My Senior Open Moment

Here is my last round game against Johnny in the E-town Senior Open. I forgot to reset to the starting position so please click on the extreme left double arrow to begin. This is a very instructive game and I tried to put in detailed commentary after the moves, but when I did the game wouldn't post correctly. So I will add some brief comments here and below the game. The opening is The London System which allows the White side to develope without having to memorize extensive tabia. It can be met in various ways, I decided to deviate from my usual defense and exchange the white bishops early. I had only tried this once previously and lost because I left my knight enprise.

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I can only try to explain my "senior moment" this way. After 36.h3 if you removed the d&e pawns, all things being equal, we have an end game win for black after 37.hxg4 f4 which has been "hard wired" into my brain for 45 years. Hopefully this game is as instructive to the reader as it was for the players.

Swindle Of The Week

Rudy had me dead to rights in the position above. I had let myself get into time trouble (I had about 4 minutes to Rudy's 12) and found myself a rook down. Rudy had started to fall into the trap of trying to play as fast as I and played 1.Rxg7 to which I responded 1. ...Rc2+! 2.Kh3 Rh2+!! Stalemate! It was worth the 15 rating points I lost, by drawing, to see the look on Rudy's face.

After the game Kerry thought that moving the King back to the 1st rank would have held the win for white; a short demonstration soon convinced him that he was wrong.

The Face That Launched A Fist (A What was I Thinking Story)

Arianne Caoili is a former child prodigy with a current Fide Rating of 2242. Proof of her chess talent is this game against Russian GM Vladimir Epishin (2667) played in the 2000 Malaga Open.





Caoili (2078) -vs - Epishin (2667) 2000 Malaga Open

This is the position with White to play her 38th move. See the full game score at the end of the post.






Arianne obviously disguises her chess talents in a very attractive package. Her mother is Dutch-Australian and her father is Filipino. Arianne plays for Australia, her home of record, and is Australia's top woman player.







Looking at the picture above it is easy to see how a "tipsy" British GM Danny Gormally could get jealous enough to punch or push GM Levon Aronian to the ground when he saw him dancing with Arianne. Click here to read one report of this incident which occurred at the Chess Olympiad at Turin.

Here is the full game score leading to the diagram above; shame on you if you chose 38.Qxd4??

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 b6 3.c4 e6 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 Bb7 6.Bg2 Bb4+ 7.Bd2 a5 8.0-0 0-0 9.a3 B37 10.Nc3 d5 11.cxd5 exd5 12.Qc2 Re8 13.Rfc1 Na6 14.Bf4 Qd7 15.Na4 Bd6 16.Bxd6 Qxd6 17.e3 h6 18.Nb2 c5 19.Nfh4 Rac8 20.Nc4 Qe6 21.Qf5 cxd4 22.exd4 Qc6 23.Rc2 b5 24.Ne3 Qd6 25.Rxc8 Bxc8 26.Qd3 Nc7 27.Nhf5 Qb6 28.Rc1 b4 29.a4 g6 30.Nh4 Kg7 31.Nf3 Ba6 32.Qc2 Ne6 33.Qd1 Bb7 34.Bh3 Ne4 35.Bxe6 Rxe6 36.Ne5 Nc3 37.Qg4 Qxd4 38.Nf5+ 1-0

Thanks to Gelvic Cubar who had googled Filipino Chess Masters but was unaware of Arianne.