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MCC Holiday Swiss - Round 1

By Steve | December 6, 2006

Last night was round 1 of the Metrowest Chess Club Holiday Swiss. I hadn’t played an OTB tournament game since August, so I was a bit anxious. It didn’t help when I saw that I had been paired against Travis. Although rated much lower than me, Travis had previously beaten me twice. I thought maybe I suffered from a Travis curse. Plus, his rating has climbed 300 points in the last 14 months.

I needn’t have worried. It was a straightforward win.

I have assigned myself two follow-up items:

[Online replayable version]


(188) Eddins,S (1574) - Nilsson,T (1408) [C07]
MCC Holiday Swiss Natick,
MA (1), 05.12.2006


1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 This wasn’t a line that I knew well, but exd5
seemed reasonable. 4.exd5 cxd4

rnbqkbnr/pp3ppp/4p3/3P4/3p4/8/PPPN1PPP/R1BQKBNR
Position after 4…cxd4

This just didn’t look right. Pretty quickly I began to consider if I could arrange to capture on e6 so that Black would have recapture with the f pawn instead of the queen bishop. 5.Bb5+ Nd7 [Before playing 5.Bb5+, I thought for a while about how to respond to 5...Bd7 Would that get me anywhere? Then I realized that I could go ahead and take the pawn anyway, despite the fact that the b5 bishop is hanging. 6.dxe6 Bxb5 7.exf7+ Kxf7 8.Qh5+ My tactics practice is helping me see lines like this.] 6.dxe6 fxe6 7.Qh5+ g6 8.Qg4 Qf6 9.Ngf3 Bc5 10.Ne4 Qe7 11.Nxc5 Qxc5 12.Qxe6+ Ne7 13.Qe5

r1b1k2r/pp1nn2p/6p1/1Bq1Q3/3p4/5N2/PPP2PPP/R1B1K2R
Position after 13.Qe5

[I forced the Queen exchange via 13.Qe5 because I felt that I could win the resulting endgame. I didn't realize until
looking at the game with Fritz that White can go for much here by bearing down on e7. 13.0-0 Qxb5 14.Bg5 Qc5 15.Rfe1] 13…Qxe5+ 14.Nxe5 a6 15.Bxd7+ Bxd7 16.Nxd7 Kxd7 17.Bg5 Nc6 18.0-0-0 Kc7 19.f3 Rhf8 20.Rhe1 Rae8 21.Rxe8 Rxe8 22.Kd2 b5 23.a3 Kd6 24.Re1 Rxe1 25.Kxe1 Ke6 26.Ke2 Na5 27.b3 Kd5 28.Kd3 Nc6 29.Bf6 a5
30.f4 h5 31.h3 b4 32.a4 Kc5 33.g4 hxg4 34.hxg4 Kd5 35.Bh8

7B/8/2n3p1/p2k4/Pp1p1PP1/1P1K4/2P5/8
Position after 35.Bh8

Black resigned
here. The e4 pawn finally succumbs to zugzwang. To be honest, though, I don’t
think this position is resignable at the Class C level of play. I’ve seen C
players screw up the most basic of king-and-pawn vs. king endgames. If I were
Black, White would have to show me more before I decided to give it up.
1-0

2 Responses to “MCC Holiday Swiss - Round 1”

  1. Steve Says:
    December 7th, 2006 at 6:46 am

    Oops, I meant to type “Class C,” not “Class B.” Fixed.

  2. Matt Says:
    December 8th, 2006 at 10:11 am

    It’s you and me pal, next Tuesday!

    Actually, I rate the chances of us actually getting paired at around 25% [that's the same as 1/4 for you Math Weenies :)]

    -Matt

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