In my second summer quad I played with the guy with whom I have dreamt to play many times in the ICA tournaments (I observe my future opponents!). Andrew Goldfarb usually plays in the second section since he has a rating around 1600, but I believe it is only temporarily since I like his active and tactical style.
My first game with him confirms that. In it I chose my favorite variant in the Italian game opening leading to the upper small position of the picture (by moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. d4). Andrew took my d4-pawn by his bishop after which I decided to weaken his light colored squares by moves 4…Bd4 5. Bg5 f6 6. Nd4 Nd4 7. Be3 what led to position 1. Where d4-knight should go? Andrew chose Nc6 (see position 2, but Ne6 is little better as explained further). I was able to restore a material balance by playing the following sequence of moves: Bg8, Qh5 and Qh7 (another interesting way of playing is 8. Nc3 and Black has very serious problems with the development and castling because his light squares are weakened).
So, in the opening (before trading all knights and bishops) we both have not made serious mistakes. There are only two essential mistakes made in our game; they are given by position 3 and 4. In position 3 White is threatening to play Rf6 and Rf1, so Black has to trade both his rooks for a white queen by playing Rh6. But Andrew played 22… f5 leading to position 4. Now I made a mistake since I had not seen move 23. Qg4 after which Black cannot defend his important f5-pawn and does not have time to trade his rooks for my queen since g5 pawn is hanging. Luckily for Andrew I did not see Qg4 and had chosen the maneuver 23. Qh3 g4 24. Qh5 but Black did trading at this moment and that had worked since my queen was not on a good square. After trading “rooks for the queen” Black set his queen on b5 and was ready to eat my pawns by series of checks. I had decided to give a perpetual check by my rooks and offered a draw which was accepted.
A general impression is that Andrew had conducted our game decently; I hope we will meet again.
Once again, I am impressed with the depth of commentary which Yefim Treger left for us to analyze. Although he may seem intimidating to those who do not know him, it is clear how much respect he has for his opponents, no matter their rating. Congratulations, once again, to Yefim for winning FREE ENTRY by winning the report contest for being the only one to post a report.
Our summer camps start next week:
Week One of Camp, starting June 17th will be held at Glen Rock.
Weeks Two-Ten will be held at both Glen Rock and Teaneck. Click HERE for more information.
In addition, we will have seven weeks of Master Camp: six weeks with GM Alexander Stripunsky followed by one week with GM Elshan Moradiabadi. 
Final Words from ICA
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