Chess in Spokane
Our club was featured in the Spokesman-Review—check out the story here: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/aug/08/meet-spokanes-chess-king-and-the-other-players-who/
Come visit us and meet Spokane’s Chess King! On 8/22 we will host an event that has no membership requirement (either our club or US Chess Federation), so it’s a great time to come check us out. In early September, we’ll begin our 5-week Fall Championships—check back for details!
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.
(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.
Club’s return from the Fourth of July holiday was celebrated by over 20 players turning out for chess on a hot evening. Sixteen people took part in a round robin blitz event that ran until 10:30. Ben Patterson scored 12.5 to top the field. Ben Eitzen and Dave Rowles finished second with 11.5 each. A large number of high school players turned out and demonstrated strong blitz play — a promising sign for next fall’s scholastic chess season!
The 2024 edition of the Taxing Quads is complete, as all round robins finished regularly scheduled round 3 play on April 4 at The West Central Abbey.
Access the crosstable here: https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202404046182-12720375
Four groups of players (three quads and a 6-player mini-swiss) battled in tightly contested play that featured several upsets, including, to mix seasonal metaphors, a bracket-buster in the top quad.
From the third slot, Dave Rowles scored a perfect 3 in the event’s most challenging bracket, offing both 2000+ players, Cam Leslie and Michael Cambareri. A final-round game between the top seeds resulted with Michael scoring 2-0 and Cam finishing 1-0. Walter Van Heemstede Obelt also notched a perfect score.
The second quad aligned neatly along rating contours, with Keith Brownlee winning with 1.5, Vibi Varghese scoring 1, and Craig Moore ending with a half point. In a self-inflicted error, the TD erroneously entered a fourth player who had withdrawn with plenty of notice. As long as the auditors don’t come auditing, these results should stand just fine.
The third quad lived up to its billing as the most tightly packed round robin. Recently returned to the chess scene, top seeds Jeff Hazen and Paul Bundy were separated by only 1 rating point. Third seed Ben Shedlock was only 10 points behind. The unrated wild card Ryan Plouse made a strong tournament debut, splitting the two prizes with Ben Shedlock at 2 points apiece, though Plouse won the head-to-head. Hazen and Bundy shared third place with 1.5 points each after drawing their match.
The mini-swiss included an even spread of six players ranging from 1034 to 1306. Fourth-seeded John Stilley, with a rating of 1183, overperformed and took the group with a perfect score. Stilley’s performance, while impressive, was not shocking as he has been barely losing great games to higher rated players in the latest tournaments. Hopefully, this breakout moves him comfortably into Class D play. Stilley’s accomplishment was all the more satisfying as his path included a 120-point upset of the top seed, Carl Peterson, who shared the second- and third-place purses with Pat Kirlin, scoring 2 points each. Club stalwarts Jim Burney and Cecilia Valeriotte scored a point each, with 6th seed Nick Guerra rounding out the group.
See the Inland Classic page (link above) for the complete story of this event. Michael Cambareri and Brian Lee won the inaugural Inland Classic chess tournament held February 24-25, 2024 with scores of 4.5 each.
Michael Cambareri went a perfect 5.0, defeating second seed Dave Rowles in the final round, to claim the club’s Winter Championship. Nikolay Bulakh finished second with a 4.0 score, and Rowles, Neal Bonrud, Matt Goodale, and Keith Brownlee tied for third with scores of 3.5. Kevin Korsmo (3.0) won the under 1650 section, with five others tying for second with 2.5 scores: Steve Brendemihl, Logan Faulkner, Dave Griffin, Craig Moore, and Vibi Varghese. Benjamin Legard (3.0) won the under 1500 section, with Casey Peterson and Stan Soderberg (2.0) tying for second. Peterson also won the biggest upset prize. Congratulation to all of the winners!
The club’s winter championship, traditionally the largest Thursday night event, started January 25th. There were 26 participants this year.
The January 11 meeting saw 15 players brave the cold to enter a two-week, four round g/30 tournament, and the tally expanded to 18 for the second night’s action. Michael Cambareri was a perfect 4.0 to win the event, defeating Dave Rowles in the battle of unbeatens in round 4. Rowles (3.0) tied for second with Cam Leslie, Matt Goodale, and Craig Moore. The under 1500 prize was shared by Alberto Alberty and Casey Peterson with scores of 2.0. Congratulations to all who braved bitter cold temperatures and snowy roads to take part in a very entertaining event.
A nice turnout on December 21st saw 14 players take part in a blitz tourney, and several others engage in casual play. Thanks to everyone who turned out.
Nikolay Bulakh and Michael Cambareri each finished with perfect 3.0 scores to share first place honors in the December Quick tourney November 30 at club. The event featured three newcomers and a fourth who played in his first quick event.
The USCF cross table link: US Chess MSA – Cross Table for DECEMBER QUICK (Event 202311308102)
The Turkey Quads completed play November 16 with a clear winner in each section. Quad A was won by Michael Cambareri (2.5). Matthew Goodale won Quad B with a perfect 3.0 score. Quad C was won by Alberto Alberty (2.0). Newcomer Serhii Snihurov won both of his games (a third game was unplayed due to a withdrawal) to claim Quad D with another perfect score.
Congratulations to all of the prize winners! The USCF cross table link: US Chess MSA – Cross Table for TURKEY QUADS (Event 202311169972)