Today, we had another massive turnout for our Glen Rock Quads, with 46 participants split into 11 sections! The top four quads played Game 45, while the bottom six quads played Game 30. Consequentially, the final six participants were placed into a Game 30 Swiss section. In addition, we are very happy to announce that around five players competed at our tournament for the very first time today!
Despite this, all the players took their time as they were all committed to winning their respective sections. In particular, Section 11, finished much later than expected as all of the players were committed to using as much of their 30 minutes as possible. In the end, Sai Yenugu, in his second ever tournament, won all three matches to claim the prize! However, he almost had to settle for a draw in the final match, as both he and his opponent only had a king and a pawn left. The only difference between the two players: Sai’s king was in the ‘box’ of the opponent’s pawn, while the opponent’s king was not! As a result, Sai was able to promote whilst stopping his opponent from doing the same!
One section that did finish rather quickly, however, was Section 6, with Ahrin Vakharia storming to 2.5/3 points to become the first prize winner of the day! His highlight came in the final match: a winner-takes-all game. During the game, Ahrin used his bishop to pin the opponent’s pawn to the king. That pinned pawn, however, was supposed to be protecting a knight! As a result, Ahrin was able to capture the knight without consequence!
In chess, it is commonplace for games to go through all three phases: the opening, middlegame, and endgame. However, Samvel Hovsepyan, winner of Section 9 with 3/3 points, was able to finish every game in the middlegame! This is because he plays expansively in every match and always tries to find ways to open up the king. This led to him moving the opponent’s king around until enough pieces surrounded the king, making checkmate inevitable!
We now move on to the higher sections, where someone has to be named “player of the tournament”. The runner-up for this award is Mark Kogan, who tied with Justin Rosales on 2.5/3 points to share the prize for Section 1! In his final match, Mark established control over the center with both of his knights. As a result of this pressure, “the opponent got annoyed and began launching the pawns”(Kogan). As a result of this overextension, Mark was able to pick off the weak pawns and win the match!
But the player of the tournament must be Julian Ma, who stormed to victory in Section 2!
In his first match, Julian’s opponent played 18. Nd5, taking control of the center and threatening the queen with his bishop. This led to a big exchange which Julian managed perfectly! The game proceeded: 18. … Qxd5. 19. Bxd5 Rxc2. 20. Rxc2 Nxd5. In the end, Julian had a bishop, a knight, and a pawn for a rook. In addition, even though white has an open c file, there is absolutely nothing he can do with it as black has complete control of the center and most of the squares on that c file. Julian eventually converted his advantage into a win – his first of three that day!
Congratulations to all winners! Click HERE to view rating reports or click HERE to view all results.
Next week, we are running two events: the weekly Quads on Saturday at Glen Rock, and the ICA Progressive Tournaments on Sunday virtually.
The week after, we are running three events: the Quads and Open on Saturday, and the Livingston Quads on Sunday.
And we will finish off the year with the New Year’s Blitz Tournament at Glen Rock on December 31!
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