A Game Won, and "Real Life" Goes On

I said blogging would be light in my previous post, but didn't think a whole week would go by...anyway, a lot of renovation has been going on at mi casa and that made it difficult to get to the computer for much of the time.

Meanwhile, I did manage to win a game in the Reno CC Championship qualifier, against Mauricio Amaya, who is the lowest rated player in my section but is showing steady improvement, including second place in the class D sectional earlier this year.

This time I opened 1. e4 and he played the Cozio Defense to the Ruy Lopez, which is very difficult to handle. I won a pawn with a superior position early and steadily ground out the win, picking off a couple more pawns before he resigned around move 38. So that leaves my fate in my own hands in the qualifier; all I have to do is defeat the 2005 club champion and a 1900 player in the last two games. I'll give it my best.

I have the bye this week, then will be on vacation from May 6-10, but I do have some articles and essays in the works that aren't about me. After all, "Me, me, me is dull, dull, dull!" as some very perceptive person once said.

You won't have to wait another week for it, either.

Pearson-Bennet Game Score

I'm not sure why I'm having trouble getting this game into viewable form but for the moment, and the record, here is the score of my game referred to in the post below. I'll get it in a viewer and append some comments sometime, but right now there's a lot going on in "real life," and blogging is going to be light for awhile.

Pearson-Bennett, Reno CC Ch. Qualifier, Rd. 1, 04/19/07

1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nf6 3. cxd5 g6 4. Nc3 Nxd5 5. Nf3 Bg7 6. e4 Nxc3 7. bxc3 0-0 8. h3 c5 9. Be3 Nc6 10. Be2 cxd4 11. cxd4 a6 12. 0-0 b5 13. Qd2 Re8 14. Rfc1 Bb7 15. Rab1 e6 16. a4 b4 17. d5 exd5 18. exd5 Bc3 19. Qd3 Na5 20. Rxc3 bxc3 21. Qxc3 Rc8 22. Qb2 Rxe3 23. fxe3 Qxd5 24. Rd1 Qe4 25. Qf6 Qxe3+ 26. Kf1 Re8 27. Re1 Nb3 28. Qb2 Bxf3 29. gxf3 Nd2+ 30. Kg2 Nxf3 31. Qf6 Nxe1+ 32. Kh2 Qxe2+ 0-1

Pearson-Bob Bennett, Rd. 1: 0-1, or How I Got Taken To the Cleaners

Back in tournament play last night, and I'll do my by-now usual routine of impressions today, game posting with comments tomorrow or as soon as I can get to it...

Mr. Robert J. Bennett played very good chess and defeated me last night in the first round of the Reno CC Ch. qualifier.

He may not have played the best opening (1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nf6 3. cd g6 4. Nc3 Nxd5) but in the Gruenfeld-type position which followed he played all the right strategic themes to keep my big center in check and his disadvantage to a minimum. Then I got pushy, instead of just keeping things stable until an opportunity arose naturally, agonized over a promising but unclear Exchange sacrifice and didn't play it, then played it the next move a tempo down compared to the original version...and just when I was going to get a promising attack on his King he sacrificed back the Exchange, ended up a Pawn to the good with a very active position and polished me off with good moves.

He played very well and deserved to win, and that's the bottom line. And sometimes, there's not much more to say than that about a game of chess!

Reno Club Championship Qualifier

My next serious chess, the Reno CC Championship qualifier begins tomorrow night, and the format is different than last year, and presents an opportunity to reflect on "tournament strategy."

Back in the good old days of the Interzonals, players had to consider this sort of thing all the time--while a Robert Fischer simply gave every ounce of energy and effort to win each and every game, most of the players were calculating if "+3" (say, 9 of 15 points in a 16-player round robin) would likely make it into the top 5 or whatever number would move them into the Candidates round. Then they'd try to draw against the top-rated guys and beat the bottom few in order to get in. Not very inspiring, but "professional."

Last year in the Reno qualifiers the top 12 rated players were put into two roughly equal (by rating) groups of six, with the top three from each group advancing to the matchplay phase. Meanwhile, the other eight or nine players (basically, under 1600) played a Swiss, with the winner qualifying to play the reigning club champion.

This year, with exactly 20 entrants, it was decided to have four groups of five, roughly equal in average rating, with the top two in each group to qualify. So I find myself in the middle of my pack, with a 1970 and a 1900, me (1608) and a 1430 and 1250.

It's obvious on rating that the top two ought to qualify, but mathematically if I were able to defeat the guys below me in rating, and get one point in my two games with the +1900 set, I'd be assured of no worse than a tie for second. One could calculate various scenarios...

Oh, to hell with that. I'm going to do it Fischer-style--I'm not taking the guys below me for granted, and I'm not going to play the top two any differently, or more carefully. I'm going to play my best chess consistently through each and every game to the best of my ability, regardless of the opponent or his rating.

That felt good. Look out world, here I come!

Far West Open Report, and an Invitation

I wasn't able to play in the Far West Open here in Reno a couple of weeks ago, though I'm absolutely, unequivocally going to play in the 25th annual Western States Open at the same venue this October. Michael Aigner has a nice report on the March event over at the USCF website. I liked this part:

The Weikel family organizes these two annual events with the support and sponsorship of the Sands Regency hotel. Their goal is to create a chess festival atmosphere more commonly found in Europe. They provide boards and sets and players in the Open section can be identified by both a nameplate and the flag of their state or country. GM Larry Evans gave two free lectures to participants in the main tournament and GM Sergey Kudrin played a simul with game analysis afterwards. The main tournament is played at a leisurely 7-hour time control. Perhaps most importantly, staying at the Sands did not tax the player’s checkbook as the room rate ranged from $27 on weeknights and $54 on the weekend.

So I want to invite everyone to come and play at the Western States this October. Right now the page doesn't seem to be working, but as soon as I have something I'll post a link and we can start making plans for some kind of chess blogger's convention there!

Let me know if you're interested.