I apologize for the late recap this week. I had to watch my boys in green fall in the NFC championship game and could not bear to relive King Queen stalemating Todd. If you are somebody who is not comfortable with this, go check out his tutorial that he posted.

This tournament was arguably the best yet. We managed to get quite a few players in which let us play a proper five rounds. Todd managed to secure another tournament victory (I'm sorry for disappointing the club and letting him steal a half point from me). This week we all need to be better so this does not happen again. He has been McGregor walking around the house all week.

I do not know if I can put up with this for another week. We need to beat this kid.

Let's look at the crosstable for Week 3.

Logan and myself had a bounce back performance after majorly disappointing in the last tournament. uncatastrophe did the complete opposite. They need to study their new book and see if they can fix the mistakes of this week. TaroKusaka retired from chess as a result of this tournament. You have to commend the guy for entering the tournament with a rating almost 200 lower than the next lowest. MrShakes had a fantastic debut tournament. They came in as the favorite and did not manage to pull it out, but they cannot be disappointed in their performance. Pwoloszyk showed once again that his 970 rating is purely due to the lack of games played online. He consistently performs above that threshold. You have to make sure you are on your game when you draw him as your rating is bound to fall. Loftis managed to show out with his greatest performance yet. It felt like he stayed away from the cheese a little bit this week and focused on playing solid instead. dylanhoffius played about on par with his rating. My man is on the rise and once he breaks through the 1000 barrier, he will be well on his way to a tournament victory. Thinic had a tough tournament, but he also had a tough draw. They had to play many of the top rated players in the tournament so the 1.5/5 performance is a little misleading.

This week's recap is going to feature three games and then some opening statistics. The first game is between MrShakes and Uncatastrophe.

This was a very exciting game that featured winning chances for both players. Black slowly built an advantage out of the opening. They ended up blundering, but white as unable to find the winning move. This then led to a swift defeat for white. The thing I took away from this game is to always remember 1. checks 2. captures 3. attacks as white could have won this game if they remembered that. This was a game that could have been won with tactics, so uncatastrophe we need to look at some tactic books or puzzle websites.

For round two, we will look at a battle between Logan (black) and Pwoloszyk (white). Chess.com showed both players playing above 93% accuracy.

This game was a story of hung pieces and failed end games. Like the previous game, both players had opportunities to win this. Both threw away major advantages. Fortunately for them, it ended in a draw. Pwoloszyk did not abuse his pawn advantages in the end game. Logan did not capitalize on Pwoloszyk gifting them pieces. It was an exciting game to watch and an even better one to review. You love to see these types of games in the tournament.

The final game game we will look at is the battle of the cheeses.

I'm a tiny bit disappointed in everybody because if there was one thing that I preached last week, it is that we could not give Loftis these wins. I am not afraid to admit that I gave him one last week, but it will not happen again. Dylan must have missed the recap because he failed to do that this week. This game was his to lose and he did. He had the opportunity to strike fast and strike hard, but instead he showed mercy. Loftis managed to convert the winning endgame which many people (including myself) struggled with this week. For that I commend him.

A new thing I thought would be neat this week would be to look at the opening choices.

1.e4 was played by far the most which is not really surprising. It also scored exceptionally. e4 is by far the most common first move so it lines up with expected. This is played by almost everybody in the tournament. 1.d4 aka the Toad special did not see much success in this tournament. That means he must have found a lot of success as black. I know that TaroKusaka also plays this. If you are looking for an opening to play, I'd highly recommend the London System. Todd plays it every white game. It works. Finally there is 1.b3. This is what both dylan and I play. Unfortunately it did not see much success this week. Dylan lost with it once and I did as well.

The real interesting thing with opening choices is the follow up to 1.e4. As a club we are all over the place. The Sicilian is the most popular here, but not by much. White really performed well this tournament which is not very surprising as it is inherently better, but it really dominated the more traditional responses to e4. When black played more obscure moves such as 1...g6, white failed to capitalize on the space conceded.

I am looking forward to the next tournament this THURSDAY THE 28TH. I really hope we can get even more players than last time. Once again, we have to strive to take down Todd. I cannot live another day seeing his smug face walk around my house.

Wolo's Disciples

Super Admins

Coordinators