Stone Cold

Chess Is The Word

Sunday, March 12th, 2017

I am back for another season of chess news and games.  Last year, I dropped from my peak (USCF 2102) and had my first down year in 5 years.  While it is disappointing to have an off year, I am going to pin the blame on the distractions I have to endure while serving as the club President and Tournament Director.

As club President, I was unamiously re-elected to another term for 2017.  Of course, I am very grateful for the help I get from my newly elected Vice-President, Peter Barlay.  He has done a great job bringing in new Supporting Members for the club.  In fact, we set a record in 2016 for the most Supporting Members.

It is almost like we have 2 chess club Presidents...

You can view more chess videos on Colorado Springs Chess News' Youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/cschessnews), which had 121,087 views last year.

Game Of The Week

This week's game comes from the club event on Tuesday night, the March Swiss 90.  It is a month-long tournament with one round per evening.  The time control is G/90+30, which means it is one of the slower time controls.  After the rating fees are paid, most of the entry fees are returned to the players in the form of prizes.

One of the prizes is a Game Of The Week prize, which typically goes to the player who wins the game chosen for my Game Of The Week column.  This rewards the player for creating a nice tactic that I can use in my newsletter.  However, if I should choose my own game, I certainly don't feel right giving myself the prize.  In that case, I give the prize to the player who lost the game since they contributed to creating the position that contained an interesting tactic.

This week is similar.  Since Peter Barlay is my house player and did not pay an entry fee, I have decided to give the Game Of The Week prize to Alex Mekonnen, his opponent who technically lost the game.

However, Alex could have won.  He could have won in several ways.

The club couldn't get the heat to turn on in the ballroom, where we usually play.  Alex didn't want to play in the 50 degree freezer.  So, we moved his game into the library, where things were hotter.

Your words like ice fall on the ground,

Breaking the silence without a sound

Oh, familiar strangers with nothing to say

Searching in the darkness

Fading out of sight

Love was here and gone like a thief in the night...Stone Cold

Blackmore, Glover, Turner

However, the heat may have had Alex moving too fast.  If Alex had just slowed down in this position, he could have put Peter in the deep freeze.

Black to move

Stone Cold

[Event "March Swiss 90"]
[Site "https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/"]
[Date "2017.03.07"]
[Round "1.2"]
[White "Barlay, Peter"]
[Black "Mekonnen, Alex"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B21"]
[WhiteElo "1949"]
[BlackElo "1528"]
[PlyCount "126"]
[EventDate "2017.03.07"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 d6 4. cxd4 e6 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. Bd3 Nbd7 7. O-O Be7 8. Nc3 O-O 9. Bf4 e5 10. dxe5 dxe5 11. Nxe5 Nxe5 12. Bxe5 a6 13. Nd5 Ng4 14. Bc7 Qd7 15. Rc1 Qe6 16. Nb6 Ra7 17. h3 Ne5 18. Bb1 Nd7 19. Nd5 Bd8 20. Nf4 Qf6 21. Bd6 Ra8 22. Bxf8 Nxf8 23. Qd2 Be6 24. Rfd1 h6 25. Nd5 Qh4 26. Qf4 Qh5 27. Qg3 Qe2 28. Qd3 Qxb2 29. Qc3 Qe2 30. Qd2 Qh5 31. Nf4 Qe5 32. Ne2 Bb6 33. Qd6 Qa5 34. Qd2 Qb5 35. Nd4 Qe8 36. Qb4 Bxd4 37. Rxd4 b5 38. Rcd1 Bc4 39. Qa5 Qe7 40. Qd2 Ne6 41. Rd7 Qf6 42. e5 Qg5 43. Qd6 Be2 44. Re1 Bh5 45. Qc6 Rf8 46. Qc1 Nf4 47. Be4 Nxh3+ 48. Kf1 Nf4 49. Qe3 Ne6 50. Qxg5 Nxg5 51. Bb7 a5 52. Rb1 b4 53. Rd5 Ne4 54. Rb2 Rb8 55. Rb5 Nc3 56. e6 Nxb5 57. e7 f6 58. Bc6 Nc3 59. Rd2 Kf7 60. Rd8 Kxe7 61. Rxb8 Nxa2 62. Rb5 a4 63. Rxh5 b3 1-0

https://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=109878

This Week In Chess

On March 7th, the Colorado Springs Chess Club started its March Swiss 90 (4SS, G90+30).  10 players joined.

Here are the results:

Standings: March Swiss 90

# Name Rtng Rd 1 Tot Prize

1 Peter Barlay 1949 W7 1.0
2 Aleksand Bozhenov 1923 W8 1.0
3 Mark McGough 1848 W9 1.0
4 Brian Jo Rountree 1802 W10 1.0
5 Calvin P Dejong 1754 W6 1.0
6 Paul D Anderson 2041 L5 0.0
7 Alemayeh Mekonnen 1528 L1 0.0
8 Dean W Brown 1467 L2 0.0
9 Michael Smith II 1332 L3 0.0
10 Scott Ch Williams 1231 L4 0.0

Colorado Springs Open Standings

By Buck Buchanan

5.0 Rudy Tia
4.5 Justin Alter
4.0 Brian Wall
4.0 Dean Clow
3.5 Daniel Herman
3.5 Duwayne Langseth
3.5 Earle Wikle
3.5 Sullivan McConnell
3.5 Alexander Freeman
3.5 Neil Bhavikatti
3.0 Sara Herman
3.0 Rhett Langseth
3.0 Brian Rountree
3.0 Teah Williams
3.0 Robert Carlson
3.0 Dean Brown
3.0 Christofer Peterson
3.0 Jeffrey Baffo
3.0 Joshua Williams
3.0 David Green
3.0 Mukund Gurumurthi
2.5 Sam Bridle
2.5 Kevin Gene Lucas
2.5 David Hufnagel
2.5 Vibi Varghese
2.5 Griffin McConnell
2.0 Aidan Marco
2.0 David Logan
2.0 Alemayeh Mekonnen
2.0 Jesse Williams
2.0 Vedanth Sampath
2.0 Selah Williams
2.0 Paul Anderson
2.0 Jason Lee
2.0 Scott Williams
2.0 Shirley Herman
2.0 Kathy Schneider
1.5 Karthik B Selva
1.5 Ron Rossi
1.5 Clinton Eads
1.5 Daniel Rupp
1.0 Gary Bagstad
1.0 Abraham Richmond
1.0 Christophe Motley
1.0 Neyalla Gallagher
0.5 William Wolf
0.5 Michael Smith
0.0 Joshua Faulconer