Thursday, February 27, 2014

BCC FEBRUARY GRAND PRIX: WELLING TOP EXPERT // PHU SI VO 4 - 0 U1800 // 36 PLAY // 18 JUNIORS

BCC GRAND PRIX: GRAND EVENT
OPEN SECTION
Milestone
Aashish Welling, 3.5 points, clear 1st.
+20 rating to 2017
CRITICAL GAME
Aashish Welling v Ames Abbot, Round 3: draw.
The setting: Welling up the exchange and promoting a 
passed pawn; Abbot has the bishop pair and pawns.
The time remaining: Welling 1minute 58 sec;  
Abbot: 7 minutes 25 seconds . . .
Critical time check: Welling: 0 minutes 2 seconds (with 5 "delay)
Abbot: 0 minutes 12 seconds (with 5"delay)
Welling is queening and pinning Abbot's bishop 
guarding the queening square. One, two three . . . won game
(on the board)  yet!
Welling forgot to look at the clock, Abbot flagged first, but
Welling did not call the flag (with TD watching) . . .
then Welling flagged, so . . . draw!
Abbot scored 3 points to share 2-3rd place with Jason Tang.
By the same token, Aashish Welling is a chess expert now.
Keep your eye on this lad. He's going to the top!
Nithin Kavi, black vs Jason Tang, Round 3.
Jason scored 3 points, sharing 2-3rd place with Ames Abbot.
Nithin scored 2.5 points securing 4-6th place
with Anil Marthi and Ed Foye.
Mark Neale vs Anil Marthi, Round 3.
Marthi shared 4-6th place with +7 rating hike.
Neale scored 1.5 to hold close to threshold: 1799 rating.
Ed Foye vs David Tianyi Zhou, Round 3.
Ed scored 2.5 points to share 4-6th place.
David broke even with 2 for 4.
(background): Mike Griffin vs Almir Dzhumaev: draw;
Mark Neale v Anil Marthi; Alex Yu v Derek Jin.
Almir Dzhumaev, black vs Anil Marthi, Round 4: draw.
Almir is a new face at the BCC: Welcome Almir!
Almir, with a FIDE rating of 2203, is from the region 
of Bishkek Kyrgyzstan, (formerly Frunze, where Kasparov 
tied with Psakhis 12.5/17 to win the USSR Ch in 1981). 
KIDS PLAY UP
10 yr old Alex Yu vs 7 yr old Derek Jin, Round 3.
Derek scored 1 point and up'd his rating +45!
AN OOPS MOMENT IN THE OPEN SECTION
10 yr old Brandon Wu, black vs 7 yr old Derek Jin: 1-0!
(This warrants my effort to produce a score of this game!)
SERIOUS CHESS:
 
Ames Abbot (1907) vs Carissa Yip (2036), Round 2.
U1800
Julian Morris v Phu Si Vo, Round 3.
Vo was smashing with 4 wins, taking clear 1st place.
Morris scored 3 points and shared 2-3rd place
with Harold Dondis!
Julian Morris begins his chess career at the BCC:
Welcome Julian. He went from "unrated" to 1500!
Bravo Julian.
(background): Daniel Wang, black vs Tom Shneer: draw!
Achyuta Rajaram black, vs Dongping Zhou.
                                                                                                              Photo: Hui Huang
Steve Stepak, black vs Harold Dondis: D85 Gruenfeld: draw.
[Harold and I go back 30 years, and so too, the Gruenfeld
I play against him. This day, I was ready to rumble. I
got a good position out of the opening and then asked
for a draw. In typical tenacious fashion, Harold said
"no" . . ! Then Harold made a boo boo! and I struck
in the center, got up and went for a drink of water.
When I returned, Harold asked me for a draw,
which I gladly took. I considered the "victory" the
fact that he offered me a draw. I analyzed the position
{which I was convinced was a win} and indeed
it was a win. I gave HD the line from Houdini.
He smiled, as he waited for his ride home!]
Stepak went 2.5/3; Dondis, 3/4.
Harold shared 2-3rd place with Julian Morris
Stepak shared 4-5th place with Dongping Zhou
who is David and Daniel Zhou's dad.
From Dondis-Stepak, GP R3: White to move, black to win.
Can you, dear chess player, find the plan?
MY FAVORITE PHOTO:
Julian Morris // Daniel Wang // Dongping Zhou // Tom Shneer
Mark O'Brien vs Boshen Li, Round 3.
(background): Pooja Welling vs Daniel Zhou.
Mark and Pooja were 50% (2/4) on the day.
Alexander Shi Jin (Derek's older brother) scored a
significant victory over Mark O'Brien in Round 1 to go 2/4
in the U1800 section. Bravo, Alex!
TICKLED PINK
Sammi Pan, black vs Boshen Li, Round 4.
Sammi Pan plays blitz chess between rounds.
Aaron Huang, black vs Ed Chiu, Round  3: draw!
PHOTOS BY STEVE STEPAK
Bernardo Iglesias, TD.
Splendid job, as usual!

Snack of choice at the BCC
See you all next Saturday 
for QUADS

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Yet another great blog! thanks Steve :)