The Story: Chess Podcasts

Last night NPR featured two stories, a book review and a touching chess story about a player that went to prison and is trying to get his life back on track.

"Checkmate" featured in The Story

"Chess Rumble" Book Review

(click here to buy the book)

2013 National Chess Day Tournament for Everyone!

Details are at this link: 2013 National Chess Day Tournament

2013 Player's Memorial Results

The ICA sponsored a Player's Memorial tournament at Boise State University, Student Union Building the weekend of Sept. 21-22.  I proceeded to load the family up for a weekend in Boise and some fabulous chess.  Desmond, Dylan, Darwin, and myself were all registered in the Reserve Section (U1400) and we were nearly half the field of ten players.  Nearly everyone that were at the Summer Classic were signed up.  The Open Section had 14 players.  Alise Pemsler provided to be a valuable House Player in the Reserve Section.  House Players are valuable in that they are able to play in rounds that players might have a bye.  In this way, players can have a game in every round.

Darwin plays Desmond in Round 1.

Desmond won 1st place and a cash prize of $146.  He smoothly cruised to the top, like I did in the Summer Classic.  Our results were reversed except that I didn't win third place!

My results were unlike the Summer Classic in that my second days games were terrible.  Consequently my placement in the Reserve were lower than the Summer Classic, even though I was virtually playing in the same field as earlier.  Games on the first day finished quickly with two wins in less than 20 moves (one 13 move game!).  In round 3, I drew against Jamie Lang in a game that I was lucky that he accepted.  According to Fritz, I was down nearly 4 points, though the material was identical;  my position was less than ideal.

Lang v. Porth, after move 26 when I offered a draw which was accepted.  This endgame looked too complex for each of us to solve.  What would be your next move if you were white? Be5 looks best as this sets up a nice sacrifice to remove the g-pawn and slay the critical e-pawn.  

On Sunday, I had a dismal endgame against Zane Roberts where I thought I could earn a draw.  I drew against him at the Summer Classic, but in this tournament he pulled out an A game that crushed me early in the game.  After fighting back hard to equalize position and material, I miscalculated a seemingly trivial move to pin his Knight.

Here is the critical position between Porth v. Roberts.  What would you do as white?  Looks pretty good for me, doesn't it?

Qd3 looks sage but is a game loser!  Nd3 was better and might have secured a win for me, and a better 4th round pairing and maybe 1st or 2nd place!

I should have been more serious in my fourth round, but I believed I didn't have a chance at a placement in the top three.  I wish I had been more serious as I could have earned second place.  I feel privileged to have played Isaac Blake, however, because of a wonderful combination that I hadn't even considered.  This is worth seeing.

Position after black moves 30. ...Re6 challenges the queen.  Do you see the killer move?  A queen sacrifice, 31. Qxd8! Qxd8 32. c7 Qc8 33. Bd7 Qxd7 34. c8=Q Qxc8 35. Rxc8.  Very nice, Isaac!

Here is the full game:

Open Section
##	Player	Rating	Score	Solk	Med	CumOp	Cum
1	Cameron Leslie	2006	4	14	8½	46	12
2	Jeffrey T. Roland	1701	4	11½	6½	40	10
3	Charles Hughes	1701	3½	14½	9	43½	13
4	Paul Edvalson	1556	3½	5½	3½	16½	8
5	Cody Gorman	1657	3	13½	8	36½	9
6	Caleb Paul Kircher	1823	3	10½	6½	35	10
7	Tom R. Booth	1602	2½	11	6	33	6
8	George W. Lundy III	1584	2	16½	11½	46½	8
9	James Patrick Brooks	Unr.	2	11	7	26½	2
10	Hank Harris	1486	2	10½	6½	33	3½
11	Brett B. Hamilton	1761	2	10	6	25	6½
12	Jarod Buus	1201	2	9½	5½	25	6½
13	Kenneth Sanderson	1700	1	10½	6	31	3½
14	Ryan Gallivan	1406	1	4½	2½	12	3½

U1400 Reserve Section
##	Player	Rating	Score	Solk	Med	CumOp	Cum
1	Desmond Porth	1050	4½	13½	8½	39	14
2	Jamie Lang	1380	4	15½	8½	49	12½
3	Zane A. Roberts	1237	3	15	8½	47½	10
4	Isaac RR Blake	871	3	14	8½	43½	6
5	Adam Porth	1345	2½	14	8	33½	10½
6	Lucas Knoll	1183	2½	11½	7	33½	8½
7	Roger J. Hunter	843	2	10½	6½	30	5
8	Dylan Porth	721	2	7½	4½	22	5½
9	Reid Pelton	541	1	10½	6½	27	1½
10	Darwin Albert Porth	495	1	9½	5	26	2
11	Alise Byer Pemsler	557	0	2½	0	10½	0