T74 Playoffs: Round 3

Insan996 wins first game in final Championship round! Wild Caro-Kann variation ruled!

GOTW winner! Here is write up from Megasus!

Another Caro-Kann defense ; site says this is a (fantasy) Tartakower, but it really goes down a totally different path. ChessTempo has this as the Maroczy var, denoted by 3. p-f3.. and not the Maroczy Gambit, since dxe4 is declined until move 17 !.. Even odds on either winning or a draw, until move 5 ; B-d3 puts it at 66% draw chances, with no winning chances for W..The line narrows to one response, at move 6 ; Black goes out of system first as his response to B-f4 should have been p-f6. N-d7, and we're OOB... p-e5 for Black ; then W Should have taken the N on h6. But he stopped to pressure Q first, with B-g5. That pushed Q-b6, which was forcing W to protect b2 in some way. W didn't, thinking he would be able to grab the h8 R after BxN BxB QxB, on h6. Making it ok to lose his a1 R. But R-f8 for Black, saves his, and now W's Qside is  compromised.... The Game is basically lost from here, as the extra R for Black plus his white B, 2nd N and Q begin to take  their toll on Qside and the middle. White Q is pushed off to h column, to avoid a Q trade, so it is mostly out of the mix in the middle. Black is able to open up e column next, and W has little defense after the fR comes over to e8 to control it. W has  attacking moves, but nothing of consequence that can slow Black's roll enough. Black wins all the trades inhte middle,  overwhelming it. A 2nd decline by W of a Q Trade, leads to the White K getting separated from his pieces left, and the  mating sequence... 

bookseller (1672) - Insan996 (1704)

Result: 0-1

Site: Internet Chess Club

Date: 2017.11.16

[...] 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 g6 4.c3 ¥g7 5.¥d3 ¤h6 6.¥f4 ¤d7 7.£d2 e5 8.¥g5 £b6 9.¥xh6 ¥xh6 10.£xh6 Poison piece? Black is winning here! 10...£xb2 11.£g7 ¦f8 12.¤e2 £xa1 13.O-O £xa2 14.exd5 £xd5 15.¤d2 £e6 16.¥c4 £f6 17.£h6 exd4 18.¤e4 £e7 19.cxd4 ¤b6 20.¥d3 ¥e6 21.¤g5 O-O-O 22.¦c1 ¥d5 23.¤e4 f5 24.¤c5 Black is in control 24...¦fe8 25.¢f2 ¤d7 26.¤a4 £a3 27.¤ac3 ¤b6 28.£d2 ¤c4 29.£c2 White is done here 29...£b2 30.£d1 £d2 31.¥xc4 £e3 32.¢g3 ¥xc4 33.£a4 ¥xe2 34.¤xe2 £g5 35.¢h3 ¦xe2 36.¦xc6 ¢b8 37.¦a6 And it is over 37...f4 38.¦a5 £h6

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T74 Playoffs: Round 2

nealbruce dominates Game 1 of the second playoff round! Fantastic attack using all his pieces!

pokerram (1506) - nealbruce (1689)

Result: 0-1

Site: Internet Chess Club

Date: 2017.11.10

[...] 1.¤f3 ¤f6 2.c4 c5 3.¤c3 ¤c6 4.e3 e6 5.d4 d5 6.cxd5 exd5 7.¥b5 a6 8.¥xc6 bxc6 9.O-O ¥d6 10.dxc5 ¥xc5 11.a3 O-O 12.b4 ¥d6 13.h3 ¥f5 14.¥b2 ¦e8 15.¦c1 ¦c8 16.¤a4 ¤e4 17.¤c5 ¤xc5 18.bxc5 ¥b8 19.£a4 ¥e4 20.£d1 £c7 Threatening mate on h2 after BxN 21.g3 ¦e6 22.£e2 This line helps to hold the fort for White, but White stays under considerable attack

22.¤g5 ¦g6 23.¤xe4 dxe4 24.£e2 £e7 25.¢h1 £e6 26.¢h2 Actually C sees mate coming up here as well... 26...¦h6 27.h4 ¦xh4 28.¢g1 £h3 29.f3 exf3 30.gxh4 £g3

22...¦g6 23.¥e5 ¥xf3!!24.£xa6 And exchanging Qs loses a piece for White (24.¥xc7 ¥xe2 25.¦fe1 ¥xc7) 24...£d7! And White will be mated

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T74 Playoffs

Insan996 prevails against the Nimzo-Indian defense!  This was another back and forth game ending with a very nice mate. 2-1 for Valar Morghulis - last game for this round  is Nov 6.

Insan996 (1688) - kutch (1589)

Result: 1-0

Site: Internet Chess Club

Date: 2017.11.05

[...] 1.d4 ¤f6 2.¤f3 e6 3.c4 b6 4.¤c3 ¥b4 5.e3 ¥b7 6.¥e2 ¤e4 7.£c2 O-O 8.O-O ¥xc3 9.bxc3 Black Knight hangs on to an outpost on e4... 9...f5 10.a4 a5 11.¥a3 d6 12.¦ab1 ¤d7 13.¦fd1 ¦f6 14.c5 dxc5 15.dxc5 £e8 16.cxb6 ¤xb6 17.¥b5 ¥c6 18.c4 ¦g6? White is well up here 19.¤e5!19...¥xb5 20.¤xg6? Advantage swings to Black here - White needed just to take the B (20.cxb5 ¦h6 21.h3) 20...¥xa4 21.£d3 ¥xd1 (21...hxg6 Black would be ahead here ) 22.¤e7! And White's Knight is out of trouble! 22...¢f7 23.¦xd1 c5 24.f3! Black Knight is trapped! 24...¤f2 25.¢xf2 £xe7 26.¥b2 £h4 27.¢g1 £xc4 28.£d6 £b3?29.£c7 ¢g6 White moves in for the kill 30.£xg7 ¢h5 31.£xh7 ¢g5 32.h4#

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T74 Playoffs:

Ajolote takes on the French and wins Game 1!  This was a complex whip saw game, ending with a lovely pin, gaining a piece and the game.

Ajolote (1820) - LinceHispano44 (1721)

Result: 1-0

Site: Internet Chess Club

Date: 2017.11.04

[...] 1.e4 e6 2.£e2 c5 3.¤c3 ¤e7 4.¤f3 d5 5.exd5 ¤xd5 6.g3 ¥e7 7.¥g2 O-O 8.O-O ¤c6 9.d3 ¥f6 10.¤e4 ¥e7 11.c3 b6 12.¦d1 ¥b7 13.d4 cxd4 14.¤xd4 ¤xd4 15.¦xd4 £c8 16.c4 ¤f6 17.¥f4 ¤xe4 18.¥xe4 ¥xe4 19.£xe4 ¥c5 20.¦d3 £a6 21.¥c7 b5 22.b3 bxc4 23.bxc4 ¦ac8 24.¦d7 £a4 Here is a little line the Computer found..!

24...¥xf2!!25.¢xf2 ¦xc7 26.¦xc7 £b6 And White ends up a pawn down from the exchange

25.£d3 £c6 26.¥a5 e5 27.£d5 ¥d4 28.£xc6 ¦xc6 29.¦c1 h5 30.¥b4 ¦fc8 31.c5 ¦a6 32.a3 ¦cc6 33.¦c2 ¢f8 34.¢g2 ¢e8 35.¦d5 ¢e7 36.¦e2 ¢f8?? This loses a piece and the game, though White was ahead. 37.¦d8 ¢e7 38.¦xd4!

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T74 Rnd 4: "Beating the Caro-Kann"

fireball attacks the Caro-Kann with 2. Ne2  Opponent seemed to always play Caro-Kann as Black, so I studied the opening and hit on the 2. Ne2 option as a great attacking strategy! A critical Knight sac game aided the final onslaught

T71 GOTW Rnd 5: "a lovely Closed-Catalan miniature"

Tobiasdelmonte wins GOTW Rnd 5. Nominated by JPSVI, and his most elegant intro is as follows "This is a lovely Closed-Catalan miniature. Black releases the tension in the center with 15...c5 with the object of obtaining a passed and protected center pawn- only to find he has slipped the leash on all of  White's pieces which quickly and concurrently attack every sector of the board. JPSVI". 

Review by f5 GOTW Guru "For the Round 5 Game of the Week, I selected an aggressive Catalan system played by Tobiasdelmonte against Portola.The closed Catalan opening began innocently enough, with both players developing all of their minor pieces and castling within the first 9 moves. White commonly plays 10.Qc2, but Re1 in the game had the same idea in mind: to push e4. However, after recapturing on e4, the Rook awkwardly retreated to e2.Then Black commits a serious positional mistake by committing to 15... c5. Better was Rad8, x-raying the enemy Queen and discouraging the d5 break. Alas, c5 only begs White to play 16.d5. After 17.Bxf6 and 18.Nh4, the Black Kingside was fatally weakened. Had White played Re1 instead of Re2 on move 15, then 21.Qg4 would have immediately ended the contest.White was not to be denied and finds the crushing 21.Re5. Although not checkmate, White immediately won the Bishop on d6. The game might have finished sooner had White found Nf5 on move 25 or 26 (instead of Ne4), but the outcome was never really in doubt. Black ended the suffering by allowing mate in 1 on move 46.

I haven't much to add to their analysis - here is the game!

T71 Playoffs: A good catch with the French defense

fireball springs a trap with the French defense, winning the first game!