Colorado Springs Chess News

Game Of The Week

This week’s game comes from the June Mating Game tournament. It was the biggest upset of the tournament and a bigger upset than anything I have ever achieved.

A couple weeks ago, I published Tom Mullikin’s 662-point upset and there was some debate about whether this win would beat that one. It was close, but Jerry Maier posted a 639-point upset.

My personal best is 393. How do I remember the exact number? Well, some of you may be thinking it is my massive brain capacity. But in reality, Josh Smith has revealed the source of my impressive statistics. I use a couple of databases.

The first one I started was the Works Database to track wins and losses along with entry fees and prizes to make sure my hobby wasn’t getting too far out of control. Then I got the Fritz 8 software and started using that to record the moves of each game. The combination works well for me. I can find almost any trivial fact about my chess career that I can imagine adding to my newsletter.

Anyway, what makes these wins more impressive for me is to think about what I would have to do top them.

First, I would have to leave Colorado. I think New Mexico would be my closest opportunity (25 Kraai, Jesse NM USA 2575). But then I would have to beat the 25th best player in the USA. Even if I were willing to travel, I would still have to face someone in the top 50 (49 Annakov, Babakuli, Gm TX USA 2510).

So, I guess these guys will always have this over me. But the nice thing about this upset is that it was a benefit to me as well as Jerry.

I have played Jeff Fox twice in the June Mating Game tournaments and both were losses. Jerry’s win meant that I didn’t have to face Jeff myself and still had a chance to score some money.

It was as if I was Walter Payton running behind William “The Refrigerator” Perry. The Green Bay Packers were looking to tackle me in the third round and lay a little more punishment on me. When “the Fridge” comes out of nowhere and knocks the linebacker 5 yards back into the end zone, clearing a huge whole for me to waltz through for the score!

The Fridge

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=94276

[Event "June Mating Game"]

[Site "http://cschess.webs.com/"]

[Date "2007.06.12"]

[Round "2.2"]

[White "Fox, Jeff"]

[Black "Maier, Jerry"]

[Result "0-1"]

[ECO "A04"]

[WhiteElo "1893"]

[BlackElo "1254"]

[PlyCount "68"]

[EventDate "2007.06.12"]

1. Nf3 Nc6 2. d4 e6 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. O-O O-O 6. b3 b5 7. Nbd2 Bb7 8. e4

a6 9. Bb2 Nb4 10. a3 Nc6 11. Re1 d5 12. e5 Ng4 13. h3 Nh6 14. g4 f5 15. exf6

Rxf6 16. Qe2 Bd6 17. Ng5 Bc8 18. c4 Rg6 19. cxd5 Qxg5 20. dxc6 Qf4 21. Nf3 Nxg4

22. hxg4 Qxg4 23. Nh4 Qxh4 24. Kf1 Qh2 25. Qe4 a5 26. Rac1 b4 27. a4 Ba6+ 28.

Rc4 Rf8 29. Bc1 Qg3 30. Be3 Rgf6 31. Re2 Bxc4 32. bxc4 b3 33. Ke1 Qh2 34. Kd1

Ba3 0-1

This Week In Chess

Tuesday June 26, 2007

On June 19, the CSCC had 19 members in attendance. The main event was the conclusion of the two-week, USCF-rated June Mating Game Tournament (4SS, G30). Jerry Maier and I were tied for the lead and destined to face in the third round. However, the top prize was still up for grabs with 4 new entries into the tournament. I survived my final 2 games to take home the 1st spot, but Mike Filppu duplicated my performance this night to finish in 2nd place. Here are the final results:

Player Score Place $

Paul Anderson 4.0 1st $30.00

Mike Filppu 3.0 2nd $15.00

Jerry Maier 2.0 U1600 $5.00

Dean Brown 2.0 U1600 $5.00

Jeff Fox 2.0

Jason Caldwell 2.0

Lucas Bundy 2.0

Renae Delaware 1.5

Tom Mullikin 1.0

Joe Pahk 1.0

Gerry Sunderland 0.5

Paul Christensen 0.0

Comments From Email

Ray Fourzan, El Paso, TX, Wednesday, June 20, 2007 9:53 AM

Thanks I'll be there. And I challenge everyone in Colorado to show up and beat this old boy from Texas! Ps. Just one more question, Pueblo West and Pueblo are pretty much the same city aren't they?

Josh "JD" Smith, Tuesday, June 19, 2007 6:00 PM

Sir Paul (my fellow chess monk), You often talk about being a statistics freak… I’m curious to see how you organize your collection of games. Do you have all your games in Chessbase? All details in a spreadsheet? I’d love to use a template of what you do to organize my games and tournaments.

[Comments are about this newsletter: (http://cschess.webs.com/apps/blog/show/2929241-lessons-from-dad-part-iii)]

Upcoming Events

6/26 Thematic tournament 4-SS, G/15. Evans Gambit: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 b4, CSCC

6/30 PUEBLO OPEN, CSCA

7/7-8 "The Alison Hannah Greiner Memorial for Cancer Research" Denver Open, DCC

7/11,18,25 Poor Richard's Book Store July Open, CSCC

7/13-15 2007 Kansas Open, KCA

7/20-22 Boulder Chess Festival: Boulder Invitational, BCC

Colorado Springs Chess Club: CSCC (http://springschess.org/)

Denver Chess Club: DCC (http://www.denverchessclub.org/)

Boulder Chess Club: BCC (http://www.geocities.com/boulderchessclub/)

Colorado State Chess Association: CSCA (http://colorado-chess.com/)

Wyoming Chess Association: WCA (http://www.wyomingchess.com/)

Kansas Chess Association: KCA (http://www.kansaschess.org/)