April 2012 Calvin

What a great day to have a tournament. The sun was out and the weather outside was perfect. We all couldn’t ask for a better day to play some fighting chess. I would first like to thank all the players who came today for the tournament. Bill Ignasiak came out the winner of the tournament with 3.5/4, followed by Duane Croel and Dennis Bailey with 3.0/4. Also Congradulations to Leah Ziegler and Adam DeHollander who tied for the U1200 prize as well. The games that intrigued me when observing were the games between Duane and Dennis, Bill Ignasiak and Duane, and Bill Ignasiak and Josh. In the game between Duane and Dennis, in the middlegame toward the endgame, Dennis had a very strong mating attack. He had a perfectly placed knight, rook, and queen deep into black’s territory but Duane was able to draw the position with a perpetual check. The second game that intrigues me in the endgame was Bill and Duane. The game was about even throughout the game. Duane had a small advantage going into the endgame but Bill was able to defend well, exchange rooks and a few pawns, and left with the king, queen, and a few pawns. The game ended with a draw due to perpetual as both sides didn’t want to risk making a mistake to try to win. The final game that intrigues me in the endgame was Bill Ignasiak and Josh. Josh was in terrible time pressure with less than 2 minutes to go (about 1min and 43 seconds as I looked at the clock). It was King, two rook, and pawn verses King, rook, bishop, and pawn endgame. Josh was fighting to at least hold a draw at this point but was not able to. Bill perfectly maneuvered his pieces to take a few pawns off the board, put blacks King on the edge of the kingside where it was trapped, and won the game due to black running out of time. Bill missed a mate in one where he could have played Rhxh6#.

Overall, the games were all impressive and very hard fought. I hope to see many of you for next months tournament.

Dec. 2011 Calvin

Today’s Calvin tournament was full of great games and surprises as well. John Drexel, Isaac Zylstra, Thomas Armantrout, and Freddie Noe duked it out over the 64 squares. It was very good to see Fred and his dad to come to the tournament. Good to have you two back at the tournament here at Calvin. To the action that happened within the first round of play. Thomas Armantrout upsetted John Drexel. In the endgame, John only had a rook, knight, and about 5 pawns on the board to blacks isolated queen pawns  on the c-file, f-pawn, and a passed g-pawn with Queen backup. In this position, there was no way that John could have defended the position to stop the g-pawn from gain another piece activity. John’s knight couldn’t really move anywhere due to squares being taken away by black’s pawn. Also white’s rook was nailed down to the second rank and back row to try to stop the pawn. Eventually, white resigned the game due to the fact that there was no way of saving the game. Good job Thomas. In the second round of play, Armantrout was white against Zylstra. In the end game, white could have drawn the game with perpetual check with his queen but instead white was concerned with blacks pawns and how he could advance them more into the endgame. Also at this juncture black had two rooks and about 5 pawns to white’s queen and two pawns. It was a tough position and Zylstra maneuvered his rooks well enough to win the game. Very well done Isaac. In the final round of the tournament, It was a very close endgame to where it could have been a draw but Drexel was able to pull out the win. White was able to maneuver his queen and rook into blacks  territory for a winning attack. Congrats John. The final tournament standings were that John, Isaac, and Thomas tied for first with 2/3 points. I want to thank everyone for coming out to play and plan to celebrate the new year with the first Calvin tournament in the new year of 2012 on Jan. 7. Also be tentative on the format for next year. Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!

1st Annual Grand Rapids Open

1st Annual Grand Rapids Open

Oct. 1-2, 2011 was a nice weekend to play chess. It was clear sunny skies throughout, a nice hotel to stay in, and also some wonderful attractions to see while in the area. Art Prize was still going on to see some fabulous pieces of art that many local area artist have put together along with some coming from out of town. So it was a great weekend to play chess and to also do some site seeing if players wanted to do that while in town.
The Open was held at the Ramada Plaza Hotel located right near the Woodland Mall on the corner of 28th street and E. Beltline. It was a great location for a person to find a place to eat, shop, and even watch a movie as well. I would like to thank Jason Van Dam and his staff for providing great customer service for the weekend and their hospitality. Also thank you for letting us use the rooms for a playing for the tournament as well.
A total of 17 players came to duke it out to see who is going to be the city champion. Ratko Bojankovic was perfect with 5 out of 5. This was followed by Kevin Czuhui with 4/5. There was a four way tie for 3rd and 4th place overall in the Open section with James O’Neil, William Ignasiak, Soumya Kulkarni, and Brandon O’Neil with 2/5. But for prize situations, James took the U1500 1st place prize, Soumya tied for first with Brandon O’Neil and William Ignasiak for the U1800. Then in the U1100 section Leah Ziegler and Karthik Vuyyuru tied for 1st-2nd and for 3rd-4th was Chirag Rudrangi and Dakshesh Daruri. Congratulations to all prize winners in each section.
In the very first round of the tournament, there was an upset. James O’Neil won over Kevin Jackson in interesting endgame. Material looked even but white had the advantage but with very good defensive play by black, black won white’s queen which was costly in game that should have been won. In the last round, your td played against Soumya who is a up and coming strong young Michigan player. I had the black pieces and played the Silician Dragon variation. Early on I dropped a piece but was able to fight back to the very end to where it should have been a drawn game. Instead, took a piece to make the material even but overlooked a square that would have stopped a passed b-pawn from queening and all remaining pieces on the board could have been exchanged to hold the draw. Also in the previous around against Brandon O’Neil, it was a tough game. Black went down a piece early on and around the middle game, white gave back the piece to try to further an attack. Black was busted open with his king still in the middle of the board not castled. As the game progressed from there, black had a 3-pawn to 2-pawn advantage on the queen side and white had a 3-pawn to 1-pawn advantage on the king side of the board. So it made for a very interesting endgame. In the end, white and black queened a pawn but white the advantage due to first checks with the queen. Then with a sacrificed pawn on the queen side in which black didn’t have to take possibly, white was able to check the black king and won his queen. It was a good, hard fought game on both sides of the board.
I think that sums up some of the action for the 1st Annual Grand Rapids Open. Games will be forth coming soon. Look forward to more details in the future for next year’s tournament. Thank you to all who came out and played in the tournament. I also thank all who supported me as well. It was greatly appreciated. I also would like to thank my wife for helping me out with registration and a few other logical that took place.