Colorado Springs Chess News

Game Of The Week

This week's game comes from the Colorado Springs Chess Club's event:  CSCC Honorary Medal Rapid Online (4SS, G/10+10).  It was played by Jose Llacza and Paul Anderson.

I picked this game to publish because it was the end of my 40 move challenge.  Sort of.

The 40 Move Challenge is a LM Brian Wall creation.  He may have written about the history and rules in his emails.  However, since Yahoo! killed their archive of his emails, it is hard to find any details about things he has written online.  I did run across his book, How To Play Chess Like An Animal, on Amazon, which has increased in value dramatically.  I may have to start an account and sell my copy as the paperback is currently listed for:  2 Used from $902.81, and 1 New from $809.67!

Without the actual rules for the 40 Move Challenge, I just did my own thing in the Colorado Springs Chess Club's Sunday Night Corona Olympics. 

We meet every Sunday Night at 7pm Mountain on Chess.com for a couple hours since the Coronavirus has shuttered the physical location.  I never thought we'd be closed this long and needed something to amuse myself.  The 40 Move Challenge seemed just like the remedy for my quarantine hangover.

My goal was to play all 40 possible opening moves for White and Black before my chess blogging season ended.  I failed.

My 40 Move Challenge

Move Result

A3 0.5

A4 1.0

B3 1.0

B4 0.5

C3 1.0

C4 0.5

D3 0.0

D3 1.0

D4 1.0

D4 0.0

E3 1.0

E4 0.0

F3 1.0

F4 0.0

G3 1.0

G4 1.0

H3 0.0

H4 1.0

Na3 0.0

Nc3 0.5

Nf3 0.0

Nh3 0.0

A6 1.0

A5 0.0

B6 0.0

B5 1.0

C6 1.0

C5 0.5

D6 1.0

D5 0.0

E6 1.0

E5 1.0

F6 0.0

F5 1.0

G6 1.0

G5 1.0

H6 0.0

H5 1.0

Na6 DNP

Nc6 DNP

Nf6 DNP

Nh6 DNP

I just made a list of all the moves and tried to play them in order.  This is difficult when you are on the b5 opening and your opponent plays 1. e4.  So, I skipped a couple moves here and there, and came back to them when I could.

Another problem was we didn't always get 4 rounds for our events, and I came up 2 games short of my goal.  I also got paired as White 22 times versus 16 times as Black.  So, I replayed 2 White openings I lost (winning the second time) and didn't play any Black Knight openings.

I scored 22.5 points out of 38 games for a winning percentage of 59.21%.  However, I was surprised to see where the wins came from.  I did the best with Black's King Pawns (75%) and worst with the Knight openings (12.50%).

The challenge made the online events more interesting, as I had to focus from move one, and it was thrilling to finally get to play b5 and g5 without being down a Pawn (and winning too).

Black to move

See the diagram and answer here:

https://cschess.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=206318741

40 Move Challenge

https://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=115844

[Event "CSCC Honorary Medal Online"]

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

[Date "2020.09.27"]

[Round "3.2"]

[White "Llacza, Jose"]

[Black "Anderson, Paul"]

[Result "0-1"]

[ECO "A10"]

[WhiteElo "1686"]

[BlackElo "1647"]

[PlyCount "100"]

[EventDate "2020.09.27"]

[TimeControl "600+10"]

1. c4 g5 2. Nc3 Bg7 3. d4 h6 4. e4 d6 5. Be3 Nd7 6. Bd3 Ngf6 7. h3 b6 8. Nge2

Bb7 9. Qc2 e5 10. d5 Nc5 11. Bxc5 bxc5 12. Qa4+ Qd7 13. Qb3 Rb8 14. Qc2 a5 15.

O-O O-O 16. a3 Nh5 17. Qd2 Nf4 18. Nxf4 exf4 19. f3 Bd4+ 20. Kh2 Qe7 21. Nb5

Be5 22. Rab1 Ra8 23. a4 Rfb8 24. b3 Ba6 25. Nc3 Qf6 26. Nb5 Bxb5 27. cxb5 Bc3

28. Qe2 Qe5 29. Kh1 Kg7 30. Qc2 Bb4 31. Bc4 Rf8 32. Rfd1 f5 33. exf5 Rxf5 34.

Bd3 Rf6 35. Be4 Re8 36. Qd3 h5 37. Qe2 Rh6 38. Kg1 Kf6 39. Qb2 g4 40. Qxe5+

Rxe5 41. hxg4 hxg4 42. Kf2 g3+ 43. Ke2 Rh2 44. Rh1 Reh5 45. Rxh2 Rxh2 46. Rg1

Bc3 47. Rb1 Rxg2+ 48. Kd3 Bb4 49. Rh1 Rd2+ 50. Kc4 Rd4# 0-1

This Week In Chess

On October 4th, the Colorado Springs Chess Club held our Sunday Night Online Event.

https://www.chess.com/tournament/live/arena/cscc-second-time-blitz-arena-516132

Place, CSCC Second Time Blitz Arena, Score

1 "#1 Termenoil (2353)" 31

2 "#2 bozhenoff (1916)" 11

3 "#3 jfoxhoot (1567)" 7

4 "#4 msmcgough (1433)" 6