0-6

Can I be this bad? I hope not. The timing coudn't be worse as my next tournament is the Chicago open. I was speaking to my friend Jose and he suggested that after next weeks game I take two weeks completely off of chess.

Here Black has a good game after ...d4, but I played Rc8

Clich here to replay

0-5

I lost my 5th game in a row to 10 year old expert Alexander Velikanov, who should be the #1 rated 10 year old after this tournament is rated. It was an even opening and middle game, I then went astray and was worse, but later got the following chance to even things up. Here I should have played Bc4, but played Ke3 and was not able to hold.
Click here to replay

K-12 Nationals

Several WI players are participating in the K-12 Nationals. Alexander Velikanov is the 44th seed out of 341.

Parings/Results

Monroi link

Yet another loss!

I am now 0-4. But as they say, "What does not kill you will make you stronger". I am also increasing my probability of winning in the future :)

The opening was good for me. Inaccurate play in the middle game cost me a pawn, but I was sure that I could hold the resulting Bishop endgame. My opponent then sacrificed a pawn, so the material was equal.

We reached the following position. My last move was Kd5-d6. This move is a blunder because it allows White to play Bf6! It is interesting to note that Bf6 only draws if I had played Kd5-c6!

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.

Local News

Looks like there won't be a "Cedric Thompson Memorial Tournament" this year. (formally known as Milwaukee City Championship) . Thie event was scheduled for 5/3 - 5/4 and was a Wisconsin Tour Event.

Event History (Players / Winner)
2007 31 / BETANELI
2006 22 / VAJA

---

The winners of the 4 USAT tournaments met on April 12th to determine an overall winner. The team from the South won.

The mainly WI based team of

1) 2282 Betaneli Alexander
2) 2239 Vaja Ashish
3) 2175 Santarius Erik
4) 2003 Magness Trevor (IL)

lost to

"We have Cox"
1) 2386 Robby Adamson
2) 2246 Landon Brownell
3) 2115 Jonathan Cox
4) 2100 Benjamin Marmont

in the semi final with a score 0f 1-3 (Trevor won)

Hales Corners Challenge VII.

Burgess, Tennant and Parker tie for 1st.

USCF Results

Event History (players/winner(s))

HCC VII 52(22+30)/ BURGESS,TENNANT,PARKER
HCC -VI 62(30+32)/ TENNANT,BREIDER,SANTARIUS
HCC --V 62(40+22)/ TATE,STAMNOV
HCC -IV 47(23+24)/ STAMNOV
HCC III 45(28+17)/ TENNANT
HCC -II 38(20+18)/ BURGESS,BECKER
HCC --I 70(34+36)/ BETANELI

Can't win to save my life!

I am 0-3 in my current tournament at the Waukesha chess club, but am determined to make a 2nd half come back. Yesterday I played 1.b4 for the first time in my life. I ended up losing a pawn, but my opponent handed me the game when he played Bb4. There are several ways to win here. I chose Ng6 (not the best if Black finds Qf6), but he played Qd6, I then played the obvious Bxf7+, Black replied Kh7, I should have just played BxB QxB, Rb1 and then picked up the rook on e8. I played dxe Qc5,Bxb4 Qxb4, Rb1 Qxe4, Bxe8 Bc4, Qb2 Bd5.

If I had not played dxe earlier, Black would not have had mating threats. Here the best defence is f3, then after Qxf3 I can play Bxd7. Instead I chose f4, I am still winning but in bad time trouble didn't realize that in order to defend properly I had to approach the Black bishop with my King, instead I ended up getting mated on the q-side.

2008 Arpad Elo Open, Wisconsin Dells April 5-6

There were 58 players, but only 12 in the top section.

10 year old Alexander Velikanov rated 2028 won all his games(+3rd round bye) to finish clear first. He gained 20 points to close in on Brian Luo in the USCF age 10 list.

1) Luo, Brian J WI 2068
2) Velikanov, Alexander WI 2028
3) Pamatmat, Jarod TX 2002

USCF results

I didn't play so well and finished with 1-1=1, I could not play the last round(sick family member) and took a first round bye. I started with a draw against Nietman (1921). In the second round I misplayed the opening and had a bad position, but just after I fought my way back to equal played a horrible move that lost the game. I had a slight edge for a while in round 4, then went from being horribly lost to winning in my opponent's time trouble.

Velikanov vs Nietman, Round 5 (The secret must be to drink lots of water!)

Event History (players/winner(s))
2008 59 (13+46) , ALEXANDER VELIKANOV
2007 56 (21+35) , ALEX BETANELI, JEREMY KANE
2006 47 (20+27) , DANE M MATTSON
2005 48 (20+28) , STANISLAU SMIATANKIN

Critical position from my last loss

I am Black, I have about 5 min. White has 1 min.(with 5 sec. delay). I spent too much evaluating the position after 1...Qh1+ 2. Ke2 Qxc1 3.Bxe6+ Kxe6 4. Qxg6+

Considering the time factor, I should have played ...Qg2+, now that my rook is protected I can move my king to e7.

During the game I didn't even look at ...Qg2+

In the actual game I ended up being up a Bishop, but lost too many pawns, and lost in a wild time scramble.

Check out this site

http://web.jrn.columbia.edu/newmedia/2008/masters/chess/