This weekend we had 48 people participating in the tournament. That came as a surprise to me because I expected many people to be on vacation and unable to attend the tournament. This tournament there were no issues and everything was very peaceful. We had some very strong competitors this week and we hope to see everyone who participated today again at the New Years Eve Blitz tournament on the 31st which starts at 11am.
Section 1 Report by Yefim Treger
Happy New Year from Yefim! The picture above is a very interesting problem devoted to a New Year tree with a task of “White to move and mate in 3”. I found it on my Facebook page and it took me almost an hour to solve it right while I was traveling to the site of the tournament. Can somebody solve it?
Now let's discuss the tournament. Again I played my second game with the talented little girl Sujia. I chose my favorite opening with the bishop development on g7 and was afraid of Sujia’s home preparation. This time she chose King’s Indian Defense but an order of her moves was poor. I refuted her setup and won the Exchange. But at some moment {11. e5!} she could have played actively and saved a powerful b7-pawn. By the way she had intended to play this move since I saw her expression. But I was lucky and a rest of the game was easy…
I wish all chess students of ICA successes in a new 2024 year!
Section 3 Report by Bryan Andrei
Hello! My name is Bryan Andrei. At an early age, I was introduced to the wonderful game of chess. Starting in kindergarten, I had an unbreakable connection with this strategic game. Since my first tournament at the end of kindergarten, fast forward to this ICA Quads tournament in Glen Rock, I have never lost my love, passion, determination and devotion for chess.
Today, we will cover my second game in Quad #3, played against Andrew Goldfarb, who had the black pieces. This was a short yet instructive game in that you can learn how to attack on both sides of the board, while looking for sacrifices in any tactical position. Let’s jump right into the tactical fun!
The stakes have been high throughout all of the sections. At every table you looked, you would see sharp positions in which a draw seemed
impossible. However, on my board I needed a victory. Starting with 1. E4, a normal starting move, that gains space early on in the center, I played the
Vienna opening.
After exchanging normal developing moves, I already felt good because I was playing my favorite opening. I believe 11... C6 wanted to go for D5, but I believe that 11... D5 was better. I played 12. C4 to stop D5, and was surprised when Andrew locked the position with C5. We continued on and I castled and completed my development at move 13.
Noticing that my opponent had not castled yet, I launched a queenside attack. I doubled my rooks and they fiercely pointed towards the B7 pawn, which was barely defended. Andrew, who was under a lot of pressure, was forced to go 18... 0-0. This gave me an ingenious idea.
I was thinking of launching a kingside attack while almost all of his pieces were focused on the queenside defending the B7 pawn. My coach always tells me to attack on both sides of the board. My fianchettoed bishop on G2 would protect my king. I locked up Andrew’s light-squared bishop with my pawns, forcing it on the dull square where it would act as a tall pawn.
I then came with my h-pawn with 26. H4. Then, 27. G5 was unstoppable, and I was already feeling like I was winning. Andrew’s lack of space in his position made it hard for his pieces to transfer to defense mode.
On move 28, Andrew made an interesting decision. He wanted to stop my plan of going 29. G6, but by playing G6 himself, Andrew created a monstrous weakness on the G7 square after I played 29. F6. Next I realized that I could not checkmate him on the G7 square with my queen - his queen was just in time to protect it. I needed to find a new plan...
After a five-minute think, I realized that by tripling up on the h-file, because Andrew’s queen was on G8 and his king was on H8, there would be forced mate. When Andrew played 31... Rb8, I had the opportunity to go 32. R1b2 while not losing the a-pawn. When I transferred my rook to the h-file, Qg8 was Andrew’s only move. After spotting that, Andrew hopefully offered a draw, but was declined because I knew that almost all of the moves in the position were winning.
To finish the game off, when Andrew thought everything was barely holding on, I startled him with 34. Bxd7, and after his rook took back, 35. D4 meant forced mate in 5. I could’ve brought my other rook to the h-file by moving my king and my rook twice, but it felt too long, and I found the immediate D4, which was crushing. Andrew resigned on move 36, after I played Rbh3 because he knew there was mate in three.
In the end, this was a very fun, instructive and interesting chess game, in which an unstoppable attack was featured, and a beautiful tactic was shown. I cannot wait to play in the next ICA Quads!
Section 12 Report by Adthyuth Chandrasekar
I am the boy in the Yellow dress in the picture.
My name is Adthyuth and I am a third grader in Woodbrook Elementary school. Yesterday I went to a chess tournament at the International chess academy for the 1st time with my dad. We drove in the car for over an hour to reach the place. In the first round I played with Ieeacca. I won the first game. In the 2nd round I played with Vihaan and my dad said to play my natural game but when I played with him he made a few mistakes and resigned the game. In the 3rd round I played with Aiden, who played very good and after a lot of moves we both agreed to a draw when we both had a rook and three pawns each. It was a very nice but tiring day and i slept off in the car in the car back home.
We played the Queen's pawn opening, and we exchanged a lot of pieces. At the end Aiden had a rook and 3 pawns and I also had a rook and 3 pawns so we agreed to a draw,and this was a hard game for me.
SECTION 11 REPORT: By Omar Mohamed Parvez
Hello from Omar Mohamed Parvez. Saturday December 23rd, was a bright day and the weather was perfect for an awesome chess tournament. This was my 4th time playing a chess tournament. As always International Chess Academy organizes the best chess tournaments around the area, and today was no different. It was very warm, inviting and friendly atmosphere for everyone. I was assigned to play in section 11 and we had 4 very enthusiastic players in the section. I played 3 rounds and all of them were very interesting and challenging.
In my first round, I started off with opening of the queens’s gambit but quickly found myself with an unexpected challenge from my smart opponent. Based on the opening game, I decided to trade off my pieces to get into an advantageous middle game. I traded my bishop for my opponent’s knight and that lured his king out into the open. In the end game, using my queen and their castled position, I was able to check mate, turning the unexpected challenge into a victory.
My second round was very interesting. After few opening moves, the game quickly tuned into an Italian. My opponent setup traps, while I castled and developed my pieces, to a well protected and defensible structure. In the middle game, I was able to take my opponent’s knight while giving up my pawn. I engaged my opponent, creating forking opportunities. In the endgame, my position helped me to attack by forking his king and queen, leading to me taking his queen. Eventually I was able to checkmate using ladder technique and achieve victory.
My third round was the most fun. My opponent started with the wayward queen opening. I responded aggressively by stopping the wayward queen trap. My opponent then backed up their pieces. I was able to fork their king and queen with my bishop, taking their queen. I then took their rook with another fork. This helped me to lure their king out in the open and check mate again using ladder technique, which led to my victory.
The three victories helped me, for the first time, to win the first prize in my section. I am very thankful to all my opponents and also to International Chess Academy. Looking forward to participating and enjoying many more tournaments.
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