January 7, 2023, Glen Rock Quads Report

January 7, 2023, Glen Rock Quads Report

 

For our first tournament of the 2023, we had a great turnout with 52 players! As a result, we had 13 sections, with the top five being played at Game 45. One of our main TD’s, Alan Salnikov, played in today’s quads as well. But before we begin discussing the result, I must mention two things:

 

1. As a result of losing a bet to Andrew Cerami during the New Year’s Blitz, Alan had to wear a hat during the duration of the tournament. Unfortunately, he took his hat off during his games because results are more important.
2. Credit must be given to TD Noreen Davisson and TD Dennis Li for smoothly managing this tournament. It’s easier for me to appreciate as a player when everything runs so smoothly and I am allowed to only think about the actual chess!

 

Now, onto the results: an interesting game that appeared today was the Section 3 Round 2 game featuring Albert Sadykov and Alan Sanikov. Albert played an aggressive opening (The Evan’s Gambit), and sacrificed a bunch of pieces. While he was down a rook and a pawn for a bishop, he was quite in fact not losing! He had full control of the center, and was pressuring Alan’s un-castled king. After a couple of moves, without any ways to bring the game back to an equal position, the game ended. Albert proceeded to also win his third game and end with a solid 3/3 points. 

 

Another interesting game appeared in Section 2 with Jane Stripunsky against Andrew Cerami. Jane played her middle game splendidly and ended up gaining a bunch of pawns. However, Andrew practically played a perfect endgame, which allowed him to capture a bunch of Jane’s pawns and equalize. But before Andrew could truly swing the pendulum in his favor, Jane saw a fantastic position in her head, put it into reality, and caught Andrew off guard: she proceeded to win the game!

 

 

But our best game of this tournament goes to Mark Kogan against Albert Abzalimov from Section 1 Round 2. Although Mark didn’t play the opening well, which resulted in Albert being up a rook for a knight, Mark immediately found an amazing opportunity to start attacking. Mark also caught Albert off guard, which left him having to sacrifice his queen to stay alive. Albert was stunned and unable to find a good move. Just when everyone thought the game was over, though, Albert found an amazing sacrifice, which allowed him to also get some material for the queen. The game ended up drawing with Mark’s queen against Albert’s rook and bishop.

In order to allow all players to learn from each other, I created a lichess study containing all submitted games: click HERE to view the brilliance of players such as Albert and Jane! For future tournaments, I highly encourage our players to submit scoresheets for me to post!

Unfortunately, rating reports are not up yet due to technical difficulties from US Chess.

Our next Quads will be held next Saturday, January 14. Click HERE to register!

In addition, click HERE to register for the beginner-friendly, online ICA Progressive Tournaments.

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