Sixteen players decided to stay indoors on the first nice day of the year, to participate in one of great tournaments of the year, the Vassar-Chadwick Memorial. For the first time it was held in the Vassar College Center area, which was convenient in many ways – not only was it located in the Main building, but the cafeteria was open at noon. Intense chess play builds an appetite.
The tournament was run by Brother John McManus, who graciously drove down to provide his very capable (Senior TD level) services. His computer and printer setup had this TD drooling.
Out of the 16 players, 7 of them were Class A or above – it was a tough, hard-fought event, even if it didn’t draw as many as the club championship.
Speaking of the DCC, trophies were available to hand out, but only Chris Brooks (unable to play the Memorial, but did show up after work) was there to pick it up. But don’t worry, trophies don’t have expiration dates, they will be at the club waiting for you.
Going into the final round, Ernie Johnson had the only perfect score (3), and was paired with Scott Strattner (alone in 2nd with 2.5). See below for the game, but the game in summary: Black gets an early (but slight) advantage, through inaccuracy it turns into a small advantage for White. After many moves White’s advantage grows (to over +1), but a late blunder allows Black to swindle a win.
As both the winner of the game (and the tournament) and the writer of this post, I want to be as impartial as possible, instead of tooting my own horn. But I will say, after going through the game with a chess engine, I am happy with most of my moves, and the plans I decided on were actually valid (even if all my follow-through moves were not). For G/40, I cannot complain.
Of course, if I had avoided playing in the DCC, this win would have propelled my rating to over 2000. I would have thrown a party and brought doughnuts to the club. Alas, DCC did happen, and I’ll need to win about 3 more Memorial tournaments before I can sniff Expert again. That is chess for you, much like life it is filled with regrets, pain, misery – oh, and success and joy.
Other trophy results:
Ernie Johnson gets top A, and Andre Van Dommele takes top E (other classes did not have the required 4+ players).
The results have not been posted to USCF yet, but thanks to Brother John’s printer, I have the full crosstable:
1. Scott Strattner (3.5)
2. Ernie Johnson (3.0)
3. David Antonucci (3)
4. Brandon Wang (2.5)
5. Rudy Van Dommele (2.5)
6. Alan Lasser (2.5)
7. Craig Fisher (2)
8. Al Musumeci (2)
9. Thomas Roddy (2)
10. George Oliveras (2)
11. Andre Van Dommele (2)
12. Michael Mendez (1.5)
13. Seamus Gould (1.5)
14. Uriel Calixto (1)
15. Robert Mortensen (1)
16. Richard Dobbins (0)
[pgn height=500 initialHalfmove=start autoplayMode=none]
[Event “Memorial 2014”]
[Site “Poughkeepsie”]
[Date “2014.04.12”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Johnson, Ernest”]
[Black “Strattner, Scott”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “E13”]
[WhiteElo “1975”]
[BlackElo “1997”]
[PlyCount “90”]
1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 b6 4. Nc3 Bb7 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 Bb4 7. Rc1 g5 8. Bg3
Ne4 9. Qb3 (9. Nd2 Nxg3 10. hxg3 c5 11. e3 cxd4 12. exd4 Qf6 13. d5 O-O 14. Be2
exd5 15. Nxd5 Bxd5 16. cxd5 Qxb2 17. Rc2 Qf6 18. O-O d6 19. Ne4 Qe5 20. Rc4 Bc5
21. Re1 b5 22. Rxc5 dxc5 23. Bxb5 Rd8 24. d6 Nd7 25. f4 Qb2 26. a4 Nf8 27. Qh5
Kg7 28. fxg5 Qd4+ 29. Kh2 hxg5 30. Nxg5 Rxd6 31. Qxf7+ Kh8 32. Qh5+ Kg8 33. Re4
Qf6 34. Rg4 {1-0 Wang Yue (2644)-Oleksienko,M (2541)/Calvi 2007/CBM 117 ext}) (
9. d5 Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 Nxg3 11. hxg3 Qf6 12. Qd4 Ke7 13. e4 d6 14. e5 dxe5 15.
Nxe5 Nd7 16. Nxd7 Qxd4 17. cxd4 Kxd7 18. dxe6+ Kxe6 19. Kd2 h5 20. f3 Kf6 21.
Bd3 Rad8 22. Kc3 Rde8 23. Rce1 Rxe1 24. Rxe1 h4 25. Rh1 Bc8 26. Kd2 Bd7 27. Be4
c5 28. dxc5 bxc5 29. Ke3 Be6 30. Bd3 Ke5 31. f4+ gxf4+ 32. gxf4+ Kf6 33. f5 Bd7
34. Kf4 Bc6 35. Be4 Bxe4 36. Kxe4 Rd8 37. Rb1 Rd4+ 38. Kf3 Rxc4 39. Rb7 Ra4 40.
Rc7 Ra5 41. Kg4 Ra4+ 42. Kf3 Kxf5 43. Rxf7+ Ke5 44. Rd7 Rxa2 45. Ke3 Rxg2 46.
Rxa7 h3 47. Rh7 h2 {0-1 Ehlvest,J (2585)-Chernin,A (2560)/Saint John 1988/EXT
1997}) 9… a5 ({Computer likes this instead, and it seems like White’s
position is already in shambles.} 9… Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 h5 11. Qb1 d6 (11… h4
12. Be5 f6 $2 13. Nxg5) 12. h4 Nxg3 13. fxg3) 10. e3 Nc6 11. Bd3 a4 12. Qc2
Nxg3 13. hxg3 a3 14. b3 Be7 (14… g4 15. Nd2 f5 16. Nb5 Bf8 17. Bxf5 exf5 18.
Qxf5 {Very dangerous for Black}) 15. Qe2 Nb4 16. Bb1 Bf6 17. O-O Bg7 18. Rfd1
O-O 19. Qd2 Qe7 20. e4 Nc6 21. e5 {The computer has been begging for …g4 to
be played for over 5 moves, and my insistence not to has shifted the
evaluation from Black to White} d6 22. Qd3 f5 23. exf6 Bxf6 24. d5 Nd8 25. Re1
Bxc3 26. Rxc3 e5 27. b4 (27. Nd4 Bc8 28. Qg6+ Qg7 29. Qxg7+ Kxg7 30. Nb5 $18)
27… Qf7 28. Qg6+ Qxg6 29. Bxg6 Rf6 30. Be4 Nf7 31. Ree3 g4 32. Nh2 h5 33.
Rxa3 Rb8 34. f3 Nh6 35. Ra7 Kg7 36. a4 Rf7 37. Rc3 ({Computer starts out
saying this variation is best, but the evaluation keeps shifting down. White
still has the advantage, but it is very complicated.} 37. a5 bxa5 38. bxa5 Bc8
39. a6 Rb4 40. Ra8 Bf5 41. c5 Bxe4 42. Rxe4) 37… Bc8 38. c5 bxc5 39. bxc5 Bf5
40. Bxf5 Nxf5 41. fxg4 $2 ({Computer thinks this is best, which leads to
equality after a lot of complication.} 41. cxd6 Rb1+ 42. Kf2 Rb2+ 43. Ke1 Nxd6
44. Raxc7 Rxg2 45. Rxf7+ Nxf7 46. Nf1 gxf3 47. Rxf3 Ra2) 41… Rb1+ 42. Nf1 $4
(42. Kf2 hxg4 ({Apparently White can escape in this variation, but perhaps not
in time trouble:} 42… Nd4+ $2 43. Ke3 Re1+ 44. Kd3) 43. cxd6 Nxd6+ 44. Ke2
Rb2+ 45. Ke1 Rxg2 46. Nxg4 Rg1+ 47. Ke2 Rg2+ 48. Ke1 {Draw}) 42… Ne3 {it is
mate in 6 with best play} 43. Kh2 Nxg4+ 44. Kh3 Rfxf1 45. Kh4 Kg6 {White
resigns} 0-1
[/pgn]