MCC Inaugural Tournament

Round One

Mike Felton - Shih-Houng Young 0-1
Phil Nicoletti - Jens Madsen 0-1
Martin Harper - Jason Young 0-1

In this round all the matchups included one player returning from a long hiatus. The biggest upset came when Shih-Houng Young beat Mike Felton, who has not played competitive chess for thirteen years. Mike reached an advantageous position, but then overlooked a simple tactical blow. When the rust starts coming off, we will probably see a lot less such mistakes from his side.

Phil Nicoletti, who has not played tournament chess since 1990, was up against the top seed Jens Madsen. Phil chose a solid line (the Exchange Ruy Lopez), but dropped a pawn on move 19 after which Jens showed him no mercy.

In the round's best game, Martin Harper showed that he is no pushover in spite of entering the tournament as unrated. In an eventful game, he eventually succumbed to Jason Young after missing out of several opportunities to win. Jason has annotated the game below.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d3 Never seen this line before, although Martin says he plays it regularly. 3...Nc6 4. Nbd2 Nf6 5. g3 Bg4 6. Bg2 e5 e5 has to be played to stop Martin from activating his white Bishop. 7. O-O Qd7 8. Re1 Be7 9. c3 a5? Not sure this was the best move. I played it to try and stop Nb3, but this makes my b6 square very weak. 10. a4 h5 11. Nc4! Bd8 12. Bg5 Martin has a much better game at this point, as most of my pieces are trapped and don't have much mobility. 12...Bc7 13. Qd2 After the game, Martin pointed out that Qc1 was much better for him, since his minor pieces would be able to use both d2 and e3. 13...Nh7 14. Be3 O-O-O 15. Reb1 g5!? 16. b4!? b4 is a good move, but Martin should defend his kingside before attacking me on the queenside, since I am not able to stop his attack. (16. Nxg5 h4 17.Nxh7 Rxh7 18. Bg5 Rdh8 19. Bxh4 I have no attack now, so b4 on the next move is good.) 16... f5!? 17. exf5

17...d5!! I can't afford to lose tempo taking the pawn on f5. 18. Nxa5 Nxa5 19. bxa5 Qxf5 20. Qb2!! Bxf3 21. Qxb7+ Kd7 (Ed. Chess engine evaluations drop from several pawns advantage for white to an even game after this move. Stronger was 22.Bxf3 Qxf3 23.Rb6!) 22. Qb5+ Ke6 23. Qc6+ Bd6 24. Bxc5 Bxg2 25. Kxg2? I had to spend an extra move getting the Bishop out so that I could threaten checkmate, but now I can do it immediatly since his King is out. (25. Rb6 Bh3 26. Bxd6 I can no longer play Qf3 now, so Martin should be able to win. 26...Qf3 27. Bxe5+ Kxe5 (27...Kf7 28. Qg6+ Ke7 29. Rb7+ Rd7 30. Bd6+ Kd8 31. Rb8#) 28. Re1+ Kf5 29. Qg6+ Kg4 30. Rb4+ d4 31. Re4+ Qxe4 32. Qxe4#) 25... h4! 26. Rb6 h3+ 27. Kg1?? After 27. Kf1 Qxd3+ 28. Ke1 Qxc3+ 29. Ke2 Qxa1 30. Bxd6 Qa2+ 31. Kd1 Qa1+ 32. Kd2 Qa2+ I am able to try to escape by f5, I think Martin can probably force a draw by perpetual check. 27... Qf3! 28. Qxd6+?? (28. Kf1 Qh1+ 29. Ke2 Qxa1 30. Bxd6 Qa2+ 31. Ke3 d4+ 32. cxd4 exd4+ 33. Kxd4 Qxf2+ 34. Kc3 Qe1+ 35. Kb2 Qd2+ 36. Ka1 Qd1+ 37. Rb1 Martin is safe and should be able to force a draw by perpetual checks.) 28...Rxd6 29. Rxd6+ Kf5 0-1

Round Two

Shih-Houng Young - Jeff Reynolds 1-0
Jim Eakins - Michael Felton 0-1
Jens Madsen - Jason Young 1-0
Martin Harper-Phil Nicoletti 0-1

This round was characterized by many uneven matchups, and in all of these the rating favorites prevailed.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. g3 Jens: British GM Nigel Davies has written a fine little repertoire book ("Taming the Sicilian") based on the idea of kingside fianchetto in the Open Sicilian. This was the first time I decided to try this out in a serious game. 6...Be7 7. Bg2 O-O 8. O-O Jason: I'll have to move e5 sometime to prevent Jens from activating his Bishop. 8...a6 9. Be3 e5 Jens: Black will have to play this eventually, but I am not sure that the timing is right here. 10. Nf5 Bxf5 11. exf5 Jason: The Bishop-Knight trade is good for me since his Knight was an active piece while my Bishop was still bad. However, this does activate his white squared Bishop. 11...Nc6 12. g4 Jens: A kingside pawn storm is quite common in these fianchetto lines. 12...h6 13.Nd5?! Jens: I was discontent with this move, which allows Black to equalize the game. An interesting (and rather thematic) attempt to do better would have been 13.Na4 to exploit the soft b6-square. 13...Nxd5 14. Bxd5 Bg5 Jens: This simple move is what I had missed when playing 13.Nd5. Around here, Jason muttered something about the game being boring. Knowing that he prefers wild and wooly games, I found this to be encouraging. Jason: If I can force a trade of black squared Bishops, then I might be able to attack on the King side. As it is, I'm fairly cramped right now. 15. Qd2 Bxe3 16. Qxe3 Jens: Perhaps I should have recaptured with the f-pawn - I did not take time to look at it. The G/60 time control, which is a little short in my opinion, forces you to make some moves by reflex. 16...Nb4 Jason: 16... Nd4 17. Be4 d5 18. Bd3 I didn't really like the fact that my center pawns were possibly overextended. 18... Nc6 19. Rad1 17. Bb3 Rc8 18. c3 Nc6 19. Rad1 Jens: My sole purpose in life has become to exploit Black's backward pawn on the d-file. 19...Qf6 20. Rd5 Jens: Trying to prevent Na5 Jason: Here I was hoping that Jens would send his Queen off on a pawn chase, for example 20. Qb6 Qg5 21. Qxb7 Qxg4+ 22. Kh1 Qf3+ 23. Kg1 Qxf5 20... Rfd8 21. Rfd1 Ne7 22. R5d3 h5 23. h3 Jens: A cold-blooded chess engine would have gone pawn hunting on the queenside with 23.Qb6, which threats on both b7 and d6 that cannot be ignored. However, I did not fancy abandoning my kingside position, which did not seem all that safe. 23...b5 24. f4?! Jason: Jens is pushing that pawn too fast, and this allows me to activate my Knight. Jens: My gut feeling told me that this could not be the best move, but somehow I could not resist unsettling the position somewhat. 24...exf4 25. Qxf4 Ng6 26. Qg3 h4? Jason:Bad move, I should just leave the pawn there and not trade. Pushing to h4 gives Jens a target, and once he take the h-pawn, my king will be in danger. Jens: It would have been much better to keep the tension. White was not going to play gxh5 anyway.} 27. Qf2? Jens: Here White misses the following tactical blow: (27. Bxf7+! Kf8 (27...Qxf7 28. fxg6 Qxg6 29. Qxh4 wins a pawn) 28. Qe3 Ne5 29. Be6 Nxd3 30. Rxd3 Rb8 With plenty of compensation and very good chances for White to regain more pawns. 27... Ne5 28. Rd4 Jason: I think Rd5 is better. 28...a5 29. a3! Jens: Efficiently puts a plug in Black's queenside ambitions.It is getting difficult for Black to come up with a plan. We had about ten minutes each left on the clock.} 29...a4 30. Ba2 Rb8 Jens: Serves no purpose as the b-pawn cannot be advanced. My next move avoids forks on f3, which seemed like a nice safeguard heading into the time scramble. 31. Kg2 Kf8? Jason: I offered a draw at this point. However, Kf8 is a really weak move... Jens: White is clearly much better here. Kf8 was Jason's second consecutive move without a clear purpose, while it is easier for White to define a plan: carry out g5, eat the h4-pawn, etc.!} 32. Qf4! Nc4 33. Re4?

Jens: Here we really have to distinguish between what really happens and what I thought was happening in the game. I was trying to get fancy with too little time on the clock. I was convinced that 33...Nxb2 34.g5 would win the queen, but I totally missed looking at 34...Qxc3. (Building on the same idea, I could have played 33. Re1 which rules out Nxb2. Play could continue: 33...Re8 34. g5 Qd8 35. Rxe8+ Qxe8 36. Re4 Ne5 37. f6 g6 38. Qxh4 Kg8 39. Qh6 Qf8 with a won endgame for White Jason: 33. g5!! Qe7 (Jens: Much better is 33... Qe5 34. Qxe5 Nxe5 35. Rxh4 and the game goes on with a White edge.) 34. Re4 Qb7 35. Qxh4 Checkmate is unavoidable here. 35...Kg8 (35... f6 36. Qh8+ Kf7 37. g6#) 36. g6 fxg6 37. fxg6) 33... Nxb2 34. Rdd4 Jens: Pulling the emergency brake! It is an irony of ironies that g5 would have worked perfectly after all. What surprises me here, and in the following, is how safe from annoying checks the White king is after all. 34. g5! Qxc3 35. Qxh4 Qc2+ 36. Kg3!! A killer move. 36... Kg8 37. g6 and Black must give up his queen for the rook on e4 to prevent immediate checkmate. If Black interposes Qc3+, White climbs into safety with Kg4. 34... Re8? Jason: d5 is a much better move here. It frees my queen and might activate my rook, allowing me to go for a draw. Jens: I suppose the idea is to create a hole for the queen to climb back into on d8. In the post mortem we both agreed that a better, more practical, approach would have been 34... d5 but this also looses, for example after 35. g5 Qb6 36. Qxh4 dxe4 37. Qh8+ Ke7 38. f6+ gxf6 39. gxf6+ Qxf6 40. Rxe4+ 35. g5! Rxe4 36. Rxe4 Qd8 Jens: We were both down to less than three minutes without any time delay, as we were using an analog clock. For that reason, the remainder of the game is of rather poor quality. 37. Qxh4 Kg8 38. Qh5? Jens: Missing an immediate win after 38. Bxf7+ $1 Kxf7 39. g6+ and mate in two 38... d5 39. Rh4! Kf8 40. Qh8+ Ke7 41. Qxg7 Qd6 42. Rh7? Jason: Rh6 wins immediately. Jens: Shih-Houng Young later pointed out Rh6! and game over} 42...Rf8 Jens: I think we were both into our last minute here, Jason had a little less. I was afraid that he could get a draw if I let his queen harass my "naked" king. Hence, without time to go over the fine print, I played what is objectively a terrible move. A time scramble ensued, and we had to reconstruct the rest of the game once the smoke had settled. 43. Qf6+?? Qxf6 44. gxf6+ Kxf6 Jens: A natural move. Much better would have been 44...Kd6, which keeps the white bishop locked up. 45. Bxd5 Kxf5? Jens: Once more a natural move, which makes things to easy for White. Jason:Nd3 is much better with drawing chances in the endgame 46. Rxf7+ Rxf7 47. Bxf7 Nc4??Jason: The Knight is my last chance to draw. There is no reason to trade it. Jens: 47... Nd1! 48. c4 bxc4 49. Kf3 (49. Bxc4 Ne3+) 49... Nb2 is a draw 48. Bxc4 bxc4 49. Kf3 Kg5 50. Ke4 Kh4 51. Kd4 Kxh3 52. Kxc4 Kg4 53. Kb4 Kf4 54. Kxa4 Ke5 55. Kb5 Kd6 Black's flag fell after a few more moves. 1-0

Round Three

Shih-Houng Young - Jens Madsen 1-0
Jason Young - Michael Felton 1-0
Phil Nicoletti - Jim Eakins 0-1
Jeff Reynolds - Martin Harper 1-0

In comparion with the second round, this was the revenge of the underdog with upsets galore! In what turned out to be the decisive game of the tournament, Shih-Houng soundly beat Jens who did not get much from the opening and then stumbled quickly thereafter. Probably the most exciting game of this evening was Jason's win against Mike:

Unfortunately for Mike, he found out that he was playing black only after I set up the board. This was very fortunate for me, since he had prepared an English, which I don't play well against. 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 This was an interesting move which I had never seen before. Seems kind of fast to move the Bishop out, but it looks solid. 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 e6? This move leaves the d6 square very weak, allowing my Knights to take control of this game. 7. Ndb5! Be5 8. f4 Bb8 9. e5 a6 10. Nd6+ Bxd6 11. Qxd6 Nge7 12. Ne4 Nf5? A better move would have been to castle and then attack my queen. Even with the Knight check I have, his king is much safer out of the middle of the board.

Jason Young - Shih-Houng Young draw
Jens Madsen - Jeff Reynolds 1-0
Michael Felton - Phil Nicoletti 0-1
Jim Eakins - Martin Harper 0-1

Shih-Houng secured unshared first place by drawing Jason. Shih-Houng was up a pawn for much of the game and deserved to win, but Jason hung on to survive. Jens secured unshared second, Jason came third. For once the luck was on Martin's side, giving him the first win of the tournament.