For Score And Five Minutes

Game Of The Week

This week's game come from the Colorado Springs Chess Club's March Swiss 90 event.  This tournament is a month-long, Swiss event with one round per week.  The time control is G90+30, which means that each player gets 90 minutes on his clock to play all his moves.  The +30 is an increment time control which adds thirty seconds to the clock on each move.  Therefore, the game can add an hour per 60 moves.

The idea for this time control was to eliminate the end of game time scrambles and players who try to flag their opponents when they get in time pressure by playing fast moves rather than good moves.

In addition, the thought was that since each player gains 30 second per move, they have plenty of time to finish an easy, winning endgame and keep score.  Now the old rule that players could stop keeping score when someone goes under 5 minutes is gone.  Both players have to keep score the entire game.

As a TD, I like the 30 second increment just because of this rule.  In the past, both players could stop keeping score at move 40, but the game could continue 40 more moves.  After all, most chess players have experience playing entire games in Blitz time controls (G5).  So, one player could be ahead in the game score, but during the mystery moves, the other player could come back and win.  And the record of the comeback is lost.

Here is an example of a nice tactic that would have been lost if both players had stopped keeping score.

Black to move

So, if you are playing in a tournament that has a 30 second increment, you have to keep score.  It is the rules.

For Score And Five Minutes

[Event "CSCC March Swiss 90"]
[Site "https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/"]
[Date "2016.03.15"]
[Round "3.4"]
[White "Mekonnen, Alemayeh"]
[Black "Barlay, Peter"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C02"]
[WhiteElo "1547"]
[BlackElo "1902"]
[PlyCount "126"]
[EventDate "2016.03.01"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Bd7 6. Bd3 Qb6 7. Bc2 cxd4 8. cxd4 Nb4 9. O-O Nxc2 10. Qxc2 f6 11. Nc3 Rc8 12. Qd2 Be7 13. Re1 fxe5 14. Nxe5 Nf6 15. Qg5 Rg8 16. Qe3 Rc7 17. b3 Rxc3 18. Qxc3 Bb4 19. Qe3 Bxe1 20. Nxd7 Bxf2+ 21. Qxf2 Kxd7 22. Ba3 Qa5 23. Qb2 Rc8 24. h3 Qc3 25. Qxc3 Rxc3 26. Bb2 Rc2 27. Rb1 Ne4 28. Ba3 Rxa2 29. Bf8 g6 30. Bg7 Ng3 31. Kh2 Nf5 32. Be5 Rd2 33. Rc1 Nxd4 34. Rc7+ Kd8 35. Kg3 Nc6 36. Bd6 Rd3+ 37. Kh4 Rxb3 38. Rxh7 e5 39. Kg5 Rg3+ 40. Kf6 Rxg2 41. Ke6 Nd4+ 42. Kxe5 Nf3+ 43. Kxd5 Rd2+ 44. Kc5 Rc2+ 45. Kd5 Rd2+ 46. Kc5 b6+ 47. Kc6 Nd4+ 48. Kb7 Rd3 49. Bc7+ Ke8 50. Kxa7 b5 51. Rg7 Rxh3 52. Rxg6 b4 53. Bb6 Nc2 54. Ba5 b3 55. Rb6 Na3 56. Rb4 Nc2 57. Rb7 Rd3 58. Rb5 Nd4 59. Rb8+ Kd7 60. Rb7+ Kc6 61. Ka6 Kd5 62. Bb6
Ke4 63. Re7+ Kf3 1-0

https://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=106297

This Week In Chess

On March 15th, the Colorado Springs Chess Club continued its March Swiss 90 (4SS, G90+30).  11 players joined.

Standings. March Swiss 90

# Name ID Rtng Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Tot Prize

1 Josh S Bloomer 12626102 2231 H--- W5 W3 2.5
2 Paul Dou Anderson 12728345 2050 D5 W9 W6 2.5
3 Brian Jo Rountree 12477167 1809 W10 W6 L1 2.0
4 Alexander Freeman 14201087 1846 H--- H--- W7 2.0
5 Alemayeh Mekonnen 14604218 1547 D2 L1 W11 1.5
6 Mark McGough 11366481 1852 W7 L3 L2 1.0
7 Scott Ch Williams 15755696 1089 L6 W10 L4 1.0
8 Dean W Brown 10224098 1561 U--- U--- W10 1.0
9 Joseph H Pahk 12795426 1724 H--- L2 U--- 0.5
10 Daniel J Rupp 15768473 917 L3 L7 L8 0.0
11 Peter Barlay 14700831 1902 U--- U--- L5 0.0

Prize Projections: 1st $24, 2nd $16, U1800 $11