Complete Day Three, Two More to go at the Foxwoods Open
Submitted by
TimMoroney on Fri, 03/21/2008 at 8:32pm.
Another busy day here at Foxwoods Resort & Casino, as the sun has long been set and day three finds its conclusion.
Further updates about my performance, as I haven't had much extra time to investigate entertaining details of many other players in the event. I have to work on my correspondent skills.
Round four found me paired up with strong expert, Iwu Okechekwu (2190). Now, it is typically a bad omen when you cannot properly pronounce your opponent's name, and such has been the case for me with mister Okechekwu. I suffered an almost embarrassing defeat to him nearly two years ago at the King's Island Open, and with that fact not far from my mind I set out to redeem myself, especially since we were matched with the same colors as our previous meeting.
He opted for a different opening line this time around, perhaps anticipating my preparation and improvements on our earlier contest. He selected an English Opening and took on a slightly different plan to my opponent from round two. My strategy was apparently improved this time around, because I entered the middlegame with a slight advantage as Black. It was not an easy advantage to see, however, and I missed some of the subtle manouvers required to maintain it. How subtle, you ask? Well, subtle enough that after finding them, I am still trying to figure why they keep the advantage (Mr. Fritz' understanding seems to be a few dozen ply beyond mine, in this case). After missing my options to maintain the edge, and subsequently misevaluating the value of my position as a result, I took some drastic measures to maintain play against an ominous looking bishop pair and central pawn force. My plans didn't quite work out as I might have liked, as he failed to allow me my desired play. The coming endgame was simple technique, so I tried for practical chances, which he nipped immediately, and I was forced to offer my resignation.
Round five was played against another high-level, near master player, Lorand Bela Kis (2194). I was very wary about this opponent entering into the round, because I had been watching him through the tournament and seen him display great creativity in gaining small edges and pushing them through; but I was just barely able to pronounce his name, and so came out the victor. Actually, in the game it seemed I caught him in a transpositional move order and forced the action into a Pirc Defense, which he seemed unfamiliar with. I had seen success in my previous White game when I became more aggressive, so when he took on a plan that was a bit too slow for the nature of the line, I jumped instantly on a breakthrough in the center. I even delayed castling so as to get my initiative started, which may have been riskier than necessary, but ultimately it worked out and my combined assault on the kingside (which never gave him time to castle, either) and e-pawn taking upon itself the role of a battering ram to his own central king position led to a mating combination. He resigned at move 18, with his queen as his only developed piece.
My score now resides at 2.0 of 5.0, and a few rays of warming sun are beginning to peek through the canopy of the Foxwoods forest. Metaphorically speaking, of course. I have to score 1.5 in the next four games to reach my goal for the event. And the current now carries me closer to the pool of titled players -- a wave I don't mind riding!
In other tournament news, I was just made aware through the Michigan Chess Association website, www.michess.org, that the winner of this year's Michigan Junior (K-12) Championship was young Atulya Shetty! Atulya, rated 1959 and who is in 6th grade, is one of the rising stars of Michigan scholastic chess. He defeated tournament favorite Jimmy Canty III (2130) in the final round to decide the championship! That is bound to have been an epic matchup, and I look forward to seeing the game in an upcoming issue of Michigan Chess Magazine.
Also, congratulations to Andrew Schilleman (1903), who finished 2nd in the Michigan Junior and has been selected to represent the state of Michigan at this year's Denker Invitational Tournament of High School Champions! Having competed in it two years ago, myself, I can say Andrew is in for a very fun and highly competitive event. My best wishes go out to him for the tournament. And if this message can get along to him in some way, he can feel free to get in contact with me if he would like a training partner. I would like to see more done to support our youth as they go out to represent our state.
Links from this blog:
www.michess.org (Michigan Chess Association webpage)