Hi Everyone, The Sluggers ran into some very bad luck last week and lost to the Los Angeles Vibe for the 2nd time this season. Seattles All-Stars all began seeing stars midway through the match, and the only knockouts the Sluggers landed were unfortunately on themselves! With this result, L.A. leap-frogged us and sits a half-point ahead in 2nd place in the Pacific Division. However, as we proved many times during the playoffs last season, the Sluggers thrive under pressure and are highly capable of rising to the occasion in must-win situations. Our season is not over yet! The match was held at the Orlov Chess Academy in Greenlake under the supervision of our TD Bert Rutgers. As usual, all games were played on chess. Super GM Timur Gareev made his second appearance on board 1 for the Sluggers this season against GM Melik Khachiyan, whom Georgi defeated in week 2 with a pair of knights against a queen. During a prep session the night before the match at Eddies house, Timur mentioned that he was 50% sure Melik would play the Slav against him. His prediction came true, and the two GMs entered the 6. Nh4 line, which is the 3rd most popular variation after 6. e3 and 6. Ne5. Melik seemed to be well prepared in this line and confidently retreated his bishop all the way back to c8. The game followed theory until move 13, where Melik improved with 13...Qb6!? instead of the more common Na6, as played by Nakamura against Carlsen in 2009. White won what looked at first to be a clean pawn, but black was able to liquidate to a pawn down bishop of opposite color ending that was drawn despite the rooks still being on the board. An interesting alternative for Timur would have been to sacrifice the exchange with 20. Rxa7, gaining two connected passers plus a bishop for the rook. The two GMs shook hands (virtually) on move 38 in a dead equal position. Georgi played board 2 against Idahos strongest player, IM-elect Luke Harmon-Vellotti, who now attends UCLA on a 4-year scholarship despite not being old enough to drive a car. The game began with an exchange Queens Gambit declined and followed the main line until move 11, where Luke deviated with Bxf6, giving away the bishop pair to launch a quick minority attack on the queenside. Georgi responded aggressively and redeployed his bishop on the b8-h2 diagonal via Be7-d6, declaring his intentions by aiming directly at whites king. It became apparent after only a few more moves that blacks threats on the kingside were far more dangerous than whites minority attack. Luke defended well by transferring his knights to the kingside to block the weakened diagonal, but Georgi piled on more pressure with the rook-lift Re8-e6-h6. White chewed up quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to defend his h2 pawn, but in the end decided to sacrifice it with 18. f4?!, after determining that 18. h3 is just too dangerous because of Bxh3. A critical position was reached in which Georgi had to calculate capturing the pawn and committing to an all-out kingside attack or declining it and playing to improve his position on the queenside. He chose the former and went for the pawn, only to miss a sneaky knight retreat that resulted in his queen getting trapped! Suddenly, Georgi was down by a queen for only a rook, and Luke converted his advantage without too much difficulty. Board 3 was a classic battle of youth vs. experience in which Roland faced veteran FM Mark Duckworth, who is more than 4 times his age. Roland tried to put the duck into Duckworth by establishing a dominant central pawn wedge and quickly grabbing a lot of space against blacks Czech Benoni set-up. With the center blocked, play began on the wings; Roland advanced his a-pawn to the fifth rank to freeze blacks two queenside pawns and Duckworth did the same with his h-pawn. After the somewhat exotic 13...Rh5, Roland lashed out with 14. g4!, opening lines on the kingside and invading with his knight to f5. Black responded well and traded the knight off, after which whites h-pawn was up for grabs. True to his style, Roland played quickly and sacrificed the pawn, after which he was able to castle long and invade with his other knight to b6. A few moves later, Roland opened the position with the well timed break 24. b4!, even at the risk of exposing his own king to attack with the opening of the queenside. A dynamic sequence of exchange sacrifices followed which left a highly unclear position in which both sides had a queen, two bishops, and two connected passed pawns. Given his time advantage and centrally located pawns that could advance with tempo, Roland seemed to have the advantage at this stage in the game. With his clock ticking down, Duckworth made a fatal error on move 35 with Bh3?, after which Roland seemed to be cruising to victory with 36. d6!, setting up a winning attack on the pinned dark-square bishop. In one last desperate attempt, Duckworth forced the trade of light-square bishops and went for a perpetual, which simply wasnt there unless white stepped his king to the wrong square. Unfortunately for Roland and the Sluggers, he played 38. Kg2??, when all other king moves win easily. The fans were stunned when Superking went on his final adventure via Kg2-g3-g4, and got mated on h4, a blow missed by all of the spectators except for Mark Smith and his computer. Michael played his second match of the season on board 4 against NM Madiyar Amerkeshev, one of Gareevs buddies from SoCal. This was predicted to be the toughest pairing for the Sluggers since Michael was playing up over 100 points with the black pieces. The game began with a Kings Indian Defense 5. Bg5, to which black replied by playing c5 and entering a benoni set-up. Michael chose the active 7...Qa5 favored by GMs Kempinski, Timoscenko, and Velimirovic among others, which discourages white from trading bishops on h6 due to the pin on the c3 knight. Whites central f4 break was well met by Omoris b5!, and black gained a strong initiative on the queenside with the advance of the b and c-pawns. Pretty soon, most of whites pieces had retreated to the first rank and Michael seemed to be outplaying his higher-rated opponent, at the cost of using up a lot of time on the clock to navigate the complications. In time pressure, Michael missed some promising continuations that could have secured him a lasting advantage and Amerkeshev was able to wiggle his way out of trouble. An objectively equal position in which only one minor piece had been traded was reached that required careful handling, and Michael was unable to hold it playing only on the 30-second increment. After some maneuvering, Amerkeshev was eventually able to take control of the light squares and exploit the somewhat weakened black king position. He then found the strong invasion 45. Qe6+!, which wins the loose bishop on f6 and with it the game. Final score of the match: Los Angeles 3.5 - Seattle 0.5 Next week we face the Arizona Scorpions for the second time this season with white on boards 2 and 4. The match will take place on Tuesday evening at 6:00 pm at the Orlov Chess Academy in Redmond.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 09:34:19 +0000
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