July Knockout-Swiss Tournament 2018 Report 3 The 2018 Knockout & Swiss tournament is coming to its end. Next week in the final knockout match Nelson Casta˜ neda (white) and Suhas Kodali (black) will play for the championship title. The Swiss part of the tour- nament has five players tied for first with two points each. They are Joe Bihlmeyer, Andrew Colwell, Mario Guevara - Rodriguez, Dennis Himes, and Jithu Sajeevan. The results of the Swiss part of the tournament were the following White Result Black Joe Bihlmeyer 1–0 FM Rick Bauer Gert Hilhorst 1/2 – 1/2 Harold Blanchard John Twombley 0–1 Mario Guevara - Rodriguez Dennis Himes 1–0 Kevin Zimmerman Jithu Sajeevan 1–0 Elizabeth Smith Joe Mansigian 1/2 – 1/2 Laurent Lafosse Norman Aldrich 1–0 Parthiv Malipeddu Chris Hoffman 0–1 Yogahari Jegadeeswaran Bill Campbel 0 Bye In the knockout part the results of the two semifinals were the following White Result Black Andrew Colwell 0–1 Nelson Casta˜ neda Suhas Kodali 1–0 David Herscovici 1
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July Knockout-Swiss Tournament 2018
Report 3
The 2018 Knockout & Swiss tournament is coming to its end. Next weekin the final knockout match Nelson Castaneda (white) and Suhas Kodali(black) will play for the championship title. The Swiss part of the tour-nament has five players tied for first with two points each. They are JoeBihlmeyer, Andrew Colwell, Mario Guevara - Rodriguez, Dennis Himes, andJithu Sajeevan.
The results of the Swiss part of the tournament were the following
White Result Black
Joe Bihlmeyer 1 – 0 FM Rick Bauer
Gert Hilhorst 1/2 – 1/2 Harold Blanchard
John Twombley 0 – 1 Mario Guevara - Rodriguez
Dennis Himes 1 – 0 Kevin Zimmerman
Jithu Sajeevan 1 – 0 Elizabeth Smith
Joe Mansigian 1/2 – 1/2 Laurent Lafosse
Norman Aldrich 1 – 0 Parthiv Malipeddu
Chris Hoffman 0 – 1 Yogahari Jegadeeswaran
Bill Campbel 0 Bye
In the knockout part the results of the two semifinals were the following
White Result Black
Andrew Colwell 0 – 1 Nelson Castaneda
Suhas Kodali 1 – 0 David Herscovici
1
The parings for the fourth round of the Swiss tournament are
White Result Black
Mario Guevara - Rodriguez Joe Bihlmeyer
Andrew Colwell Dennis Himes
FM Rick Bauer Jithu Sajeevan
Harold Blanchard David Herscovici
Norman Aldrich Gert Hilhorst
Elizabeth Smith Joe Mansigian
Kevin Zimmerman Yogahari Jegadeeswaran
Laurent Lafosse John Twombley
Parthiv Malipeddu Bill Campbel
Chris Hoffman 0 Bye
The standings in the Swiss tournament are
Player Points
Joe Bihlmeyer 2
Andrew Colwell 2
Mario Guevara - Rodriguez 2
Dennis Himes 2
Jithu Sajeevan 2
Rick Bauer 1.5
David Herscovici 1.5
Gert Hilhorst 1.5
Harold Bachard 1.5
Norm Aldrich 1.5
Joseph Mansigian 1
Kevin Zimmerman 1
John Twombley 1
Laurent Lafosse 1
Elizabeth Smith 1
Yogahari Jegadeeswaran 1
Bill Campbell 0.5
Chris Hoffman 0
Parthiv Malipeddu 0
2
Here are some games from round 3. I used Fritz 13 to help me evaluate thepositions and also comments I heard from the players after the games. Thegame Suhas Kodali vs. David Herscovici includes comments provided byDavid.
� Colwell, Andrew (1995) July Knockout Swiss 2018� Castaneda, Nelson (2356) Nimzo – Indian – E44
In the variation of the Nimzo - In-dian played here white has devel-oped the king-side knight to e2 tobe able to recapture with this knighton c3 in case black responds 6. ...Bxc3. So white would like to havethe pair of bishops without damag-ing the pawn structure. However, itis not clear that the pair of bishopsis an advantage because the struc-ture of pawns in the center is yet tobe determined. The move I played6.... Be7 is a common alternativeto the exchange in c3. The fight inthe middle game is about the center.With his next move Andrew aimsfor some space advantage with d5.Black first plan is to undermine the
My move 10... a6 does not seem tobe that good according to Fritz 13.I was aiming to get a pawn struc-ture alike the one from the Benonidefence capturing e x d5 at somepoint and playing g6. I wanted tohave the queen on c7 and a6 was toavoid jumps of the knight to b5.
Instead of 13. Rc1 it was better toplay 13. dxe6. Then white couldhave played with the advantage ofspace incorporating moves such asf4, and b4. It would be difficult forblack to advance any of the pawnsranging from the a to the e file with-out creating weaknesses.
After the move 14. f3 white hasto be alert to tactics involving thepotential capture of Rxe3. This isnot obvious now but it could havebeen a decisive factor later on in thisgame.
White pursued an interesting planof improving the knight from c3 toc4. But there is a problem with
the execution. After the game An-drew told me that he was worriedabout the knight on b2 being indanger. It turns out that he wasright but we both missed the tac-tics that the computer immediatelyshows 22....Nxd5 The point is thatafter 23. exd5 then black can takeon e3 23....Rxe3. I dismissed 22....Nxd5 on the grounds that the queencaptures on d5 attacking the rook ofa8. What I didn’t realize is that af-ter 23. Qxd5 Bxb2 24. Qxa8 thequeen is trapped after 24....Nb6.
So 22. Nb2 is a mistake that loosesa pawn and black’s next move is amistake that misses the opportunityof winning a pawn.
White’s knight on g3 was not doingmuch so Andrew tries to bring it tothe queen side. Unfortunately forhim the knight on e2 is on the wayof the queen which is made clear bythe move 32. ... Rb8.
To 33. Qc4 I had prepared 33...Qa5 and 34. Nc3 is not good be-cause of certain attacks that startwith 34....Rb4. After 33. Qc6 thewhite queen gets trapped.
Chris now would loose the e pawn ifhe plays 14. Ne3. But it seems thathe did not notice that he could havesaved the knight that way. With hismove he looses the knight.
This position is very similar to theposition in Mario Guevara – SuhasKodali from the previous round.There the game started as an En-glish opening but the treatment theplayers gave was the one of a Sicil-ian dragon with the colors reversed.Now that David is playing the Si-cilian Dragon we could say that theposition is one of the English open-ing with the colors reversed.
After the game Suhas, David, Rick,and other players analyzed the gamethoroughly. Unfortunately I missedtheir comments regarding this po-sition. This position is studied inthe book of Gufeld and Stetsko onthe Sicilian Dragon. In my opin-ion black has equalized. The crit-ical moves 11. e5 and 11. f5 havebeen thoroughly analyzed. Gufeldand Stetsko point out that at thispoint black is threatening not onlyto jump to c4 with the knight butalso the exchange sacrifice Rxc3that would be good is black canget the e pawn for it and damagethe structure of white pawns in thequeen side.
The book I have of Gufeld and Stet-sko is quite old. I am aware thatthere are newer probably deeperbook on the dragon but I am notfamiliar with them.
13. Bd3 is a standard manuever inthe Sicilian. It is not convenient forblack to take on d3 because after c2x d3 the pawn of e4 gets a good de-fender and the Knight from a5 can-not jump to c4. Now white queencan be brought to the king side viaf3.
I don’t understand the point of themove Re8. Perhaps it is to defendthe pawn of e7. Gufeld and Stet-sko recommend 13.... b5. It makessense for black to try to get space inthe queen side.
This position was analyzed by theplayers and other members of theclub. I believe Joe Hricko was sug-gesting 16. Nd4. It makes sense tobring this knight from b3 to the ac-tion in the center.
White has won a pawn and isthreatening to exchange queens. Toavoid this simplification David putsthe queen in a bad square. Itwas better to play 21....Qb6 withsome counterplay. White couldhave gained a decisive advantagewith 22.Bb5 Nc6 23.Rf4!h intend-ing Rf4-h4-h8m
Instead white weakens the king sidewith his next move
22. h3 B×h3 23. Bb5
again 23.Rf4! wins
23. . . B×g2+ 24. K×g2 Qg4+
25. Kh2
White cannot afford 25.Kf2 Qxe4,
since he cannot handle the threatsof 26.. . . Ng4+ and 26.. . . QXd4+
together with his empty spacearound the king, so black can nowforce a repetition with . . . Qh5+
and . . . Qg4+. Unfortunately, I gotgreedy and blundered with
Black has two pawns for a piece.Now Suhas forces the exchange ofone rook and with good techniquewins the game. Observe how heimproves the postition of the rook,knight and king. He blocks thepawns of the king side with theknight, brings the king as far as itis safe and penetrates with the rookthrough the only accessible openfile.
It seems that black wishes to clearthe h1 - a8 diagonal of pawns to takeadvantage of the fact that white hasno light square bishop. It would be
good for black if he could play c xd4 and advance the pawn from c6to c5. However, this is not so easyto accomplish as the game shows.White on the other hand wishes toblock the pawn of c6.
Black aims to simplify to an op-posite color bishops endgame buthe probably miscalculated that heis going to loose two pawns. Heprobably did not mind loosing theg7 pawn. The move Re8 was notforced.
This endgame is difficult to play forblack. 46. ... d3 is a concession. In-stead black should have traded thed pawn for the h pawn with 46....Kg5. Then the game could haveended in a draw.
Now Joe gets another object of at-tack that is the penetration with hisking to the queen side via b4. Ricktried to oppose white’s king with hisking but that was a lost battle.
I believe black could still havechances of drawing the game with49..... Kf6. The point is to controlthe h pawn with the king, attack thef3 pawn with the bishop to force f4.
50. Kd2 Kd5 51. Kc3 Bh752. Kb4
White will win another pawn andget passed pawns on both sides.Very well played endgame by Joe.It was very difficult to find the rightmoves for black with limited think-ing time.
Here black could have put morepressure by playing 15.... Rc8 notafraid of 16. c5 becuase he has timeto get out of the fork and attackthe c pawn with moves such as Bf5,Nd7, b6.
White is going to loose the c pawnalso. Perhaps white should havetaken the pawn on b7 and hope thatblack let him give the knight for thea pawn. Then with a bishop on darksquares and the pawn of h blackwouldn’t be able to convert. All thisis of course a dream.
After a few more moves black pro-moted the h pawn and white re-
signed.
0-1
17
� Hilhorst, Gert (1933) July Knockout Swiss 2018� Blanchard, Harold (1507) Blackmar – Diemer Gambit – D00
1. d4 d5 2. e4 d×e4 3. Nc3 Nf64. f3 e×f3 5. N×f3
In the New Britain Chess Clubwebsite one can find an article byGert Hilhorst titled the Blackmar -Diemer gambit. That is the openingthat Gert used in this game.
5. . . Bg4 6. h3 B×f3 7. Q×f3 c68. Be3 e6 9. Bd3 Bd6 10. 0–0Nbd7 11. Ne4 Bc7 12. Bg5 Qe713. N×f6+ g×f6 14. B×f6 Whitehas been putting pressure on the ffile but Harold has defended verywell. White gets back the pawn andstill have some pressure on the f filebut the material has considerablyreduced. The position is more orless equal.
The advanced variation of theFrench has been played. In thisopening white gets strong pawnson the central dark squares andblack attacks then with c5 and alsowith f6 sooner or later. 6. Bf4was not best because it gave blackchances of putting pressure on thedark squares.
White played the prophylactic moveh3. Black did not do the same.He should have played h6, and Kh8before contemplation other actions.The exchange of the f pawn for thee pawn gives more chances for whiteto defend. Instead of 30. .... Qc3 itwould have been better to centralizethe queen with 30....Qd5.
Now black should have exchangedthe rooks on e2. Black could winthe game but he needs to find theright plan. Now black blunders bydropping the c pawn and the gameis drawn.
44. . . Rd7 45. Re×c2 R×c2+
46. R×c2
1/2-1/2
21
� Sajeevan, Jithu (1797) July Knockout Swiss 2018� Smith, Elizabeth (1184) Queen Pawn Opening – D00
Black has developed the light squarebishop ahead of the pawn chain.That is ok but you have to be alertof combined threats on d5 and b7.The move 7. ... Nbd7 drops the dpawn.
White should have played 21. Kf1instead of 21. h3 to prevent theblack rook to enter the second rank.This rook give black good com-pensation for the missing pawn.