Round two of the Holiday Swiss wasn’t destined to be any more educational than round 1. My opponent: Jack Hulton whom I beat with the black pieces in round 1 of the MCC Thanksgiving swiss in a game that opened 1. e4 e5 2. Bd3? I thought about playing e5 just to see if he’d play Bd3 again, but stuck to my new Scandinavian. As I told a friend earlier in the day “I bet this game starts 1. e4 d5 2. e5″
Maybe I should be a prophet.
Online replay game at http://www.njord.org/~steve/mychess/mcc1206.htm
Jack Hulton (509) — Steve Wollkind (1120)
MCC
Holiday Swiss (2006) (2) MetroWest Chess Club
2006.12.12
0-1 B01
1.e4 d5 2.e5
-
I have a feeling I’m going to see e5 a lot at the lower levels. I know
that it is better for black, but I’m not yet comfortable against it.
2…c5 3.Nc3
- ( 3.d4 I think this is my least favorite move to play against
here. )
3…Bf5 (D)
-
After e5, black can pretty much get this position if he wants it, though
the question of how to proceed is one I haven’t solved yet.
4.Bb5+ Nc6 5.Na4?!
- I don’t understand this move. Any simple developing move would be better.
5…e6 (D)
6.Nxc5?? Bxc5 7.g4 (D)
-
I thought for a while about Qh4 here, but it ultimately didn’t seem worth
it to complicate the position. I’m already a piece ahead, so why play it
sharper than I have to?
7…Bg6
- ( 7…Qh4 8.d4 Bxg4 9.Qd3 )
8.h4 h6 9.h5 Bh7 10.Ba4 (D)
-
I wasn’t really sure what the point of this move was…it prevents Qb6 with
a double attack on the bishop and the f2 pawn. I’m not sure if that was
his plan or if he had a plan at all…
10…Ne7 11.b3 Qb6 12.Rb1 O-O 13.b4 (D)
13…Nxb4
-
I looked at Bxf2 but didn’t see where to go with it. Turns out it wins a
piece!
- ( 13…Bxf2+ 14.Kf1 Bxg1 15.Rxg1 Qa6+ Snagging the bishop on a4
)
14.Ba3 Qa5 15.Bxb4 Bxb4 (D)
16.Bd7??
- Losing a bishop.
- ( 16.Bb3 )
16…Rfd8 17.Bb5 Qxb5 18.a3 Bxd2+ 19.Kxd2 Qc6 20.Ke1? (D)
- Leaving only one defender on c2 and allowing the fork.
20…Bxc2 21.Rc1 Bxd1 22.Rxc6 bxc6 23.Kxd1 (D)
23…Rab8 24.Kc1 c5 25.g5 Nc6 26.gxh6 (D)
26…gxh6 27.Nf3 Rb3 28.Rg1+ Kh7 29.Rg3 (D)
29…Rxa3?
-
Oops. I’d like to say that I meant to drop the exchange here in a
simplifying move, but that’s not how it went down. I just didn’t see the
knight move to give check with a discovered attack on my rook. Fortunately
I am so far ahead that dropping an exchange doesn’t hurt, and the
simplification is actually ok.
- ( 29…c4 )
30.Ng5+ hxg5 31.Rxa3 d4 (D)
- White has no way to defend the e pawn.
32.Rf3 Nxe5 0-1
Diagrams generated using Steve Eddins’ Chess Imager http://www.eddins.net/steve/chess/chessimager
After 2 rounds of the MCC Holiday Swiss, I’m sitting on 2 points, tied with two other players. One of those other players is listed as having byes for the rest of the tournament, so he basically doesn’t count. This Tuesday I’ll be playing Sabrina Zhang for sole possession of 1st. I haven’t seen any of her games, so I don’t really know what to expect. She’s rated in the 7 or 800 range and has beaten a few 1050’s in the past couple of months.
In other news, a player that I beat and a player that I drew in the Thanksgiving Swiss both have perfect scores in the U1600 section at this point, so I’m still kicking myself for not playing up. On the bright side, after this game (#37 in my USCF career) I finally have a plus score overall (+18 =2 -17). I’m actually +3 with white and -2 with black. Hopefully I can close out the month with another pair of wins and get to +3 overall. I guess it’s only going to get harder as the weeks go by.
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