Although nobody finished with a perfect 4/4, we still had a clear winner. Congratulations to Leah Shevchuk for scoring 3.5/4 points and remaining undefeated! In addition, Congratulations to Dhruv Kethani, Jackson Orendorff, and Shruthika Ganesh for all scoring 3/4 points throughout the tournament. All four of you have gained eligibility to play in Stepping Stone 5 in our next tournament. Thanks for playing and we hope to see everyone return to the online arena for next month's tournament!
Round 1 highlight:
White: Jackson. Black: Quinton. Besides a couple of missed hanging pieces here and there this game remained even until the endgame. Both places neglected the most important part of the endgame: the King becomes a fighting piece. If one player used their King and the other did not, they would have dominated their opponent. Instead, we have a "capture and run" party and Jackson promotes one move ahead of Quinton, securing victory. Ah but not so fast! Quinton did not resign and played the game out and actually reached a stalemate position (a result in which the game ends in a tie) after 36. e6. Two important lessons here: bring your king to the center to fight and never resign a match (in scholastic chess).
Round 2 highlights:
On Board 4, Leo (black) was able to create a kinghunt against Quinton's (white) uncastled king. An important lesson here: castle your king as early as possible in the opening! King castling=king safety.
Board 2: Michael (white) vs. Leah (black) 26. ... Qa6 27. Rxc7 Qxa5+ Leah made a greek gift sacrifice of her pawn on c7 to win the hanging bishop, and furthermore fork king and newly placed rook. A key lesson here is to always think about what your opponent might be planning, especially if they're giving up a piece for free (it may be a trap!)
Round 3 highlight:
White: William. Black: Eva. On board 5, an interesting Rook vs. rook and pawn endgame was reached after Eva made move 49... Rxg4. Depending on the position, it is often difficult to promote one's pawn and gain a checkmate-worthy lead. Eva made the right defensive moves at this point to do just that by using her rook from a distance and using her king at proximity to William's past pawn. After Eva wins the past pawn and the position is left king and rook versus king and rook, most players would offer each other a draw. That did not happen here. Luckily for Eva, on move 63, William played Rg5, blundering the rook. Eva capitalizes and successfully checkmates with the king and rook. There are two very important takeaways here: never give up when you're behind and know your endgames!
Round 4 highlight:
A quick and smooth mate: On board 3 in the final round between Quinton (white) and Dhruv (black), we see something very rare. 16. Kb1 gxh1=Q#. It's a pawn promotion checkmate! For some chess enthusiasts, the best checkmates follow a general rule of thumb: the longer and more unique the notation the better. That's how you win a game in style, Dhruv!
In Stepping Stone 5, there was a 4-person round robin, with Shu Leong coming out with a perfect 3/3. He played very strong and won most of his games with very nice technique. Here is his last game against Joshua to solidify the tournament.
He played very simply, and utilizes a very strong pin to win the knight. After that the dark squares were simply too weak, and he was able to checkmate fairly quickly. Very simple, yet very crushing play.
Another very nice finish from Shu was against Gilad. Although Shu was down 3 pawns at one point, he did not give up. He continued to fight, until he trapped Gilad’s knight. After getting back into the game, he was able to win.
Overall, it was a really strong tournament, and hopefully next time there are more participants, but nevertheless there were some very strong games today!
BOOSTER Section Report
Steppingstone 5 Report
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