It is in the nature of swiss system pairings that as the tournament progresses games become more competitive and less predictable for everyone. Our tournament is not different and most of the games played on Thurdsday were pretty interesting.
That said, the differences between the strongest and weakest players in our group are quite large and means some games are still fairly unequal contests. Two new players joined us, Daniel (@danieljames-dj who got up very early in the morning to join us from Kerala) and Joaquin (@Nacraf18) who faced off against each other. Joaquin won a pretty straightforward game as he took advantage of an early blunder that cost Daniel a piece. Codie (@clons87) had to face Jacques (@jcss64) and after very respectable opening play made an error that cost him a key pawn on e6 that pretty much allowed Jacques the freedom of the board for the rest of the game.
Bobby Fischer and Denis (@denisbouchard) have much in common but Denis' affection for his knights is not one of them. Bobby was deadly with the bishop pair while as I have noted in previous tournament reports, Denis seems to do well with his knights. This was on display again on Thursday in his game with Andrew (@perryand1971) where it appeared the knights would romp to victory. Andrew held on though and was able to trade down to a drawn ending.
The truth of the adage that 'a little knowledge is a dangerous' thing was on display in Joe (@SonicFalcon) vs yours truly (@datasmith). The little knowledge in question is the idea that in the Sicilian Black can often win by an exchange sacrifice on c3. That this is most often the case when the White king has castled long and can be subject to an attack seems to have escaped Black. White simply accepted the gift and went on to consolidate his position. In a piece of undeserved luck Black still managed a win in an ending marred by time pressure induced errors on both sides (Oh look! A rook hanging on c4!)
On our top boards we got to see some very interesting chess. Patrick (@vger) and Ron (@BigData1969) carried on a really interesting debate about the relative merits of different pawn breaks. I love the position they reached after 27...f4 in which two sets of connected passed pawns are standing back to back. A pretty tense game to play I expect but lots of fun to watch.
The game between our top seed Paul (@E3Engineer) and wunderkind Jonathan (@jpmunz) saw a long and complicated debate being held about pawn structures. Neither side ever held a decisive advantage until the game simplified into an endgame. Again we have an illustration of how endgame study could help us all. The analysis engine sees the position after move 42 as pretty much drawn. In this deceptively simple position the game was then decided by an exchange of multiple blunders that most of us would not even recognize as such until much too late. As usual, it was Jonathan who figured out how to make the penultimate one :)
Thank you all for playing and I am looking forward to Round 4 !
Here are the links to the games:
E3Engineer v jpmunz lichess.org/OyJNU2pW
vger v BigData1969 lichess.org/23mPBWk4
SonicFalcon v datasmith lichess.org/w5mtsBeP
perryand1971 v denisbouchard lichess.org/UreeYSY4
jcss64 v clons87 lichess.org/fl6gsMjn
danieljames-dj v nacraf18 lichess.org/bmKTTOgH
And the current standings:
3 jpmunz (1929)
2 E3Engineer (1953)
2 bigdata1969 (1946)
2 vger (1911)
2 nacraf18
2 jcss64 (1822)
2 datasmith (1753)
1 1⁄2 denisbouchard (1860)
1 1⁄2 perryand1971 (1724)
1 sonicfalcon (1903)
1 danieljames-dj
1 hodjon (1501)
1 clons87 (1418)
1⁄2 sausjulian
0 roflcopter11 (1515)
David
That said, the differences between the strongest and weakest players in our group are quite large and means some games are still fairly unequal contests. Two new players joined us, Daniel (@danieljames-dj who got up very early in the morning to join us from Kerala) and Joaquin (@Nacraf18) who faced off against each other. Joaquin won a pretty straightforward game as he took advantage of an early blunder that cost Daniel a piece. Codie (@clons87) had to face Jacques (@jcss64) and after very respectable opening play made an error that cost him a key pawn on e6 that pretty much allowed Jacques the freedom of the board for the rest of the game.
Bobby Fischer and Denis (@denisbouchard) have much in common but Denis' affection for his knights is not one of them. Bobby was deadly with the bishop pair while as I have noted in previous tournament reports, Denis seems to do well with his knights. This was on display again on Thursday in his game with Andrew (@perryand1971) where it appeared the knights would romp to victory. Andrew held on though and was able to trade down to a drawn ending.
The truth of the adage that 'a little knowledge is a dangerous' thing was on display in Joe (@SonicFalcon) vs yours truly (@datasmith). The little knowledge in question is the idea that in the Sicilian Black can often win by an exchange sacrifice on c3. That this is most often the case when the White king has castled long and can be subject to an attack seems to have escaped Black. White simply accepted the gift and went on to consolidate his position. In a piece of undeserved luck Black still managed a win in an ending marred by time pressure induced errors on both sides (Oh look! A rook hanging on c4!)
On our top boards we got to see some very interesting chess. Patrick (@vger) and Ron (@BigData1969) carried on a really interesting debate about the relative merits of different pawn breaks. I love the position they reached after 27...f4 in which two sets of connected passed pawns are standing back to back. A pretty tense game to play I expect but lots of fun to watch.
The game between our top seed Paul (@E3Engineer) and wunderkind Jonathan (@jpmunz) saw a long and complicated debate being held about pawn structures. Neither side ever held a decisive advantage until the game simplified into an endgame. Again we have an illustration of how endgame study could help us all. The analysis engine sees the position after move 42 as pretty much drawn. In this deceptively simple position the game was then decided by an exchange of multiple blunders that most of us would not even recognize as such until much too late. As usual, it was Jonathan who figured out how to make the penultimate one :)
Thank you all for playing and I am looking forward to Round 4 !
Here are the links to the games:
E3Engineer v jpmunz lichess.org/OyJNU2pW
vger v BigData1969 lichess.org/23mPBWk4
SonicFalcon v datasmith lichess.org/w5mtsBeP
perryand1971 v denisbouchard lichess.org/UreeYSY4
jcss64 v clons87 lichess.org/fl6gsMjn
danieljames-dj v nacraf18 lichess.org/bmKTTOgH
And the current standings:
3 jpmunz (1929)
2 E3Engineer (1953)
2 bigdata1969 (1946)
2 vger (1911)
2 nacraf18
2 jcss64 (1822)
2 datasmith (1753)
1 1⁄2 denisbouchard (1860)
1 1⁄2 perryand1971 (1724)
1 sonicfalcon (1903)
1 danieljames-dj
1 hodjon (1501)
1 clons87 (1418)
1⁄2 sausjulian
0 roflcopter11 (1515)
David