Whew!

The Minnesota Open 2011 ended in a blizzard. Driving conditions were difficult, and I stayed an extra night in Minneapolis. The next morning, things were still messy. It took about twice as long to get home as it would have with dry pavement. Oh, and I did really well and had some luck in the Amateur section with 4 wins and 1 loss, winning the under 1800 prize.

One win was too short to learn much from, but the other 4 games should have some good stuff. The time control was the longest I have ever played (40/2,G/1 5 sec delay), and I took advantage of the time.

The short game should make a good video, working title: "Beware of Gift Rooks".

I won my first round game with a swindle. I feel a little bad about that, but a class A player should know all the pawn breakthroughs, and how to prevent them.

Black to move and win, seen from Black's side

White's last move was Kc4. I might have been able to draw this game, if he had made the required last move, but he definitely had the upper hand. (hint: If he had played hxg4 it would almost have been as bad as Kc4)(solution: 1...f3 and he cannot take either pawn or the other one captures and Queens)

My rating is now 1819, exactly 400 points higher than the last rating from my youth. I promised myself I would buy a nice chess set, when my rating crossed 1800. I was not expecting it so soon. I think I will get this one.

I don't know how long I will be able to keep this rating, but if I buckle down and study, maybe my strength will catch up (or pass) my rating.

I am not sure what my next tournament will be. I will likely get to one of the Saturday tournaments here in Rochester. There is the Rochester Open sometime in June, and I hope to go back to Ohio for the Columbus open in July.

Game Analysis--Newshutz v Paulik

This is a 60min game from the Rochester Winter Open. This my third loss I have suffered at the hands of this juggernaut.

Another video

I posted another video to chessvideos.tv, that I made based on my post of 1/28/2011

Rochester Winter Open 2011 Results

In all of my games Black won! I had Black in three of them, so I did well. I played 4 class B players, and an Expert. I goofed a drawish ending against the Expert, while under time pressure. My other loss was to a local that has beaten me three times now. My wins were a KID, a Pirc, and a KID style defense against a Reti/English in which I attacked on the kingside without a locked center. The last will make a fun video, I think. Two of my wins involved a turning down of a perpetual, one worked out for the decliner and the other did not.

First impression  takeaways:

• Two games I made a mistake by playing c5, once as white, once as black.
• I should practice endgames against the computer with a short time limit (30sec a move?)
• I am more prone to tunnel vision in time pressure.
• I may under evaluate my position, when I come out the other side of attacking pressure.
• "Hang tough and keep fighting." is good advice, but be sure if you turn down a perpetual.
• IM Victor Adler looks like a kindly grandfather, but is scary across the chess board. Chessgames.com only some losses by him, I wonder why?

Kings Indian Attack vs French; Fischer vs Myagmarsuren

I am trying out a new widget to present this game. There  is just a little HTML to add, and it invokes a program from Chess Web Publishing. There are full and easy to follow instructions on that link.

I copied the game and analysis from chapter 4 of Modern Kings's Indian Attack by Hall and Cartier. Which appears to be a reprint of an article by GM Alexander Chernin "The Evolution of Bobby Fischer's Treatment of the King's Indian Attack".

I ran into two French defense variations against my KIA in the Minnesota Winter Open, so I thought I would review this chapter as part of analyzing those games.


There is only one game after this that black plays 14.Na5 in the database (comes with Fritz 12). That game is also an impressive win with white.

The French is popular these days, so I expect I will see more of them.

Minnesota Winter Open 2011 results

I did well with a 2-2-1 record in the premier section. One win was a positional game, the other was a dogged defense against an attack which included an exchange sacrifice, so I came out ahead on the other side. The draw was a Pirc trap gone wrong, followed by many turns of staunch resistance, ending by defending lone King against a Bishop and Knight, taking long enough to run his clock out. One loss was a tactical mistake in the opening. In the other I ran out of time in a difficult endgame. Losing on time was a first for me, which is an accomplishment, because I usually move too quickly.

I am sure I will learn things from all 5 games.

Rochester Winter Open this Saturday.