Sam Shankland wins 22, draws 2, loses 2 at Marshall Chess Club New Year's day simul

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chessperson2222222

Jan 2, 2025

This was GM Shankland's 4th simul at the Marshall Chess Club, after simuls in 2019, 2022, and 2023. This was a great way to kick off the new year. Anyways, here are the games I collected- only about half, but I'll go through the highlights.

It should be noted that some of these games aren't complete.

However, the most notable results are the 2 victories- Ethan Guo, who's only 11 years old but is rated over 2200, managed to outplay Shankland in a Gruenfeld Defense. In addition, Jeffrey Quinn, rated about 1800, was able to win after Shankland blundered away his advantage with 28. Ne5?, and then blundered an exchange with 35. Rd4??. Obviously in a normal game, Shankland would never make such mistakes, but these things happen in a simul sometimes.

Colin Diamond was able to hold a draw, but he actually missed a decisive win on move 37 with Ne4??, with Re4! being essentially lights out. Engines still gave Diamond an almost winning advantage when he decided to repeat moves, but Diamond understandably didn't want to risk playing it out and losing when an immediate win wasn't at hand.

My game was pretty interesting- Shankland misplayed the opening, castling when the theory called for f5. After doing a strong exchange sacrifice, I missed a chance to win his queen on move 17, as e4! Bxe4 Ne5! would have trapped his queen. I would have been far from winning, as he would have gotten a rook and piece for the queen and my king would have been weak. After that, my position collapsed and Shankland was able to consolidate his advantage eventually.

The last player standing was 10 year old Winsley Wu, who's rated over 1800. After an even opening and middlegame, Wu was able to trade down to a drawn bishop vs knight endgame, but Shankland eventually was able to outmaneuver him and win thanks to his superior king and Wu's weak pawns on both sides of the board. The game lasted longer than what is posted here, but Shankland is winning by the time Wu stopped notating.

If anyone else attended and wants to share their game, feel free to send me a picture or the pgn. I'll add you in.

Anyways, as always, a big thank you to the Marshall Chess Club and to Sam Shankland for such a fun event!

Guonathonking