Final 960 Round Monday - Casual Chess on 080116

A small, well organized chess library is important to a chess player.

We had ten players for casual chess night! In addition to some fun chess played, Jason went over some grandmaster games giving insight into how the top players think and evaluate positions.

Great stuff! This is why LCCC is the place to be to not only play chess, but to get better at it.

The final round of the 2016 LCCC 960 tournament will happen this Monday. But if you want to play chess, there will be several players milling about who are not playing in the tournament. So stop on by. Or come in and watch some great chess played from some really weird starting positions.

Here is the line up for the last round of the 960 tournament (white listed first):

Board 1:  Ken T - Jason M
Board 2:  Vince V - Gene M
Board 3:  Mike N - Paul M    (game drawn by agreement)
Board 4:  Don J - Sam T
Board 5:  Luigi M - Americo M
Board 6:  Luca M - Marcello M
Board 7:  Roy M - Larry W

Here is an on-line game for your enjoyment:

1. e4      e6
2. f4      d5
3. e5      c5
4. Nf3      Ne7
5. b3      Nbc6
6. Bb2      Nf5
7. Bb5      Bd7
8. Qe2      Nb4
Black plays for a silly fork instead of developing and getting ready to castle with Be7. Now the slight advantage Black had (-.6) due to his well posted knights is gone. (-.1)

9. Bxd7+   Qxd7
10. d3       Be7
11. c3       Nc6
12. Nbd2?    h6
For White, the ugly looking 12. Na3 would have given White help on his weak d4 square. (-.6)

13. g4      Nh4
14. O-O-O      Nxf3
15. Qxf3       Qc7
16. Kb1      b5
17. h4       a5
18. c4      bxc4
19. dxc4      d4

Black finally gets around to taking the d4 square and gains space. Too bad he traded off his active pieces first. (-.3)

20. g5?       Kd7?
Both players miss the best move for both ......a4!
For White this move better secures White's king, and for Black - it opens up the a-file to the White king. The same square for different objectives.

Black instead plays a move to connect his rooks so they can go to either side of the board quickly. With the center blocked, his king is fine there. Now White will try to open the center. The game is even.


21. Ne4      Qb6?!
This move allows 22. Nf3! as the knight cannot be taken due to the skewered Black king, and White has no defensive worries at that point (+.2).

22. Ba3?     .........
White does not use the tactic available to him and instead makes a poor attempt to keep Black's knight from b4. Black finally seizes his opportunity.

22. ........        a4!
23.  Bc1       axb3
Black plays the 5th best move here (-1.3) with the superior 23. .....Na5 available (-1.7). But either way Black has all the play now. White blunders under the new pressure on his king that he failed to  see, but even the better 24. axb4 would not have saved the game. This blunder was really costly (-7).

24. Qxb3??       Qa6
25. Kc2        Rhb8
26. Qa3        Qxc4+
Resigns