I am again congratulating everybody with Happy New Year and wishing every student of ICA new chess victories! That was my last wish in 2024 year and I am glad that in the first 2025 tournament almost 80 people played (trying to make my dream come true!) Some of them have played in a traditional New Year blitz tournament (a right upper photo in the picture confirms that; I do not have a photo of my opponent, so I used the most recent photo from ICA site).
Isaac Hart Stats, my opponent in the game commented below, is a very gentle young man. He is a relatively new student for ICA (probably because he is from NY State) and I played with him first time. Luckily for him (and for me!) this game was very interesting and ended in a draw (I was White, he was Black).
Isaac wanted to play Sicilian Defense opening but I transformed it into the French Defense, the so-called Wing-Gambit variant (after 1.e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. e5 d5 4. b4 cxb4 5. a3). The characteristic black position B2 of the Wing Gambit is shown in the upper part of the picture. Black has two options in it – to continue taking sacrificed a3-pawn or to develop his other pieces (except 5…Ne7) since his b4-pawn is already defended by his dark-squared bishop. Isaac had chosen the first option (he played 5….bxa3) but in my opinion this choice is weaker than the second choice. The theory (it exists even for this seldom variant, can you believe it?!) confirms my opinion. Black should not have opened a-vertical and helped White to develop his b1-knight (which aimed to d6-square, and that actually happened in our game).
I was lucky to successfully develop my pieces and in some moment the critical black position B4 (in the center of the picture) occurred (I had just played 12. cxd5).
The surprising peculiarity of position B4 lies in four different captures of the white d5-pawn. Black may take this pawn by: 1) his e6-pawn (it leads to white position 1); 2) by his knight (it leads to position 3); 3) by his queen (it leads to position 5); 4) by his bishop (it leads to position 7). In the game Isaac had taken my d5-pawn by his queen (as I said above, it led to position 5) what was acceptable but not the strongest continuation. Let me shortly explain each capture.
Taking by his pawn is clearly bad for Black because of the White’s breakthrough e5-e6. Capturing by his knight is also bad because White plays first Nc4 and after O-O there follows Bxg6 with a powerful attack. Taking by a bishop (about capturing by a queen – later) was the strongest because White could still deliver his knight to d6-square but Black would castle in time, exactly in response of Na3-b5.
Capturing by his queen had an essential defect consisting in the move 13. Nc4. The point was in the following fact. White had two threats: to deliver his knight to d6 with a check (depriving Black of castling) and to execute a double attack by the move Nc6-b6 winning an Exchange. When it had happened in the game (after I played 13. Nc4) Isaac saw his flaw and chose saving his Exchange by refusing castling. So, after the almost forced variant 12… Qxd5 13. Nc4 Nd7 14. Nd6+ Kf8 15. Be4 Qc5 16. Nxb7 Bxb7 17. Qxb7 Rd8 White had achieved a very attractive position with the prospective of the continuation of the attack against a black not-castled king. And there is a last thing to this inner story (a capture by his queen). In fact, after 12… Qxd5 13. Nc4 Black could sacrifice the Exchange by playing 13… O-O with an idea after 14. Nb6 axb6 15. Rxa8 Nd7 16. Rxf8 Kxf8 to win an important white e5-pawn (which I could not defend due to lack of coordination). That additional variant justifies Black’s choice of capturing my d5-pawn by his queen as acceptable decision (as I said earlier).
But somehow I also did not make the best moves. I still do not know where I played not so strong. On the other hand Isaac, after losing his right to castling became playing good and accurately defended his king. My last move (26. Bxf5) was a trade of my bishop to his knight; after that a complicated middle-game with only queens and rooks (without bishops and knights) had occurred. Understanding that the position became equal I had offered Isaac a draw, which he accepted.
So, my conclusion is that my new opponent has played decently. He did not know the variant I chose in the opening and in some moments he had made some doubtful decisions. But in other moments he had concentrated himself and made clear good moves. Well, he is too young to know everything in chess. But he definitely increases his chess strength. Good luck to him, especially in ICA tournaments!
Congratulations to Yefim Treger for winning our report contest of the New Year! 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 will not have a quad next week, so enjoy your New Years and we hope to see you at our next Quad which is January 11.
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