Thursday, March 7, 2019

2019 LCCC Blitz (5 min) Championship was a Success!

There were 15 players at the Club this Monday and 13 players entered the Blitz Tournament!

Our Tournament Director declared a 3 round event. So each player played their opponent 2 games each round. If you split the games - it was a drawn round.

Here are the top three finishers!

1st Place - Scott Marvel
2nd Place - Matt Trujillo
3rd Place - Ken Tack

Congratulations to the winners!

Playing speed chess can lead to some funny games and strange positions. But they can happen in regular chess also.

This strange draw was played from an opening that does not usually end in a draw. It's the type of swashbuckling opening used often in speed chess - the King's Gambit Accepted.
Your humble scribe apologizes for losing the names of the players and the tournament and year the game was played. I got rid of the magazine I found the game in after I ran the game thru Igor3000.
But Igor found a reference to a game with a similar conclusion in 1904!

1. e4            e5
2. f4            exf4
3. Nf3         g5
4. h4           g4
5. Ne5        Nf6
At this point, Black is up the pawn advantage (-1), but he must be able to hold off the White attacking chances on his open king side successfully.

6. Bc4          d5
7. exd5         Bd6
Igor says the game is back to EVEN at this point.

8. O-O         Bxe5
9. Re1          Qe7
10. c3           Nh5
Black takes a half pawn lead here according to Igor (-.4).

11. d4          Nd7
12. dxe5      Nxe5
13. b3          O-O

Position after 13. .......   O-O

What looks like a wild wide open game is back to EVEN and - according to Igor3000 - stays that way the rest of the game! Each player making moves that just keep the game EVEN the rest of the way!

14. Ba3          Nf3+
15. gxf3         Qxh4
16. Re5          Bf5
Igor3000 searched his data base and found this game between Gunsberg-Teichmann in London, 1904 - which finished 16. ....Qg3+ 17. Kh1, Qh3+  Draw agreed. As Igor stated - the position is EVEN. How come it looks so uneven?

17. Nd2          Qg3+
18. Kf1           Qh2
19. Bxf8         g3
20. Bc5           g2+
21. Ke1           Qh4+
22. Ke2           Ng3+
23. Kf2           Ne4+
24. Kxg2        Qg3+
25. Kh1          Qh3+
26. Kg1          Qg3+
Draw


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