brown:

Garcia,Miguel (1927) - Brown,Markel (1603) [D78]
25.10.2009
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0–0 5.0–0 d5 6.c4 Bf5

7.Nc3 Mitch Fitzko suggested white should take on d5 here, since black has maybe messed up a little not playing ...c6, and white can take advantage of black's omission to get an extra center pawn. I was really impressed by that comment.

7...c6 8.Bf4 Ne4 Why not move the other knight? Black's development problem starts here.

9.cxd5 Nxc3 10.bxc3 Qxd5 This recapture is the second mistake; it lets white have an extra pawn in the center, and Miguel exploits this instructively.


11.Ne5 After the game I liked 11.Nh4, getting the two bishops. Rybka agrees and suggests the line 11... Qd7 12.Nxf5 Qxf5 13.Qb3 b6 14.e4 Qh5 15.e5 with central space and queenside pressure.

11...Qa5 12.e4 Be6 13.d5 cxd5 14.exd5 Rd8

how should white deal with the threat to the d pawn?

Miguel

15.Qb3 Miguel also looked at 15. c4 and the very interesting 15. dxe6!? He calculated it well: 15... Rxd1 16.exf7+ Kf8 17.Rfxd1

(analysis diagram)

Miguel had considered as his main line 17...Bxe5 18.Bxe5 (Rybka finds the improvement 18.Bh6+! Kxf7 19.Bxb7 Bxc3 20.Rac1 Nc6 21.Bxa8 Nd4 22.Kg2 and white's got an extra thing ±) 18...Qxe5 (18...Nc6!) 19.Bxb7±


(analysis diagram)
which Miguel correctly assessed as better for white but said he thought 17... Nc6 (from the previous diagram) might be less clear. he is right.

back to 15. Qb3: 15...Bxd5 16.Bxd5 Rxd5
white to move and win
white could play 17. Qxb7 now, and it's good, but black will respond 17... Bxe5 18. Bxe5 Rd8 19. Qxa8 Nd7 20. Q-- Nxe5 and be down an exchange. Miguel found an even better move ...

picture of Joel Ogunremi to hide the answer
17.Rad1! Rxd1 [17...e6 18.Qxb7 this is obviously very similar to just taking on b7 last move, but white has the useful move Rad1 in almost for free] 18.Qxf7+ Kh8 19.Qe8+ Bf8 20.Qxf8#

Azeez


Rhoda

JieJing

Ronavia

more photos

5 comments:

Bill Brock said...

Miguel's rationale for rejecting 15.dxe6 and his 17.Rad1! are both very nice.

Could you talk a little bit about how you & your colleagues are teaching young players to analyze so well?

Jeff said...

Can you offer prizes for those who solve the puzzles on your blog correctly? They're too hard :(

Bob Griese said...

No wonder Miguel did so well! Unlike Juan Pablo Montoya, he did not go out to have a taco.

Elizabeth Vicary said...

Bill- thanks! It amazes me how good they are. I think they mostly learn by playing each other so much. My jo bseems to be
a) yell at them when they don’t do their tactics homework
b) try to summarize the important stuff in openings
c) ask lots of questions when they show me their games
d) analyze out loud as much as I can
e) model “admitting when you are wrong”

Jeff- I could give you an “A” and maybe a “good” phone call to your mom?

Leon Akpalu said...

Modelling admitting when you are wrong is very important! It puts them way ahead of most adult players, and it's one of the "chess" skills that really transfers over to "the real world" in an important way.