Untitled Tuesday and Saturday recaps - March 6th and 10th
The report for the Tuesday event was written by @chesster3145.
Hello everyone and welcome to the report for the March Untitled Tuesday! For the first time, Untitled Tuesday is coming live to the front page via a cross-post on my blog, obtaining a spot alongside the real thing, and with that publicity, I have a more difficult job than ever before.
We're here in 2018, and as our group grows, this year's Untitled Tuesdays feature better and more interesting chess than they ever have. My initial batch for this report consisted of no less than 26 games, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.
This month's winner on a nearly perfect 9.5/10 is the talented 2100 USCF player @CP6033, a strong Expert who may still be underrated to this day. He has beaten multiple IMs in the World Mind Games online chess tournament and toppled both @solskytz and NM @Petrosianic in 12-game matches by resignation as both were caught off guard by the sheer speed of his calculations. And all of this is almost 2 years ago.
Besides those matches, @CP6033 is well-known for playing the Smith-Morra. In Round 1, he played a classic CP first-round game, crushing @MynameisJeff21lol in his favorite opening. Black ran into e4-e5 and his position just blew up, as in many Smith-Morra games before this.
In the following round against the 1800 player @Lillionking, he flashed some positional skills with a bit of mystery mixed in. According to his own annotations, White is better for the whole game, but after @CP6033 pulls out the inspired 16... c4! (my exclamation mark) 17. Bc2 Qc5+ 18. Kh1 d4! he suddenly gains an advantage, and the only mistake I can point to is - wait for it - 11. Ne5.
Comments by @CP6033: https://www.chess.com/blog/CP6033/untitled-tuesday-march-2018
@SmyslovFan joined the leaders on 2.0/2 with a very classical game, a callback to the elite chess of the 1910s and 1920s, when the original games with this concept were played. (Do I have that right? I'm sure the chess history buffs here will correct me if I don't.) By beating @chessguy1012, he showed why strong players don't rely on slow queenside pawn majorities to counteract fast central play anymore.
In Round 3, @CP6033 picked up another point, a "smooth" attacking win in an offbeat Winawer. As Black, @SpeedyChess11 took the wrong pawn and was quickly punished.
Comments by @CP6033: https://www.chess.com/blog/CP6033/untitled-tuesday-march-2018
In Rounds 4 and 5, @SpeedyChess11 made up two important points. The first: a Nimzo-Indian which reached an endgame which is supposed to be better for White, but with a catch - the c4 and b3 squares were somewhat weak, the typical improvement f3 and e4 was hard to carry out, and the d-pawn was stronger than it looked. The second: a game where he got a large advantage as White when @SmyslovFan's Caro-Kann went wrong but had to work for the full three phases and 54 moves to convert it in a N vs B endgame.
@SmyslovFan beat @KaosKid in Round 6 as Black got a playable position but no counterplay and White turned their strong pawn center into a rook on the seventh and then mated Black with some cute endgame tactics.
After the smoke cleared, @CP6033 led by a full point seven rounds in, with @SpeedyChess11, @Lllionking and @The_Helloer in a tight race for second. One of these three made the report with more games than the other two: two featured games in three rounds is a sure recipe for success. Who had that recipe? Read on to find out! The crosstable after Round 7:
In Round 8, the first-place contenders won again. @CP6033 won an interesting game versus @KaosKid where Black's position looked winning... until he dropped a pawn, @KaosKid gave the pawn back for no apparent reason and then White missed the same win six times in a pawn ending. In @CP6033's own words: Indeed, the game was extremely chaotic.
@SpeedyChess11 beat @chessguy1012 in a game where not much happened compared to some others, but White always had an advantage: first in the form of extra central space, then in the form of the c4-square for a Knight, and finally in the form of a N vs B endgame with the pawns all on one side of the board.
In Round 9 @CP6033 bested @chessguy1012 as White's positionally risky f-pawn advance was met by the principled central break ... c5 and White's position began to look unsound. That became an extra Exchange for a pawn which became a point as Black restrained, blockaded, and with excellent technique, won the d-pawn. With their only roadblock removed, the Rooks wreaked havoc on the second rank.
@Lllionking won a cute miniature with a piece sacrifice which led to a quick win after Black failed to find the best defense.
In the final round, @CP6033 completed the win with another cute Smith-Morra crush, this time against @shortcastle, and @SpeedyChess11 secured second place with a very logical win over @Bad_Dobby_Fischer as his positional plusses became a strong attack and Black was rolled over.
The final crosstable for the March 2018 Untitled Tuesday:
Congrats to our podium of @CP6033, @SpeedyChess11 and @Lllionking and to everyone who took part in the March 2018 Untitled Tuesday!
@MGleason's Saturday event report is below.
The report for the Saturday event was written by @MGleason.
The Saturday event was a two-man race almost from the very start, with @schacchista89 edging @Ast_F (who won the January and February Saturday events) on tiebreak.
Untitled Tuesday regular @SmyslovFan stole a second-round draw against @scacchista89, which allowed @Ast_F to take an early lead.
A fourth-round with for @scacchista89 over @Ast_F saw him take a lead which he never relinquished:
Both @scacchista89 and @Ast_F won their fifth-round games. Here's a nice little miniature where white knights on a8 and a7 coordinate to trap black's queen:
@Ast_F's win over @MiddlegamerUmesh lasted much longer, but was won by a nice tactic in the opening:
@scacchista89 missed a win against @LllionKing in round 6:
@Ast_F, meanwhile, ground down @SmyslovFan in an opposite-coloured bishops endgame to catch @scacchista89 on points:
In the final four rounds, @Ast_F and @scacchista89 won all their remaining games. @scacchista89's earlier win over @Ast_F ensured that his tiebreak benefitted from every game @Ast_F won, thus keeping him just ahead.
This is what can happen when you out-rate your opponent by 1300 points:
@SmyslovFan beat @Grandmaster2B to wrap up third:
And the final standings:
