How would you proceed?

Here is a position from the 5th round of the BCC Championship with White to move.

FM MacIntyre-NM Times

After 21...Bf5

After wrestling with the position for awhile, highlight the space between the brackets for the game continuation.

[Paul played 22.Rc7! and the game proceeded 22...Bxc2 23.Rgxg7+ Kh8 24.Bc3 Rae8 25.Rh7+ 1-0]

BCC Champ Rd. 9: Martirosov-Times 0-1

The battle for third place produced a very entertaining encounter with interesting material imbalances. While observing the game, I thought White's two Rooks were better than Black's Queen before Vadim lost his remaining pawns. However, Fritz does not agree. In any case, Lawyer did a nice job of showing that he could continue to make progress against his opponents attempts to engineer a perpetual check.

Martirosov,V (2270) - Times,L (2139) [B02]
BCC Championship (9), 11.6.2006

1.Nc3 Nf6 2.e4 d5 3.e5 Ne4 4.Bd3 Nxc3 5.dxc3 c5 6.f4 Nc6 7.Be3 e6 8.Nf3 Be7 9.h4 h6 10.Qd2 Bd7 11.Qf2 Qa5 12.Qg3 0-0-0 13.Qxg7 Rdg8 14.Qxf7 Rxg2 15.Kf1 Rg3 16.Kf2 Rxf3+ 17.Kxf3 Nxe5+ 18.fxe5 Rf8 19.Qxf8+ Bxf8 20.Rhg1 d4 21.b4 Qd8 22.Bf2 Be7 23.cxd4 Bxh4 24.Bxh4 Qxh4 25.b5 Qxd4 26.Rae1 Kc7 27.Rg4 Qc3 28.Kf2 Kb6 29.a4 Be8 30.Rh4 Qd2+ 31.Re2 Qg5 32.Ree4 h5 33.Rh3 Bg6 34.Rg3 Qd2+ 35.Re2 Qf4+ 36.Rf3 Qh4+ 37.Kf1 Be8 38.Rf6 Ka5 39.Rf8 Qe7 40.Rf6 Bd7 41.Re4 a6 42.Rh4 axb5 43.axb5 Bxb5 44.Bxb5 Kxb5 45.Rxh5 Kc4 46.Rf4+ Kb5 47.c4+ Kb4 48.Kf2 Qd7 49.Rfh4 b5 50.cxb5+ Kxb5 51.Rh8 Qd2+ 52.Kf3 Qc3+ 53.Kf2 Qxe5 54.R8h5 Qb2+ 55.Ke3 Qc3+ 56.Ke2 Kc6 57.Rh8 Qg3 58.Rc8+ Kb5 59.Rch8 c4 60.Rh3 Qe5+ 61.Kd2 Kb4 62.Kc2 Qe2+ 63.Kc1 Qe5 64.Kc2 Qc7 65.R3h7 Qd6 66.Rb7+ Kc5 67.Rh5+ e5 68.Rbh7 Qd3+ 69.Kc1 Qa3+ 70.Kc2 Qa2+ 71.Kc1 c3 72.Rh2 Qa4 73.R7h4 e4 74.Rh8 Kd4 [...and Black won in a time scramble] 0-1

BCC Champ Rd. 8: Chase-Times 1-0

Chris makes a speculative pawn sacrifice which pays off when Lawyer errs with 16...Kf8 (Fritz prefers 16...Nd7). Not that it mattered, but at the end White missed 28.Qf4#.

Chase,C (2292) - Times,L (2139) [B02]
BCC Championship (8), 10.30.2006

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.Nc3 e6 4.Nxd5 exd5 5.Qf3 c6 6.Qg3 d6 7.d4 dxe5 8.dxe5 Bf5 9.Nf3 Bxc2 10.Be2 Bb4+ 11.Kf1 Rg8 12.Nd4 Bg6 13.h4 h6 14.h5 Bh7 15.Rh4 Qe7 16.Rg4 Kf8 17.Rxg7 Rxg7 18.Bxh6 Nd7 19.Qxg7+ Ke8 20.Qh8+ Nf8 21.Bxf8 Qxf8 22.Qxh7 Bc5 23.Nf5 Rd8 24.Bg4 Kd7 25.Ng7+ Ke7 26.Qh6 f6 27.exf6+ Kd6 28.f7+ 1-0

BCC Champ Rd. 7: Times-Rihel 1-0

This game includes a couple of nice features worth noticing: 1) White's impressive connected passed pawns in the center after move 31 and 2) move 37 which takes advantage of a pin on the long diagonal to force a queen trade.

P.S. It seems that I may have found a bug in Chess Publisher. In the game below Black doesn't actually capture a pawn on move 46 with a Rook from off the board! The "extra" Rook on e8 should be ignored for the rest of the game.

Times,L (2139) - Rihel,J (1953) [E68]
BCC Championship (7), 2006.10.23

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.0-0 d6 6.c4 Nbd7 7.Nc3 e5 8.e4 a6 9.a4 exd4 10.Nxd4 Re8 11.h3 Ne5 12.b3 c5 13.Nc2 Nc6 14.Rb1 Be6 15.Bf4 Nh5 16.Bd2 Rb8 17.Kh2 Nf6 18.f4 Qc8 19.Be3 h5 20.Qd2 Nh7 21.Rf2 f5 22.Re1 Na5 23.Na1 b6 24.Qd3 Nf6 25.e5 dxe5 26.fxe5 Nh7 27.Bd2 Rd8 28.Qc2 Nc6 29.Nd5 Kh8 30.Bc3 Bxd5 31.cxd5 Nb4 32.Qd2 a5 33.Nc2 Qd7 34.Nxb4 axb4 35.Bb2 Nf8 36.e6 Qe7 37.Qh6+ Nh7 38.Qxg7+ Qxg7 39.Bxg7+ Kxg7 40.e7 Rdc8 41.d6 Nf6 42.Bf1 Ne4 43.Rxe4 fxe4 44.d7 Re8 45.dxe8Q Rxe8 46.Re2 Rxe7 47.Bg2 e3 48.Bd5 Kf6 49.Kg2 g5 50.Kf3 g4+ 51.hxg4 hxg4+ 52.Kxg4 Re5 53.Bc4 Rg5+ 54.Kf4 Rf5+ 55.Ke4 Re5+ 56.Kd3 Rg5 57.Rxe3 Kg7 58.Be6 Kf6 59.g4 c4+ 60.Kxc4 Kg7 61.Bf5 Kf8 62.Kxb4 Rg7 63.Kb5 Kf7 64.Kxb6 Kf6 65.Re6+ Kg5 66.Rg6+ 1-0

BCC Champ Rd. 6: Riordan-Times 1-0

Charles finishes it off with a nice tactic. In the final position 24...Qxg4 is met with 25.Qh6 and mate is unstoppable.

Riordan,C (2330) - Times,L (2139) [B04]
BCC Championship (6), 16.09.2006

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 dxe5 5.Nxe5 g6 6.c4 Nf6 7.Nc3 Bg7 8.Be2 0-0 9.0-0 Ne8 10.Be3 Nd6 11.Qb3 Nf5 12.Rad1 Nc6 13.Nxc6 bxc6 14.Bf3 Bd7 15.Ne4 Rb8 16.Qc3 Nxe3 17.fxe3 e5 18.dxe5 Qe7 19.Nf6+ Bxf6 20.exf6 Qe6 21.Qd4 Rfd8 22.b3 Be8 23.Qf4 Bd7 24.Bg4 1-0

Boylston team wins US Amateur Championship

Congratulations to Boylston Chess Club Members Charles Riordan, Alex Cherniack, Lawyer Times and Charlie Mays who won yesterday's playoff for the 2006 US Amateur Team Championship. In the semi-final round they defeated Team South 3-1 and got by Team West in the finals by a 2.5-1.5 score. Hopefully when Charles has a chance, he'll provide some direct participant commentary on the day's matches.

While the USCF doesn't provide cash prizes for the tournament (presumably to preserve the players' Olympic eligibility :)), I suspect we'll see the new Champions sporting their engraved commemorative watches around the club.

Related Posts: US Amateur Team Championship - Boylston invades New Jersey...

US Amateur Team Championship

There will be a playoff among the four regional winners this Sunday, April 2nd at 1pm EDT on the ICC. The East will be represented by Boylston Chess Club members NM Charles Riordan, NM Alex Cherniack, Lawyer Times and Charlie Mays. Log on and cheer them on!

Related post: Boylston invades New Jersey...

Boylston invades New Jersey...

... and emerges victorious.

This year's Amateur Team East tournament was won by the team of Boylston players Charles Riordan, Alex Cherniack, Lawyer Times, and Charlie Mays. Moreover, Boylston's fearless leader Paul MacIntyre held U.S. Champ Hikaru Nakamura to a draw with black in an impressive game. Other notable results included Cherniack's prize for the best overall score on board 2 (5.5 from 6) and Ilya Krasik's perfect 6-0 score playing as his team's third board.

The victorious Boylston Chess Club Team (on right)

Photo: Globular

(The Amateur Team East is an annual event held in Parsippany, New Jersey. Teams of four players are formed with a mean rating cutoff of 2200. This year's event featured 276 teams.)