February 1, 2007

I played in the Northeastern Open, in Neenah Jan 20. The tournament has still not been rated! I was only able to play the first round against a lower rated player.

The tournament was rated today Feb 7th: Link

The b-pawn's journey made the game memorable.

Click here to replay the game.

This and That

I was looking at the tournament listing for the Chicago Open this year. There are some interesting changes:

The class cut-offs are different :

Under 2300,
Under 2100,
Under 1900,
Under 1700:
each $5000-3000-2000-1000-700-500-400-400-300-300.

There are new rules to deter computer cheating:

1) Players may not use headphones, earphones, cellphones or hearing aids or leave tournament floor without permission (rule may be waived for minus scores or those who cannot score more than 5 points).

2) Players must submit to a search for electronic devices if requested by Director; refusal to be searched is grounds for expulsion from the tournament, with no refund.

Complete info at: http://www.uschess.org/tla/yState.php?st=IL

The USCF will be pulishing monthly rating supplements (electronic) starting Feb. 2007, instead of even months only. The Chicago Open will use the May supplement.

Because of this I will be among the top seeds in the U1900 section as long as I don't go over 1900 before the May supplement comes out. The cut-off for the May supplement will be all tourmanents rated by 11pm Friday April 6th.

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I was planning on not playing much, but decided to play at the Northeastern Open. After this tournament I plan to join ICC and play in a couple of other OTB tournaments and prepare for a good performance at the Chicago Open.

Michigan Class

I great turn out, over 160.

Complete results

I took a bye in the first round and lost the 2nd round. I won the next two games and a win in the last round would have won some money but this is what happened: I was looking at some Morphy games the other day and was inspired by that to play the move 20. Ng6 (but in my case it's just a gross blunder!) Instead of that 20. Bd3 and I should have the advantage

Click here to replay the game.

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This is my round 4 win against MI Jounior ATULYA ARYA SHETTY (1872)

Click here to replay the game.

Etc.

I am playing in a four round G/90 tournament. One game a week on Wednesdays. I took a first round bye. Yesterday I played a great game but unfortunately lost on time.

Click here to replay the game.

I missed many chances that would have led to a decisive advantage:
20. Bd4
22. cxd5
24. Qc2
and the beautiful 31. Bd3 +

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I was looking forward to playing in the Northeastern Open in Neenah, but will not be able to do so due to scheduling conflicts. I decided to play in the Michigan Classs Tournament in Lansing Jan 13-14 instead.

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I created another blog for my younger son.

Game Replay

I was using Chess Publisher for displaying the games, but noticed that it was really slow, so I put all the games in one place and created a link to them called "Games Replay".

Three games

These are 3 games from the last two tournaments

A loss to Ronald Luther(2243) Kansas City Dec 29th

[Event "Kansas City G/45"]
[Date "2006.12.29"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Wijetunge, Ivan"]
[Black "Luther, Ronald"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A45"]
[WhiteElo "1856"]
[BlackElo "2243"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 Ne4 3. Bf4 e6 4. Nd2 Bd6 5. Bxd6 Nxd6 6. e4 b6 7. c3 Bb7 8.
Qc2 f5 9. Bd3 Qg5 10. Ne2 O-O 11. f4 Qh4+ 12. g3 Qh5 13. O-O-O c5 14. dxc5 bxc5
15. h3 c4 16. g4 cxd3 17. Qxd3 fxe4 18. Qxd6 Qa5 19. Nb3 Qxa2 20. Kc2 e3 21.
Rhe1 Be4+ 0-1

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A loss to Frank Smith (1585) Kansas City Dec 29th

[Event "Kansas City G/45"]
[Date "2006.12.29"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Smith, Frank"]
[Black "Wijetunge, Ivan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B15"]
[WhiteElo "1856"]
[BlackElo "1558"]
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Ng3 h5 6. Nf3 h4 7. Ne2 h3 8. Bf4
Qb6 9. b3 hxg2 10. Bxg2 Bg4 11. O-O e6 12. Ng3 Nd5 13. Be3 Qc7 14. Qd2 Bd6 15.
c4 Nxe3 16. Qxe3 Bf4 17. Qe4 Nd7 18. d5 Nf6 19. Qd4 O-O-O 20. Qxa7 exd5 21.
cxd5 Nxd5 22. a4 Qb8 23. Qxb8+ Kxb8 24. Rfd1 Nb4 25. Rxd8+ Rxd8 26. h3 Be6 27.
Ne2 Bc7 28. Nfd4 Bc8 29. Rc1 Bb6 30. Rc4 Nd5 31. b4 Rh8 32. b5 cxb5 33. Nxb5
Be6 34. Rc1 Rh6 35. Nbd4 Rf6 36. Rf1 Nc7 37. Nxe6 Nxe6 38. Nc3 Nf4 39. Ne4 Rg6
40. Kh1 Nxg2 {Black manages to lose this! (in bad time trouble)} 1-0

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A win against Yuri Kolesnikov (1560) Bloomington Dec 30th

[Event "Bloomington G/70"]
[Date "2006.12.30"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Wijetunge, Ivan"]
[Black "Kolesnikov, Yuri"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D45"]
[WhiteElo "1856"]
[BlackElo "1560"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c4 e6 4. e3 c6 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Bd3 Nbd7 7. O-O Bxc3 8.
bxc3 dxc4 9. Bxc4 Nb6 10. Bd3 Nbd5 11. Qc2 Ne7 12. e4 Ng6 13. Bg5 h6 14. Bc1
Nh5 15. g3 Qf6 16. Qe2 e5 17. Nd2 Nhf4 18. gxf4 Nxf4 19. Qf3 Bh3 20. Bc4 Qg5+
21. Qg3 Qxg3+ 22. fxg3 Bxf1 23. Bxf1 Ng6 24. Nc4 exd4 25. cxd4 Rd8 26. Be3 b6
27. Bd3 O-O 28. e5 Ne7 29. Nd6 Nd5 30. Bf2 Nb4 31. Bc4 Rd7 32. Rc1 Rc7 33. Be1
c5 34. Be2 Nc6 35. Bf2 Nb8 36. dxc5 Nd7 37. Nb5 Rcc8 38. Nxa7 Ra8 39. cxb6 1-0

End of Phase

My initial goal was to reach 2000, by the Feb 2007 suplement.

By mid December I had reached 1889, but due to various reasons I could not schedule any games with the time time controls that I like. (Not less than G/90)

I decided to played in 3 tournaments anyway,

The 1st in Grand Rapids,MI. I lost 19 points there in crazy time scrambles. (G/60)

The 2nd in Kansas City, MO where I won the first lost the second to a master and then lost to a 1600 in the last round being up a piece but with less time. This was a G/45, 3 round event. Lost another 15 points there.

The 3rd was in Bloomington, IL where I tied for first with 3.5/4 (with 1 bye), but the wins were against lower rated players. That was good for $80.

The latest USCF record shows my rating at 1859, but I have a draw against a 2100 player that was accidently left out, after that gets factored in I will be at 1866.

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I will be playing a lot less now. I was planning on doing some studying and playing about once a month, although I am having second thoughts. Maybe its just a big waste of time. Maybe I am just dissapointed because I feel that I should have not played in those fast time control events.

I will post the games soon.