Erik Santarius Wins his 3rd WI title of the year!
I am White here and if I played Nc6 Black can resign.
I played f4, which is still winning, but Nf5 is much stronger
Derek Paitrick during his last round draw. (He has a notebook with pencil)
We went to eat around 1am on Friday and ran in to the top two seeds GM Darmen Sadvakasov 2638 (and girlfriend) and GM Alexander Shabalov 2632
Last round action.
The above position is from my loss. I am Black with the move. Some observations:
My Bishop is better, therefore I should try to exchange off other pieces, I can challenge the e-pawn with either c5 or e5. If I had taken my time I would have seen that White's main idea is to put a Knight on e5, and as long as I have a Knight on d7, I can chop it off. In the game I instinctively played 15...Nf6 ?!
1. Nc3 c6 2. d4 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Bf5 5. Nf3 h6 6. Nd2 e6 7. O-O Bd6 8.e4 dxe4 9. Ncxe4 O-O 10. Re1 Be7 11. c3 Nbd7 12. Qe2 Re8 13. Nc4 Nxe4 14.Bxe4 Bxe4 15. Qxe4 Nf6 16. Qc2 Rc8 17. Bf4 c5 18. dxc5 Bxc5 19. Rad1 Qe7?? 20. Bd6 +-
17...Nd5 was better
19...Nd5 =
Round 5:
DEREK D SACHS(1767) vs HONGKAI PAN(1895) 0-1 and
JAMES FAN WU (2040) vs JOSHUA D MILLER (1610) 0-1 (closest to camera)
History - Number of players and the winner(s)
2008 34 TIMOTHY P VOIGT, CHRISTOPHER BAUMGARTNER
2007 45 ALEX BETANELI, TATIANA VAYSERBERG
2006 42 DANIEL L LINDQUIST
2005 29 GUY G HOFFMAN
2004 34 WILLIAM ELGER , WILLIAM R OLK, IVAN WIJETUNGE
I got a chance to ask Conrad a few questions, at the Midwest Class Championships but before we get to that a few facts:
I also plan to play in a couple of one game a week events at the SWCC & WCC
4 Round Swiss G/100 (Sep. 25, Oct. 2, 9, 16)
Double RR Quads G/90 (Nov. 5, 12, 19, 26 Dec. 3, 10)
I am proud to announce that I am the LEPers II Champion. I am eagerly awaiting invitations to prestigious chess events as a result of this :)
The winning team: Back row M Politowski, M Lawrence, Me
Front row C Schneider, Greg Reese Jr and Ryan Jayne(not pictured) .
*Updated 9/08 (Final team results)
My team(Team-2) won 5-0. (The opposing team had a missing player)
I beat Stanley Garvin (1776). The game started 1.d4 c6 2. c4 d5 3. cd cd 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bf4 This was getting pretty boring and I wanted to break the symmetry and played 6... e6 although I knew that 6...Bf5 was the best move. Stanley took too much time in the opening and dropped a piece with about 12 min left. (I had around 40 min left).
My team lost 2-3=1. I lost to top seed William Williams(2200) on board 1. Ryan Jayne was upset by James Nickell on board 2.
My team went 6-0!
I beat J Veech on board 1. Since I hadn't played the White side of the Grunfeld in a while I opted for a passive line with e3.
1.d4 Nf3 2. Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 d5 5.e3 0-0 6.cd Nxd5 7.Bc4 Nxc3 8.bc c5
I thought I had a slight edge after the opening phase, but after many exchanges, Black may have had a slight advantage in the ending. The deciding factor was going to be the clock, since I was way behind. Luckily for me a bishop was gifted to me on move 39.
I am White here. Instead of playing Re8, I decided to complicate matters since my opponent was short on time and played Ne5, But I am the one who later got into time trouble and lost!
All have to do is play Rb8, and White's best move is probably to resign! But I got greedy and completely overlooked the Rook check on h7 (after the check on c8). I never thought of it that way, but because of the check White essentially got to play two moves in a row. Even after the move I played, I had several chances to draw, but botched it. After this narrow escape Matthew went on draw 2425 rated top seed Sean Nagle in round 3 and beat 2144 rated Tatiana Veyserburg in round 4, but he was beaten by Matt Anzis in round 5. Matt finished clear second with 4.0/5.0 and gained 50 points to get his rating up to 1960.
Round 3 - Draw
After the set back in round 2 I was in no mood to play round 3. I was White and played the exchange variation of the King's Indian. We agreed to a draw around move 20. My opponent was 1981 rated Robert Keating.
Round 4 - Loss
I was paired against a 1999 player who had not played in a long while. I managed to build a huge time advantage. (in the neighbourhood of 1 hour!) The time control was G/120 with 15 second delay. I had an opening initiative, but lost my way and once Black got his knight to c3 I thought that Black was better. At the end when Black was desperately low on time, I missed the tactic that not only won him a pawn, but forced the exchange of queens and left my pieces badly placed.
Click here to replay rounds 2 and 4.
I can't help but wonder what could have been, had I won round 2!
IM Angelo Young's Touch Move Chess Center
Aug. 15 Indiana State Blitz Championship Kokomo, Indiana Results
IM Amanov vs IM Kapengut, 
Anthony playing the wing gambit against the Sicilian defense in his last round game. 
I am playing White against a 1963 player, and with Na4 (I missed that I could play Bb3 if Qc2), I have a great game, but I played Ne2 and in mutual time trouble threw it all away.
I am Black. Here I should have played Kf7 and I think I am slightly better, I played Qa2 missing ef, but even after that I should have been able to hold the draw, but my opponent had a lot of extra time and that proved decisive. 
I am Black. White had just played Rxd6, and with Rxd6 I would win in a few moves, but I played the lemon Ba6+???? 
I am playing White here, but could not come up with a good plan and the game ended in a draw. Although I had a very poor final score, I am pretty happy with my play. I was not outplayed in any of the games, more like I outplayed myself. The first round loss was a tough pill to swallow, and had I won that I am sure that I would have finished strong. I made the trip with 5 others and we had a great time in Chicago although only one of us managed an even score.
IM Kirill Kudeinov(Right) tied for first with Yermo. He beat Gurevich in round 3. 
The battle of the generations in the U2200 section. Alexander Velikanov (10) battling Erik Karklins (94 years young) in round 3. Experience won out this time. Erik had a chance to tie for first going into the last round. He gained almost 50 points. You can see Erik's son Andrew Karklins playing in the Master section above and to the left of Erik's head. 
WI top juniors, Brian Luo(2069) and Alexander Velikanov(2027) #2 and #3 in the age 10 list. They played each other to a draw in the last round, and finished with 2.0/5.0
Pink squares and cool shades in the U1000 section
Alan with his niece and sister 
likesforests http://likesforests.blogspot.com/,
DAHL won this game
Bad planning (actually no planning!) turned a 4 hr drive into a 7 hour one (due to road closings). I was forced to take two half point byes.
Final results here.
Notable performances by WI players:
Under 2300
Alexander Betaneli tied for 1-2 with 6 points (worth $4000)
Alexander Velikanov, 10 years old and rated 2028 played up to finish with 3 points, beating 2 masters.
Under 1900
Alex Gianos-Steinberg clear first with 6.5 (worth $5000)
Alex has played in only 7 tournaments 6 of them Chicago Opens. His rating jump: 1786 => 1927. He also won the under 1600 section in 2005 with an identical score.
Under 1500
David Jin clear first with 6.5 (worth $5000)
*Correction - Jin was limited to $1500 due to rating over 1530 in past year
Under 700
Edward Larkin clear second with 5.5
I will not be able to go to the Chicago Open this year.
On a personal note, my daughter was born on May 16th
There is absolutely no reason not to play ...e5 here. In fact playing ...e5 was my plan all along, but for some reason I decided to delay it. Then lost to a simple tactic. Starting tomorrow I am going to take a 2 week break completely away from chess. I am going to concentrate on physical fitness and practicing my violin.
Bill & Sasha are joint champions. Congratulations!
Section 1
2200 WILLIAMS, W
2100 HAYES, R
2027 VELIKANOV, A
1961 ROYCHOUDHURY, S
1882 VELIKANOV, P
1858 COONS, J
1839 WIJETUNGE, I
1784 GARVIN, S
6.0 WILLIAMS ,VELIKANOV,A
5.0 ROYCHOUDHURY
4.0 VELIKANOV,P
3.5 COONS
2.0 HAYES
1.5 GARVIN
0.0 WIJETUNGE
Week 1 (March 19)
1-0 ROYCHOUDHURY vs VELIKANOV,P
0-1 COONS vs VELIKANOV,A
1/2 GARVIN vs HAYES
0-1 WIJETUNGE vs WILLIAMS
Week 2 (March 26)
PPD VELIKANOV,P vs WIJETUNGE
1-0 WILLIAMS vs GARVIN
1/2 HAYES vs COONS
PPD VELIKANOV,A vs ROYCHOUDHURY
Week 3 (April 2)
1-0 VELIKANOV,A vs VELIKANOV,P
1-0 ROYCHOUDHURY vs HAYES
1-0 COONS vs WILLIAMS
1-0 GARVIN vs WIJETUNGE
Week 4 (April 9)
1-0 VELIKANOV,P vs GARVIN
0-1 WIJETUNGE vs COONS
1-0 WILLIAMS vs ROYCHOUDHURY
0-1 HAYES vs VELIKANOV,A
Week 5 (April 16)
0-1 HAYES vs VELIKANOV,P
0-1 VELIKANOV,A vs WILLIAMS
1-0 ROYCHOUDHURY vs WIJETUNGE
1-0 COONS vs GARVIN
Week 6 (April 23)
1-0 VELIKANOV,P vs COONS
0-1 GARVIN vs ROYCHOUDHURY
0-1 WIJETUNGE vs VELIKANOV,A
1-0 WILLIAMS vs HAYES
Week 7 (April 30)
1-0 WILLIAMS vs VELIKANOV,P
1-0 HAYES vs WIJETUNGE
1-0 VELIKANOV,A vs GARVIN
1-0 ROYCHOUDHURY,S s COONS
Make up games - May 7
1-0 VELIKANOV,P vs WIJETUNGE
1-0 VELIKANOV,A vs ROYCHOUDHURY
Here Black has a good game after ...d4, but I played Rc8
Clich here to replay
Click here to replay
I lost this game because I failed to look at winning plans for White, was too confident of my drawing chances in my opponents time trouble.
I have seen Bishop endings where the theme was to sacrifice a bishop to queen a pawn, but in this game I forgot all about it. There is so much to remember!
I spent a lot of time going over this game and learnt a lot about Bishops of same color endings.
