Lucky Charm

Game Of The Week

This week's game comes from the Colorado Springs Chess Club's Sunday night event, Pin Is Mighty Rapid Online (4SS, G/10+10).  The game was played by Jeff Fox, ex-City Champ and ex-officer of the Colorado Springs Chess Club, and Ayush Vispute, current President of the Panda Chess Club.  I chose this game because Jeff hasn't had the best luck in regards to having his wins published in my blog.  He is currently in 25th place with two wins published.  

However, he is in 4th place by number of games published, which means most of his published games are losses.  The reason he got so many losses published was just bad luck.  It is not always easy to choose the Game Of The Week.  So, I came up with some themes to help me sort through my 1,027 USCF, rated-games database.  One theme was my Best Upsets.  Well, since I didn't travel to tournaments away from the club very often, it turns out that most of my upsets came from 2 players, Jeff Fox and Buck Buchanan.

Rank, Name, Rating, Wins/Games Published

  2 Anderson,Douglas                15.0/29

  3 McGough,Mark              1839  12.0/23

  7 Brown,Dean                1388   7.5/26

 25 Fox,Jeff                  1867   2.0/20

 26 Buchanan,Buck             2000   2.0/19

Jeff must have found his lucky charm because I chose to publish his win from this Sunday where he won with 1. Nf3.  I was impressed enough to go over it, as it is an opening with which I have had a lot of bad luck.  I have been playing my version of LM Brian Wall's 40 Move Challenge (#40MC) the past 2 years in the Colorado Springs Chess Club's Sunday night events.  

The #40MC is to win with all legal opening moves for White and Black.  

I have been torn apart in 3 openings so far.

Move	Color	Attempts	Score	Success %
H3	White	7	2.0	28.57%
H6	Black	9	3.0	33.33%
Nf3	White	4	1.5	37.50%

I am not sure why I have been so unlucky with these openings, but I am looking for something to change my fortune.  I know a lot of sports professionals have their specific lucky charms and rituals like growing beards to rally caps.  

But what about chess players?  Do they subscribe to luck?  So, far my lucky charm has been failing me.

If 2020 was a lucky charm, it'd be a rabbit's foot.

If you don't think luck plays a role in chess games, just look at Jeff's third time getting a win publish.  Like they say, "Third time is the charm."

Jeff only has a Pawn advantage with opposite-colored Bishops.  It could be hard to force the win if Ayush had found one of three lucky moves.  See if you can find them?

Black to move

Lucky Charm

[Event "Pin Is Mighty Online"]

[Site "https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/"]

[Date "2021.06.27"]

[Round "3.6"]

[White "Fox, Jeff"]

[Black "Vispute, Ayush"]

[Result "1-0"]

[ECO "A37"]

[WhiteElo "1686"]

[BlackElo "1605"]

[PlyCount "65"]

[EventDate "2021.06.27"]

[TimeControl "600+10"]

1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6 4. g3 Bg7 5. Bg2 e6 6. e4 Nge7 7. O-O a6 8. d3

O-O 9. Be3 Nd4 10. Qd2 d5 11. exd5 exd5 12. cxd5 Nef5 13. Bxd4 cxd4 14. Ne2

Qxd5 15. Nfxd4 Qe5 16. Nxf5 Bxf5 17. d4 Qb5 18. Nc3 Qb4 19. Rad1 Rfd8 20. d5

Rd6 21. Ne4 Qxd2 22. Rxd2 Bxe4 23. Bxe4 Re8 24. Bf3 Bh6 25. Rc2 Rf6 26. Kg2 Rd6

27. Rc7 b5 28. Rc6 Red8 29. Re1 Kg7 30. Re7 Bg5 31. Ra7 Bf6 32. b3 Bc3 33.

Raxa6 1-0

https://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=116698

This Week In Chess

On June 27th, the Colorado Springs Chess Club held the Pin Is Mighty Rapid Online (4SS, G/10+10). Jose Llacza won the silver, and I got the bronze.

Place, Pin Is Mighty Rapid Online, Score

1 "#1 RecurringMiss (2246)" 3.5
2 "#2 JJ7X (1948)" 3.5
3 "#3 cschessnews (1771)" 3.0
4 "#4 pretbram (1564)" 3.0
5 "#5 KingVed (1572)" 2.0
6 "#6 jfoxhoot (1691)" 2.0
7 "#7 bazinga2 (1566)" 1.5
8 "#8 Honeybrook (1335)" 1.5
9 "#9 linuxguy1 (1824)" 1.0
10 "#10 msmcgough (1612)" 1.0
11 "- GLeong (1757)" 1.0
12 "#11 albertgardner (1471)" 1.0
13 "- CosmicNovaGalaxy (1605)" 0.0