Open Report By Noah Hinger
In this game, I was able to use my secret weapon opening. A tense struggle followed where king safety was key, and when my king was finally able to castle, the game was decided.
I first learned about the move 5. f3 (diagram) from GM Simon Williams’ immortal game at the Reykjavík Open 2023, where he defeated a strong player in an exciting game. Since then, I’ve won 5/5 games in OTB tournaments and I have a 60% win rate online from it. I highly recommend the move as a secret weapon against the Slav.The idea is to play a quick e4, and there are some fun lines with 5…Bf5 6. g4. After 5…Nc6, the main line, we get a sharp game where white is left with an isolated pawn but good attacking chances.
After 10…a6 I was out of my preparation. At this point, playing such a complicated opening had clearly left a toll on my opponent, as he had only 9 minutes left on his clock in a 60 minute game. I continued to develop my pieces, and the game became even sharper after 12. Rd1 (diagram). The white queen and rook could be targets of a skewer from a bishop on g4, but black’s queen could be a target of white’s rook. Both kings remain uncastled and after 12…exd5, the center opens up.
I decided to play 13. e5 to put pressure on the knight, and my opponent pounced with 13…Bg4. During the game, I spent time looking at the move 14. exf6, which gives up the queen for 3 pieces after 14…Bxf3 15. fxe7 Qd7 16. gxf3. I rejected this line, however, because my pieces felt discoordinated and my pawn structure weak. Funnily enough, there’s an even stronger reason to reject the line: after 15. fxe7, black has the move 15…Qc7 or Qb8, and after 16. gxf3 there’s 16…Qe5+, winning a piece. Instead, I played 14. Qe3, setting up a deadly X-ray on the e file. After 14…Bxd1 15. exf6 d4 16. fxe7, I missed the move 16…Qa5, which both attacks my bishop and leaves my queen and knight hanging.
Having missed this move, I moved too quickly and played 17. Qxd4. Can you try to find what I should’ve played (diagram)?
The correct move is 17. Bb5+. This incredible move has a surprisingly simple idea: maintain the bishop on g5. After 17…axb5 18. Qxd4 white is threatening to take on g7 with disastrous consequences, take the bishop on d1, and bring his final piece, the rook, to the attack with Rf1.
Instead, after 17. Qxd4 Qxg5 I have another choice to make. 18. Kxd1 Qxe7 enters an endgame where white has two pieces for a rook, usually an advantage. However, black has an extra pawn and plenty of open files for his rooks. I almost went for this line after seeing 19. Bb5+ axb5 20. Re1, winning the queen, but I realized that black does not have to take the bishop and can play 19…Kf8. Therefore, I decided to keep black’s king weak with 18. Nd5. This sets up the threat of Nc7, and if black’s bishop moves away Qa4+ comes. Unfortunately, the computer finds 18…Rc8 and most of white’s advantage is gone as the rook will work together with the queen to give white’s king checks.
My opponent chose the move 18…Qc1, setting up nasty checks. During the game, I was focused on king safety – even though the computer wants to enter an endgame with 19. Qxd1, I chose a more aggressive option: 19. Bb5+ axb5 20. O-O!!. A very fun sequence that leads to really good attacking options.
With only a few seconds left, my opponent was unable to put up the best defense of 20…f6, and instead played 20…Ra4 (diagram). Can you find how I ended the game in style? The answer is 21. Nf6+ Kxe7 22. Qd7+ Kf8 23. Qe8#. Good game to my opponent and congrats to the prize winners.
In the first open 2025 tournament I have taken only 2 points but nevertheless won some prizes (the senior and class ones). Because of my age it became very difficult for me to fight for the first three main prizes. Also I am often worried about not losing a game rather than a quality of it, and this presetting weakens my motivation (compared to as if I were young).
In the day of the tournament weather was cold. While leaving my home I put on some light closes and shoes and had to return back to change them. Because of that I was late a little for the train and tournament. Nevertheless I was lucky to save myself in slightly worse positions in the first two games. As the tournament progressed I began playing much better and had played a beautiful game with Ari Lukatsky (I was Black; he was White).
In this game I have chosen one of my favorite openings, Nimzowitsch Defence (do not confuse it with Nimzo-Indian Defence) characterized by the moves 1. e4 Nc6 2. d4 d5 leading to the white position 11 in the upper part of the picture. In this position White has 3 acceptable moves – 3. exd5, 3. e5, and 3. Nc3. Ari chose the first one but further had played not accurately (in particular his move 6. a3 move was dubious, since it worsened a pawn structure; better was 6. Bd2). Soon the white critical position 21 (in the center of the picture) occurred (Black had just played 9… e3).
Now I am offering a small chess test for you. How would you, being White, play in this position? For the clever students there is no need to see three options which I gave in the picture (these options are 10. fxe3, 10. Nf3, and 10. Bxg4 leading to black positions 22, 24, and 26 respectively). For the students who need some help I am giving you an example of thinking (if I or another amateur player were White in such critical position).
First of all, upon having met with a clear tactical situation you have to find out the main threats which your opponent is having in mind. Here there are two of them – to capture d2-knight and to capture g2-pawn. You have to compare these threats – which one is more dangerous (and if possible to find some refutations to them, but about it – read later). Looking ahead Ari chose the move saving him from two threats - 10. Nf3, but after 10… exf2+ 11. Kxf2 Nf6 it led to the position where White lost his right to castling and got a bad coordination between his pieces.
The move 10. fxe3 is obviously bad because of the Black’s threat Qxg2, after which the move Bf3 does not help due to the powerful blow Qxh1 (I am talking about the variant 10. fxe3 Qxg2 11. Bf3 Qxh1! 12. Bxh1 Bxd1).
So, as a result of the preliminary analysis White has to come up with the correct comparison of two Black’s threats, consisting in fact that Qxg2 is more dangerous. Also such a thought comes in mind. The Black’s queen is so powerful that it has to be eliminated or traded even with a loss of the white d2-knight. Is it really possible?
And there is general principle of play (either in attack or in) defense) – play actively; try to create your own threats. Understanding it you could come up to the idea of trading queens by the 10. Bxg4 Qxg2 11. Qf3 exd2 12. Bxd2 Qxf3 13. Bxf3 after Which would have two bishops (against two black knights), what fully compensates the White’s bad pawn structure.
In the variant mentioned above White had to abandon his d2-knight; but taking into account that he first captured black g4-blshop, and then traded the queens (White should trade them since Black was threatening to checkmate White by Qxf2!) White would refute (or at least eliminate) all essential Black threats. So, the answer to the test is the third option – playing Bxg4, with the main variant mentioned in a paragraph above.
After Ari played Nf3, I had completely taken initiative; then I won h2-pawn, and achieved won position. My opponent could prolong his resistance in a game by more precise defense, but I think he would lose anyway because his main mistake was made in the critical position.
So, there are some advices from this game. When you meet the complicated tactical position try at first to find out the main threats of your opponent; then try to calculate as many variants as possible; and at last try to refute or neutralize the opponent’s threats by your own active play. And good luck you in future chess tournaments!
In each section of a chess tournament, there are six games total. In the Under 1600 section, the probability that at least one of the games is quick and low-quality is extremely high. Today, however, every match in Section 3 was nail-biting, and both players finished with under 10 minutes in 5 of the six matches. Even though Daniel Aminetzah (who today competed for the first time in the US!) won all three matches, he was made to work extremely hard for each win.
But I (white) will analyze my match against Boston University Junior Manoj (black) as it demonstrates how an attack shifts from the three parts of the chessboard: the queenside, center, and kingside. In addition, this match demonstrates the effects of burnout on a game of chess.
And right from the start, it was clear this would be an unorthodox game. after 4. … f3. On one hand, Manoj has a majority in the center. On the other hand, his kingside is weakened. After good development from both sides, we both hit the center with 7. … c5 and 8. e4. Although I was confident in my position, I had no confidence that my attack would bear any fruit: at the time, I thought that, if Manoj were to attack the queenside, his attack would be of equal strength to my central attack, if not stronger. That, however, was a miscalculation on my part.
And so, both sides developed and what could have been a fast pace match slowed down. I traded my knight for the opponent’s bishop to release pressure in the center and planned to attack the kingside with my knight and rook. However, it was clear that, after I castled, the game would take place in the queenside and center. And this is when the game came back to life.
After 18. c4 Nxe5 19. Nxe5 Qxe5 it was time for my rooks to join the game. Although I won back a pawn, fatigue was setting in for both players. I hung my f-pawn with 24. Qe4 Qxf2+ before Manoj wasted a tempo, allowing 26. Rad1. I then messed up, not capturing the b-pawn to earn myself a passed pawn. After determining I have no winning tactic, I released pressure off the board with 28. Bxe6.
Blitz time! Both players have under 5 minutes left in a rather complex endgame. I made the first mistake, trading rooks when I have a losing pawn structure. I also made the second mistake, with 36. Rc1, ensuring that Manoj can either trade rooks or promote the d-pawn. A few moves later, and I was thinking about eventually resigning. The only thing I had going for me was that both players were burnt out and had under two minutes of time left. And it showed, with Manoj playing 47. … Kc3?? under serious time pressure. There is no way he can stop my queenside pawn majority from promoting!
Although the ending was tough to take for Manoj, I would like to thank him for such an exhilarating game. My biggest takeaway is that I need to rebuild my chess stamina! When will I play again? Only time will tell.
Congratulations to Noah Hinger for winning our first report contest for the ICA Open 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 18.
Open Report by Yefim Treger
Section 3 Report by Alan Salnikov
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