LCCC Player Shines at the 2015 Michigan Action Tournament! - Week 6 League Complete

Even a busy chess player like Zorro took the time to record his games!

Lets start with the league play:

The 49'ers continued their dominance over the rest of the league with a 2 - 0 win over the Flyers - and their 1st board did not even play yet! Ken T will play Vince V Monday but it won't affect the standings.

The Tigers defeated the Thunder 2.5 - .5 in the other match.

Congratulations to Paul M, Tom H, Nick D and Sam T on their victories. Gene M and Tim R fought to a tough draw.

The standings and Round 7 pairings will be posted here soon, but the next round is not until January 11, 2016 - so there is no rush.

The star of the day is LCCC's Gene McClure who just played outstanding in the 2015 Michigan Action tournament. This "Action" tournament means that the games were played with a time limit of 30 minutes per player with a 5 second delay for each move. The 'delay' means that if you can make your next move in under 5 seconds, no time is taken off your 30 minute allotment.

This quicker time control leads to some very wild finishes and plenty of blunders. But it is a fun event. The faster time limit allows for more rounds with different opponents in a day and leads to upset!

Gene was gracious enough to annotate one of his wins from this tournament. And he acknowledged that getting 'battle hardened' at LCCC was part of the reason for his success in this tournament. But you still have to be "on" your game and Gene was this day.

Gene's notes will be shown in normal type, Rybka in (  ) and Igor3000's comments in [  ]. Enjoy!

The key position is after 34. b4, where he allows my Queen to attack.  I win a pawn at move 18, but he has compensation and Rybka says he equalizes.

McClure(1529) v. Chris Schmidt(1883)  Game in 30, 5 sec. delay

1. e4      c5
2. c3      d5
3. exd5  Qxd5
4. d4      cxd4
5. cxd4  Nc6
6. Nf3    Bg4
7. Be2    e6 
(7....Bxf6?! 8. Bxf6 Qxd4?? loses to Bxc6+)

8. h3      Bxf3
9. Bxf3   Qd7
10. Be3  Rd8
11. Bxc6  Qxc6
12. 0-0    Nf6
13. Nc3   Be7          [ = : Rybka and Igor3000]
14. Rc1   0-0

White to move after 14. ........O-O by Black.

{Diagram}

15. a4     ........
I wanted to post my Knight on b5 and pressure his Queen on the c-file with my Rook.  Rybka prefers 15. Qb3 to allow Nb5.

15.  .......    Rdc8
16. Nb5      Qd7?! 
(+0.6 : Rybka; if protect a-pawn with.....Qa6: -0.2)

17. Rxc8     Rxc8
18. Nxa7     Ra8
19. Nb5       Nd5
20. b3         Rc8
21. Qg4       .........
[Better was 21. Qd3. The queen still pressures Black's king-side but better supports the queen-side also.]

21. ........      Bf6
22. h4?!       .........
(= : Rybka; if 22. Qg3 : +0.6)

23.  .......      Qe7?! 
(+0.5 : Rybka; if 22......Nc3 : = )

23. h5         Qb4
24. Qd1 !     Nc3
[Igor3000 says (+.8) with 24. .......Qe7 or h6, but with Black's weak reply (+1.2)]

25. Nxc3  Qxc3
26. h6       g6? 
(+2.2 : Rybka) [Yes, 26. .......Qb4 was best for Black but hard to see with a shrinking clock time. Big lead for Gene and the White pieces now.]

27. d5?     ..........
(+0.6: Rybka; if 27. Qf3! Bxd4, 28. Bxd4 Qxd4, 29. Qxb7 : +3.1) [Gene's error allows for the upcoming pin of his d-pawn. Time trouble is looming for both players. It is the nature of the event.]

27. ......       Rd8
28. d6         Qc6?! 
(+1.5 : Rybka; if....28......Be5: +0.7) [Igor has the text move and Be5 at (+.7)]

29. Bf4?     e5!
(+0.2 : Rybka; if 29. Qf3! and trade Queens: +2.0)
[The game is back to even now. So who will handle this complex position the best under time pressure? That is an easy answer - the good guy from LCCC, that's who!]

30. Bg3     Rxd6
31. Qe2     Qd5
32. Rc1      Rd8
33. Re1      Re8

White to move after Black's 33. .......   Re8

{Diagram}
34. b4        Qd4? 
(+1.0 : Rybka; if 34......Bg5 : =)
[34. Qd1 was called for (+.2) instead of (-.3) with 34. ......Bg5]

35. Qb5 !    Rd8? 
(+2.0 : Rybka; Time pressure probably impacted him at this point, as we both had less than 2 minutes)

36. Qxb7      Qd2
37. Rf1        Qxh6
38. Qc7?      
(+0.8 : Rybka; if 38. a5 ! : +2.4)
[The old chess adage, "Passed pawns must be pushed!" applies here.]

38. .......         Qd2
39. b5            Ra8?? 
(+5.0 : Rybka; if 39........Qe2 : +0.9)
[The final nail in Black's coffin]

40. b6 !          Qb4
41. Qc6 !       Qxa4?? 
(+16.0.  After taking the Bishop, the b-pawn will Queen and mate follows).

42. Qxf6         Re8
43. Bxe5        Kf8
44. b7            Resigns

A fine win by Gene M! 
Gene scored 4 points out of a possible 6 and finished tied for 1st in his class and ahead of everyone in his 100 point rating bracket. Gene scored two wins over players rated much higher than himself.

Great job Gene!