Road Trip

I will be taking a break from tounament chess Aug 15 - Sep 8th.

I will be embarking on a ~3000 mile road trip:

Milwaukee->Toronto->Ottawa->Montreal->Quebeq->N.Y.->D.C.->Chicago->Milwaukee

Although I won't be playing any tournament chess I plan to visit a few chess cafes etc. (Washington Square)

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Toronto - Street food (Tandoori Chicken) at the South Asian festival in Little India, Gerrad Street

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Ottawa - Parliament Building

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Montreal - 1976 Olympic Stadium

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Quebec City

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Washington Square

I sat down at one of the tables. The guy started with small talk about Anand, since he thought I was from India. He then wanted to play a game with no conditions to see where I stood. I didn't play that well and resigned when I lost a piece. I was ready for a money game now, but he refused to play me. He probably thought that I threw the game!

Waukesha G/90 Double Quads

I started this tournament with two losses but finished off with 3 wins in a row, including a nine move win against James Coons (1921) in round 4. I have a bye in the last round, due to my road trip.

I think that using my performance rating in the last 10 rated games is a pretty good indication of current form. I am currently at 1973. This is a link to my performance in the last 10 rated games. Once this tournament is rated I should be around 1840.

Click here for my games

Round 5 WALKER, ARLEN P (1849) ws me WIN

Black to play

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Round 4 Me vs COONS, JAMES J(1921) WIN

Black to play

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Round 3 Me vs WALKER, ARLEN P (1849) WIN

Check out the e-file!

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Round 2 COONS, JAMES J(1921) vs Me LOSS

Got a great position but then blundered a vital pawn 24...Bc8??. Even a pawn down I was not in bad shape, but had to play 26...Qf6 (after 25. Nxd5 Nxd5 26. Bxd5)

Black to move

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Round 1 Me vs VELIKANOV, ALEXANDER (1830) LOSS

I was out played in the opening and middle game

Midstate Open Tournament, Peoria

I normally don't like to play in tournaments with a time controls faster than G/60, but decided to play in this G/45(with 5 sec delay), 4 round event. I finished 3-1=0. With wins against a 2000 and a 1861. But I lost to a 1659 after getting a great position.

NM Pete Karagianis won the tournament with 4-0 score. 4 tied for 2nd with 3-1.

Click here for USCF results

Click here for my games

In the first round I was paired against an unrated player. In the next three games I didn't manage my time well, but this was expected since I don't play G/45 that often.

In the 2nd round I was paired against a 2000 rated player. As a d4 player I don't have to deal with the Sicilian Defense, but when black plays 1...c5 after 1.d4, I don't like to play d5. I was talking about this to my expert friend Jose Gatica, and he suggested that I should go in for a Maróczy Bind. So far I am 1-0=1 against an average rating of 1990 with the Maróczy. According to theory White has no business castling queen side in the Maróczy, but I didn't know that! In the end I was very short on time but managed to mate my opponent with 45 seconds left.

Black should have played f6 at some point to prevent the dangers associated with h5 by White. It's interesting that h5 is so strong that I can even give up a rook for it. In other words I could have played 22.h5

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This a position from the 3rd round loss. I am Black with the move. I spent a lot of time trying to get the Bf2->Bxg3 idea to work and got myself into bad time trouble. Bad time trouble makes you do weird things. I decided that since I had invested so much time on the above variation I was going to play it anyway although I didn't see how Black could get an advantage. Bf2 was not bad, but taking on g3 was.

After this 3rd round loss I had to get my self in mental shape before facing the 29 ranked 13 year old in the nation Jason Chien (1861). I planned on getting to an end game in an equal but solid position and then trying to outplay my opponent. As White I played passive but solid moves and I am sure Black was better, especially after he got in e5. But once he played c4, I was confident that I could outplay him. The game went into a rook and pawn ending where I was up 2 pawns. I managed to win his rook with less than a min. left on my clock.

Southwest Chess Club Championship

The 2007 Southwest Chess Club Championship ended today.

Final Results

My last round game against Coons was very interesting.

I tried a new opening and got into all kinds of trouble with my king in the middle of the board, but my king almost made it back to safety. Although I lost this game the following possible variation made the game worth while.

Here I played the losing 12....Ke6, since White can play d5+ then Bf4+ and d6. What's amazing is that the best move here is 12...g6! 13.Qd5+ Kg7 14.Qxa8 Bb4+ 15.Bd2 Qe7+ 16.Kd1 and Black is ok. But since White did not play the best moves, the game ended up in the following postion where I could have consolidated with Qb6 and then Ke7, Kf8, but I thought I could force an exchange of queens by going Qe8, but I ended up exposing my king to a deadly attack

After ....Qe8, Qh4 Qe4, Qf2 White is winning! The Queen check on c5 through my rook is a big threat.