Two For The Price Of Third

Game Of The Week

This week's game comes from the Colorado Springs Chess Club's Sunday Night Chess events.  It was a bit of an unusual tournament.  I didn't get to play since I was at the Renaissance Festival again.  So, I can only guess about the peculiarities.  

I can tell it started with 3 games and 7 players.  I thought the computer would shorten the event to 3 rounds when less than 8 players joined at the start.  Maybe it only happens when 6 players have joined because the 7th player will prevent the possibility of someone having to play the same opponent twice, which can happen with 6 players in a 4 round Swiss tournament.  

Fortunately, 3 more players joined late which increased the 2nd round to 4 games.  Although, I am not sure when exactly all 3 joined because the number of games shrunk in round 3 to 3 games again.  So, someone could have joined just for the last round, as the 4th round was back up to 4 games.

The features of late entry and withdrawal are nice for players who can't make it right at the start time or stay for the whole event, but they can cause some unusual situations for the tiebreakers and medals.

Brian Rountree was the top rated and didn't lose a game.  This is the formula for a gold medal you would think.  Well, it didn't work out that way.  One of his opponents withdrew after one game and added zero points to Brian's tiebreak score.  Andy Rea, on the other hand, benefited by one of his opponents getting a 1-point bye, which pushed Andy's tiebreak score just past Brian's.

Also, Koen Beaver was only able to play two games.  Yet he was able to score 2.5 points and win the bronze medal!  He got nothing for his late entrance but benefited from a third-round withdrawal, which gave him a 1-point bye and 1.5 points going into round 4.  Now, all he needed was to win his game and hope that Andy Rea could beat Jeff Fox and Brian Rountree could beat Albert Gardner.

Koen is a youngster who started with the club just this year.  He has played in 11 events online and a couple of times when we have met at COATI in downtown Colorado Springs.  He was paired with Emory Coston in the 4th round.  I met Emory at the Renaissance Festival, and he has joined us for several events online.  The club is doing more promotion and finding more new players than pre-pandemic, but we still have our physical location and equipment locked up at the Acacia Apartments.  I am pretty sure this is Dante's First Circle Of Hell.

I am guessing that Emory may have suffered a mouse slip early and was fighting from behind the whole game.  Here he had a shot to pick up some material.  The chess advice on trades when behind in material is, "Trade Pawns not Pieces."  So, Black definitely wants to save his Bishop.  But also, it would be nice capture the White Bishop.  Of course, even if you find the best move, Koen still has those extra Pawns and started implementing the chess advice on trades when ahead in material, "Trade Pieces not Pawns."  And it was a strategy that turned his 2 games this night into third place.

Black to move

Two For The Price Of Third

[Event "40MC Part II Online"]

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

[Date "2021.08.22"]

[Round "4.3"]

[White "Beaver, Koen"]

[Black "Coston, Emory"]

[Result "1-0"]

[ECO "B06"]

[WhiteElo "1109"]

[BlackElo "615"]

[PlyCount "109"]

[EventDate "2021.08.22"]

[TimeControl "600+10"]

1. e4 g6 2. d4 Nf6 3. e5 Nh5 4. Be2 d5 5. Bxh5 g5 6. Bxg5 Rg8 7. Bxf7+ Kxf7 8.

Qh5+ Rg6 9. Qxh7+ Bg7 10. Nf3 Qh8 11. Qxh8 Bxh8 12. O-O b6 13. Re1 Bxe5 14.

Nxe5+ Kg7 15. Nxg6 Kxg6 16. Bxe7 Nc6 17. Nc3 Nxd4 18. Red1 Nxc2 19. Nxd5 Nxa1

20. Nxc7 Rb8 21. Rxa1 a5 22. Rc1 Rb7 23. Nd5 Be6 24. Rc6 Kf7 25. Nf4 Bxa2 26.

Bd6 Kf6 27. Bc5+ Ke5 28. Nd3+ Ke4 29. Rxb6 Re7 30. Bxe7 Kxd3 31. b3 Kc2 32. Ra6

Bxb3 33. Rxa5 Bc4 34. Rc5 Kc3 35. Rxc4+ Kxc4 36. h4 Kd4 37. h5 Ke5 38. h6 Ke6

39. h7 Kxe7 40. h8=Q Ke6 41. Qf8 Ke5 42. Qf7 Ke4 43. Qf6 Kd3 44. Qf4 Ke2 45.

Qe3+ Kd1 46. Kh2 Kc2 47. Kg3 Kd1 48. Kf3 Kc2 49. Qd4 Kc1 50. Qd3 Kb2 51. Qc4

Kb1 52. Qe2 Kc1 53. Ke4 Kb1 54. Kd3 Kc1 55. Qc2# 1-0

https://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=116870

This Week In Chess

On August 22nd, the Colorado Springs Chess Club held the 40MC Part II Rapid Online (4SS, G/10+10).  Andy Rea went unbeaten and grabbed his 3rd gold medal of the 2021 season.  Brian Rountree also went unbeaten but lost out on the tiebreaks again to Andy.  Koen Beaver earned his first medal with a 3rd place finish.

Place, 40MC Part II Rapid Online,  Score

1 "#1 dzhierkiev64 (1847)" 3.5

2 "#2 linuxguy1 (1883)" 3.5

3 "#3 Cocomcfrecal (1109)" 2.5

4 "#4 jfoxhoot (1703)" 2.0

5 "#5 albertgardner (1519)" 2.0

6 "#6 Upkeep413 (1489)" 1.5

7 "#7 e_m_c_o (600)" 1.0

8 "#8 Earthurs (1452)" 0.0

9 "- KGreenGator (1660)" 0.0

10 "- GLeong (1719)" 0.0