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)