Nutmeg Sweep in Lake George by
Bill Townsend
Connecticut
players Daniel Lowinger and Zakhar Maymin tied for first at the 16th
New York State Open, held June 20 to 22 by Continental Chess in Lake George
Village in the southern Adirondacks.
Both were undefeated with 4-1 scores.
Clear third with 3½-1½ was Deepak Aaron, who less than a week before had
finished third in the U.S. Cadet championship in Kansas. Tied for fourth with 3-2 were: James
Hilunen, Haizhou Xu, Daniel Pomerantz and Daniel Minkin.
Local
player Glen Gausewitz won the Under-2000 section with 4-1. Glen gave up draws to Robert Wagner and Dan
Finehart, and won his other three games.
Tied for second with 3½-1½ were: Alex Fikiet, Dan Finehart and Andrew
Walker. A New Jerseyite, Walker won the
Under-1800 prize. Wilton Vought, Kapil
Chandran and Will Brooks tied for fifth with 3-2, with the last two players
splitting the second prize for Under-1800.
Makhmadamin
Madyavov dominated the Under-1600 section with a perfect 5-0 score. Tied in second place with 3 ½ points were:
Walter Chesnut, Alex Selden and Johann Tosov, with Tosov winning the Under-1400
prize. Tied for fifth with 3-2 were:
Kevin Brown, Daniel Johnson, Michaell Sliozberg, Indy Ma, Daniel Pike and unrated
Stephen Ruzbacki.
The
Under-1200 section was won by Vermont player Jonathan Kuehne, also with a
perfect 5-0 score. William Maier was
clear second with 4-1, losing only to Kuehne.
Five players tied for third with 3-2: Nate Stevens, Steven Brower, Mark
Ivanov, Lucas Marciano and Edward Sajdzikowski.
Although
this year’s Open section was a good deal weaker than last year’s overall
turnout was a bit better: 65 players competed in the four sections as opposed
to 63 at last year’s. Steve Immitt was
tournament director.
Here
is one of the two last round “money games” and it was also just about the last
game to finish in the entire event.
When Lowinger saw that White was
likely
to lose in Pomerantz-Maymin, he knew he
would
have to try to win in order to get a share of first place.
James Hiltunen (2050) – Daniel Lowinger (2200) [B07] 16th New York
State Open, round 5
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 d6 4.c3 Nf6 5.Bd3 0-0 6.0-0 b6 7.Nbd2 Bb7 8.Re1
Nbd7 9.Nf1 c5 10.Ng3 a6 11.h4 b5 12.a3 Qb6 13.Bd2 h5 14.Qe2 Ng4 15.d5?! It doesn't seem like White
should give up the e5 square so easily. 15...Nde5 16.Nh2 c4 17.Bc2 e6! The right
time for this break. Black is better
here. 18.Be3 Nxe3 19.Qxe3 Qd8?! After the game the players seemed
to think that 19...Qxe3 was better. 20.dxe6
fxe6 21.Rad1 Qe7 22.Ne2 Rf7 Black probably didn't play 22...Qxh4 because
of 23.Rxd6 but there's an interesting follow-up: 23...Qxh2+! 24.Kxh2 Ng4+ 25.Kg1 Nxe3 26.fxe3 Rad8 and Black seems
to be better than in the game. 23.f4 Nd7 24.Qg3 Nf8 25.e5 dxe5 26.fxe5 This
is about the position when I first saw the game, and I thought White was a
trifle better here. 26...Re8 27.Nd4 Bd5 28.Rf1 Bh6 29.Rxf7 Qxf7 30.Rf1
Qg7 31.Nhf3 Re7 32.Ng5 Nd7 33.Ne4? Bxe4? The game looks pretty even
after 33...Rf7 34.Nf6+ Nxf6 35.Bxg6 Rf8 36.Rxf6 Rxf6 37.exf6 Qxf6 38.Bxh5+ Kh7.
34.Bxe4 Kh7 35.Nc6 Re8 36.Qf3? White could win a pawn with
36.Qxg6+! Qxg6 37.Rf7+ Bg7 38.Bxg6+ Kxg6 39.Rxd7. 36...Kg8 37.Qg3 Rf8
38.Rxf8+ Nxf8 39.Nd4? Here is where the position starts to get away from
White. It was probably time to start
thinking about a possible draw with a move like 39.Qf2. 39...Bc1 40.Qf2?
The losing move. Better would have been 40.b4 cxb3 41.Nxb3 Bxa3 42.Nd4
but Black is probably winning in the long run. 40...Qxe5 41.Qc2 Bxb2
42.Qxb2 Qxe4 43.Qf2 e5 44.Nf3 Qf4 45.Qa7 e4 46.Ng5 e3 47.Qe7? Qf2+ 48.Kh2 Qf4+
More decisive was 48...Qxh4+ 49.Kg1 Qf2+ 50.Kh2 e2. 49.Kg1 e2 50.Nf3? White's
last hope was 50.Qxe2 and after
50...Qc1+ 51.Qf1 black has to decide if he wants to play a knight ending up a
pawn. 50...Qc1+ 51.Kf2 Qxc3 52.Kxe2 Qd3+ 0-1
At
the end of round four there were four players with 3-1, and here is the other
game between the possible winners.
This, however, was a much less tense affair with expert Maymin
outplaying Canadian junior Daniel Pomerantz handily.
Daniel Pomerantz (1871)–Zakhar Maymin (2162) [C10] 16th New York
State Open, round 5
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Bd3 c5 7.0-0 cxd4
8.Nxf6+ Nxf6 9.Bb5+ Bd7 10.Bxd7+ Qxd7 11.Qxd4 Qxd4 12.Nxd4 Bc5 13.Nb3 Bb6
14.Bf4 Ke7 15.Rad1 Rhd8 16.a4 a6 17.Bg5 h6 18.Bxf6+?! It seems pretty clear that
white would like a draw here, and he probably thinks that this exchange is
getting him closer to that goal, but what he's really doing is giving black an
ending with a much better minor piece.
Talking after the game, co-winner Daniel Lowinger said that when he saw
this move he thought that white was likely to lose because he didn't know how
to play the position. 18...Kxf6 19.Rfe1 Rac8 20.c3 Rc4 21.a5 Bc7 22.Rxd8 Bxd8 23.Rd1 Ke7
24.Kf1 Bc7 25.g3 g6 26.Ke2 Re4+ 27.Kf3?! Isolating the king on the kingside, which
ultimately allows black to win a pawn.
Better was 27.Kd3. 27...Re5 28.Ra1 Rb5 29.Nd4 Rxb2 30.Ra4 e5 31.Ne2 Rb5
32.c4 Rxa5 33.Rxa5 Bxa5 Two pawns up with a better minor piece, winning this will not be
too hard for Black. 34.Nc1 f5 35.Nb3 Bb4 36.Ke3 a5 37.Kd3 Kd6 38.f3 a4
39.Nc1 g5 40.g4 e4+ 41.fxe4 fxg4 42.Ne2 h5 43.Kd4 Bc5+ 44.Kd3 h4 45.Kc3 Ke5
46.Nc1 Kxe4 47.Nd3 Bd4+ 0-1
Here
is a game between Dan Lowinger and Deepak Aaron, featuring a lot of interesting
tactics. Deepak, who just turned 14 the
week before, has chess in his blood: his father, Ashok, is an expert and his
grandfather, visiting Indian IM Manuel Aaron, was Asia’s first player with a
FIDE title. His opponent here had
high praise for Deepak’s skills, calling him a “flawless tactician.”
Daniel Lowinger (2200) – Deepak Aaron (2068) [C51] 16th New York
State Open, round 4
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 The ancient Evans Gambit, used by Lowinger to
good effect in this event. 4...Bb6 5.b5 Na5 6.Be2 Nf6 7.d3 d5 8.exd5 Qxd5 9.0-0
0-0 10.Nc3 Qc5 11.Qe1 Bg4 12.a4 e4 13.Ba3 Qh5 It seems that Black can actually get away
with 13...exf3!? 14.Bxc5 fxe2 15.Nxe2 Bxc5 16.Qxa5 Bxe2 and he has three minor
pieces for his queen, less a pawn.
White has the advantage here, but this may be better for Black than the
game. 14.Nxe4 Nxe4 15.Bxf8 Nxf2 16.Rxf2 Bxf2+ 17.Kxf2 Bxf3 18.Bxf3 Qh4+
19.Kf1 Qxe1+ 20.Rxe1 Kxf8 The smoke has cleared and material is even,
however White's Bishop is a lot better than Black's Knight. 21.Re5 Rc8
22.Rc5 Ke7 23.Bg4 Kd6 24.Rg5 Rg8 25.Bf5 Now is the time for White to get
his pawn majority rolling with 25.c4! 25...g6 26.Be4 f5 27.Bf3 Ke5 28.Rg3
g5 29.Be2 Rg7 30.Ke1 b6 31.Re3+ Kd4 32.Kd2 g4 33.Re8 The game was close
to even, but over the last few moves the first player has been reasserting
himself and now things are again looking shaky for Black. 33...c6 34.g3
cxb5 35.axb5 Rg6 36.c3+ Kd5 37.Ke3 Rh6 38.Kf4 Nb7 39.Re5+ Kd6 40.d4? White
would be winning after 40.Rxf5 Rxh2 41.Bxg4 Nc5 42.d4. 40...Rxh2 41.Kxf5
h5 42.c4 Rg2 43.Kf4 Nd8 44.c5+ bxc5 45.dxc5+ Kd7 46.Bc4 Rc2 47.Bd3? White
misses a little tactic that allows black to erase much of his advantage. White would have every chance of winning
after 47.c6+ first. 47...Rxc5! 48.Rxc5 Ne6+ 49.Ke3 Nxc5 50.Bg6 h4! This
looks risky, but I think that black already sees the path to a forced draw.
51.gxh4 Ke7 52.Kf4 Kf6 53.Be8 Ne6+ 54.Kxg4 Nc7 55.Bd7 Nxb5! ½-½ Black
can give up his Knight for White's last queenside pawn because White is left is
a rook pawn which queens on the wrong color square, which can be blockaded by
the King.
Here’s
a game that requires a little background.
A few weeks before, scholastic player Patrick Chi of Niskayuna scored an
upset win over Glen Gausewitz at a local event. In that game Glen had the better position, but overreached with a
speculative sacrifice that is shown in this issue’s Capital District News. Perhaps informed by this previous
experience, Glen again gets a strong position, but this time when he sacrifices
it’s totally sound, and devastating.
Glen Gausewitz (1929) – Patrick Chi (1712) [B01]
16th
New York State Open Under 2000, round 3
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 c6 6.Bd3 Bg4 7.0-0 e6
8.Bf4 Be7 9.h3 Bh5 10.Re1 0-0 11.g4 Bg6 12.Ne5 White's position looks
dominating, but Black has a very solid setup and shouldn't be in trouble, at
least not yet. 12...Bxd3 13.Qxd3 Rd8 In retrospect Black should probably have kept this
rook where it was and played 13…Nbd7. 14.Qe3 Qb4? All it takes is one little
slip. White wouldn't have much of
anything after 14...Rf8. 15.Nxf7! Kxf7 16.Qxe6+ Kf8? Misses the
force of White's next move. Better, but
still losing for Black was 16...Kg6 17.Ne4! Better than the obvious 17.Qxe7
Qxe7 18.Rxe7 Rxd4 19.Be5 17...h6 18.c3 Qb6 19.Qxe7. 17.a3! (The
point! The Queen can no longer defend
e7.) 17...Qa5 18.Qxe7+ Kg8 19.Bc7 1-0