Friday night, I received a call from ICA Director Diana Tulman with a conundrum: although we already had 50 people registered for the Quads, we had so many more on the waitlist. We had to make a decision: either cap it off at 50, or let everyone in from the waitlist, without knowing just how big the number of participants could get. For me, this was an easy decision: of course we should let everyone in! And what a decision it was: in the end, we had SIXTY-EIGHT participants split into SEVENTEEN QUADS! As a result, we had three quads in one room, four in another, and the remaining ten in the big room. Needless to say, this is an all-time record for any Quads event! Credit goes to Noreen Davisson, Prashant Pasarkar, and Ethan Modi for flawlessly managing this event: despite the high attendance, the tournament was run just like any other.
Of course, we had to make time for shenanigans before the tournament: here are some photos of people taking turns wearing the ICA hat (view the New Years Blitz Poem for its origin story).
The game that I will highlight is between myself (black) and Geoffrey Chen (white) in Section 4. After a very entertaining opening in which Geoffrey pawnstormed the center, he ended up winning my bishop - at a cost of three pawns. I immediately used this opportunity to create a pawn storm of my own on his queenside. Despite still being down a piece, I was able to push a pawn all the way to put the game to bed.
Arnav’s game of the tournament was between himself (black), and me (white) in Section 4. Out of the opening, I chose a Giuoco Pianissimo type setup. Arnav responded by maneuvering the knight on c6 to f4, and initiated an attack by thrusting the g-pawn forward and lining up the rooks on the g-file. After the game, Arnav said “ I saw the idea in a chess.com article, and wanted to try it out!”. The middlegame was filled with tactics, and Arnav was able to get a free queen. However, both players were under time pressure, and Arnav missed the free queen, which led the game to a draw in the very end.
The last round would decide who won the section, as both players had 1.5/2 points after the second round. Arnav made a simple draw in the third round, whereas Alan lost in the third round (via the Evan’s gambit, again), giving Arnav the win for the section. This makes 2 straight wins in quads for Arnav. Can he keep up the streak?
Section 6 featured many exciting games, one of the most explosive being in Round 3 between Edward Kang (white) and Shivam Mallik (black). The opening was a Giuoco Piano, where after black castled prematurely, white was able to unleash a thematic greek gift sacrifice with the bishop on h7! After gaining a winning attack, white was able to capture black's queen, later winning the game by checkmate.
All of mine and Edward’s matches are available on the latest lichess study: click HERE to see how I, once again, lost a tournament game via the Evan’s Gambit!
In Section 3, we were able to get Jody’s only draw on an impressive 2.5/3. It was a symmetrical London System, which resulted in a quick draw. Jody played very interesting and dynamic chess, which resulted in him winning the section.
In section 10, Christian won all 3 games in a very dominating fashion. His last game was a dead equal endgame, but he managed to swindle his opponent and win a rook vs rook endgame! After winning, he was filled with emotions screaming “Lets Gooo!!”. A very exciting finish to a very tight section!
Congratulations to all winners: click HERE to view rating reports!
Our next Quads will be held next Saturday, February 11. Click HERE to register! In addition, we will be hosting the ICA Open (1600+) that same day, as well as the Virtual ICA Progressive Tournament and the In-person Livingston Quads the following day.
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