North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

[Paul Leblanc]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

I hope you're not working on the Ebola vaccine :)

[Gary Ruben]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

Is that really true?

Is which part true? That I'm glad to see it or that they have the group?

When I was going to the local seniors club some years ago there was a chess club. Some players had played years before. The strength and ability to pick up new ideas and retain them even when shown is less than in a younger person. That was my observation and might be an outlier type of result.

Players of 50 years of age are not my idea of seniors.

The entrants were shown in a link someone had in their post.

[Steve Douglas]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

http://www.chessfest.ca/standings.html

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

Players of 50 years of age are not my idea of seniors.

It is FIDE's idea and also the idea of the USCF.

In tennis you are considered a senior in your 30s. It certainly seems to have struck a chord with the large number of entries in the two senior divisions.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

I noticed a couple of unrated players in the over 65 group so it looks like those seniors feel comfortable playing in that age category.

[Joshua Hu]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

Thanks for the report Jesse! I got a question - I heard that the girls section is merged with the boys section. How does the title handouts work now?

also any way to tag who is female vs male. hard to tell who is leading the girls division based on the names.

[Jack Maguire]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

also any way to tag who is female vs male. hard to tell who is leading the girls division based on the names.

Three American girls have a perfect 2/2, the top female seed, Alena Kats (2126 FIDE), Simone Liao (2053 FIDE) and Apurva Virkud (1954 FIDE).

[Jesse Wang]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

Round 2

Round 2 featured more hard fought victories. Many games resolved into what looked like time scrambles. FM Jason Cao was particularly lucky to win against an inspired Joey Zhong, who was fresh from his victory over FM Kleinman. Like last round, the round was not without upsets. In particular, both American girls won their games against higher rated players.

Simone Liao gave a positional lesson to the extremely clever American master Andrew Tang, who had resourcefully won his round 1 game.

Tang, A. -- Liao, S. North Am. U20 Ch.
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 Bf5 5. Nc3 a6 6. Nh4 Be4 7. f3 Bg6 8. Qb3 b5


The a6-b5-c6-d5 setup is always interesting to look at. Good thing the Bishop is "out" though!

9. cxb5 axb5 10. Bd2 e6 11. Nxg6 hxg6 12. g3 Nbd7 13. Bd3 Bd6 14. Ke2 b4 15.Na4


This, in my opinion, is a mistake. The knight is offside. Black seizes the initiative with:

15... Qa5 16. Bc2 Qb5 17. Kf2 e5 18. a3 e4


With the white knight, queen, and bishop tied up, black looks for action on the other side.

19. axb4 exf3 20. Nc3


The American master is already squirming. However, forcing the R R for Q trade does not help.

20...Rxa1 21. Nxb5 Rxh1 22. Nxd6 Ke7 23. h4 Rh2 24. Kxf3 Kxd6 25. Qc3 Ra8


Black dominates. The d2 bishop is very bad, as is the queen, whereas black's
knights hold the position beautifully and both rooks have active futures. White
tries to activate the bishops, but...

26. e4 dxe4 27. Bxe4 Rf2!


A fine shot! A beautiful conclusion to a fine game! The "point" is after

28. Ke3 Nxe4

If 29.Kxe4, then 29... Re8 followed by 30... Rf3. The position is completely winning and Simone does not let the win slip.

29. Qc1 Rxd2 30. Kxe4 Re8 31. Kf3 Ree2 32. b3 Rf2 33. Ke3
Rc2 34. Qa1 Nf6 35. Qa8 Nd5 36. Kd3 Rc3 0-1

Round 3

I actually arrived after Round 3 started today, to learn IM Arthur Calugar had made a Grandmaster draw *cough* proposal *cough* against WFM Alena Kats.

[Francis Rodriguez]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

Jesse, you write beautifully - like many others I'm sure,
I'm enjoying your write-ups tremendously. They're so...
in the heart of the position, in the heat of the moment!

Thank you!

Francis

[Kerry Liles]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

Jesse, you write beautifully - like many others I'm sure,
I'm enjoying your write-ups tremendously. They're so...
in the heart of the position, in the heat of the moment!

Thank you!

Francis

1 from me too! Very nicely done Jesse. You should consider contacting John Upper
and contributing some writing for the Canadian Chess Magazine...
I concur with Francis - your presentation is succinct and clear and interesting.
More, please... :)

[Andy Shaw]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

Round 2
I actually arrived after Round 3 started today, to learn IM Arthur Calugar had made a Grandmaster draw *cough* proposal *cough* against WFM Alena Kats.

Young love?

[Jesse Wang]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

Round 3 is over.

I'm starting to like IM Calugar's approach very much. After 4 1/2 hours, FM Sapozhnikov was held to a draw by Simone Liao and was in serious danger of overpressing. Mike Ivanov also took down IM Richard Wang after an unfortunate opening mishap by Richard which Mike masterfully handled. Another big upset was from FM Razvan Preotu, by Tanraj Sohal. It seems that the older players are giving a good showing. Even FM Kleinman is now back on the top tables with two smooth wins.

IM Akshat Chandra's nerves of steel prevailed in the end to win against FM Jason Cao's Najdorf in a time scramble. Jack Maguire, who I spoke to earlier in the tournament, will inevitably remind me of the "seventeenth man" on the board.

I will post a game up when I get time for a better look at them. Been debugging a segfault all day.

[Jesse Wang]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

Round 3 (continued)

Thanks to an unexpected distraction, I can't dedicate as much time to this tournament as I would like. Now imagine if I were playing! Would be an absolute nightmare. Anyhow, Richard's opening mishap shows how just one mistake really cost the game and just how far simple play will take you. When I was chaperoning my sister at the CYCC, I had played quite a few blitz games with Mike. I was surprised that I was able to win a few by using very simple moves. These simple moves feature again in his game against IM Richard Wang.

The games can be found on the official website: http://www.chessfest.ca/najgames/najbase1.htm

Ivanov, Mike -- IM Wang, Richard. North Am. U20 Ch.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 a6 5.Be3 Nc6 6.Qd2 g6 7.Nc3 Bg7 8.Nd5!



There is a reason that the "dragon" setup is not used against Qxd4 sicillians. Thanks to the inclusion of a6, the Bb6 followed by Nc7 threat is suprisingly hard to parry. Richard chooses 8...Rb8 but after: 9.Bb6 Qd7 10.0-0-0 It's hard to assign any evaluation other than "significantly better for white".

10... Bh6 11.Be3 I would have seriously considered Ng5 here, prepared to answer f6 with Nc7 followed by Nge6. But Mike plays simply and eventually the development edge shows.

11...Bg7 12.Bc4 b5 13.Bb3 Qb7 14.Nd4 Ne5 15.Qc3 b4 16.Qd2 Ng4 17.Bg5



The constant problem is black does not have a good way to move the king out of the center. Something like N8f6 allows the pawn structure to be crippled after f3 and two exchanges on f6, but may be necessary at this point. Richard's move 17... e6 attempts to put the g8 knight on e7, but it creates another problem...

18.f3 N4f6 19.Nxf6 Nxf6 20.Ne2!



The problem is d6!

20...d5 21.Qd4 Simple and direct. Black wins the d pawn with a forcing sequence. Nh5 22.Qc5 Bf8 23.Qd4 Bg7 24.Qc5 Bf8 25.Qe3 f6 26.Bh4 g5 27.Bf2 Bd6 28.exd5 e5 29.h4



Blows open the center. Not even Carlsen can survive the ensuing onslaught.

29...g4 30.f4 0-0 31.fxe5 fxe5 32.Qg5 Ng7 33.Bg3 Bf5 34.h5 Qb5 35.h6 Rf7

In the analysis, David Itkine suggested some form of Bxe5 (the point is if black takes, then d6 ). However, no pyrotechnics are needed here.



36.Nd4 win by pin! 36...exd4 37.Bxd6 Rb6 38.Be5 Rg6 39.Qd2 Ne8 40.Qxd4 Nd6 41.Bxd6 Rxd6 42.Qe5 Qc5 43.Rhf1 1-0

[Rene Preotu]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

Round 5 results?

[Jesse Wang]

Re: North American U 20 Chess Championship Round Reports

Round 5

To whoever is following this, I'm sorry to have skipped round 4. Anyhow, today IM Calugar, FM Sapozhnikov, and Mike Ivanov, the oldest players in the group all had a little unfortunate accident. Although, in my opinion, what happened to Mike is probably not his fault. After almost 5 hours, he had the following position against WFM Alena Kats.



1... Kd2 2. b7?? Indeed, this pawn is unstoppable. But I think he was either tired or looking at the wrong place. Because after 2...Qh1 , white has to resign with a red face, since 3.Kb2 Qc1#.

Roman's accident was straight from the opening:



Roman decides to grab a pawn here. Believing after 1...Nxe4?? 2.Ne5 Nc3 works for him. However, a suprise awaited him after 3.Qh5! threatening Qxf7 mate. 3...g6 4.Qh3 and both the c3 knight and b7 Bishop are under attack. Clearly, if 4...Bxg2 5.Qxg2 the rook will hang instead.

On the top board, IM Akshat Chandra's perfect run was stopped by Edward Song. It seems that Aksha has been having problems against the Najdorf, being held to a draw this round and barely managing to beat FM Jason Cao earlier. Now Tanraj Sohal and Akshat lead with 4.5 points each. Not far behind are the "usual suspects" IM Richard Wang, Andrew Tang, and Sohal Bora with 4 points. As we inch towards the end, we will be sure to see some excellent chess.