BOOSTER Section Report
In our Booster Section, we had one clear winner: not only did Aidan Park win all four of his games, but he was able to defeat the second, third, and fourth placed players en route to his victory! Below Aidan, Elijah Sun, Alexander Li, and Yan Haikin finished with 3/4 points respectively. All four players qualified to play in Steppingstone 5 next month!
ROUND 1: In the first round, a game that stood out was Aidan paired as white against Liam. A fierce duel ensued, which stayed fairly even until the late middle game. This game featured a white rook infiltrating the black’s 7th rank, as well as some good positioning of minor pieces. Both sides had some good and some bad moves throughout the course of the game, and Aidan was able to get ahead using a rook and two minor pieces to infiltrate Liam’s king’s castle, and ultimately checkmate him. Another game that stood out in the first round was Jackson playing white against Dhruv, in which Jackson was able to come back from being down 2 minor pieces and overwhelm black’s defenses and checkmate the black king with a queen and helper mate. ROUND 2: In the second round, the students played a series of good games. One that stood out, in particular, was Elijah versus Derek. In which some great opening moves were displayed by both players, Elijah was able to positionally get ahead and launched an effective attack on the black kingside, using a lot of his pieces effectively, and despite Derek’s strong defensive efforts was able to ultimately checkmate the black king with a rook and two minor pieces in the late middle game. ROUND 3: In the third round, most of the games made it into the endgame. One game that stood out in this round was Jackson playing white against Filippe. In this game, both players had times where they were up and where they were down in the early middle game, but Filippe was able to acquire a solid 2-minor piece lead over his opponent heading into the endgame. Far from discouraged, Jackson was able to battle it out and in the end overcame the material deficit, promoted a pawn, and white won with a queen and king checkmate on move 91. ROUND 4: In the final round, Yan playing white against Jackson stood out, as the two students battled it out tooth and nail for a hard-earned victory. Jackson activated his clean early and was able to launch an effective queen side attack against Yan, which Yan ended up effectively repelling, and launching one of his own. Going into the late middle game evenly matched, two bishops and two rooks matched up against two knights and two rooks. After some pawn-race action, Yan’s two knights were left facing off with Jackson’s rook. Successfully promoting a pawn, Yan was able to checkmate with a queen and king to secure the win. After four competitive rounds, August Acito and Gilad Shoham finished in first place with 3.5/4 points each! Below them, Omar Barkay finished with 3/4 points. Omar got his first norm toward the Category 5 title. Although we will not be discussing Steppingstone 4 in this report, congratulations to Abhiram Vasanthavada for getting a perfect score in the section, and getting his first norm toward the Category 4 title!
ROUND 1: We have a very exciting start to the tournament here with a Fried liver attack! Isaiah O (white) initiated this super aggressive opening against David S (black) with 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 6. Nxf7! At this point, black must take the knight with their king, otherwise they are giving up a rook early in the game. After 6. .. Kxf7, white must play near perfect to maintain their advantage. 7. Qf3+ Ke6 Another book move by Isaiah! He just needs to play Nc3 on the next turn to put pressure on the pinned d5 knight. 8. Bxd5 Qxd5 9. Qxd5 Kxd5. Isaiah missed the essential knight move on move 8, but fortunately for him, was able to come out on top regardless! It is hard to play without your liver after all. ROUND 2: This second round game between James A (white) and Aliik Y (black) was quite even until one positional blunder leads to disaster. On move 24. Rd2 Bd4+, Aliik gets a significant advantage in the game and takes advantage of his opponent’s primary weakness here: the exposed king. Bd4, not only checks the king, it creates a discovery attack on white’s unguarded e1 Rook. Great move Aliik! After white plays 25. Kh1, Aliik puts forth the finishing blows: 25… Rxe1+ 26. Rg1 Rxg1# ROUND 3: This third round game between Marcelo N (white) and James A (black) was captivating with the earliest pawn promotion in ICA tournament history. Marcelo promoted on move 10! After 8. fxg7 Bb4+ (black does not take g7 with the Bishop) and follows with 9. c3 Qxg5, promotion is guaranteed: 10. gxh8=Q. Marcelo then hunts the king down and checkmates him in 9 moves with a final Qhxb5#! A speedy mate by Marcelo, well done! ROUND 4: To end the tournament strong, Gilad S (white) showcases “the dancing bishops” against Isaiah O (black). On move 26, black saves his Rook from the initial bishop attack from Gilad: 26…. Re8. We then see a series of coordinated attacks from Gilad’s bishop pair, but Isaiah plays excellent defensive moves and dodges the bishops, while at the same time providing awesome counter attacks. These counter attacks truly make those bishops dance: 27. Bb5 Re5 28. b4 b6 29. Bc6 Rc8 30. Bd6 Re6 31. Bd7! Rxd6 32. Bxc8. Following this, Gilad allowed the rest of his pieces to dance to their victory. Awesome skills Gilad! Steppingstone 5 Report
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