Following are recaps of the games:
Vigorito – Bartell:
White chose the solid Botvinnik setup and the games followed known
lines. 15… a6, allowed white to sharpen the battle with N-d5, and after Tom exchanged his bishop on d5, White gained a clear advantage based on space and the bishop pair. Tom’s knights could not find good outposts. David started an aggressive expansion on the king side and was able to exchange Black other Bishop. Before the final beautiful combination which made this game a runner-up for the USCL Game of the Week.
Vigorito- Bartell
35.Rg7+ Kf8 36.Rexe7 Rxh3+ 37.Kg1 Rh1+ 38.Qxh1 Rxh1+ 39.Kxh1 1–0
Gorman – Winer
This game started as a quiet positional line against the semi-Slav and it followed several games until move 15 where Dov deviated with an overly optimistic idea. The position became unbalanced and Dov sacrificed a piece for two pawns while Black’s king was in the center and his time was running low. 32… B-d6 was a mistake and after f4 White should be better. They reached a position where White has a queen and three pawns for Black’s rook and two bishops. This position seems unclear. However, Black’s pieces were somewhat uncoordinated and after a blunder in 46… R-e5 White was winning.
Gorman - Winer
46...Re5 47.Qb8+ Ke6 48.Qxb7 Bc5+ 49.Kf1 a5 50.h4 Re3 51.Qc8+ Ke5 52.Qf5+ Kd4 53.g5 Re8 54.Qd7+ 1–0
Chase – Minear
The game started a typical Reti. On move 10 h3, Chase started a king side expansion plan which proved to add little value to his position as Peter’s position was solid. On move 15 e4, White sacrificed a central pawn which proved to be a mistake. Peter saw no specific reason why he couldn't take the pawn, so he took it. Peter placed his pieces effectively in the center and gradually improved his position. Black’s 25. ...exd5 was apparently inaccurate, because White could have equalized with 27. Bd4!, when Peter can't take the bishop due to the back-rank mate. However, Chase chose an alternative route and blundered on move 27.
Chase - Minear
27.Rxd5 Rxd5 28.Bxd5 Qd2 29.Bxf7+ Kxf7 30.Qf3+ Kg8 31.Re2 Qd7 32.Qc3 Bd3 33.Re1 Qf7 34.Qd2 Qf3 0–1
Hernandez-Camen – Liu
This game ended last and helped us secure the win. This is not the first time Josh was matched against Andrew Liu, though this was his first League game ever. He was expecting the Sveshnikov and had prepared some Rossolimo lines but was surprised by the Dragon. Josh’s knowledge in the Dragon is extremely limited, so he decided to play a Karpov line so he would not get massacred in the opening. Andrew surprised him again with a rarely played move on move 8. Josh was really starting to feel good after Andrew took on move 15 with the bishop, giving up the two bishops. Eventually Josh won a pawn, although it took some accurate play to keep it. Unfortunately Josh was getting into time trouble with Andrew Liu and he started to get nervous and lose composure. Because of this he found it hard to come up with a plan to convert his material and while protecting any counterattacks on g2. Considering the match situation he played extremely safe and ended up losing the extra pawn. Despite this, in the final position Josh definitely could have pushed for the win but he decided to offer a draw which Andrew accepted. Thus, giving us the win in the match.
Hernandez-Camen - Liu
50.Rdf1 [50.d6+–] 50...Rd2 51.R3f2 Rd3 52.Rf3 Rd2 53.Re1 Rb8 54.Qc5 Qa2 55.Rf2 Qxd5 56.Qxd5 Rxd5 57.Rf3 Rb5 58.Rd3 Rb7 59.Rc1 R7xb6 60.Bxb6 Rxb6 61.Rd7 Rb2 62.Rcd1 ½–½
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