2022 ICA Progressive June 5Th Report

In the first round, Shaurya playing Ansh stuck out. Featuring an even battle and back and forth positional play, Ansh was able to checkmate his opponent with a late middle game checkmate, displaying just how effective a queen and helper can be at opening up and checkmating that castled king.

In the second round, Lando played a great game against Chetan. The two had exchanged 3 minor pieces for a queen, leaving it equal with Lando having a queen and Chetan with two nights and a bishop. However, before Chetan could fully activate the three pieces he had kept in the exchange Lando executed a queen and helper mate with the rook and queen, and white defeated black. Another game that stuck out was Max and Ansh. Ansh was playing white, and although he was down substantial material Max got unlucky with a tricky stalemate position, after 2/3 of the pawns Ansh did have were blocked and the third was pinned. 

The third round featured fewer blunders, as the games went longer after all the students were encouraged to take more time thinking about their moves after a speedy first and second round. In the third round, Anooshka and Cosmo`s game featured quite the king walk, as Anooshka pushed Cosmo`s uncastled king completely across the board, before checkmating him in a beautiful way with a pair of bishops, a rook, and a newly promoted queen. Shaurya vs Chetan also featured a king walk, before Shaurya was able to catch Chetan`s king in the middle of the board with a beautiful multiple-piece checkmate.

In the last round, Reyansh was able to beat Ansh after employing many tactics to win substantial material through the course of the game, leaving Reyansh with 4 wins in 4 games to end the tournament. Vitaliy and Max`s game was the most even, and even though Max was up a knight to a pawn in the endgame the capture of Vitaliy`s last pawn left the two in a draw due to insufficient material, and they each earned a half point. 

Olny two people: Reyansh and Shaurya qualified for promotion to Stepping Stone 5.

On our Sunday (June 5th) tournament, the Steppingstone 5 section had a field of 12 players. Congratulations to Ebenezer Zhang, Lenin Vinod, and Elizabeth Seleznev. Elizabeth (Lisa) and Lenin both tied for second place with a total of 3/4 points! Ebenezer had a flawless afternoon with a perfect score of 4/4, well done! All three of you have gained a qualification point toward for Category 5 title. The highlight of the tournament would have to be when first place finisher Ebenezer Zhang made a devastating 3 move combination as white against one of the second place finishers, Lenin Vinod. This deadly combination with a discovered check allowed for the Champion to pick up 8 material points, thus sealing his victory.

With just four participants the requirement to get category 4 norm was to win all 3 games! This time Leon was able to do so and earned himself 2nd norm for category 4 title. Congratulations, Leon!

TD NOTE  *** Thank you all for playing! The next event will be on July 10

If you have any questions about where or what to register for, please email us at chessdirector@icanj.net and we`ll get back to you as soon as possible! Thanks***