Chinook Open 2024

This year's Chinook Open was rewarding, not only because I had a good tournament, but also because I had another chance to meet Grandmaster Varuzhan Akobian (who had visited us at last year's Turkey Open). Akobian gave a lecture and simultaneous exhibition on Friday evening. Although I lost in the simul, it was an interesting game that he and I discussed later. He strikes me as friendly and down-to-earth, without the arrogance one might expect from someone of his renown. 

I did better in the actual tournament, finishing second (just behind Akobian himself) with a score of 4 points (3 wins, 1 draw, and 1 bye). None of the games were dull.

In the first round I faced old friend Mike Muller, who made some blunders but kept fighting until I finally figured out how to convert my advantage to a win.

In the second round I faced Kevin Korsmo, who helps run the Spokane chess club and made the drive all the way from Washington to compete. He gave me a tough game that I thought I could win early, but wound up taking a lot more effort to score the point.

Having scored two consecutive wins, I took my customary bye for the third round and enjoyed Saturday evening. On Sunday morning I learned that I would be playing black against none other than Jim Skovron, the man I had played to a boring draw on the last three occasions we met (and I had the black pieces every time). But there was nothing boring about this game. He launched a strong attack on my king, forcing me to go down on time to figure out how to stay alive. The momentum started to shift in my favor and, upon a queen exchange, he offered a draw that I accepted. This was a strong effort by both sides, and the chess.com engine says that we were both at 92-93% accuracy.

In the final round I faced Chad Engan, someone I've never played against before, but whom I know to be a good player from seeing him compete (including his win against new champion Ben Curtis in a prior round). Things started out pretty evenly until he gave up a pawn and handed me a strong position, but then he played a strong endgame that eliminated my positional advantage and put the outcome in doubt. However, he forgot to hit his clock with just a minute left on it, so I let it run down while I feigned extreme stress and concentration on what was happening on the board. It worked, as he flagged and lost. It does appear I still had a win in the final position, but I admit that it would have been tricky to play well in a time scramble (I had only a few minutes left myself).