TCC-42 Round 1

David Ball plays c5 and gives up the pawn then gets his queen trapped.  Not much here.

Gay outplays Roods with a tremendous space advantage!  Look at the position after 23...Qe8.  Ode to Petrosian!  Somehow Roods wins in 11 moves from that position!

The decision of how and when to convert that space into a win was harder than I thought it would be. 

It was hard to see.  The silicon says that 18.d6 might have been the logical conversion of the space into something more tangible.

In Lucan-Fellinger, Mike's queenside sleeps while his queen never seems to find any comfort.  I think Marius gained 6 tempos on her fully developing his army in the process.  A tactic to win material ends the game.

In King-Mennella, Robert plays a good game but gets a bit timid with 21.Kg2.  I understand the desire to break the pin but first he should have played 21.Qb3 maintaining good pressure on the queenside.  Instead, James is able to make Swiss cheese out of Roberts pawns.  Still with the pawn push 27.f5, Robert would have a winning position!  Instead he passively defends his pawns, loses a piece and the game.

Dereck plays 2...f6 against Dominick and the result is never in doubt.  I've never seen Dereck play this move either.  Better luck next time Dereck!

I was impressed by Ryan Larson's play until the endgame. He seemed to collapse in an even position.  With 28.Rd1 he would be equal. Instead he loses the b-pawn and the game.