International Chess Academy Open games

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chessperson2222222

Nov 19, 2022

It's been quite a while since I went to the ICA. For those who have been following me on chess.com for a long time, you should remember that I used to play there almost every Saturday afternoon when they were located in Fair Lawn, NJ. However, my schedule got too busy and I no could no longer play in those tournaments. It didn't help that the club moved further away from me to Glen Rock.The only times I played at ICA tournaments is when they held the Dr. David Ostfeld Memorial tournament in Hackensack, which occurred about once every 3 months. However, this tournament never resumed after the pandemic. Perhaps Bergen Academies, the school where it was housed at, didn't want all the people coming there on weekends. I don't know. Or maybe, it's because of the success of these 3 round open tournaments that are played onsite at Glen Rock. Anyways, I decided to play in this tournament because I knew the competition would be good, with a mix of old masters and prodigious children. But on to round 1..

In this round, I faced a young child who boasted a rating of over 2000. I felt like I got an advantage early with 14..f5!, which solidified the e4 square for my knight. On move 18, I faced a choice of how to recapture his knight after he traded mine off. I was worried that 18..fxe4 would run into 19. Qg4 followed up by Rg3 and h5, but these threats wouldn't have amounted to much. The inferior dxe4 allowed him to equalize briefly. I then thought I had a huge advantage after he allowed my pawn to get to f3. However, I couldn't figure out how to make progress and ended up trading queens and going into an inferior rook endgame. I thought that I had drawing chances until he blitzed out 36. Rf8+! with less than a minute to go on the clock. That move would make a good answer to a daily chess puzzle here or on any other site.

In round 2, I faced an even younger child with an almost equal rating to my previous opponent. Not knowing what to expect against a kid who looked no older than 9, I played my usual London System and he defended via a Grunfeld structure. My opponent got a huge space advantage on the queenside early on, which is usually the most practical way for black to counterattack in these types of London Systems. I felt like the middlegame was equal for the most part, but the engine says that I missed a few opportunities to play e5, followed up with Nh2-g4, which would have given me a nice advantage. I felt like doing that would have released all the tension in the center and would have allowed him to pursue his queenside expansion. After that, the position was pretty balanced, if not a tiny bit advantageous for black. Black missed just one chance to get an advantage- after 31. Qb1, which threatened Bxg6, my opponent quickly responded with the very natural 31..Kg7, but this turned out to be a mistake. After 31. Qa5!, black has an essentially winning position because the loss of the c3 and d4 pawns cannot be avoided. After that, the position was even if not a little better for black but my opponent allowed me to completely compromise his king safety with 36..Nf5. This wasn't a blunder, but easily allowed me to get a forced perpetual at the end, as trading queens would give me a very easily winning king and pawn endgame.

I felt pretty good about holding someone at least 15 years younger than me but well over 200 points higher rated than me to a draw, but that game left me exhausted. As for round 3, well, God, to I really want to show this game? I faced Lev Zilbermintz, who is well known throughout the tristate area for playing offbeat and often times unsound gambits in the opening. This game was no exception, opting for 1. g5?, which is pretty much a junk gambit. I had a huge advantage after that but then completely threw it away with moves like 16. a4??, and then dropping a pawn 26. Qg3??, allowing him to have a won endgame. I was just making almost random moves, deciding when the proper time to resign would be but then my opponent sort of threw me a bone with 41..Rf3, allowing me to go into a bishop endgame that should still have been dead lost. However, my opponent, perhaps basking in his euphoria, played the egregious blunder 45..c5??, which allowed me to easily draw the game. After Ka5, the game would have been over.

Well, 1 out of 3 isn't great, but it could have been way worse considering a drew 2 opponents with much higher ratings. Hopefully I will play in the next open tournament here and do better!

azertyking

Nov 19, 2022

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