U.W. Winter Open Feb 24-25 Madison, WI

This tournament has averaged 55 player the last 3 years. Past results are as follows:

2006 Winner Ashish Vaja
2005 Winner Alexander Betaneli
2004 Winner IM Stansilav Smetankin

2007 Results (Betaneli wins)

I scored 3-0=1 to finish with 4/5 (1 bye)

I tied for 3rd which was good enough for $120

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In round 4 I was paired against Brian Luo(2057). The #1 nine year old in the nation (by almost 200 points!). This is what none other than Gary Kasparov had to say about him:

"I am impressed to see kids like Ray Robson, Daniel Naroditsky and Brian Lou. All of them have the potential to become not only strong, but leading American grandmasters....."

-Gary Kasparov (page 39 September 2006 Chess Life)

I made a speculative exchange sac, but Brian missed zwischenzug (16...Bxh2+) which would have left him clearly better. After that the game got very complex. I got myself in really bad time trouble and went into survival mode and missed many obvious moves that would have won instantly. I agreed to a draw later, although analysis shows that white was better.

Click here to replay the game.

I was surprised that Brian was blitzing out moves when I was in time time trouble. While doing so he made many gross errors that I just missed since I was only trying to get to time control without worsening my position.

I have a 1-0=1 record against Brian. I won the first time we played around 2 years ago when he was rated 1675.

Below are some postions where I missed winning moves.

28.Bxf7

30.Bd5

44.f4+

45.Ne2+

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This was another tournament with adjournments, and I had 2! I took a bye in the 3rd round but had to come back after that round to play the two adjournments. Normally that would have meant a start time as late as 2 am. But because of the bad weather the last round was shortened into a G/60, so I had to come back at 9:30.

I was clearly winning in both adjourned games, and made very good sealed moves.

In round 1 my sealed move was N d3-c1

In round 2 my sealed move was N b3-c5

Click here for games (opens new window)

Arpad Elo Open, Jan 10-11, Wisconcin Dells, WI

Click here for games (opens new window)

Although adjournments are unheard of these days, they are alive and kicking here in Wisconsin. In this tournament the time control was 40/2, 20/1, G/1. A game could have lasted up to 8 hours! (And with 3 games on Saturday that could mean up to 24 hours of chess in a row!). With round times of 10:00, 3:30 and 7:30 adjournments were necessary. Last year I know of a case where a person had the first two games adjourned and had to play them after the conclusion of round 3, another case where a person had taken a bye in the third round but still had to come back after the conclusion of round 3 (after 1 am) to conclude a round from earlier.

I had my third round game go on till about 2 in the morning. I then had my forth round (the time control for the 4th round is 40/2, G/1) game last more than five hours and then had to start the 5th round 20 minutes later. I played horribly in the last round and dropped a piece very early in the game.

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Round 2 - Draw against ROGER D ALLISON (1731)

In this position I missed b5, if either the knight or the bishop takes back I have the intermediate move Nb6.

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Round 4 - Draw against MIKE NIETMAN (1861)

In the following position I missed the winning 31...h3, although with my move I still should have won.

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Click here for games

Tournament results