Tactics Time Chess Newsletter: Colorado Class

Published: Thu, 05/14/15

Newsletter Issue Colorado Class

Tactics Time

Colorado Class

Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself. ~ Paul Bryant


T

his position comes from the game Justin Alter vs Chris Peterson, Round 1, Colorado Class Championship, played this past weekend in Denver.

In the position on the right it is Black to move.

Answer below.

   This past weekend was both the Colorado Class Championships and the Colorado Blitz Championships.

   The tournaments were held at the Sheraton in the Denver Tech Center.

   There were 58 players in the Colorado Class and 28 players in the Blitz Championship.

   Here are the winners of the Class Championship

Master/Expert: Brian Wall
Class A: Mark Krowczyk
Class B: Akshat Jain
Class C: Eric Barkemeyer
Class D: Nelson Perez
Class E: Dan Prutz

   Congrats!

   You can see the full rating report here: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201505104562

   Each of the winners will be invited to compete in the annual New Mexico vs Colorado Team Match. New Mexico is holding their class championships this weekend, to determine who their representatives will be. Last year Colorado was crushed by our friends to the south, so hopefully this year we can redeem ourselves!

   In the Blitz Championship Philipp Ponomarev scored a perfect 6 out of 6. Philipp also raised his provisional blitz rating to 2418! Wow!

   Daniel Herman also had an impressive performance in the blitz tournament finishing clear second with 5 out of 6.

   The time control used was Game 3, with a 2 second delay. Meaning you only get 3 minutes to start, and 2 seconds to make your move before the clock starts ticking. The games were played under USCF blitz rules (touch move, etc).

   You can see the full rating report here: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201505094132

   There was some unfortunate controversy in the main Class Championship. One player was given a loss after her phone went off during the game. Before the tournament it was announced that any phone ringing would result in a forfeit loss, and so the main tournament director, Paul Covington, was forced to enforce that rule. So that was too bad. My guess is that future Colorado tournaments will not implement such a harsh rule.

Here is the complete game:

[Event "2015 Colorado Class Championship"]
[Site "DTC Sheraton"]
[Date "2015.5.9"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Alter, Justin"]
[Black "Peterson, Christofer"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "2025"]
[BlackELO "2155"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. e3 Bg7 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 c5 7. O-O cxd4 8.
Nxd4 e5 9. Nf3 e4 10. Nd4 Nc6 11. cxd5 Nb4 12. Bc4 Ng4 13. Be2 Qh4 14. h3 Ne5
15. f4 exf3 16. Nxf3 Nxf3+ 17. Bxf3 Be5 18. a3 Bxh3 19. axb4 Bxg2 20. Bxg2
Bh2+

0-1

You can play through this game here: https://www.denverchess.com/games/view/8742

Answer: Chris is really good about sending me games with his tactics. The problem is that most of them are so deep and complicated that I can barely understand them without a 3000+ rated computer program spoon feeding me the ideas!

Chris is also really good about knowing when and how to sacrifice pieces for pawns in front of his opponent's king. Here he took out White's kingside with a "fishing pole" style attack, and finished his opponent off with the mating pattern 20...Bh2+ 21.Kh1 Bg3+ 22.Bh3 Qxh3+ 23.Kg1 Qh2#

Happy Tactics!

Your Friend,

   P.S. This weekend is the tournament I have been waiting for, and have had circled on my calendar - the Denver Chess Club's ATTACK OF THE CLONES! https://www.denverchess.com/tournaments/tla/attackoftheclones2015

   Every entrant registers as himself but can also register up to two "clones", with a maximum of three entries. No one plays themselves.

   Clones play simultaneously, so each round a player with two clones will get three pairings. All games are rated as normal.

   I will be playing with 2 "Clones" - meaning I will be playing 3 USCF rated games at the same time.

   Should be fun!!

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