alabama chess anticsalabamachess.org/antics/anticsspring2017.pdfalabama chess antics inside this...

Alabama Chess

Antics

Inside this issue:

Markin-S. Wu: the

Jr. High Scholastic

Championship

by Sijing Wu

4

Balagee-R. Wu:

Alabama

Scholastic Open

Ch.

by Rochelle Wu

10

Puzzles from my

Past

by Scott Varagona

13

Victory and

Defeat at the

Queen of Hearts

by Ken Goodman

14

Spring Photo

Gallery

by various contributors

18

The Official Publication

of the Alabama Chess

Federation

Indian Springs vs. Madison City Chess League:

the handshake before battle at the Alabama State Scholastic

Team Championship.

(Indian Springs School and Bayside Academy were Co-Champions of the 2017 Alabama State

Scholastic Team Championship, Open Section, School Division; Madison City Chess League won the

Club Division. Photo from alabamachess.org.)

Spring 2017

Alabama Chess Antics

The biggest Alabama chess event of the season, the Alabama State Scholastic Chess Championships (Individual and Team competitions), took place on March 11 & 12, 2017, in Madison. I am proud to say we have extensive coverage of the event in this Antics. The winner of the K-8 (Junior High) Individual Championship, Sijing Wu, and the winner of the K-12 (Open) Individual Championship, Rochelle Wu, have both contributed annotated games. The Wu siblings are certainly making a big noise in Alabama chess, and beyond! Enjoy their commentary—and brace yourself for the next time you have to play them. You know, all this talk of scholastic chess got me in a nostalgic mood, so the puzzles I selected for this Antics come from my own scholastic tournament days, many years ago… Looking back, it appears some of the games I played then were a little sketchy. (Oh man, I wouldn’t have stood a chance against the kids we have playing in Alabama now!) The Queen of Hearts was won by Eli Karp of Louisiana, but other players hit some high notes along the way as well. Ken Goodman, who has kindly contributed to the Antics many times before, shares two of his games from the Queen of Hearts, including his win over NM Bill Melvin. Congrats to Ken not only for his first master scalp, but also for defeating the reigning state champion. Thanks so very much to all the contributors for this Antics. We are always looking for more people to submit games and articles to help tell the story of chess in Alabama; if you have something you would like to submit, please send it to the Antics Editor via the following email address:

[email protected] Games and annotations in .pgn

format are strongly preferred. Feel free to send in any interesting or instructive game (with or without annotations), photos, etc. A busy summer lies ahead; I hope to see you at the Vulcan Open, the Quick & Blitz Championships, and the Dual-Rated Championship, at the very least!

Kindest regards, -Scott Varagona

Greetings from the Editor

ACF Membership

Any individual may become a Regular

Member upon the payment of annual dues of

$10.00. Regular members may enter ACF

tournaments and receive special publications or

notices from ACF as they are issued. Any chess

club seeking to become an Affiliate is

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dues of $25.00. Benefits of becoming an

affiliate include the right to bid to host ACF-

sanctioned events, such as the Alabama State

Championship, and to receive advertising

through the ACF for your tournaments.

V. Balagee - R. Wu; Black to Play.

(See p. 12 for the solution.)

http://www.alabamachess.com/cmsms/index.php?page=join

Spring 2017

1 FM BRADLEY J DENTON 2334 26 KENNETH W GOODMAN 1887

2 SCOTT VARAGONA 2269 27 GUENTHER HUBER-DELLE 1873

3 MATTHEW V PUCKETT 2225 28 AARON DECORD 1849

4 BILL MELVIN 2200 29 KENNETH JIAO 1842

5 REX E BLALOCK 2150 30 OM BADHE 1841

6 STEPHEN ADAMS 2146 31 RHODES PEELE 1838

7 ARDEN QUINLAN MARKIN 2142 32 CHARLES A SMITH 1828

8 STEPHEN JAMES GRAVELING 2136 33 STEVE MENGXI CHEN 1826

9 GERALD A LARSON 2133 34 CAESAR W LAWRENCE 1812

10 SIJING WU 2088 35 TIM BOND 1803

11 JOSEPH HAMILTON JURJEVICH 2086 36 SAMUEL CAVETT 1802

12 WCM ROCHELLE WU 2082 37 RAY DOWNS 1800

13 TEJAS VINAYAK THORAT 2075 38 NATHAN H SAINT 1771

14 JOSHUA THOMAS MCCLELLAN 2058 39 LUIS J MORENILLA 1769

15 JOSH DIVINE 2050 40 DAVID HAYES 1760

16 GEORGE RUSYNIAK 2027 41 MOHAK AGARWALLA 1753

17 JONATHAN RASBERRY 2018 42 BRIAN MCCORMICK 1738

18 MILES MELVIN III 2007 43 MICHAEL B GUTHRIE 1737

19 CHARLES L MEIDINGER 2000 44 JAMES ROBERT GRIFFIN 1717

20 CHRISTOPHER TREES 1953 45 SARVAGNA VELIDANDLA 1717

21 ROGER DEAN JOHNSON 1910 46 VIKHRAM BALAGEE 1714

22 KIRK D PETTY 1900 47 KENNETH SLOAN 1707

23 TERRENCE W EDINBURGH 1900 48 DOUGLAS STROUT 1697

24 JEFFREY BYRD 1899 49 MARK PETERSON 1688

25 WILLIAM BLACKMAN 1893 50 MIKE GIFFIN 1681

Alabama Chess Leaderboard Top 50 Ratings (retrieved from uschess.org on May 1, 2017)


Arden Markin - Sijing Wu (2116) (2082)

AL Jr. High Individual Ch., Round 4 Madison, AL; March 11, 2017

1.e4 Entering into this game, I was very nervous as Arden and I both knew that there was a lot at stake. We were not the only players in contention for 1st place, however, because Mohak Agarwalla was also on 3/3. He could’ve at least tied for 1st if he had won his game, so I had to keep an eye on his game in order to see what result I should be playing for. 1...c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 a6 6.Be3

6…e5 There is also 6...Ng4. I knew a little bit about this move and don’t mind playing this sometimes. 7.Bg5 (7.Bc1 Nf6 sometimes leads to quick draws) 7...h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Bg7 10.Be2 h5. 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3

Markin-S. Wu: the Alabama Junior High

Scholastic Championship

By Sijing Wu

Sijing Wu: the 2017 Alabama Junior High Champion.

(Photo by Antics Editor.)

Spring 2017

My opponent started with a Closed Sicilian, but quickly transposed to the English Attack variation of the Najdorf. 8...Be7!? I wanted to play a setup with ...h5 to slow down the Kingside attack, but I have my own special way of doing that. (8...h5 9.Nd5 Nxd5 10.exd5 Bf5 11.Bd3 Bxd3 12.Qxd3.) 9.Qd2 h5!

Black wins a tempo in case of Nd5. 10.Be2 If 10.Nd5 Nxd5 11.exd5 Bf5 12.Bd3 Bxd3 13.Qxd3, notice White loses a tempo by playing Qd2 and then Qxd3, a very small yet very important detail. Black has one extra tempo here as

compared to the variation before with 8...h5. 10...Nbd7 11.0–0–0 b5 12.g3 A bit slow. I thought his idea was f4, but he never played that in the game. 12.Rdg1 prepares for g4. 12...b4 13.Nd5 Bxd5 13...Nxd5 would not be a wise decision here due to: 14.exd5 Bf5 15.Qxb4; White wins a pawn. 14.exd5 a5

I was reasonably comfortable with my position here, as my attack seems faster than his. 15.Qd3?! Inaccurate. I understand that his point was to give his knight the d2 square


in case of a5-a4 but he missed my very powerful continuation. As many grandmasters say, 15.Kb1 is always useful in the form of prophylaxis. 15...a4 16.Nd2 16.Na1 was still possible but who wants to play this? 16...Ra5! A very powerful shot! White cannot save the very important d-pawn after this. 17.Qc4 Nxd5 18.Bf2 N7b6?

A mistake on my part. Black is still better after this but I allowed unnecessary counterplay. If 18...0–0 Black is doing great here. 19.Qc6+ Of course I saw this check but I

didn’t think this was an issue. 19...Qd7 20.Qxd7+ I just simply underestimated his play after this simple queen trade. 20...Kxd7 21.Nc4 My opponent is trying to blow up the position because he has the bishop pair. 21...Nxc4 22.Bxc4

22…Bg5+ I felt like this was my only move, although it is pretty obvious that it admits that I have lost most of my advantage. 22...Kc6 23.Rd3 is unpleasant as more pressure will be added onto the knight which is pinned to the f7 pawn; 22...Ke6 23.Bb6 was the reason I rejected Ke6 during the game but my later analysis showed me that Black is fine here.

Spring 2017

(23.Rxd5 is the real correct continuation here: 23...Rxd5 24.Rd1.) 23...Rc8 24.Bxa5 Rxc4 and the bishop on a5 has no hope. 23.Kb1 Ne3 At this point, it seemed like Mohak wasn’t going to win so it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I drew. 24.Bxe3 Bxe3 25.Bxf7 My position is still preferable but White has amazing drawing chances due to opposite colored bishops, although rooks are still on the board. 25...h4 Getting rid of the weakness. 26.g4

I think this was inaccurate. He should’ve left the pawn structure as it is so that he doesn’t create more

weaknesses. 26.Rhe1 Bf2 27.Re4 hxg3 28.hxg3 Bxg3 29.Rxb4 will probably lead to a draw. 26...h3 Now h2 is permanently weak. 27.Rhe1 Bf4 28.Re2 Ke7 29.Bd5 Rc8 30.Rd3 Rcc5 I am making slow and steady progress. Black controls the position here. I control the timing for the d5 and e4 push, and the h2 pawn always has to be guarded. 31.Be4 d5 32.Bh7

Don’t ask me why my opponent made this move. He said that it was time pressure; maybe he just didn’t see that his bishop was getting trapped and wanted to relocate to g8?... (32.Bf5 Kf6 33.Bd7 Bg5 =/+)


32...Kf7 33.c3 bxc3 33...g6. I thought about this move but didn’t want to complicate things after Rxe5. Still, 34.Rxe5 bxc3 just wins (34...Bxe5 35.cxb4). 34.Rxc3 g6 35.Rec2 Rxc3 36.Rxc3 Ra7 At this point, I still thought I was completely winning because the bishop is still trapped. There is something really stupid that I overlooked.

37.Rc6 I was pretty angry at myself for letting this happen, although I’m still winning. 37...Bxh2 38.Bxg6+ My opponent had around 1 minute left here. 38...Kg7 39.Bf5 Bf4 40.g5 h2

(40...Bxg5 41.Bxh3= is not advisable.) 41.Rh6 Rc7 It’s always a nice thing to threaten a mate in 1, especially when your opponent is in time pressure, to throw them off and take away a few precious seconds. 42.Bc2 e4 Two passed pawns is too much for White to stop. 43.fxe4 dxe4 44.b3 (44.Bxe4 Rc1#) 44...a3 Keeping the mating net closed. 45.Rh4 e3 0–1

Spring 2017

Alabama Junior High Scholastic Championship: Top Performers

Name Score

1. Sijing Wu 4.0

2-7. Arden Markin, Om Badhe, 3.0

Mohak Agarwalla, William Daniel Fox,

Zachary Snow II, Jenson Wilhelm,

Andrew Hawkins

Why pause to stop your opponent’s threat when you can create a bigger threat of your own? My opponent flagged here and Mohak ended up losing, which was a relief to me so I didn’t have to play a blitz playoff. I was proud to win a really tough tournament with many strong players. ■

The 2017 Alabama Junior High Champion,

Sijing Wu (right), analyzes with last year’s

Junior High champion, Arden Markin (left) at

the Queen of Hearts, as Jonathan Rasberry

(center) looks on. I believe the rivalry

between Arden and Sijing is bound to

become one of the greatest rivalries of

Alabama scholastic chess history! -Editor


Vikhram Balagee - Rochelle Wu (1696) (2124)

Alabama Scholastic Individual Ch. (Open Section), Round 2

Madison, AL; March 11, 2017 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 This is the start of the Grunfeld. 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 (Or 7.Bc4 c5 8.Ne2 Nc6 9.Be3 0–0 10.0–0 Qc7.) 7...c5 8.Be3 0–0

(8...Qa5! The most common move. 9.Qd2 Nc6 10.Rc1 cxd4 11.cxd4 Qxd2+ 12.Kxd2 0–0 13.d5 Rd8 14.Kc2

(14.Ke1) 14...Na5=.) 9.Rc1 Qc7 Better is 9...Bg4. 10.Be2 Rd8 Pressuring the d-file. 11.0–0 Nc6 12.Qc2 (12.Qa4) 12...Bg4 13.d5

Balagee-R. Wu: the Alabama Scholastic

Open Championship By Rochelle Wu

Rochelle Wu has made her presence felt in chess

competition, both in Alabama and around the

world. Here she is with her prize money at the

2017 MLK Classic. (Photo by Antics Editor.)

Spring 2017

13…Na5 13...Ne5? 14.Nxe5 Bxe2 15.Nxf7! Bxf1 16.Nxd8 Rxd8 17.Rxf1+-. 14.h3 Bxf3 15.Bxf3 (15.gxf3 e6) 15...Nc4 16.Qd3 Ne5

16...Nxe3 17.Qxe3 b5 =/+ 17.Qe2 Qa5 18.c4 Rac8 19.Bf4 a6 20.Bxe5 Bxe5 21.Bg4 Rc7 22.f4 Bd4+ 23.Kh1 b5 24.f5 Rb7 25.fxg6 hxg6 26.Qf3 f6

There’s no other way to defend f7 other than …Rf8, but then Be6 and the f7 pawn is too weak. 27.Be6+ Kg7 28.Qg4 Rh8 29.Bf5 g5 30.cxb5 axb5 31.Be6 c4 Better is 31...Rh4. 32.Rf5 After this move, I thought he might have some tactics with Rxg5, so I played …Be3 to attack his rook and defend my pawn.


32...Be3 (32...Qd2! 33.Rd1 Qe3 34.Rf3 Qe2 35.Rxd4 c3) 33.Rcf1 Qd2 34.e5 Rh4 35.Qf3 Bf4 36.d6 Rb8 37.Rd1?? My opponent was in time pressure, so he missed the tactic:

37...Rxh3+! 38.Kg1 Be3+ 0–1 ■

Alabama Scholastic Open Championship: Top Performers

Name Score

1. Rochelle Wu 4.0

2-4. Kenneth Jiao 3.0

Steve Chen

Vikhram Balagee

Spring 2017

Puzzles from my Past By Scott Varagona

(See below for solutions.)

1. J. Bulger – S. Varagona AL Scholastic Team Ch., 1999

Black to Play.

3. S. Varagona – K. Vallier

AL Scholastic Individual Ch., 2000

White to Play.

4. T. Bui – S. Varagona AL Scholastic Team Ch., 1998

Black to Play.

2. J. Bulger – S. Varagona AL Scholastic Individual Ch., 2000

White to Play.

Answers: 1. Black can play 1...Nxe5! and win a pawn—although I missed this tactic during the game! 2. White wins material with 1.Qc3+! However, very luckily for me, my opponent played 1.Qb7+? instead and with 1...Ne7 I went on to win the game, and later the tournament. 3. The solution is 1.dxc6!, since 1...Rxc6? 2.Qd5+ wins material. 4. Correct is 1...Nxh3+! 2.Qxh3, but then not the careless 2...Rxg4+? (as I played), but instead the suave 2...Nf4! (Fritz), which according to the computer will win in all lines. Thankfully, once again, I somehow wheedled my way to victory anyway!


I can’t say I didn’t have a good tournament this time out, though despite two hard-earned wins against strong players, including my first master scalp, I did not play well enough to finish in the money at this year’s Queen of Hearts. Of course, it was a strong tournament, including some outstanding competitors for the Class A prize I had hoped for. One interesting note is that White won in each of my 5 games. To keep it all in perspective, let me share one game I’m proud of, and one where my performance was anything but impressive.

My best game:

Ken Goodman - Bill Melvin (1866) (2227)

Queen of Hearts, Round 4 Montgomery, AL; February 12, 2017

When I sat down to play White against Bill, I really had to think about how to open. For many years the Colle was my go-to system, but for some time I have been exploring other openings, trying to find something better. Sometimes, though, faced with a really strong opponent, I have to fall back on what I know best. 1.Nf3 c5 2.e3 Nc6 3.d4 d5 4.b3 cxd4 5.exd4 Bg4

I can usually count on a really good game in this system if Black blocks his light-squared bishop with ...e6. No such luck here. 6.Be2 e6 7.0–0 Bd6 8.Bb2 Nf6 I have no idea what is best here. My light-squared bishop should be playing a starring role on d3, but is currently stuck breaking an annoying pin. Maybe it is better to keep it on the board and just develop, but here I decided to allow Black to trade it off, trying to improve my center. 9.Ne5 Bxe2 10.Qxe2 Rc8 11.Nd2 Qb6 12.Rfe1

Victory and Defeat at the Queen of Hearts By Ken Goodman

Spring 2017

12…0–0 12…Nxd4 13.Bxd4 Qxd4 14.Nxf7 Kxf7 15.Qxe6+ was my fantasy line. 13.Ndf3 Rfd8 14.c4 Qa6 15.c5 Qxe2 16.Rxe2 Bxe5 17.Nxe5 Nxe5 18.Rxe5 Re8

So after a lot of exchanges, I am

stuck with a bad bishop against a knight with lots of possible outposts scattered around the board. Still, I think this position is about even. 19.b4 Ne4 Ouch! I overlooked that. My rook is on the verge of being trapped and lost. I thought about sacrificing the exchange for a really unbalanced position, e.g., 20.f3 f6 21.Rxe4 dxe4 22.fxe4. I decided to play it safe by extricating the rook as fast as possible. 20.Rh5 Nd2 21.Rh3 Nc4 22.Bc3 a6 23.f4 f5 That move looks bad, saddling Black with a backward pawn on an open file, with both my rooks still on the board. 24.Rf3 Na3 25.Rf2 Nb5 26.Bb2 Re7 27.a4 Nc7 The knight is making a tour of the board. Maybe f5 wasn’t so bad after all, since I can’t keep the knight off of e4.

Lo and behold, White

has a pawn break...


28.Re1 Kf7 29.h3 Ne8 30.g4 Nf6 31.g5 Ne4 32.Rg2 g6 33.h4 Rh8 34.Re3 h6 This is surely drawn unless someone breaks the position open, and so Bill does just that. 35.Rh2 hxg5 36.hxg5 Rxh2 37.Kxh2 Kg8 38.Rh3 Rh7 39.Rxh7 Kxh7

I think Bill and I both expected

that with all the rooks off the board, the knight would dance around from one outpost to another trying to pick off some pawns, with the bishop tied down to their defense—but now with the heavy artillery actually gone, it’s time to reassess. Lo and behold, White has a pawn break on the queenside, the Black king is far, far away, and the knight can’t quite make it back in time! 40.b5 axb5 41.axb5 Nd2 If …Kg7 instead, Ba3 prevents the knight coming back through d6 to save the day after the coming c6 push. 42.c6 bxc6 43.b6 1–0

Now, my worst game:

Sijing Wu - Ken Goodman (2105) (1866)

Queen of Hearts, Round 3 Montgomery, AL; February 11, 2017

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 0–0 7.Bd3 Bg4 8.f3 Bh5 9.Nge2 Bg6 10.Bxg6 hxg6 11.Bxf6 Bxf6 12.Qb3 There is no way I can stand toe-to-toe with Sijing Wu in blitz, and yet here we are, blitzing through the opening as if nothing could be simpler, until suddenly I seem to be technically lost after a scant dozen moves. My b- and d-pawns can’t both be saved, and worse, my whole queenside is weak. I tried to slow down and put up some resistance, but couldn’t find much counterplay.

Spring 2017

12...Qd6 Maybe 12…c6 was better, e.g., 13.Qxb7 Qb6 14.Qxa8 Nd7 15.Qxf8+ with 2 rooks and a pawn against a queen, when Black is still down material but the position is very unbalanced. That would have been almost poetic, since in our only prior game, I was the one with 2 rooks and more against Sijing’s queen. 13.Qxd5 Qxd5 14.Nxd5 Na6 15.Rc1 c6 16.Nxf6+ gxf6 17.a3 Rfe8 18.e4 Rad8 19.Kf2 Nc7 20.d5 Rd6 21.b4 Re7 22.dxc6 bxc6 23.Rhd1 Red7 24.Rxd6 Rxd6 25.Rc5 Ne6 26.Ra5 Rd7 This is gradually looking more and more grim for Black.

27.f4 c5 28.f5 Ng5 29.bxc5 Nxe4+ 30.Ke3 Nd2 31.Ra6 Nc4+ 32.Kf2 Kg7 33.c6 Rc7 34.Nd4 Ne5 35.Ke3 g5 36.Ke4 Nc4

I could instead let the White king invade via d5 and d6, but I don’t think that’s any better. 37.Nb5 Re7+ 38.Kd4 Ne5 39.c7 1–0 ■


Once again, the Alabama State Scholastic Championship drew a huge crowd! Here is the Primary and

Elementary section of the Individual Championship. (Photo from alabamachess.org.)

Spring Photo Gallery

Queen of Hearts 2017: Top Performers

Name Score

Premiere Section:

1. Eli Karp 4.5

2. Matthew Puckett 4

Reserve Section:

1-2. David Hayes, Aaron Decord 4

Amateur Section:

1-3. Kapil Nathan, Lillian Wu, 4

Christopher Wang

Spring 2017

Clockwise from top: Rainbow Elementary 4-time Elementary Champions and 2-time Primary Champions (photo submitted by

Ranae Bartlett); TD Caesar Lawrence with Mike Giffin, Amateur Champion at the Huntsville Challenge (photo by Nitin Badhe);

Montgomery Challenge winners Muhammad Amin and James Yang (photo submitted by Caesar Lawrence); finally, K-8 Open

Club Champions (Madison City Chess League, front row), Junior High School Champions (Discovery Middle School, second

row), and Junior High Club Champions (Madison City Chess League, back row) in a photo submitted by Ranae Bartlett. ■

Email: Alabama.Chess.Editor

@gmail.com

Upcoming Tournaments See www.alabamachess.org for details on these and other events.

May 20 Summer Scholastic IX Birmingham, AL

May 27 Vulcan Open Birmingham, AL

June 10 Huntsville Classic Huntsville, AL

June 24 Alabama Quick & Blitz Chess Ch. Birmingham, AL

July 15 Alabama Dual-Rated State Ch. Montgomery, AL

July 29 Clarence Kalenian Classic III Dothan, AL

August 12 Chris Bond Memorial XIII Montgomery, AL

ALABAMA

CHESS

ANTICS

Alabama Chess Federation

www.alabamachess.org

Please contact

[email protected]

if you are interested in helping with the

Alabama Chess Federation.

To submit articles, pictures and

games to the Antics, email the

Antics editor at

[email protected]

Games in .pgn format are

strongly preferred.

The Alabama Chess Federation (ACF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit

corporation and the United States Chess Federation affiliate for the

state of Alabama. Our goal is to promote chess in this area for the

benefit of all Alabama players. Toward that end, we provide advertising

and other assistance for rated tournaments, as well as support for

scholastic chess programs around the state.

All chess diagrams in this issue were produced

using Fritz, a program by ChessBase.

President: Neil Dietsch

Secretary & PR: Michael Ciamarra

Treasurer: Paul Nager

Education VP: Nancy Johnson

Scholastic VP: William Nash

Antics Editor: Scott Varagona

Webmaster: Neil Dietsch

Member Admin: Jonathan Rasberry

Tourn. Reports: Caesar Lawrence

ACF OFFICERS

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