[BrianWall-ChessList] Chess Report 4-7-07 from Matt Lasley

Sun Apr 8 15:39:03 MDT 2007

----- Forwarded message from Matt Lasley <mattlasley at hotmail.com> -----
    Date: Sun, 08 Apr 2007 15:35:09 -0600
    From: Matt Lasley <mattlasley at hotmail.com>
Reply-To: Matt Lasley <mattlasley at hotmail.com>
 Subject: Chess Report 4-7-07

Chess report 7 April 07

A cold, snowy, icey day. Not such a good day for little league baseball
opening ceremonies. A perfect day for indoor activities. Like chess! The
last (7th) tournament in the series.

Indoor usually implies in from the cold, but early on the chess room was
COLD! a bit of handy-man repair work by some of the Elks club staff plugged
up the drafts, and by round 3 things were reasonably comfortable again,
though I was still wearing my jacket.

Caleb was taking his time this time, which was very good. In fact, in the
first round he was still playing after both Matthew and Shania were
finished. I heard him "checking" out loud in the first game, but when I
asked him about it later, he had lost it. In his second game, he said he was
behind, but his opponent offered a draw, and he took it. I think at this age
sometimes they think it sounds cool to offer a draw. Or maybe they're trying
to emulate the Grand Masters, who so often draw. In any case, that would be
his best result. The final round he got a bye, for a total of 1.5/5.

Shania's first game had a mate thread, but the enemy castled away from the
danger. When he pinned her rook to her Queen (enemy bishop, her rook, her
queen, all on same diagonal, so to save the queen, the rook is dropped, and
it's worth more than the recaptured bishop) she fell behind. In R2, she had
a mate threat, spoiled only by his Knight. When she repositioned her Queen,
he moved the Knight away, allowing mate. I asked her how she got a Queen up,
and in typical Shania fashion heard the sigh, shrug and "It's complicated."
Indeed, it can be. This was her only win of the tournament, and she didn't
have much to say about her other games, also getting a bye in the final
round for a total of 2/5.

Matthew started out well with a Queen for a bishop, but fell into a
King-Queen Fork to give back the royal lady. At the end it was Rook and 2
pawns apiece, and he lost the endgame. We probably need to study those,
typically such a thing would be a draw. Forks would be a good thing to study
too as he was caught in them again in round 2. Round 3 was a dissappointing
draw from his being paird with his siter Tessa. This was the 2nd time in the
series this happened, and I'm happier with their draw than the loss last
time. The pairings computer can be an irritating foe from time to time. He
also got a last round bye, finishing with 1.5/5.

Tessa had a tough first round pairing with Prakhar. She very well, getting
an early lead. She "messed it up" though, and allowed him to catch her
again. A great performance for such a tough opponant. In 2, an early Queen
trade and then pinned a rook for the lead. She had a mate threat, but he had
checks, and pushed her around until she made the escaping move to prevent
his mate. Once she had a free move.. checkmate! She recognized the weakness
of her opponant's edge-bound knights in round 4, and managed another fork
for the lead. She saw a mate threat, but if she move her Knight out of
danger, it would remove the threat. So she sacrificed the Knight to lock in
mate. Sweet. In her final game her opponent "moved too quickly" and walked
into more forks. Tessa was finding more forks than we set at the dinner
table! But, this was the last round and she'd only lost one game, so this
was a tough guy, and he came back. They had an endgame of K and 3 pawns
apiece, all opposing each other. That's a tough one, and one I'd probably
lose or draw. Very important King movements and pawn order. She managed the
necessary maneuvers to get the first set of Queens traded away, and her
remaining pawn from the fray promtoted to give her the winning advantage.
That's a 3.5/5 result for Tessa, her best yet! Her tiebreaks were good
enough to get the 5th place trophy! Her first for the series!
Congratulations Tessa! some great chess.

Alexa double-forked her first opponant to a straightforward win. Her only
loss came in round 2. She was a pawn ahead, but lost on time. Oh yes, that's
fine. Lose on time, just don't make mistakes - solid chess. Against one of
the So boys, I peeked in to see a wicked attack in progress. When the dust
settled she had 4 pawns for a piece. An unsual match up, and technically
only a pawn-worth of advantage but particularly useful for the endgame. A
bonus was an exposed King to poke at. As the endgame wound down, he fell
apart a bit, donating some material to make it a bit easier on her. Game 4
was exciting. She pulled ahead by a rook with a fork, and had a mating
threat, that her opponent "wriggled out of". Gave the advantage back to a
pin that she'd missed. Then launched a series of checks to drive the enemy
king into the open, and after one of those time-rushed checks, they both
stared at the board for a bit and together realized... it was mate! She won
her key game in the last round as well, against an opponent who was
undefeated to that point. Essentially her win over him meant her tie score
would come above his in tie breaks. Evan Taylor (state champion) didn't play
either of them, so he suffered from that in any tiebreak formula, so that
left Alexa with pretty 'clear' tiebreak win! So, a 1st in the Unrated, and
now a 1st in the rated! This girl can play some chess!

After the tournament ceremony, where Alexa got a 1st place, and Tessa got
her 5th place, Lee shifted to the series awards. These were based on
performance over the 7-tournament series. Matthew and Alexa both played in
every single tournament, which earned them medals, a scorebook with pencil,
and a travel chess set! Very cool. Shania won a 1st place trophy for best
2nd grader performance! Alexa took 4th place in the series for the 4-6 grade
section, earning a chess set and a trophy! Even dad won.

Lee couldn't help bragging on all the kids who did well in his and other
tournaments. Alexa took 1st in two of his tournaments, and won the state
unrated, and took 6th (tied for 3rd) in the state rated. Pretty phenomenal
considering she really just started improving as the series started. She
shot past some kids who've been playing longer. Great stuff.

So, a great series, and a great improvement in the kids' play over the year.
Some Bar-B-Q summer tournaments are possible, and maybe a father-daughters
rated tournament if the scheduling works out, but otherwise just club events
until next September.

Pictures!

Here are some pictures from the tournament. The names are pretty
self-explanatory, but I'll help anyway. The "Play" pics are of each kiddo,
some quality variations in my phtography. Shania's looking pretty intense.
You can actually see her again in the distant background of Matthew's
picture. Tessa's looking very excited in her awards picture, big smiles for
her first trophy. Alexa has the tournament trophy and the 2nd picture is of
her series award. I couldn't resist the "between" rounds shot. Everything a
serious chess player needs, snacks, water, book, artwork, chess set, chess
clock, record book, water and the crochet project.

--Matt

----- End forwarded message -----

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