First Round Victory

I won the first game of the qualifying tournament for the Reno City Ch. matches last night against Laroy O'Doan, whom I described in my reports on the Class B Ch. tournament earlier. I have been trying to get this file converted to an .html through a pgn2web program so that readers can play over the game on the computer --but no luck so far. It says 'converting' but never finishes!

So here is the score with brief comments:

[Event "Reno City Ch. Qualifying RR"]
[Site "Reno, NV"]
[Date "2006.04.20"]
[Round "1"]
[White "R. Pearson"]
[Black "L. O'Doan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1618"]
[BlackElo "1712"]
[ECO "E00"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 (My surprise weapon for this game. Last time I allowed the Nimzoindian against O'Doan and did fine. But the Catalan looks like fun to me...) Be7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. Nc3 c6 (In the postmortem he said he was being careful of the 'Catalan' bishop's diagonal. But one must get in d5 or White dominates the center) 6. e4 d6 7. Nge2 Nbd7
8. O-O e5 (He lashes out, afraid of getting squeezed to death. By now I was convinced that despite any pregame resolutions, the position demanded agression!) 9. f4 exd4 10. Nxd4 Nc5 11. Qc2 Ncd7 (Rather cheerless. Black is already gasping for air, and something more desperate is called for. But that's easier to say after the game than during it.) 12. b3 (Develop all the pieces, then attack!) Ne8 13. Bb2 c5 (Now he's going to lose something. The d-pawn is a morsel) 14. Nf5 Bf6 15. Rad1 Nb6 16. e5 (Nxd6 also looked good, but this is simple and strong) Bxf5 (somehow I knew he'd do this instead of Be7, but now the white-square bishop will be unopposed) 17. Qxf5 g6 18. Qg4 Bg7 19. Bxb7 Rb8 20. Bc6 Qc7 21. Bxe8 Rbxe8 22. Nb5 Qc6 23. Nxd6 (I liked my little bishop manouver. Now, just don't let him back in the game! There may be a faster win or two hereafter, but I've learned some valuable lessons recently. In a position like this, it's no crime to make a few good, safe moves, make the time control (30/90) and finish it off) Rd8 24. Qe2 Rd7 25. Rd2 Re7 26. Qg2 Qc7 27. Rfd1 Qb8 28. Ba3 Nd7 29. Ne4 Qc7 30. Rd5 Rc8 31. Qh3 f5 32. exf6 Nxf6 33. Nxf6+ Bxf6 34. Bxc5 Re2 35. Kf1 Rce8 36. Rd7 Re1+ 37. Rxe1 Rxe1+ 38. Kxe1 Bc3+ 39. Kd1 1-0

So now I need to score 2 points in the next 4 games to just about guarantee a place in the championship matches. Two experts and two A players await! I know they're not likely to allow this kind of central domination, however.

All the first round results are linked at the top of the Reno Chess Club page.