GM Ben Finegold's Blog: Musings of a Grandmaster
I Want Some Action!
I Want Some Action!
Friday Night Action Quads that is! I decided to play some Action Chess last Friday, August 27, at the CCSCSL. There were 18 players overall, and the top quad saw Joe Garnier, Alex Marler, Stephen Landrum and me fight for the top spot. It was a great chance for me to try out 1.e4! again, and, luckily, I was white in two of the three games.
Round 1 action saw the Advance French against fellow CCSCSL employee Alex Marler. Alex played an early Nh6, instead of the usual Qb6, and I was on my own early. I was fortunate Alex did not play f4! after my "rover" Rh3, and the game was about equal, when, in time trouble (the time control is G/25 with a 5 second delay), Alex started playing second best moves, and his game quickly went downhill.
I won round 2 quite easily, as my opponent allowed an early Qh4+! winning the house. Sometimes in quick chess, the game ends with quick and sudden tactics!
Round 3 was also quite easy. Joe Garnier played very quickly (as usual) and fell for a typical Bxh7+ sacrifice that was immediately decisive.
Mike Kummer has told me that since I worked at the CCSCSL, I am 48-0 in Quick rated events held at the Chess Club (we hold FAQ tournaments and 5-minute blitz events Thursday that are also quick rated). Here is the USCF rated report for the event: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201008274491
Who will be the first to nick me for a draw or win? Maybe we will find out next week!
Victory in Indy
Spencer and I went to Indianapolis last weekend for the aptly named Indianapolis Open. This was a CCA event, and CCA has not held an event in Indy in 35 years! Prizes were based on 220 players, and it looked like they would be lucky to get 150, as advance entries were slim. However, there were enough on-site entries to pay the prizes in full! This tournament had several sections (Open, U2100, U1900, U1700, U1500, and U1300) and there were some MO players in each section.
The most successful was Jialin Ding, who scored 4-1 in the U2100 section, and tied for first place! Spencer played in the Open, and beat his first FM, Andrew Karklins, in round 1. Thirteen year old Kevin Cao had an excellent tournament, scoring 3-2, to attain his highest rating ever, about 2200 USCF.
I played well, and was able to tie for first was fellow GMs Gregory Kaidanov, Dmitry Gurevich, and Nikola Mitkov, as we all scored 4-1. One GM, Sergey Kudrin, was not so lucky, and had three draws, scoring 3.5-1.5, just missing the money. None of the five GMs in the field lost a game, but each drew at least twice!
My tournament was somewhat interesting, as I decided to play 1.e4, AGAIN! I played 1.e4 in round 1, got a quite tricky opening and middle-game, and, fortunately, my opponent got way behind in the clock and played some inaccurate moves, finally blundering at the end. Usually I reserve 2.h4!?!? for bullet games.
Round 2 saw another interesting game, as I was black in a c3 Sicilian, and played a line where black sacrifices his queen! I had good compensation, and, after inaccurate play by my opponent in the middle-game, soon found myself with a lot of passed pawns and an easy victory.
That game was quite exhausting, so, in round 3, I played a perfunctory draw with GM Mitkov. Mitkov and I have played about 10 times, all games ending in draws, some in more than five hours!
I had a VERY difficult pairing in round 4, black against GM Kaidanov. I suspected Saturday night I would play him, so, I prepared for 2-3 hours from 11PM-2AM! I got a King's Indian position I had looked at, but Gregory played an early d5, which I had not looked at at all (previously he had tried Be3). We both spent a lot of time, and, little did we know, the whole game (22 moves) had been played before! I offered a draw, and afterward, when analyzing the game with Rybka, the engine confirmed the evaluation, as 0.00!
I was now trailing Kaidanov, Gurevich, and Mitkov by half a point, but the last round pairings saw Mitkov-Kaidanov and Gurevich-Kudrin. As both boards drew quickly, I had an opportunity to tie for first if I could beat FM Dennis Monokroussos. I have known Dennis for over 20 years, but we have never played a rated game. I decided, once again, to trot out 1.e4! I got nothing out of the opening, but Dennis misplayed the ending, and I was able to win, as he made mistakes in time trouble.
The U.S. Chess League started the next day, and our team (Yury Shulman, Ben Finegold, Michael Brooks, and Spencer Finegold) lost to the L.A. Vibe by the slimmest of margins, 2.5-1.5. Next week, we will have Hikaru Nakamura back from his travels in Europe, and with three GMs on boards 1-3, we should have excellent chances to beat the Chicago Blaze. Hopefully, I will have good news about that match in my next blog.
GM Finegold: Missouri Invitational Champion
The CCSCSL was host last weekend to the Missouri Invitational Championship and the Missouri Amateur Championship. The Invitational had 15 participants, and the Amateur had 55, much more than expected.
I played well (for once) and won the Invitational with 4.5-0.5. A mild surprise was clear-second finisher Kevin Cao, who once again broke 2200, and beat IM Michael Brooks along the way, scoring an impressive 4-1. IM Brooks took clear third with 3.5-1.5.
The Amateur was full of surprises, as several class A players (Alex Marler, Spencer Finegold, and Al Howlett) fought for first place! Spencer lost in the last round to Expert Mark Ferber, whilst Marler won a long game from Howlett. Ferber and Marler tied for first with 4.5-0.5, with Alex winning the State Title on tiebreak! Congrats to CCSCSL employee Alex Marler for not only winning, but getting a ton of rating points to boot.
Final standings of both events can be found at: http://main.uschess.org/assets/msa_joomla/XtblMain.php?201008150941
I was able to beat KDJ (Kevin Dale Johnson in round 1) by employing the rare (for me) 1.e4! The game was a weird Alapin (c3) Sicilian, where my opponent missed a cute tactic, and his king paid a dear price!
I played Kevin Cao in round 2, and tried the Caro-Kann, which I play occasionally nowadays. The game was about equal for a long time, then Kevin made some positional concessions and eventually lost a weak pawn and his position collapsed.
Round 3 was a perfunctory draw with IM Brooks. In fact, I spent a lot of the day going home to help Alisa Melekhina prepare for her next game in the 2010 World Junior Championship! Alisa finished up with 8.5-4.5, drawing her only game in the last round, after a 50+ move battle. I was her "coach" even though she was in Poland and I was at the CCSCSL (thank you Internet). Info on her event at: http://www.wjcc2010.pl/en/listauczestnikow
Round 4 started bright and early at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, and I once again trotted out 1.e4! I always wanted to broaden my repertoire, and preparing Alisa for her games gave me the confidence to play 1.e4 this event. Nick Karlow played a sharp variation of the Sicilian whereupon he wins 2-3 pawns at the expense of his king safety and development. The complications were too difficult for Nick, as he lost a miniature. IM Brooks lost a wild game to Kevin Cao, so first place was in my hands, if I could win the last round.
I had black versus Jialin Ding and decided to play the Sicilian. Jialin played an early king-side fianchetto (g3) against my Classical Variation, and a positional battle ensued. Jialin made too many weaknesses on the dark squares (a4, c4, e4, g4 were all played by white by move 15!)...and I was able to break through on the king side and win a nice game.
My next tournament will be next weekend, in Indianapolis, http://www.chesstour.com/io10.htm. The last time (and only time!) I played there was the 2009 U.S. Open.
Enjoy the games!
Happy Campers
Hi everyone! I have not blogged in a while. The U.S. Junior Championship and U.S. Women's Championship tournaments were quite exciting, and Jennifer and I had a lot of fun commentating on the games. Congrats to Shankland and Krush, who both qualify for the 2011 U.S. Championship.
Currently, I am teaching at an advanced chess camp for Missouri's best junior players. We have six strong players this week: Kevin Cao, Nick Karlow, Isaiah Gadson, Spencer Finegold, William Tong and Jialin Ding. The camp has been fun and informative. Hopefully, we can run a similar camp next Summer and get 8-10 top juniors.
Don't miss our last summer camp, August 9-13. Click here to sign up or for more information.
The CCSCSL is hosting the MO Invitational Championship August 14-15, with an Amateur event running concurrrently. I will play in the Invitational, as well as many of Missouri's Masters and Experts.
I have been going to the gym everyday lately, and thus far have lost 40 pounds in 2010. I am trying to lose 25 more by my birthday, September 6! A daunting task. I will keep the readers updated as to my progress.
Resident GM
U.S. Championships Special Preview
The 2010 U.S. Women’s and U.S. Junior Closed Championships start this weekend! I look forward to my live game analysis here at the CCSCSL with WGM Jennifer Shahade!
Many of the participants from these two powerhouse events decided to try their luck at the 2010 World Open, ending Monday, July 5, in suburban Philadelphia. Each year, The World Open is the strongest Open tournament in the United States. The event draws more than 1,000 participants in several sections. Let’s take a look at some of the scores, and see who is likely to be brimming with confidence come Saturday.
OPEN:
Ray Robson, this year's favorite, scored 5.5-3.5. A so-so event, and surely Ray hoped to score better. But, with over 35 GMs playing, many GMs fared much worse. A score of 7-2 is needed to win good money, but the experience of playing so many strong players is necessary for our top junior players.
Conrad Holt had a fantastic tournament, scoring 4.5-4.5 and earned an IM norm! Conrad was on fire the first half of the event, beating GMs Kazhgaleyev and Najer, and IM Bryan Smith. Conrad was going for a GM norm, but only scored a half point the last four rounds, but, an amazing performance considering he was paired up all nine rounds!
Sam Shankland, the 2nd highest rated participant in the Junior after Robson, scored 3.5-2.5. Sam obviously was not happy with his performance, and was clearly looking for his elusive final GM norm. Most of the pundits think Sam is Robson's main competition for the Championship.
Steven Zierk is well-known on the West Coast, and has been quickly improving. He scored 2-3 with no draws, and must have decided a norm was no longer possible. Steven won a brilliant game from GM Van Wely last year in Reno, and is a player to watch.
U2400:
Alisa Melekhina had a fantastic tournament, scoring 7-2 and winning $$$$. Alisa needed to win her last round to tie for first, but by drawing, she tied for 3rd and gained over 40 rating points! Many of my readers may remember my loss against Alisa in the Saint Louis Open a few months back!
Iryna Zenyuk also had a fantastic event, also scoring 7-2 and, like Alisa, may have hoped to do even better, as she drew her last two games. Both Iryna and Alisa will be looking to keep their good form and challenge for the title!
Tyler Hughes scored 6-3, and missed prize money by only half a point. Tyler played in the 2009 U.S. Championship and fared quite well, beating some seasoned GMs.
Round one for both events (Junior and Women's) is Saturday, July 10 at 2 p.m. here at the CCSCSL. This weekend will be a special treat, as GM Hikaru Nakamura will be a guest commentator.
See you there!
