Thursday, January 27, 2011

Team play, last round drama etc.

There's nothing quite like playing in a team event.  

I first played in a team event at the 2008 USAT- N : Click here

We finished 3rd and won the U1900 Prize with the following team:
  1. 2000 WILLIAM M WENZ 1.5/4.0
  2. 1905 STANLEY T GARVIN 0.5/4.0
  3. 1851 IVAN WIJETUNG 3.5/4.0
  4. 1823 NEIL J GLEASON 2.0/3.0
  5. 1643 NOLAN R HENDRICKSON 3.5/5.0

Yes, that's the same Nolan who played board 1 this time around. (3 years and 560 rating points later!)

We also won the best team name prize with "Team Name Here". Mainly because it confused long time Wisconsin TD Guy Hoffman, who said somethig like "What's going on here, this team needs to tell me what their name is before I can do the pairings".

That was such great experience that I have wanted to play in another team event ever since, but it took this long to actually do it! I talked to Ken last year about playing in the 2011 Texas Team event, so I just had to find two more members.  Once Donnie was in we just needed a board 1

My goal was to win the U1900 prize, so board 1 had to be rated 2112 or less.  I didn't even consider Nolan at first since I knew his rating was around 2165, but when I looked at his Dec. rating it was 2110!  All I had to do to convince him to come down to Texas (from Milwaukee) was that the would get the opportunity play at least 3 masters and that the Texas Team was FIDE rated.

The team was set! (Avg. rating 1899.5!)
  1. 2110 NOLAN R HENDRICKSON
  2. 1909 IVAN WIJETUNGE
  3. 1792 KENNETH CHARLES ARTZ
  4. 1787 DONALD BRIGGS JR
All we needed was was to come up with a team name.  There was only one condition it had to be funny. I came up with "Ken and the Barbies".  

Going into the last round this was the situation for U1900 honors:

There were 2 other U1900 teams playing each other one on 1.0 point and the other on 2.0, if the 2.0 team won we would have to win our match against the higher rated UTD C team just to tie for first. Luckily for us the 1.0 team beat the 2.0 fairly quickly.

All we needed was a draw!

This was the match-up

1    Nolan Hendrickson (2110) vs FM Tautvydas Vedrickas (2353
2    WFM Saheli Nath (2133) vs Ivan Wijetunge (1909)   
3    Kenneth Artz (1792) vs Gerald E Roberts (1891)   
4    Rheanna English (1741) vs Donald Briggs (1787
 
Nolan destroyed the FM fairly quickly!

I was in trouble. 

Ken was completely outplaying his higher rated opponent.

Donnie was in trouble.

But things were looking good for the team.

Disaster strikes! Ken drops his Queen

Looks like we are going down 3-1

Donnie to the rescue!

He comes back from a huge material deficit to win his game!

We are now guaranteed 1st place 1900!
Right about then my WFM opponent drops a rook! But I only have a few min. left and she has about an hour. Maybe I should have offered a draw, but hey I have a rook! It turns out that my advantage was worth less than 2 pawns, because she has several advanced pawns and aggressively placed King and Knight.
 In desperation I played ...f5+, and she replied e x f e.p. ??  we then get this position with White to play.

Saheli Nath (2133)  - Ivan Wijetunge (1909) [A03]
Texas Team Dallas (5), 23.01.2011


1.b3 d5 2.Bb2 c5 3.e3 Nc6 4.f4 Nf6 [4...f6 5.Qh5+ g6 6.Qh4 Bf5] 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Bb5 e6 7.0-0 Be7 8.h3 Bxf3 9.Qxf3 Qb6 10.Bxc6+ bxc6 11.d3 0-0 [11...c4 12.dxc4 dxc4] 12.Nd2 Nd7 [12...a5 13.a4 Qb4] 13.Kh1 Bf6 14.Bxf6 Nxf6 15.e4 Qb4 16.Qe2 g6 [16...Qc3 17.Rac1 a5] 17.c4 [17.f5 exf5 18.exf5 Rae8 19.Qf2 Nh5 20.g4] 17...Rad8 18.e5 Nh5 19.Kh2 Ng7 [19...Qc3 20.Rac1 (20.g4; 20.Rad1) 20...Qd4 21.g3 dxc4 22.Nxc4 Qxd3] 20.g4 Rd7 [20...f5 21.exf6 Rxf6 22.g5;
20...dxc4 21.Nxc4] 21.Rac1 Qa5 22.Rc2 Rfd8 23.Rf3 Rb7 24.Qf2 Rc8 25.Qh4 Qc7 26.cxd5 cxd5 27.d4 c4 [27...Qb6;
27...Qb6;
27...Qa5 28.Rfc3 Rbc7 29.dxc5] 28.bxc4 dxc4 29.Rxc4 Qd8 30.Qxd8+ Rxd8 31.Rb3 Rbd7 32.Ne4 Ne8 33.Rbb4 Kg7 34.Nc5 Rd5 35.Rb7 Kf8 36.Nb3 Ra8 37.Ra4 a5 38.Kg3 Ng7 39.Kf3 h5 40.Ke3 hxg4 41.hxg4 Ne8 42.Nc5 Rdd8 43.Ke4 Rdc8 44.Rb5 f5+ 45.exf6 Nd6+ 46.Ke5 Nxb5 47.Nxe6+ Kf7 48.Ng5+ Kf8 49.d5 Re8+ 50.Ne6+ Kf7 51.f5 gxf5 52.gxf5 Rh8 [52...Rad8] 53.Rg4 Ra7 [53...Rag8 54.Rg7+ Rxg7 55.fxg7] 54.a4 1-0


Frank Berry sent me this quote about team play:

"When you play for a team you have the unanimous support of
your teammates and the struggle is absolutely uncompromising!"  
GM Eduard Gufeld  1936-2002

The grand daddy of Team Events is the USAT East event that draws around 300 teams! Anatoly Karpov has played there.

2010 WORLD AMATEUR TEAM 1139   
2009 WORLD TEAM 2009 1203    
2008 WORLD AMATEUR TEAM 1249

 #of players in bold.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Rounds 4 & 5

Team results here

USCF results here

Ivan Wijetunge, Nolan Hendrickson, Kenneth Artz & Donald Briggs Jr

It's great when everything goes as planned!

Not only did we have a great time playing/analyzing/socializing together:

Our team won clear 1st U1900!

Nolan

    * Won the Board 1 prize! (Beating 2 FIDE Masters to go 4-1)

    * Got a Master rating!

    * Got his final FIDE rating norm

I got my USCF rating to a all time high (1915) and got my first FIDE rating norm.

 
Round 5
Ken and the Barbies (1899.5) vs University Texas Dallas C (2029.5)
Match tied 2-2
BdBlackWhite


1Nolan Hendrickson (2110)Tautvydas Vedrickas (2353)
1-0
2Nath Saheli (2133) Ivan Wijetunge (1909)
1-0
3 Kenneth Artz (1792)Gerald E Roberts (1891)
0-1
4Rheanna English (1741)Donald Briggs (1787)
0-1

Round 4
Ken and the Barbies (1899.5)   vs The A Team with one D (1643.0)
We won 3-1



BdBlackWhite

1Nolan Hendrickson (2110)Robert Sanchez (1956)
1-0
2Jonathan F Allen (1883)Ivan Wijetunge (1909)
1-0
3Kenneth Artz (1792)Doyle W Lobaugh (1559)
1-0
4Sam Cassels (1174)Donald Briggs (1787)
0-1

FIDE Rating Norms

I have my first FIDE rating norm.
  1. Loss Feinstein, Michael 2261
  2. Win Pamatmat, Jordan James 1702
  3. Win Li, Zhichao 2176
  4. Non FIDE
  5. Loss Saheli, Nath 2123
http://ratings.fide.com/calculator_rp.phtml



Nolan got his 3rd and final rating norm.
  1. Win Langer, Michael 2261
  2. Non FIDE
  3. Loss Bercys, Salvijus 2460
  4. Non FIDE
  5. Win Vedrickas, Tautvydas 2324

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Texas Team


There are 15 teams.


Round 3 
University Texas Dallas B vs Ken and the Barbies (1899.5)
We lost 3-1 the only bright spot was my win against Zhichao Li (2179)

BdBlackWhite

1Salvijus Bercys(2558)Nolan Hendrickson (2110)-4481-0
2Ivan Wijetunge (1909)Zhichao Li (2179)-2701-0
3John R Enderle (1740)Kenneth Artz (1792)+521-0
4Donald Briggs (1787)Tony Paul (1501)
+2860-1



Round 2 
Prodigy Knight 2 (1722.0) vs Ken and the Barbies (1899.5)
We shut em out 4-0!



BdBlackWhite

1Samuel M Baker (1865)Nolan Hendrickson (2110)+2450-1
2Ivan Wijetunge (1909)Jordan J Pamatmat (1772)+1371-0
3Rae Crowe M (1679)Kenneth Artz (1792)+1130-1
4Donald Briggs (1787)Parker McWatters (1572)  +2151-0


Round 1 
We went down 3-1 to the top seed(3-Day). Our lone victory was Nolan Hendrickson's upset of FM Michael Langer.

Ken and the Barbies (1899.5) vs WikiLeaks: Chess is a Draw (2195.3)

BdBlackWhite

1Nolan Hendrickson (2110)Michael Langer (2309) -1991-0
2Michael Feinstein (2230)Ivan Wijetunge (1909)-3211-0
3Kenneth Artz (1792)Drew J Sarkisian (2130)-3380-1
4Joshua S Newsham (2112)Donald Briggs (1787)-3251-0


Round 1  Michael Feinstein (2230)  vs Ivan Wijetunge (1909)
Looks bad for Black, but Rybka found the remarkable 13...Qc7 and Black may be better.
1.d4 c6 2.e4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.dxc5 e6 5.Be3 Nh6 6.Nf3 Nf5 [6...Nd7 7.b4] 7.b4 Nxe3 8.fxe3 b6 [8...a5 9.c3 Nc6 (9...axb4 10.cxb4 b6 11.Bb5+ Bd7 12.Bxd7+ Nxd7 13.c6 -1.19/15  6:25 ) 10.b5 Ne7] 9.Bb5+ Bd7 10.Bxd7+ Qxd7 11.0-0 bxc5 12.Ng5 Be7 13.Rxf7 Bxg5 [13...Qc7 14.Qh5 (14.Rxg7 Qxe5 15.Qh5+ Kd7 16.Rxe7+ Kxe7 17.Qf7+ Kd6 18.bxc5+ Kc6 19.Qxe6+ Qxe6 20.Nxe6) 14...g6 15.Nxe6 gxh5 16.Nxc7+ Kxf7 17.b5 Bg5] 14.Rxd7 Bxe3+ 15.Kh1 Nxd7 16.Qg4 0-0 17.Qxe6+ Kh8 18.Na3 Nb6 19.Nb5 Rae8 20.Qd6 cxb4 21.Nc7 Rd8 22.Qxb4 0-1

Friday, January 14, 2011

Texas Team Championship
January 21-23 or 22-23, 2011

If you have played in a team event you know how much fun it is. If not I strongly encourage you to give it a try. You have about a month to get a team together.

Tournament info here.

Pre-Entries here.

2010 results here.(18 teams)

The event being held in Dallas should help break the 2010 participation record.

History of Texas Team results here.

*If you are looking for a team click here (Facebook page)



My team:
  1. 2110 NOLAN R HENDRICKSON
  2. 1909 IVAN WIJETUNGE
  3. 1792 KENNETH CHARLES ARTZ
  4. 1787 DONALD BRIGGS JR
Avg. rating = 1899.5

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

1st Annual Austin Chess Club Championship - Recap

Click here for final results.

Click here for USCF results

Congratulations to the Austin Chess Club for putting up such a great show.  135 players from all over Texas and other states/countries participated.  Even though a lot more players than expected showed up, the organizers did a great job and fun was had by all. They are already planning for a bigger and better 2012 event!

I had a great time and was paired up every game!
  1. Bye
  2. Loss ERNESTO L MALAZARTE (2153)
  3. Draw WILLIAM MOLINA (1971)
  4. Win DREW J SARKISIAN (2120)
  5. Loss BENJAMIN CORARETTI (2134)

A last round win would have given me clear first U2000, with a draw I would have tied for first. But it was not to be. I equalized as black, but blundered right after that!.
I was happy with my position as Black.  I was sure that I could take advantage of the White pawn structure in the end game.  I was behind on time and decided to play a few quick moves to gain some time (60 sec. increment) . Big mistake! I played Nb4?? which loses to Qb3.

Although I went 1-2=1, my rating should still get to 1911 which will be an all time high.

There were many interesting people at the event.


Serbian IM Goran Vojinovic (Winner of the event after he beat the GM in round 4)


Interesting hair styles


Irwin Philip's Chess tattoo. He plans to get another one of  Tal's staring eyes