Monday, September 8, 2014

Philadelphia Inventors - Round 2 Recap


The Philadelphia Inventors faced a strong team, New Jersey Knockouts featuring two GM’s on the top boards.   The Inventors lineup included two new players, FM Rodion Rubenchik and NM Todd Bryant in their USCL debut.  All four games were hard-fought and after a roller coaster evening, the match ended peacefully in a 2:2 tie.

Philadelphia Inventors
New Jersey Knockouts
0.0
1.0
0.0
1.0
1.0
0.0
1.0
0.0
Average Rating: 2336
Average Rating: 2451
Philadelphia Total
2.0
2.0
New Jersey Total

Following are recaps of the games:

Bartell,Tom (2448) - Stripunsky,Alex (2656) [D07]
USCL Week 2 Internet Chess Club, 03.09.2014

 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.cxd5 Bxf3 5.gxf3 Qxd5 6.e3 e5 7.Nc3 Bb4 8.Bd2 Bxc3 9.bxc3 Qd6 10.Rb1 b6 11.Bg2 Nge7 12.f4 exf4 13.e4 f6 14.h4 Rd8 15.0–0 0–0 16.Qg4 Ng6 17.h5 Nge5 18.Qxf4 Nc4 19.Qxd6 cxd6 20.Bf4 N6a5 21.Bh3 Rfe8 22.f3 Kf7 23.Kf2 g5 24.hxg6+ hxg6 25.Ke2 Nc6 26.Rh1 g5 27.Bg3 Rh8 28.Kd3 N4a5 29.Bg4 Nb7 30.f4 gxf4 31.Bxf4 Ne5+ 32.Bxe5 dxe5 33.Bh5+ Ke7 34.Rbg1 Nc5+ 35.Ke3 Ne6 36.Bd1 exd4+ 37.cxd4 Rxh1 38.Rxh1 Rxd4 39.Rh7+ Kd6 40.Bc2 Rc4 41.Kd2 Rc7 42.Rh5 Ng5 43.Rh8 Nf3+ 44.Kd1 Ke5 45.Re8+ Kf4 46.Rf8 Ke3 47.Rxf6 Nd4 48.Bb3 Ne2 49.Bc2 Nd4 50.Bb3 Ne2 51.Bc2 Rd7+ 52.Ke1 Rg7 53.e5 Nf4 54.Kf1 Rc7 0–1

The game started as a Chigorin defense and Tom used the known f4 idea followed by e4 to gain an advantage based on nice control of the center and the bishop pair after a couple of inaccurate moves by Black.   On move 30. f4 was a key inaccuracy which reduced White advantage after a small tactics by GM Stripunsky.
     
 

After 36. B-d1? (d5 was better), Black was able to turn the tables and increased his advantage for a win.  

Benjamin,Joel (2634) - Minear,Peter (2365) [C77]
USCL Week 2 Internet Chess Club, 03.09.2014

 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.Nc3 b5 6.Bb3 Be7 7.d3 d6 8.a3 0–0 9.0–0 Bg4 10.Be3 Re8 11.Nd5 Bf8 12.Nxf6+ Qxf6 13.Bd5 Bd7 14.Ng5 Re7 15.f4 exf4 16.Nxf7 Qxb2 17.Rxf4 Qc3 18.Nd8+ 1–0

SM Peter Minear facing the three-time US Champion GM Joel Benjamin.   Unfortunately for Peter, Joel surprise Peter with an off-beat line in the Ruy Lopez 5. N-c3.   It is likely that Joel wanted to avoid heavy theory and planned to outplay his opponent in the middlegame.  

Black's position seemed okay through the initial part of the opening.  Peter considered the logical 10. ...Nd4, but misjudged the position after 11. Bxd4 exd4  12. Ne2 Bxf3  13. gxf3 c5  14. Nf4, thinking White's strong bishop and control of d5 would give White an edge.  However, the resulting position seems roughly equal, with white's king side weaknesses balancing out the weakness of d5.    Black chose R-e8 instead and in the next few moves Black's position went quickly downhill, with the typical Ruy moves Re8 and Bf8 being much too slow in this position. 

Black missed White’s idea of opening the f-file after the forced sequence 13. Bd5 Bd7  14.
Ng5 Re7  15. f4, after which black cannot prevent disaster on f7.    It was Peter’s shortest loss in a very long time. 

Rubenchik,Rodion (2329) - Wu,Christopher (2363) [D47]
USCL Week 2 Internet Chess Club, 03.09.2014

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.e3 e6 5.Nc3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5 8.Be2 Bb7 9.a3 a5 10.0–0 Bd6 11.e4 b4 12.axb4 axb4 13.Rxa8 Qxa8 14.e5 bxc3 15.exf6 Nxf6 16.bxc3 0–0 17.c4 c5 18.Bb2 Rd8 19.Qa1 Ne4 20.h3 f6 21.Rd1 cxd4 22.Bxd4 e5 23.Be3 Qxa1 24.Rxa1 Nc3 25.Bf1 e4 26.Nd4 Rb8 27.Nb5 Nxb5 28.cxb5 f5 29.Bc4+ Kf8 30.b6 Be5 31.Bc5+ Ke8 32.Ra7 Kd8 33.Be6 f4 34.Kf1 f3 35.gxf3 exf3 36.Ra2 Bc6 37.Rd2+ Ke8 38.Bd5 Bb5+ 39.Kg1 Rc8 40.Ba3 Rd8 41.Bf7+ Kxf7 42.Rxd8 Bc6 43.b7  1–0

The game started as a quiet variation of the Meran and White emerges with an advantage from the opening.  15. exd6 would lead to a significant advantage for White.   In a maneuvering middlegame game, White was able to improve his pieces on the queenside and emerged with a dangerous passed pawn after a serious positional mistake by Black on move 25.  


Black was seeking counter-play by advancing his pawns. However, a blunder on move 40 ended the game.

Manuelian,Haik der (2149) - Bryant,Todd (2201) [A05]
USCL Week 2 Internet Chess Club, 03.09.2014

 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.0–0 0–0 5.d3 d6 6.c4 e5 7.Nc3 c6 8.e4 h6 9.d4 Nh5 10.Re1 Bg4 11.Be3 Qc8 12.Qd2 Kh7 13.Rac1 Na6 14.a3 f5 15.exf5 gxf5 16.h3 Bxf3 17.Bxf3 Nf6 18.Bg2 Qe8 19.b4 Qh5 20.b5 Nc7 21.bxc6 bxc6 22.Qe2 Qxe2 23.Rxe2 e4 24.Bf4 Ne6 25.Bxd6 Nxd4 26.Bxf8 Nxe2+ 27.Nxe2 Bxf8 28.Nd4 Bxa3 29.Rb1 Kg6 30.Nxc6 Bd6 31.Rd1 Bc5 32.Ne5+ Kg7 33.g4 Re8 34.Nc6 fxg4 35.Ra1 g3 36.Kf1 gxf2 37.Ra5 e3 38.Bf3 Ne4 39.Bxe4 Rxe4 40.Ra2 Rxc4 0–1

This game featured the USCL debut of NM Todd Bryant.   The opening was an English King’s Indian.  White made a slightly unusual choice with 7.e4; a quick Rb1 and b4-b5 is the most common plan.  The middlegame was a fight for squares and space with Black expanding on the kingside and White pushing in the center and queenside.  White was doing well after winning the two bishops and weakening the b1-h7 diagonal, but he fell into a difficult endgame with uncoordinated pieces versus an outside passed pawn after 22.Qe2 and 24.Bf4.  Instead, he should have grabbed material with 22.Bxc6 Qxh3 23.Bg2 Qh5 24.Bxa8 Nxa8 25.Kg2. 


On move 33, black seems slightly better due to the outside passed pawn.  However, White panicked with 33.g4? and after R-e8 Black was winning.

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