The DKos Chess Tournament 2009 open thread is now open! Updated standings and results through Round 3 are posted below.
If you missed this week's highlights:
On Wednesday I analyzed an exciting 3rd round match between Cobbler and M31. Cobbler won with 10 seconds left on his clock when M31 ran out of time.
Yesterday, I looked at another good game between Gangster Octopus vs. ben masel. The match ended in a draw.
Today, I will analyze arguably the most exciting one of all -- mquander vs. montrealdan. See below for more details.
Tomorrow, on America Day, I will analyze a classic chess match with some "patriotic" implications -- Bobby Fischer vs. Boris Spassky in 1972.
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DKOS CHESS TOURNAMENT 2009: ROUND 3 (June 29-July 6)
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UPCOMING MATCHES
White | Black | Match Time | Match Site |
dissonantharmony | USArmyParatrooper | Friday, July 03, 0009 03:00 PM ET | Yahoo! Games |
lostboyjim | Marcion | Friday, July 03, 0009 05:00 PM ET | Chess.com |
Joffan | Jimdotz | Friday, July 03, 0009 05:00 PM ET | Chess.com |
Kimball | Grey Paladin | Friday, July 03, 2009 09:00 PM ET | Chess.com |
KillerKoala | Odysseus | Friday, July 03, 2009 09:00 PM ET | Chess.com |
Blue Wind | Spud1 | Friday, July 03, 2009 11:00 PM ET | Chess Cube |
dov12348 | Twin Planets | Saturday, July 04, 2009 12:00 AM (midnight) ET (Friday, July 03 @ 9 PM Pacific) | Chess.com |
stlbucket | Melanchthon | Sunday, July 05, 2009 012:00 PM (noon) ET | Chess.com |
cskendrick | mconvente | Sunday, July 05, 2009 03:00 PM ET | Chess.com |
To chess players: When you have agreed to a schedule and chess website with your opponent, enter your match information at this webpage. Confirm your match schedule here.
To the community: If you would like to watch an upcoming match, you will first need to register for an account on the website where the game is taking place, then log in. You can observe the games on Chess.com by opening Live Chess (under the Play tab at the top of the main page) and finding the user of your choice. On FICS, type "observe [INSERT USER'S NAME HERE]" into the command console. On Chess Cube, add the user you're looking for as a friend, click on that user's profile, and observe the game he/she is playing. On Yahoo! Games, you will need to know which room/lounge the user is playing in -- then just enter it and sit at the table.
See more information about using these websites here.
Analysis: mquander (WHITE) vs. montrealdan (BLACK)
Just like in the Gangster Octopus vs. ben masel match, White opened with the King's Indian Defense (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4), but it would soon evolve into the Queen's Indian Defense (2...e6 3. Nf3 b6), made famous by the chess grandmasters Anatoli Karpov and Alexey Dreev. Both sides were fighting over control of the middle during Moves 11-17, but neither would establish control for very long. The middle game would see various exchanges until Move 26, when only 5 Pawns and both Rooks remained for each side, with neither White nor Black holding a superior position with Pawn development.
At Move 29, Black's strategy was to bring out the King to break the deadlock on the Rooks and left-sided Pawns -- but it didn't work. By Move 38, Black's King retreated all the way back to its Pawn wall at g7, while White had spent time developing its Pawns, which would later prove to be decisive. At Move 42, this time with one Rook remaining for each side, Black again tried to release the King, and would make it all the way down to b4 at Move 53 following the exchange of Rooks. But this is where previous Pawn development became the difference-maker.
With the White Pawn sitting at h4, White's only goal at Move 54 was clear -- take out the last remaining Pawn on the right side, and promotion to Queen was inevitable. Black, on the other hand, was trapped by having to capture two Pawns at a4 and b5, giving White time and space to operate on developing the h Pawn. Black could not afford to develop its a Pawn to a6 before the White b Pawn had been removed, unless it wanted the White b Pawn to pass en passant and promote to Queen on the left side. White would finally get the promotion at Move 60.
From there, it was only a matter of time before White would perform the coup de grace -- but it had almost no time left to spare. White would win with checkmate on the 75th move, with only 1:19 left White's clock. Black had only 1:51 remaining.
This had everything you would want to see in a tournament chess match -- two highly skilled players who gave each other all they could handle in a game that went down to the wire. Here's hoping the rest of the tournament will produce another match just like this one.
MATCH-UPS
The match-ups for Round 3 have been selected by the Tournament Director based on the results of Rounds 1-2 and the approximate skill rating of each player. All matches will have a 30-minute time limit per player, 0 bonus time. Every effort is being ensured to maintain color balance. In other words, every player will have ample opportunity to play as both White and Black throughout the tournament.
WHITE | vs. | BLACK | WINNER |
high5 | vs. | cschess | cschess |
nargel | vs. | MakeChessNotWar | MakeChessNotWar |
PsiFighter37 | vs. | Anderson Republican | . |
vets74 | vs. | Dvd Avins | . |
Albanius | vs. | FWIW | . |
Gangster Octopus | vs. | ben masel | DRAW |
jerseycorn | vs. | Sharkmeister | Sharkmeister |
Abelian | vs. | Thutmose V | Abelian |
Cobbler | vs. | M31 | Cobbler |
mquander | vs. | montrealdan | mquander |
TeacherRyan | vs. | i know | i know |
DoomsdayShark | vs. | RickMassimo | . |
Keith Pickering | vs. | wmorriss | . |
dov12348 | vs. | Twin Planets | . |
FightingRegistrar | vs. | Andrew Lazarus | FightingRegistrar |
Jumpin J | vs. | AndrewMC | . |
ericledford | vs. | spider441 | . |
PedsNeuro | vs. | rhutcheson | PedsNeuro |
LaughingPlanet | vs. | thereisnospoon | thereisnospoon |
hekebolos | vs. | BTP | . |
Kimball | vs. | Grey Paladin | . |
ActivistGuy | vs. | cavebird | cavebird |
debedb | vs. | brendanm98 | . |
Robert Naiman | vs. | ferrisbueller | . |
kto9 | vs. | PinkFreud | . |
lostboyjim | vs. | Marcion | . |
sharris0512 | vs. | hanswall | . |
stlbucket | vs. | Melanchthon | . |
Bill White | vs. | writerkirk | writerkirk |
Dbug | vs. | Dan Morris | Dan Morris |
RageKage | vs. | dmet | . |
dnta | vs. | dpinzow | . |
cmorrison | vs. | DynamicUno | . |
dissonantharmony | vs. | USArmyParatrooper | . |
Elvis Vader | vs. | papicek | papicek |
cskendrick | vs. | mconvente | . |
Chicagoa | vs. | Seneca Doane | Seneca Doane |
drache | vs. | black2thefuture | black2thefuture |
Guy Fawkes | vs. | eddiem86 | . |
BaxKen | vs. | Mo | BaxKen |
SuperBowlXX | vs. | bgblcklab1 | bgblcklab1 |
mnguy66 | vs. | eztempo | mnguy66 |
evilstorm | vs. | Ignacio Magaloni | evilstorm |
Blue Wind | vs. | Spud1 | . |
Blue Intrigue | vs. | Geenius at Wrok | . |
ThyrsiodB | vs. | Free Radical | Free Radical |
KillerKoala | vs. | Odysseus | . |
TheCid | vs. | Unlabled | DRAW |
vescis | vs. | ajsuited | . |
cartwrightdale | vs. | lexington1 | . |
zamrzla | vs. | filmgeek83 | . |
DeadB0y | vs. | rmonroe | . |
ZaBlanc | vs. | Something the Dog Said | ZaBlanc |
Joffan | vs. | Jimdotz | . |
mattc129 | vs. | Patch Adam | . |
JeffLieber | vs. | Pym | . |
Kevin in Long Beach | vs. | foodmetaphors | . |
Celtic Merlin | vs. | neilliebus | . |
24 of 58 Round 3 matches have been completed.
STANDINGS
Note: Standings are sorted first by points, then by alphabetical order. Color balance is included.
Player | # Matches | Points | # White | # Black |
Abelian | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Cobbler | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
cschess | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
i know | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
MakeChessNotWar | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
mquander | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Sharkmeister | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
ben masel | 3 | 2.5 | 1 | 2 |
FightingRegistrar | 3 | 2.5 | 2 | 1 |
Gangster Octopus | 3 | 2.5 | 2 | 1 |
Albanius | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Anderson Republican | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Andrew Lazarus | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
BaxKen | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
bgblcklab1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
black2thefuture | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
cavebird | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Dan Morris | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
DoomsdayShark | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
dov12348 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Dvd Avins | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
evilstorm | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
FWIW | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
high5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
jerseycorn | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Keith Pickering | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
M31 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
mnguy66 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
montrealdan | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
nargel | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
papicek | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
PedsNeuro | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
PsiFighter37 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
RickMassimo | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Seneca Doane | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
TeacherRyan | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
thereisnospoon | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Thutmose V | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Twin Planets | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
vets74 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
wmorriss | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
writerkirk | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Free Radical | 3 | 1.5 | 1 | 2 |
hekebolos | 2 | 1.5 | 1 | 1 |
Jumpin J | 2 | 1.5 | 1 | 1 |
LaughingPlanet | 3 | 1.5 | 2 | 1 |
rhutcheson | 3 | 1.5 | 1 | 2 |
spider441 | 2 | 1.5 | 1 | 1 |
ActivistGuy | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
AndrewMC | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Bill White | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Blue Wind | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
brendanm98 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
BTP | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Chicagoa | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
cmorrison | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
cskendrick | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Dbug | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
debedb | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
dissonantharmony | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
dmet | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
dnta | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
dpinzow | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
drache | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
DynamicUno | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
eddiem86 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Elvis Vader | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
ericledford | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
eztempo | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
ferrisbueller | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Guy Fawkes | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Geenius at Wrok | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Grey Paladin | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
hanswall | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Ignacio Magaloni | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Kimball | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
KStreetProjector | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
kto9 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
lostboyjim | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Marcion | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
mconvente | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Melanchthon | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Mo | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
PinkFreud | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
RageKage | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Robert Naiman | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
rteeter | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
sharris0512 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
stlbucket | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
SuperBowlXX | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
TheCid | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
ThyrsiodB | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
USArmyParatrooper | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
ZaBlanc | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
cartwrightdale | 2 | 0.5 | 1 | 1 |
Unlabled | 3 | 0.5 | 1 | 2 |
ajsuited | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Blue Intrigue | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Celtic Merlin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Crawdaddy | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
DeadB0y | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
filmgeek83 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
foodmetaphors | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
JeffLieber | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Jimdotz | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Joffan | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
kentuckydave | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Kevin in Long Beach | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
KillerKoala | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
lexington1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
matador | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
mattc129 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
neilliebus | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Odysseus | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Patch Adam | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Pym | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
rmonroe | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
sjohntucson | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Something the Dog Said | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Spud1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
vescis | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
zamrzla | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
aaraujo | 1 | 0.5 | 0 | 1 |
Uncle Cosmo | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
valislav stein | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
KEY:
Points = 1 point for a win, 0 points for a loss, 0.5 points for a draw.
# White = Number of times played as White.
# Black = Number of times played as Black.
# Matches = Number of matches played.