The August Ajeeb quads featured 19 players competing in five sections. The winners were: (Quad A) Nikolay Bulakh and Michael Cambareri (2.5); (Quad B) Keith Brownlee (3.0); (Section C) Jeremy Burnett (2.0); (Quad D) Ben Shedlock (3.0); (Quad E) Karl Milton (3.0). Congratulations to all the winners!
The USCF event cross table: US Chess MSA – Cross Table for AJEEB QUADS (Event 202408157312)
Our original post contained a report on round two action from the current City Champion, Cam Leslie, which is repeated below.
Cam Leslie’s analysis of round 2:
Last night at the club saw lots of action as Round 2 of the Ajeeb Quads was contested.
In Quad A Matt had white against Michael and deployed his Jobava London against Michael’s Stonewall Dutch. The dark-squared bishops came off the board and Matt was left with a dominant knight on e5. But as so often happens in the stonewall, one good piece doesn’t win the game and the position became more and more complicated/random with Matt eventually blundering a fork of his queen and rook by a knight, after which Michael smoothly converted. In the second game of the top quad, Nikolay and Dave squared off in a two knights tango which saw Dave shed a pawn early and suffer for most of the middle game. After the middlegame the Gods placed the endgame and so it came to pass that an interesting rook endgame ensued. See below.
Bulakh – Rowles
Ajeeb Quads (2), 08.08.2024
(Diagram) 39.Kd3 Rc7? [39…d5!= The white king is cutoff and if the d-pawn is captured then the a-pawn falls and it is a draw.] 40.Rb5 Ke7 41.a5 Kd7
(Diagram) 42.Kd4?! Seems logical enough to bring the king up but I thought while watching that pushing the a-pawn is stronger, getting ready to place the white rook behind the pawn, because if the a-pawn is ever “won” by the black king and rook, then the resulting king and pawn endgame would be lost since white’s king is so much closer to the king-side.
[42.a6! (diagram) 42…Ra7 (42…Kc6 43.Rb3! Keeping the king cutoff. 43…Re7 44.Kd4 Black is forced to wait. 44…Ra7 45.Ra3+- Eventually black will exhaust all his waiting moves with his pawns and then white will shuffle his rook on the a-file forcing black to move his king since any rook move allows the pawn to advance and then the white king will infiltrate.; 42…Kc8 43.Rb3 With a similar plan as Kc6 above.) 43.Ra5 Kc6 44.Kd4 Kb6 45.Ra1 Rxa6 46.Rxa6+ Kxa6 47.Kd5 Kb6 48.Kxd6] 42…Rc2?! Again a logical move, especially in time pressure but this allows white to cleanly execute a winning plan, more testing was… [42…Ra7 Tying the white rook to the defense of the pawn. 43.Kc4 Kc7 44.Kb4 Ra8 45.Rf5 (45.Ka4 Kc6 46.Rb6+ Kc5 47.Rb7 d5 And the game continues…) 45…f6 46.Rf3 Rb8+ 47.Ka4 Re8 Still hanging on.]
43.Rb7++- (Diagram) Now the rest is fairly straightforward.43…Ke6 44.a6 Rxf2 45.a7 Ra2 46.Kc4 d5+ 47.Kc5 d4 48.Kxd4 Ra1 49.Kc5 Rc1+ 50.Kb6 Rb1+ 51.Kc7 1-0
In Quad B, Keith and John locked up in an exciting battle that was the final game of the night to conclude. Out of a Queen’s Gambit Declined an Isolated Queen’s Pawn position arose where black was decidedly more comfortable, however on Move 18, both sides had about 20 minutes remaining, if memory serves, with lots of pieces still on the board so fireworks were a given. Eventually white ended up down (sac’ed or blundered I don’t know) a piece with two central passed pawns as collateral. With seconds on both clocks a time scramble ensued with multiple hanging queens and pieces in which Keith eventually prevailed, although John had his chances for sure.
In Quad C on Ben and Jeremey were in action. At first as I walked past the board, Jeremey was losing the exchange to a skewer but then when I returned material had levelled but Jeremey’s pieces were much more active and he took home the point.
In Quad D Ben beat Pat with his patented Winawer French when Pat got too far behind in development.
In Quad E Nick and Carl had an entertaining scrap where Nick blundered his bishop on a7 in a “Fischer Trap” but got 2 pawns for it and had doubled Carl’s e-pawns. Eventually Nick’s dark squared weakness coupled with Carl’s extra dark square bishop prevailed for Carl.
All in all in was an exciting evening with lots of interesting games and hard fought chess.