Tactics Time Chess Newsletter: Colorado Open 2012
Published: Wed, 09/05/12
| Newsletter Issue Colorado Open 2012 | Tactics Time | ||||||||
| Colorado Open 2012 | |||||||||
his position was sent to my from Jeff Baffo in an e-mail entitled "One of the coolest tactics ever!" from his game against Eric Montany in the 2012 Colorado Open, which was held this past weekend, September 1-2.
In the position on the right it is White to move.
Answer below. This past weekend the Colorado Open, and
Labor Day Weekend Chess Festival was held in Denver. You can see the flyer for the event here: http://www.coloradochess.com/pdf/2012-Festival-Flyer.pdf.
Labor Day weekend is a big weekend for chess in the US, and in Colorado it is no exception. This was one of the biggest tournaments in years for Colorado with about 120 chess players playing in the main event, the Colorado Open.
The event was held at the Sheraton in the Denver Tech Center (DTC), and offered really nice playing conditions. There was a special chess rate of only 62 dollars for a room, which was a really good deal. Grandmaster Alexander Yermolinsky was a special guest in the event. He did a simul on Friday night, playing 27 games. He won 24, and drew 3. Jason Loving, Rhett Langseth, and Justin Alter got draws against the GM.
Yermolinsky also played in the main tournament, and cruised to an easy victory with 4.5 points out of 5.
I was chatting with Mark Derby (a 1650 rated played) who drove down from South Dakota with Yermolinsky, and runs the South Dakota chess website, http://sdchess.org/. He had a funny story about how Yermo helped him do "home preparation" before his 5th round game.
They knew who Mark's opponent would be in the fifth round, so they looked up some games on the Colorado Chess website. Yermo saw some flaws in the way the opening was played in past games and planned out the first 10 moves that Mark should play and a plan of attack. Mark implemented these ideas, and won the last round game with these tips. His opponent had no idea that he was facing Grandmaster level home opening preparation!
I also got to meet Life Master Joel Johnson, author of Formation Attacks, and Formation Attack Strategies, who lives in Arizona, and was visiting Colorado.
On Sunday afternoon elections were held for the Colorado Chess officers. The winners were:
Obi brings a strong background of fundraising, and working with companies to get donations to help chess, and has everyone excited about some of the possibilities.
They also gave out prizes for the "Colorado Tour", which rewards the players for being the most active, and getting the most "tour points". Winners were:
A vote was taken in regards to changing the tour formula, and result was to NOT change the Colorado Tour formula. Overall it was a really wonderful event. Huge turnout, great prizes, great playing conditions, special guests, nice side events, and was a great time! Thanks to the organizers and TDs for doing such a great job!
Jeff wrote: Check out the mind numbing combo I coulda, shoulda, woulda had vs Eric Montany! Here is the complete game:
[Event "Colorado Open"] [Site "In my dreams"] [Date "2012.09.02"] [Round "4"] [White "Baffo, Jeffrey"] [Black "Montany, Eric"] [Result "Bitter regret forever"] [ECO "Queen's Knight Attack"] [WhiteElo "1871"] [BlackElo "2194"] 1. Nc3 Nf6 2. f4 d5 3. e3 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Be2 O-O 6. O-O c5 7. Qe1 d4 8. Nd1 Nc6 9. Nf2 Nd5 10. a3 e5 11. fxe5 dxe3 12. dxe3 Nxe5 13. e4 Nc7 14. c3 Ne6 15. Nxe5 Bxe5 16. Ng4 Qc7 17. Qh4 Ng7 18. Nh6+ Kh8 (Here, in the actual game I played the namby-pamby 19.Be3 but if only I had seen...) 19. Rxf7!! Rxf7 20. Qd8+ 1/2-1/2
Jeff wrote: "Here, in the actual game I played the namby-pamby 19.Be3 but if only I had seen... 19. Rxf7!! Rxf7 20. Qd8+". This wins a pawn for white.
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© Copyright 2011-2012 Timothy Brennan, All Rights Reserved. | |||||||||
"If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world." ~ Mercedes Lackey 
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