500th Win

From Russia With Love

Friday, February 14th, 2014

I am back for another year of chess news and games.  During the off-season, I set my record for peak rating (USCF 2087) and winning streak (13 USCF games).

I also added some new chess clips to the Colorado Springs Chess News' Youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/cschessnews

One of those videos appears in the James Bond film, "From Russia With Love."  It is one of the best chess clips I have seen in a movie, as the game is from Boris Spassky vs David Bronstein.  With the Winter Olympics going on in Russia and starting the newsletter on Valentine's Day, it seemed appropriate to share it with you at this time along with my 1st published game of 2014.

Hope you enjoy them!

Game Of The Week

This week's game comes from the February Panera tournament on Wednesday nights.  My opponent was Alex Freeman, who recently joined my Most Wanted Chess Players list by beating me in 3 straight games.

Each year, I go through my chess database and calculate which chess players have taken the most rating points from me.  Alex showed up as public enemy number 6.

So, it was nice that, not only did I reclaim some rating points from him, I also earned my 500th USCF-rated chess win (W 500.5, L 254.5, 1998-2014) by beating him.

The game was even more notable for containing one of my favorite positions.  It is not a brilliant tactical move or a killer-diller positional move.  It is a far more rare type of move and one that is often tough for chess players to find.  However, it is appropriate for Valentine's Day.

See if you can find it.  It is White to move and find the most romantic position!

White to move

500th Win

[Event "February Panera Wednesday"]
[Site "https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/"]
[Date "2014.02.12"]
[Round "2.1"]
[White "Anderson, Paul"]
[Black "Freeman, Alex"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A81"]
[PlyCount "106"]
[EventDate "2014.02.05"]
[TimeControl "5400"]

1. d4 f5 2. g3 e6 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. Nh3 d5 5. Nf4 Bd6 6. O-O O-O 7. Nc3 c6 8. e3 Qe8 9. b3 Nbd7 10. Bb2 Kh8 11. Nd3 🧡 b6 12. f4 Ba6 13. Re1 Bxd3 14. cxd3 Qg6 15. Rc1 Rac8 16. Qf3 Nb8 17. Re2 Rfe8 18. Rec2 Qf7 19. e4 Bf8 20. Qe2 Qb7 21. Bf3 g6 22. Qg2 Rcd8 23. h4 h5 24. Nd1 Qa6 25. Qe2 Ng4 26. Ba1 Qb7 27. Nf2 Bg7 28. Nh3 Bf6 29. a4 Qg7 30. e5 Be7 31. Bc3 a5 32. Rb1 Na6 33. Bd2 Rc8 34. Rbc1 Nb8 35. Qe1 Qf8 36. Rb1 Na6 37. Rbc1 Nb8 38. Ng5 Bb4 39. Bxb4 Qxb4 40. Qxb4 axb4 41. Nf7+ Kg7 42. Nd6 Kf8 43. Ra2 Red8 44. Nxc8 Rxc8 45. a5 b5 46. a6 Nd7 47. a7 Nb6 48. Ra6 Na8 49. Raxc6 Rxc6 50. Rxc6 Ke7 51. Rc8 Nb6 52. Rb8 Na8 53. Rxa8 Ne3 1-0

https://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=89703

This Week In Chess

On February 11th, the Colorado Springs Chess Club held the start of its USCF-rated Cabin Fever Reliever (4SS, G30).  12 players joined.  The entry fee is $5, and there is still time to join next week and get 2 rated games along with a 0.5 bye.

Here are the results after round 2:

Score Player

2.0 Joe Pahk*
2.0 Buck Buchanan
1.5 Dean Brown*
1.0 Paul Anderson*
1.0 Shirley Herman*
1.0 Alex Freeman
1.0 Mark McGough*
1.0 Koji Del Conte
1.0 Imre Barlay
0.5 Alex Torres
0.0 William Benedek*
0.0 Eugin Pahk*

* The Colorado Springs Chess Club paid the Supporting Members' entry to this event

Tuesday Night Chess Tour Standings for 1st Quarter

MAX POSSIBLE 12.00 12.00

1 Paul Anderson 9.50 9.50
2 Richard Buchanan 9.50 9.50
3 Josh Bloomer 8.00 8.00
4 Daniel Herman 6.50 6.50
5 Mike Madsen 4.00 4.00
6 Mark McGough 3.50 3.50
7 Koji DelConte 3.00 3.00
8 Sara Herman 3.00 3.00
9 Katie Wise 3.00 3.00
10 William Benedek 3.00 3.00
11 Kevin Kaaoush 2.00 2.00
12 Gary Atkinson 2.00 2.00
13 John Byrne 2.00 2.00
14 Robert Jimenez 2.00 2.00
15 Ron Dotson 2.00 2.00
16 Shirley Herman 2.00 2.00
17 Alex Torres 1.00 1.00
18 Dean Brown 1.00 1.00
19 Bobby Dzagen 1.00 1.00
20 Chris Wynkoop 1.00 1.00