Eastern Idaho Open 2009

This tournament was a restful break from soccer coaching. Jay Simmonson always runs a smooth and enjoyable tournament. Tournament numbers were low, however, the quality of the games were very good. I won 4.5/5 pts. and took first place in the reserve section. The games are posted at: http://www.idahochessassociation.org/easternidahoopen2009games.asp for those interested.

I started the tournament with an easy win against Gabriel Moffett, who is a tournament newcomer. I helped him along with recording and tried to provide some pointers as he moved way too fast for this type of tournament. I won with only 2 minutes off my clock in 10 moves! No I did not use a version of scholar's mate! My next game was against Katie Patterson(823) who played solidly until I played a discovered attack on her rook while simultaneously attacking her queen. She played out the game valiantly to the end and continued to harass me with her knight. I was hoping to play Kevin Patterson (1158) in the final round, but round 3 placed us across from one another and we played a rather fun game that produced a huge exchange which snagged me a rook for a bishop and a knight. Plus, I also received a much better position as he scrambled to get his queen-side pieces mobilized. On Sunday morning, after a nice big coffee and latte from the College Market, I began play with Doug Finch (1275), from Utah. I opened with Colle-Zuckertort, but ran into the same problem I had with Katie, with a knight that pushed my white bishop back to e2. We ended with opposite color bishops and a handful of pawns for a drawn game. Win, Lose, or Draw, I had already secured first place by round 5. I played Robert Diercks(1371)as white and unleashed the Colle-Zuckertort system, once again. A knight sacrifice removed his pawns guarding his castled king and all my pieces coordinated attacks that left poor Robert with naught but a queen, bishop, and knight left. I was disappointed in myself as I missed a mate on move 20. The game was won after move 30.

Overall, this was a welcomed reprieve from soccer, however, I couldn't resist seeing the men's ISU Bengals play BSU at Davis field in between rounds. Man, I love competition in soccer and chess!