Tactics Time Newsletter: Tri Lakes Open + Vegas
Published: Thu, 10/09/14
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his position comes from the game Rob Hartelt (1157) vs Robert Carlsen (1741), Tri Lakes Open, Round 1, October 4, 2014.
White to move. Answer below.
This past weekend was the Tri-Lakes Open in Monument Colorado. The final event for 2014 by the Gentlemen's Chess club, which puts on wonderful tournaments.
There was a really good turnout of 58 players, with everyone playing in one giant section.
A lot of the Colorado "big dogs" like Life Master Brian Wall, Chris Peterson, Gunnar Andersen, Kevin Seidler and other "regulars" in the 2100-2200 range were not there, so it was anybody's ballgame. In the end there was a two way tie for first between Ryan Swerdlin, and Shaun MacMillan, both with perfect scores.
There were very few draws, and none in the first two rounds.
You can see the results here: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201410050692-12718954
There were some people I had not seen in a while, which was nice. Ginny Gaige from Boulder was there. I asked her what brought her out. She said she had been watching the Sinquefield Cup coverage online, and it inspired her to go play! That's great!
My second round opponent was Alex Stiger. I looked at the pairing sheet and thought "OK some 1600 dude I have never heard of". Then I go to sit down and my opponent is an extremely attractive young woman! I guess Alex is short for Alexandra! (For those who have never been to a chess tournament, being paired against an extremely attractive young woman is not a very common occurrence lol).
Alex had actually just been at the 2014 Sinquefield cup, which I thought was really cool. We played on her board that was autographed by all 6 of the players there (Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Veselin Topalov, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave). In our game, I won a piece with a cheap tactic around move 12 (my bread and butter), then had to hold on for dear life as she mounted a viscous counter attack. It was a very fun and memorable game (which you can see here if you are interested: http://www.viewchess.com/cbreader/2014/10/6/Game809630899.html)
Then round 3, I did the same thing against Rhett Langseth (2023). Got a piece on a cheap tactic on move 18, then had to hold on for dear life in a counter attack, but this time I couldn't hold on, and my king got stuck in the middle, and I lost. This game was pretty soul crushing! Anthea had a really good tournament. She had to play her son Isaac in the final round. Isaac was rated 1995 going into the tournament, and if he had won, would have made it back to "expert" and a 2000+ rating. Anthea said "not on my watch!" (a long time Brian Wall joke) and took out her son, and helped herself to an all time high rating of 1877. Nice work Anthea!
Anyway, now I am actually in Las Vegas!!
I am here for the Millionaire Chess Open! http://millionairechess.com/
It is at the Planet Hollywood, and I flew in Wednesday afternoon after a half day at work (my job is pretty close to Denver airport).
One fun story - I was in line for the check in desk and making small talk with the guy in line in front of me. Maurice Ashley, the organizer and famous grandmaster was walking around. He spots me in the line, stops, and in a BOOMING voice says "MISTER! TACTICS! TIME!" and rushes over to meet me and shake my hand! I have never actually met Maurice in person, although I did do a podcast with him a few months ago to help him promote the event (http://tacticstime.com/podcast/maurice-ashley-podcast/). But he greeted me like I was his long lost best friend, and it was an amazing feeling.
Then, one of my newsletter readers, Keith Dunbar, who was two spots ahead of me in line, turns around and says "Oh! You're Tim Brennan! I love your newsletter! It has helped me a lot!" and shakes my hand and introduces himself, and thanks me for everything.
Then a THIRD guy says - Hey Tim! I am Morrey! We have played in a couple of tournaments in different states over the years! Congrats on your book!
At this point, the guy that I was making small talk with says "Wow! You are popular!" with a shocked look on his face. It was really funny (especially because I am in the same room as people who are famous Grandmasters like Gregory Kaidanov and Alex Shabalov).
So I really appreciated all the love and attention! That really made my day :-)
Here is the game in PGN [Site "Inn at Palmer Lake"] [Date "2014.10.04"] [Round "1"] [White "Hartelt, Rob"] [Black "Carlsen, Robert"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C00"] [WhiteElo "1157"] [BlackElo "1741"] [PlyCount "99"] 1. e4 e6 2. f4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. Nf3 a6 5. Be2 Nc6 6. O-O Nge7 7. f5 Nxf5 8. d4 Ncxd4 9. Bf4 Be7 10. Nbd2 Qb6 11. Nxd4 Nxd4 12. c3 Nxe2+ 13. Qxe2 Bd7 14. a4 O-O 15. Qg4 g6 16. Bh6 Rfd8 17. Qf4 Be8 18. Rab1 Bf8 19. Bxf8 Kxf8 20. Qf6 Kg8 21. Nf3 c4+ 22. Nd4 Rd7 23. Rf3 Qd8 24. Qf4 Kg7 25. Nxe6+ Kg8 26. Nxd8 Raxd8 27. Qh6 f5 28. exf6 Rf7 29. Re1 Bxa4 30. Re7 Rdf8 31. Rfe3 Bc6 32. Rg3 a5 33. Rxf7 Rxf7 34. Rxg6+ hxg6 35. Qxg6+ Kf8 36. Qh6+ Kg8 37. Qf4 a4 38. Qb8+ Kh7 39. Qd6 Kg6 40. Qa3 Rxf6 41. Qe7 Rf7 42. Qe3 Rf6 43. h4 Kf7 44. h5 Re6 45. Qf4+ Rf6 46. Qg5 Ke6 47. h6 Rf5 48. Qg8+ Ke5 49. h7 d4 50. h8=Q+ 1-0 You can play through this game here:
http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=95826 Answer:
BOOYAH!
This move forks the Black King and Queen, and black cannot capture the Knight because of 25...fxe6?? 26.Qf8#
Black has to move the King with either 25...Kh8 or 25...Kg8 and the White takes the Queen with 26.Nxd8
Nice tactic Rob!
Happy Tactics!
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