LEPers II Coronation

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1900?

There have been several times in the past when I was close enough to 1900 where a decent performance would have put me over. But each time I underperformed to fall further behind(Madison, Neenah, Rockford, Kansas City, Grand Rapids).

I am at that point again(1883). Since I plan to play in the u1900 section at the Kings Island Open, Nov. 14-16, I decided to wait till the cut-off for the November supplement(Oct 3), before I play again. (Just in case I cross over!)

I know, I know....ratings don't mean much, what really matters is playing good moves.

I have been re-reading Jeramy Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess . I am getting much more out of it this time around.

I have also been working on tactics(Understanding Chess Tactics, CTS) and openings.

My next week-end tournament will be the Hales Corners Challenge VIII . (Oct. 4)

And then the WI Veteran's Tournament (Nov. 8, 9)

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)

Upcoming Wisconsin Events

Sep 27th, 28th 2008 Greg Knutson Memorial
Oct 4th Hales Corners Challenge VIII
Oct 18th Wisconsin State Blitz Championship
Nov 8th, 9th WI Junior Open/Veteran's Tournament

LEPers II Champion

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 LEPers II tournament was an online (FICS) tournament for Bloggers conducted by Donnie (Liquid Egg Product). That's where the name LEPers came from. The time control was 15 min. with a 30 sec. increment.

Click here for more information on who took part.

Click here for the final game against Polly(Castling Queenside).

Thanks Donnie for running the event. I can't wait for LEPers III.

Polly's account of the final is here.

39th Annual Badger Open

Paul Fricano wins clear first.

Click here for USCF results.

WCC Team Tournament [5 Rnds G/90]

Waukesha Chess Club

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)

36 players participated.

Team Selection

Once the team captains were selected(top 6 rated players), the lowest rated captain got the first pick. In each successive round the lowest(cumulative) rated team got first pick.

Jim directing the team selection process.

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July 16

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).

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July 23

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.

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July 30
No team results since there were many missing participants. Williams was upset by J Kohlenberg

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Aug. 6th

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.

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Aug 20
Three weeks of make-up games began today.
I drew J Coons(1840), but Ryan was upset by Aaron Krause.

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Aug 27
I lost to J Kohlenberg(1907) But Cludia Schneider's won a great game over T.Kulkarni to gave the team a win. Team 2 will at least tie for 1st. 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!

SWCC Club Quads

Southwest Chess Club
Aug 28, Sep 4, 11

Click here for USCF results

Iowa Open - What could have been.

I had great fun playing at the Iowa Open. Since I had lived there in the past it was a chance to meet up with old friends. James Hodina ran a great tournament and the playing conditions were excellent.

Round 1 - Win
I won against a 2200 player, but since he is at his floor and not currently playing at the Master level I did not attach too much significance to the win.

Round 2 - Loss
I was paired against 2116 rated Matthew Dahl from Minnesota. I had Black in the following position.

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!

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USCF Results

Sean Nagle won the tournament with 4.5/5. He beat 2 time Iowa champion Pete Karagianis in round 4 and 3 time current Iowa champion Tim McEntee in round 5. Matt Anzis was second with 4/5. 3rd was shared by McEntee, Matt Dahl, Robert Keating, and Tatiana Vayserberg at 3.5/5