SECTION 1 REPORT: By Kian Zarineh
September 14th marked a day of strong performance in chess, culminating in a clean sweep against three formidable opponents during Quad 1. This report will analyze the overall performance of the day, highlighting the exceptional accuracy displayed across all three games and focusing specifically on the most compelling encounter against Gennaro.
My first game was against Andrew Goldfarb. He was a strong opponent. He made a big mistake on move 22. Then he sacked his queen for a rook and a piece. He ended up blundering checkmate in 2. Overall his only mistake was blundering the a6 pawn with a check which allowed me to start attacking his defenders around his king.
Each of the three games played on September 14th exhibited an accuracy rate exceeding 90%.In my 2nd game I played against Sean Fiterman. He played well in the opening but then I took a pawn and he responded by pushing his pawn instead of taking it. This surprised me as he had just sacked a pawn. Though he tried to defend, my passed pawns became powerful and I ended up winning the game. His pawn sack was 21. C4.
In my 3rd game I played Genaro who was a lot higher rated than me. So I knew I had to win. I played the scandinavian defense which is what I usually play. He played 7. Qd3 and then queenside castled. Then he blundered a pawn with 16. Bg5 which allowed 16. Bf4+.I ended up being up 3 pawns and then I won a piece and then I was going to promote so he resigned.
In conclusion, September 14th was a day of exceptional chess performance. The high accuracy levels throughout the day, coupled with the strategically rich and captivating encounter against Gennaro, served as strong indicators of skill and preparedness. This win, the culmination of meticulous planning and tactical prowess, reinforces the importance of preparation, strategic thinking and a keen understanding of the game in achieving success in chess.
September 14, 2024, Glen Rock open report,
section “Open>1600”, by Yefim Treger
Exactly in the middle of September I played in the first Open Glen Rock chess tournament characterized by the number of the strong participants (their ratings are more 1600 points). Probably because of it in general I play a little weaker in open tournaments than in quads; all my games in this “middle September” tournament prove it. Even a game won by me against Leon is far from perfect. While commenting this game I will show you my essential mistakes and doubtful decisions.
But from the learning point of view this game is very good. Thus it repeats the important “Bxh7\Ng5\Qh5”- pattern often leading to a mate attack in French defense and other openings. Let’s recall and analyze this pattern by the help of positions 1 and 2 given in the picture (in both of them Black is to move and I am asking you the same question - “can Black play O-O castle?”).
Clearly in position 1 Black loses, if he castles. The winning sequence of moves is 8… O-O 9. Bxh7 Kxh7 10. Ng5 Kg8 11. Qh5 Bxg5 12. hxg5 f6 13. g6 with a checkmate (such a numeration reflects a variant in a notation corresponding to the game below).
My opponent understood it and had not made castling. He had correctly played 8… Ba6 trying to trade my strong d3-bishop to his passive c8-bishop (which is usually counted as a bad French bishop). But I had deviated my bishop from trading by stepping into c2-square (for this purpose I did not even castle not to allow taking my f1-rook by his bad bishop; but my king remained in the center possibly creating some problems for me; about this we will talk later).
Position 2 had occurred. Can Black castle in it? I thought that he could not do it since nothing really changed in this position in comparison with position 1. But it was my first mistake (or better to say, an inaccuracy). A main reason is that after an execution of the same pattern (in a record it is 9… O-O 10. Bxh7 Kxh7 11. Ng5 Kg8 12. Qh5) Black has a sober defense 12… Bd3! So a simple h7-bishop sacrifice does not work anymore. At the moment of a game I did not see that but if Leon had played castling I would have rechecked all pattern variants and probably played by 10. Ng5 which was annoying for Black (for 10…h7-h6 even 11. Ng5-h7 is possible with very complicated variants; that explains my “inaccuracy” expression above instead of a mistake).
But again you have to understand that in position 2 a direct pattern does not work since it does not lead to a checkmate (see also my conclusions in the end of this report).
So in a game both sides did not castle. Black had not castled because he was afraid of a checkmate attack by the famous pattern (yet most probably, in vain). White had not castled because of the chess rules (f1-square is under attack). This situation is reflected by position 3. We clearly see that Black has a better development of his pieces, especially those which are on the queen flunk. White on the other hand, had chosen a very doubtful and strange arrangement of his queen side flunk pieces; in particular, a2-rook has to defend c2-bishop in a case of going away c6-knight somewhere. In position 3 I understood that I had even a bad position and I was afraid of both strategic and tactical Black’s ideas. Strategically Black could play f7-f6; tactically he could play Bb4 and if White takes this bishop the following variant results in the Black’s favor: 13… Bb4 14. a3xb4 Nxb4 15. Rxa6 Qxc2 16. Qxc2 Rxc2 17. Kc1 Rxc1 18. Qxc1 Nxa6. If Leon had executed 13…Bb4 (check) I would have played Bd2 but after bishop trading Black may relocate his c6-kinght by playing Ne7 with a good arrangement of his pieces.
Luckily for me Leon was in a big time trouble and played a rest of the game nervously and inaccurately. He lost on time. But that does not deny my doubtful decisions (for example leaving my own king in a center, not castled). If Black were more experienced player I would probably suffer more…
So, there are some advices from this game. Always remember the famous checkmate patterns, in particular “Bxh7\Ng5\Qh5”-pattern explained in this report, including the basic methods of both an attack and defense. Always know and remember the key ideas of the openings you play (for example for French defense opening those ideas are undermining the White’s d4-e5 pawn center by c7-c5 and f7-f6). And there is a last advice for this moment. Try to use an unusual arrangement of the opponent’s pieces; be creative in tactics. Thank you for reading!
We thank all the entries for our Report Contest. Congratulations to Kian Zarineh for winning our report contest, and a free entry to the tournament. Kian and Yefim have been neck and neck the last couple of weeks. If you want a chance to win a free entry into our Saturday Quads, email a report to icanewjersey@gmail.com, following these guidelines. We hope you guys have had a great summer and we hope to see you at our next Quad which is September 21 . Enjoy and we hope to see you soon!
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