Thanks to your participation, the January 2022 edition of our Classical Thursday tournaments was a real success. Sixteen people from three different countries played and there were only a handful of byes forced on players. This counts as a major success compared to some of our past experiences so thanks again.
Round five saw Jonathan (@jpmunz) take clear first place with a victory over Denis (@denisbouchard). Denis played the relatively obscure Chigorin Queen's pawn opening and was already under pressure (maybe the Chigorin is obscure for a reason?) when he made an error on move 13 from which he never recovered. I saw Denis last night and it seems we are all convinced we should be able to beat Jonathan at least occasionally, but so far no one has found the magic formula to do so. Congratulations Jonathan !
At the other end of the tournament table, our young rising star Julian (@sausjulian) got his first win of the tournament by castling queen-side and launching an attack on John's (@hodjon) king. The game seesawed back and forth until after a bunch of exchanges Black found himself in a lost endgame.
The game Andrew (@perryand1971) vs Patrick (@vger) opened up very strangely when Patrick tried to simultaneously accept the Queen's Gambit and offer the Albin Counter-gambit. It did give him a small opening advantage that he could not exploit. Andrew slowly improved his position till by move 23 he had both the bishop pair and three extra pawns. Andrew didn't look back from there. Yours truly (@datasmith) was busy with other things in his life during the heyday of the Queen's Indian in the 80s and 90s and demonstrated that clearly enough in the game against Paul (@e3engineer). White did not make egregious blunders but just drifted along allowing Paul to seize the initiative and the only open file. Black refused to share either with the inevitable result : 0-1
Ron (@bigdata1969) and Daniel (@danieljames-dj) were the last to finish the round in an intense 26 move game. Unfortunately for Daniel, Ron was able to create and then exploit fatal weaknesses in the black king's castled position. This made for a pretty mate for the spectators and a nice way to finish up the tournament. The chance to get up and wander around the tournament hall to look at the other games has been one of the best parts of playing in this way for me. Even though each of us is at home I still get a sense that we are involved in a social activity together. I can even kibitz without whispering and when I go upstairs to bed at the end of the evening Elizabeth always asks me who I was talking to all that time :)
Here are the links to the games :
@denisbouchard v @jpmunz lichess.org/AtL2uRKW
@datasmith v @e3engineer lichess.org/n4T3isjHfE6O
@bigdata1969 v @danieljames-dj lichess.org/1KrckPfB
@perryand1971 v @vger lichess.org/88F0Y126
@sausjulian v @hodjon lichess.org/UEw5cAbf
And the final tournament standings :
4 1⁄2 @jpmunz (1929)
4 @E3Engineer (1953)
3 1⁄2 @bigdata1969 (1946)
3 @jcss64 (1822)
3 @datasmith (1753)
2 1⁄2 @sonicfalcon (1903)
2 1⁄2 @denisbouchard (1860)
2 1⁄2 @perryand1971 (1724)
2 @vger (1911)
2 @danieljames-dj (1845)
1 1⁄2 @sausjulian (1438)
1 1⁄2 @clons87 (1418)
1 @roflcopter11 (1515)
1 @hodjon (1501)
As I mentioned in the chat on Thursday, next week will be an informal evening during which we can hang out in the google meet, challenge someone else who shows up, chat about the types of events we would like to see in the future, etc. I will be bringing you a proposal for Feb 24th that you can weigh in on. After that, probably another tournament to begin on March 3rd.
If you want to be kept informed please join either the Online Classical News team (lichess.org/team/online-classical-news) or the Hemmingford Chess Club team (lichess.org/team/club-dechecs-de-hemmingford-chess-club) and I will make sure you get notified of all future events. Alternatively email me at echecs.hemmingford.chess@gmail.com and I will put you on the email list.
Round five saw Jonathan (@jpmunz) take clear first place with a victory over Denis (@denisbouchard). Denis played the relatively obscure Chigorin Queen's pawn opening and was already under pressure (maybe the Chigorin is obscure for a reason?) when he made an error on move 13 from which he never recovered. I saw Denis last night and it seems we are all convinced we should be able to beat Jonathan at least occasionally, but so far no one has found the magic formula to do so. Congratulations Jonathan !
At the other end of the tournament table, our young rising star Julian (@sausjulian) got his first win of the tournament by castling queen-side and launching an attack on John's (@hodjon) king. The game seesawed back and forth until after a bunch of exchanges Black found himself in a lost endgame.
The game Andrew (@perryand1971) vs Patrick (@vger) opened up very strangely when Patrick tried to simultaneously accept the Queen's Gambit and offer the Albin Counter-gambit. It did give him a small opening advantage that he could not exploit. Andrew slowly improved his position till by move 23 he had both the bishop pair and three extra pawns. Andrew didn't look back from there. Yours truly (@datasmith) was busy with other things in his life during the heyday of the Queen's Indian in the 80s and 90s and demonstrated that clearly enough in the game against Paul (@e3engineer). White did not make egregious blunders but just drifted along allowing Paul to seize the initiative and the only open file. Black refused to share either with the inevitable result : 0-1
Ron (@bigdata1969) and Daniel (@danieljames-dj) were the last to finish the round in an intense 26 move game. Unfortunately for Daniel, Ron was able to create and then exploit fatal weaknesses in the black king's castled position. This made for a pretty mate for the spectators and a nice way to finish up the tournament. The chance to get up and wander around the tournament hall to look at the other games has been one of the best parts of playing in this way for me. Even though each of us is at home I still get a sense that we are involved in a social activity together. I can even kibitz without whispering and when I go upstairs to bed at the end of the evening Elizabeth always asks me who I was talking to all that time :)
Here are the links to the games :
@denisbouchard v @jpmunz lichess.org/AtL2uRKW
@datasmith v @e3engineer lichess.org/n4T3isjHfE6O
@bigdata1969 v @danieljames-dj lichess.org/1KrckPfB
@perryand1971 v @vger lichess.org/88F0Y126
@sausjulian v @hodjon lichess.org/UEw5cAbf
And the final tournament standings :
4 1⁄2 @jpmunz (1929)
4 @E3Engineer (1953)
3 1⁄2 @bigdata1969 (1946)
3 @jcss64 (1822)
3 @datasmith (1753)
2 1⁄2 @sonicfalcon (1903)
2 1⁄2 @denisbouchard (1860)
2 1⁄2 @perryand1971 (1724)
2 @vger (1911)
2 @danieljames-dj (1845)
1 1⁄2 @sausjulian (1438)
1 1⁄2 @clons87 (1418)
1 @roflcopter11 (1515)
1 @hodjon (1501)
As I mentioned in the chat on Thursday, next week will be an informal evening during which we can hang out in the google meet, challenge someone else who shows up, chat about the types of events we would like to see in the future, etc. I will be bringing you a proposal for Feb 24th that you can weigh in on. After that, probably another tournament to begin on March 3rd.
If you want to be kept informed please join either the Online Classical News team (lichess.org/team/online-classical-news) or the Hemmingford Chess Club team (lichess.org/team/club-dechecs-de-hemmingford-chess-club) and I will make sure you get notified of all future events. Alternatively email me at echecs.hemmingford.chess@gmail.com and I will put you on the email list.