Hi Sluggers Fans, The Sluggers came up short in a couple of close matches that could have gone either way, and we now find ourselves with a 1-3 record in 5th place in the Western Division. We are currently 1 match point out of playoff contention right behind San Fran and Arizona. The bright spot of the season so far has been the dominate performance of our fourth board, which now stands as the only undefeated board 4 in the entire league! The Sluggers management continues to try new strategies to generate points from the top boards, a difficulty we have encountered since parting ways with our Super-GMs that we had in previous seasons. Week 3 Recap: Seattle Sluggers vs. Philadelphia Inventors The Sluggers faced the Eastern Division-leading Philadelphia Inventors in the first of four inter-division matches this season. This was a messy match in which the Sluggers came out on the worse end of a few time scrambles and even mouse-slipped twice in the same game. Board 1: Emil faced IM Bartell in a rematch of last years week 4 encounter, in which Bartell won game of the week honors. This time, Emil came much better prepared, sporting his Princess Leia noise-cancelling head phones, and steered the game into the calm waters of the Caro-Kann instead of the wild Kings Indian. Out of the classical variation main line, white obtained the usual slight edge and castled long. Emil opted for the somewhat rare 14.Qe2, an line he had once analyzed with Ivanchuk. Bartell responded logically by placing his knight on d5 and doubling on the d-file. By move 20, a critical position was reached in which white must decided whether to pursue his expansion on the kingside via g4-f5 or try and play against blacks weak pawn on c6. Emil chose the latter, but Bartell muddied the waters considerably with the unexpected zwischenzug 25...Rd4. White could have kept the advantage with the maneuver 26.Qc3 Bxb4 27.Qf3, but Emil was unable to find it in his time pressure and soon Bartell took over the initiative. Emil tried valiantly to defend, but Bartell converted his advantage flawlessly and soon won the game. Board 2: Costin defended against FM Dov Gormans off-beat line in the English opening. His fingers were still sticky after eating one of Eddies Top Pot donuts and he seemed to have trouble inputting his moves into Dasher, one of the graphical user interfaces for ICC. Apparently, Costin prefers the point-and-click input method instead of drag-and-drop, which was the default setting in Dasher. On move three, Costin made a mouse-slip with e6 instead of e5, which was promptly dealt with and corrected. The game continued and the players followed Klinger-Minasian 1989 until move 11 when Costin deviated with 11...Qe8 intending Qf7 with counterplay against whites weak c-pawn. Gorman responded aggressively and soon had his knights on b5 and g5 striking at both wings. On move 15, Costin surprised the fans and his opponent with 15...Ne5, after which Gorman went into a long think. Dov missed his best chance for the advantage with 16.fxg4 fxg5 17.e4!, and instead retreated his knights, which gave Costin some time to improve his position. Soon, a Maroczy bind structure was reached which seemed clearly better white until Costin found 23...g4! undermining the white center pawns. A messy time scramble ensued in which Gorman won the exchange but Costin had a nicely outposted knight and a few extra center pawns. Unfortunately for Costin and the Sluggers, a second mouse-slipped happened just as black was about to recapture the knight on c8. Had the mouse-slip been avoided, play might have continued: 40...Rxc8 41.Rhg1 Qe4 42.Qxe4 dxe4 when white is still better but has plenty of chances. Board 3: Tian fearlessly entered the McCutcheon variation of the French defense against FM Rodion Rubenchik. Prior to the match, Tian went to Subway and ordered a Pastrami Reuben sandwich to psych himself up for the game, but in hindsight he should have also ordered some French fries. Tian avoided the sharp main line 8.Qg4 and instead played the less ambitious 8.Bd3, which seems to score well for black. Rubenchik was the first to deviate from theory with 11...0-0, instead of the much more common developing move 11...Nc6. After a liquidation of some of the central pawns, Tian seemed to have some pressure while chasing around blacks unstable queen and knight. On move 17, white missed his chance for a long-term bind with 17.c5! Nd7 18.Qa5, when it is difficult for black to untangle his queenside. Instead, Tian went astray with 17.cxd5, after which Rubenchik was able to catch up in development and consolidate his position in the center. In a slightly worse position, Tian blundered badly with the aggressive 27.h4?? instead of the much more sensible h3 and soon found his king under heavy attack. As time pressure approached, Rubenchick missed several clear wins and Tian was lucky to escape with a perpetual. Board 4: Newly minted National Master Samuel He made his Sluggers debut against NM Angel Hernandez-Carmen. Samuels identical twin brother Daniel, who is also a master, had to be kept off the premises during the match in order to prevent the Chinese flip-flop, in which the two brothers switch spots midway through the game without anyone noticing! Samuel chose the solid Slav defense and white played 6.Nh4, a move popularized by GM Boris Avrukh is in 1.d4 Grandmaster Repertoire books. Black was the first to deviate from standard theory with 9.dxc4, after which white seemed to have a pleasant advantage with the bishop pair and more space. A critical position was reached on move 19, when Hernandez-Carmen hurried things a bit with 19.d5 instead of the more accurate 19.Qxb4 first. Samuel had a nice opportunity to trade off one of whites bishops with 19...Qxc4 20.Bxc4 Nb6 21.Bxb6 axb6, but instead played the centralizing move 19...Ne5, which allowed white to keep his two Rabbis. Soon an ending was reached in which Samuel was finally able to exchange one of Hernandez-Carmens bishops, and slowly but surely Samuel outplayed him in a R+N vs. R+B endgame. After a trade of rooks, blacks advantage became decisive, and he converted the advantage without too much difficulty. Congratulations to Samuel for his first win as a Slugger! Final score of the match: Philadelphia 2.5 - Seattle 1.5 Week 4 Recap: Rio Grande Ospreys vs. Seattle Sluggers The Sluggers battled the new expansion team from Brownsville TX, the Rio Grande Ospreys, in a top-heavy match in which both teams brought out their big guns. In a deja vu from week 3, the board results were exactly the same and the Sluggers lost a close match by the narrowest of margins. Board 1: Georgi made his season debut against Canadas top player, GM Anton Kovalyov, who now plays board 1 for the University of Texas at Brownsville. The game started with a Catalan Opening from which Georgi chose the open variation with 6...dxc4, and soon sacrificed a piece for three pawns and a weakened white king. Both players seemed comfortable with the position and Kovalyov continued to play extremely fast as they followed Saric-Perhinig 2005 until black deviated with 15...Nc5 instead of 15...Bc5. Soon a highly dynamic position was reached in which black seemed to have a clear edge with his strongly placed knight on d3 and rolling center pawns. In time pressure, just as Georgi was getting ready to cash in his chips, he blundered badly with 26...c3??, simply missing 28.Qxc5 stopping his passer. Instead, he should have played 26...Bxf3 27.Bxf3 Qxh2 when white has to find 28.Nh5 c3 29.Qxe7 gxh5 and bail out with a perpetual. After this unfortunate blunder, blacks position was lost and white won easily. Board 2: Emil faced the league MVP points leader, GM Andrey Stukopin, in what was to be the Sluggers first GM vs. GM game of the season. Play began with a Sicilian Richter-Rauzer in which Stukopin used the tricky move-order 9...Bd7-Qc7-b5 to keep flexibility and not commit his king too early in the game. Emil responded well by adopting an English-attack set-up and castling long, a choice he has made in most of his white games. A theoretical battle continued for 15 moves until Emil deviated with 16.Ng3 instead of closing the center with 16.e5, which was played in Korneev-Leminski 2004. In the next few moves, white chose a slow plan and black was able to seize the initiative on the queenside simply by advancing his a and b pawns down the board. Emil did everything he could to create chances on the kingside with 23.g5, but Stukopins strong response 23...h5 sealed the g and h files and guaranteed black the superior game with his bishop pair and safer king. As time pressure approached, whites position became untenable as he faced pins on the 4th rank, d-file, and b1-h7 diagonal. Stukopin landed the decisive blow with 32...Bxa3!, after which Emil appropriately resigned facing heavy material loss. Board 3: Roland decided to switch it up and played the Rubinstein Varation of the French against WGM Katerina Nemcova, a long-lost relative of former Slugger WGM Katerina Rohonyan. Both sides castled short and white obtained the usual advantage of slightly better activity and some kingside attacking chances. Roland was the first to deviate from theory with 12...Bd6 instead of the neutralizing 12...Bd5, and soon found himself under pressure after the inaccurate 15...Be4 instead of the more principled pawn exchange 15...cxd4, leading the equal chances. Nemcovas rook lift looked ominous for Roland, and it was soon clear after 18.g4! that black was in serious trouble. In an attempt to confuse matters, Roland tried 18...Bxe5, expecting 19.gxf5 and fxe6, when white stands clearly better. Instead, Nemcova recaptured on e5 and started a menacing attack down the newly opened g-file. Despite a lot of extra time on the clock, there was little Roland could do but defend tenaciously in a lost position and hope that his opponent missed something converting her advantage. Amazingly, Rolands efforts were rewarded on move 37 when Nemcova moved her king to the wrong square! Had she played the correct 37.Kh1, play might have continued 37...Rd1+ 38.Kg2 Qg7 39.e7+ Qxe7 40.Rxf6+ winning easily for white. Instead, she played 37.Kg2, which leads to a drawn B+3P vs. R ending. A fantastic escape by Roland! Board 4: David had a blind date on the bottom board with WIM Alejandra Guererro, who is 20 years his senior. They seemed to start off on the wrong foot however when David unexpectedly played 2.e4 and offered to enter the sicilian, which likely caught Guererro by surprise. The game transposed into the main line of the accelerate dragon, when Guererro tried to return the favor with a rather dubious looking pawn sac 9.b5, a gift which David graciously accepted. After the somewhat inaccurate retreat 11.Nd4 instead of the superior 11.a4, black seemed to obtain strong compensation for the pawn with Benko-style play on the queenside. David provocatively attempted manual castling with 14.Kf2, after which Guererro could have punished him with the thematic combination 14...Neg4!+ 15.fxg4 Rxc3, when it appears that the best white has 16.Kg1 with a shaky position. After this missed opportunity, the momentum shifted Davids way and he was able to consolidate his extra pawn. By move 25, Guererro inexplicably got her rook trapped on b4, and David converted up the exchange with nice technique. Considering how this one went, a second date does not seem likely. Final score of the match: Rio Grande 2.5 - Seattle 1.5 This Wednesday we face the Atlanta Kings, one of the leagues new expansion teams, with white on boards 1 and 3. The match will take place at 6:00 pm at the Orlov Chess Academy in Redmond. Remember that the time control for this match will be G/60 + 30 sec. increment since we are playing across time zones. Lets turn things around with a big win this week. Go Sluggers!
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 05:38:00 +0000
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