Once a month, the ICA Academy holds an Open Tournament, in which only players with a rating above 1600 participate. Because of this, such a tournament turns out to be much stronger than a regular quad tournament. And indeed, the March Open Tournament featured two famous masters, not to mention many strong experts. It is no surprise that the battle for the top places unfolded between them, and in this report I will talk about the two winners (luckily, one of them is me!).
I won my first game relatively easily. I caught Vladimir, a middle-aged player who usually plays the French Defence as Black, in a special variation. I knew this and had prepared a rather rare bishop move in this opening, sacrificing a central pawn (see black position 10 in the upper part of the picture).
In this position Black usually accepts the pawn sacrifice (it can be taken either with the knight or the pawn), but as a result, he falls behind in piece development and struggles with coordination. I found this idea in the games of Asa Hoffman, an 80-years-old chess player who is the same age as Bobby Fischer and played with him at the famous NY Marshall Chess Club (and he still plays there today; I wish him success with his original ideas!).
However, my opponent did not grasp the essence of this idea. For example, his response was highly dubious - he attacked my bishop with his knight by Nc6-b4 in position 10. This move was not only a waste of tempo but also went against the principle of “not moving the same piece multiple times in the opening.” Another, mostly strategic, mistake by Black occurred on move 9, when he played with his queen (see position 19; Black had just played 9… Qb6 in it).
I immediately noticed a significant flaw in Black’s play. HIs piece coordination on the queenside was terrible. I reasoned as follows: “If my knight were on c3 and Black’s knight on c6, White would win immediately - with the maneuver Nc3-a4, exchanging the knight for the bishop with Na4xc5, and winning the pawn with Nd4xe6. Therefore, I had to play Nb1-c3 and drive the knight away from b4 with a2-a3”. That is exactly what happened in the game (below is a variant confirming this).
To avoid material losses, Black was forced to place his knight on a6 and allow the exchange of all his bishops for my knights (here’s the promised variant - 10. Nc3 Ne7 11. a3 Na6 12. b4 Bxd4 13. Bxd4 Qc7 14. Nb5 Bxb5 15. Bxb5+ Nc6 16. Qe2).
After the white queen moved in the above variation, White threatened to win a piece. Vladimir failed to see this and made a fatal mistake (although his position was already very difficult). His further play was hopeless, and I easily converted my extra piece into a win.
And now there is an interesting moment. After finishing my game quickly, I turned my attention to the game of one of the two masters - a 14-years-old girl with a beautiful name, Jasmine. She was thinking over her black position J0. The position was roughly equal, as Black’s extra pawn was doubled, while White’s pieces were active (plus opposite-colored bishops). But then I spotted a fantastically brilliant move for Black - Re7-e5! (leading to white position J1).
It seemed to be the only way to play for a win. And I thought at that moment: “If Jasmine played this move, I would mention it in my report with the note: ‘Bravo!’”
Bravo, Jasmine!
Congratulations to Yefim Treger for winning this report contest. ! 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 a great week and join us at our next Quad which is March 22.
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