U.S. Open Follies

Here's a mildly interesting game of mine from the recently completed U.S. Open in Vancouver, Washington.  It features a speculative exchange sacrifice, a resourceful defensive idea, a frantic time scramble (which you will have to imagine), and a tragicomic ending.

Wow, Great game, very instructive ending, I'll have to remember that if I ever get into that situation.

P.S: How'd you do in the Open?

I had three different disasters and finished 6-3, a half point out of the money.  The first was against an 1800 player who didn't set his clock with the required five second delay, an omisson I foolishly didn't notice until under a minute (time control was G/60 for the first six rounds of the four day schedule).  The second disaster was my car failing to start before round four, causing a forfeit.  The third and final mishap was getting paired as Black in the last round with FM Nick Raptis who, due to having played me twice as White in recent local events was by now extremely familiar with my rather shallow opening repertoire and thus able to crush me with the greatest of ease.

Thanks for sharing an entertaining game. I just wish the UCSF (or anybody!) would post the games on an easily accessible website. I think there is a link  on the USCF homepage to the games, but you have to register for yet another website, and for some reason the site wouldn't accept my password. 

I don't think the USCF normally posts games from the U.S. Open (or any other Swiss event) unless they are games of particular interest, such as between particularly strong players or tournament leaders. 

That said, I agree that USCF's coverage of their premier event was sometimes lacking.  Later today I may try to upload a very quick cellphone video I took of Yasser Seirawan giving a fascinating post-mortem after round seven.

very creative opening play, 11.Ne5 looks very interesting, and is the correct way to have fun (i.e. also the way I would have played ) , I haven't looked at it with an engine, but objectively I don't fully believe it. 8.g3 i think looks the most practical, although c4 may be main now for some reason, and what you played turned out pretty well. most impressive tactical malarky.

genius rook ending.

i would play in a us open if it weren't held so far away in canada. jk.

I was ludicrously unprepared for this variation, and thought for close to an hour after 7...a6, as the idea of just ...b5 and free parking on d5 for every black piece seemed unpleasant.  My first instinct was to try 8.g3, and as it turns out Kasparov played it in 2000 against Gurevich (a French specialist) at a big tournament in Sarajevo.  Also, Shirov sucessfully used 8.c4 vs. Topalov in the same tourney. 

That said, I suspect theory has evolved quite a bit since.