[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: US Championship, 11th North American FIDE Invitational (Whew!)

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
US Championship, 11th North American FIDE Invitational (Whew!)
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1211258581.shtml


   It looks like it was an incredible round at the [1]US Championships
   earlier tonight, with only one draw in the 12 games on the men's side
   (and likewise only one draw in five for the ladies). Most of the wins
   came on the black side, and that was the case for the top board. Yuri
   Shulman won a nice game against Becerra, and maintains a full point
   lead with 6/7. Kudrin and Onischuk have 5, while Friedel, Perelshteyn
   and Akobian have 4.5. Two rounds to go!
   A quick update on the women's event: Krush and Zatonskih, the top two
   seeds, were running away with the event with 5/5, but yesterday Krush
   was nipped for a draw and today Zatonskih dropped a full point.
   Tomorrow's game ought to decide the title, as they finally square off
   with Zatonskih enjoying the White pieces.
   Meanwhile, in my neck of the woods, I won a crazy war of a game
   against Aleksander Stamnov. (This game will almost definitely be
   covered in a ChessVideos show or two.) As far as I could tell from the
   databases, all Stamnov has played after 1.e4 e5, since approximately
   the dawn of mankind, is the Scotch. Naturally, I prepared for the
   Scotch, and so of course, he played the Center Game. Greeeeeat. That's
   an opening I'd faced twice in my entire tournament career, the last
   time 15 years ago, and hadn't really worked on it a great deal, to put
   it mildly.
   So I spent a lot of time pretty much from the get-go, figuring things
   out, including the teensy bit of theory I already knew, and played
   extremely well! By move 15, I was probably winning, but then things
   started to go wrong. Somewhere around moves 16-20, there might have
   been some way to really tighten the screws (but not with 16...Nf2 or
   17...Nf2 - Na4 in both cases makes things messy if not just good for
   White (unless I missed something)).
   Still, all was probably well until 21...Nxc2. It's not that I missed
   Qd3 ideas; it's that I didn't see the particular Qd3 version that
   occurred in the game until it was too late. At this point, I was
   losing or at least near-losing, but it didn't matter: there was still
   some fight to be had. After the queen trade around move 31, I was
   aware of some real drawing chances, and thought there might even be a
   funny repeat of the Tate ending where I draw with king against
   light-squared bishop and h-pawn.
   These were only hopes of a draw, but then came 34.g4. After this hasty
   move, 34...f5 pretty much insures a draw on the spot, though White can
   continue to play. And so he did, but not successfully - he was
   probably lamenting the lost opportunities, and maybe compounding his
   problems by thinking that he still "had to" win. From his reaction, it
   was clear that he missed 37...Rf3, and of course 39.Bd3 was a gift.
   Whether he missed 39...Rxd3+ or 43...c5, it came to the same thing: a
   decisive advantage for Black. And so, a 45 move win that felt like 70
   moves.

References

   1. http://monroi.com/the-2008-fkb-us-chess-championship-home.html