Today, the ICA hosted both the weekly Glen Rock Quads and the Monthly ICA Open. In spite of our delay in publishing the TLA for the ICA Open, we were still able to set a combined participation record! With 57 participants in the Quads and 24 in the open, we had a total 81 players compete!
Starting with the most recent edition of the ICA Open, we changed the rule to allow players with live ratings above 1600 to participate. A possible reason against this rule change is that live ratings can reflect one or two good tournaments rather than consistency. Therefore, Audrey Zhou, who was able to play as a result of the rule change, could have been expected to “regress to the mean” and not perform well. This, however, could not have been further from the case as she defeated our coach Alan Stolyarov in the very first round!
After Audrey (white) opened with e4, Alan (black) played the modern defense (g6 right away, followed by Bg7). This opening gives Audrey the initial control of the center. Alan, meanwhile, gets control of the diagonal with the dark squared bishop. Normally, black would castle king-side and white would try to break through via a pawn storm and a combination of a knight and queen. However, both players castled queenside. As Audrey told me after the match, because Alan had no c-pawn, his king was vulnerable. As a result, Audrey broke through, and put Alan in immense pressure. Eventually, Audrey won the queen and began picking off his pawns to successfully win the endgame. In the end, Audrey finished the tournament with 1.5/3 points: a very good debut in our open!
After the first two rounds, three players had two wins out of two. One of the players, Timothy Xie, drew the final round against our long time coach joint-winner of our top senior prize, Igor Yeliseyev. The other two players, NM Alexander Wang and NM Yefim Treger, faced each other in a winner-takes-all match! Since I became a TD at the ICA around one and a half years ago, this match was, undoubtedly, the best I have seen. And not just because of the 90 moves: usually, 90 moves is a sign of beginner players not being able to finish off their opponents. This match, however, has everything: cat-and-mouse provocative moves in the middle game, attacks from both players on the king and queenside, and masterful endgame technique worthy of a 3/3 at the ICA Open. The reason I rate this game so highly is not because one player found a brilliant tactic to expose an opponent. Rather, both players were able to anticipate each other for 50 moves until one mistake in the endgame gave the advantage.
In this game, Alexander played white and Yefim played black. They played the Ruy Lopez Opening, which usually goes two ways. After 1. e4 e5. 2. Nf3 Nc6. 3. Bb5 a6. White can trade the bishop for the knight and gain the pawn. Black can then counter with the queen, which will lead to an extremely open game. This game, however, was as closed as the variation I alluded to is open. Ten moves in, both players castled king-side and there was no space anywhere on the board.
In the following ten moves, both players tried to open up a file, but the other immediately shut it down. Yefim started off with 11. ... Na5, trying to trade knight for bishop and maybe start an attack down the queenside with c5. Alex did not want to play this game, and retreated his bishop to c2. On move 19, Alex played a4. Yefim then moved his knight from d7 to b6 with the sole purpose of provoking Alex to play 20. a5. Yefim then moved his knight back to d7, further closing the game!
And then, in the following 11 moves, the game began to open up. Both players took their kings off the back ranks to maneuver their rooks to the h-file. They then traded rooks and queens, officially opening the game up.
The next twenty moves were cat-and-mouse, with Yefim seemingly playing for the draw by repeatedly moving his rook from h8 to f8 and back. The reasoning behind this was to stop Bf5. And, frankly, this game was destined to be a draw - that is, until a series of moves enabled Alex to bring his light-squared bishop in behind! The first trigger: 47. Ng6, enabling 48. Bf5 with no fear of a trade of material. Then, after 48. ... Ne7, Alex offered a rook trade with 49. Rh1. After the trade of rooks, there was no way Yefim could take the bishop and give Alex a second passed pawn! 50. ... Ng6, however, was much worse! Alex found the correct move, 51. Bc8. Although this gave up his passed pawn on the e-file, he created another passed pawn on the a-file! Then, he created one on the c-file. He promoted it, and Yefim traded his knight off for that queen.
By move 62, Alex was up a bishop. However, that bishop was light-squared, and the pawns that he needed to capture were both on dark-squares. To compile the misery, the only way Alex could get his king to the backward pawn was by looping around the queenside. Obviously, Yefim’s king blocked the path. This resulted in Alex utilizing a 20-move technique to slowly push Yefim’s king back. Play through the moves to see how Alex played constant waiting moves with the bishop, forcing Yefim to move the king back, and Alex forward to capture the two pawns.
Finally, after the pawns were captured on move 82, Alex easily promoted to a queen and checkmated Yefim, putting an end to the most competitive game I’ve seen. Alex won first place in the open, while Yefim took his share of the top senior prize: congratulations to both!
One game that was the exact opposite stylistically was the match between Abhay Raina and Kian Zarineh from Section 4. Both players are known for their ultra-attacking playing styles.
Both players got their queens out early on, and neither player had time to castle. However, because Abhay was one step ahead the entire game, he was able to get his rook onto f7. He then sacrificed the rook to force a checkmate, giving him a perfect 3/3 in the section!
Before today, Goktug Bas had a perfect record against Andrew Cerami. That isn’t to say this isn’t a competitive rivalry: Although Andrew is always able to win the opening exchanges, Goktug is able to come back and win. This time, however, Andrew was able to control the game from the very start. Despite Goktug’s attempts to change the course of the game, both via good play on the board and mind games off the board, Andrew was able to win, making him the champion of Section 1! Now the question is, which player will get to 1600 first? Or will I return to competition and reach that mark first? Anything is possible!
UPDATE: Andrew and Goktug played again at the FCA Open the following day. This time, Goktug emerged victories, successfully getting his revenge!
Congratulations to all winners: click to view rating reports for QUADS or OPEN!
Our next Quads will be held next Saturday, April 1. Click HERE to register!
Our next open will be held April 22. Click HERE to register now!
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