Facing the facts

Thanks to Las Aventuras de Sarakhatkhan I happened upon MyHeritage's Celebrity Look-alike tool. No doubt we'll be having hours of fun with this going forward. As my first foray I uploaded the infamous NY Masters photo of BCC Champion Charles Riordan. Now we've learned that his USCL photo should be replaced with one of the legendary actor Gary Cooper.

BCC Champ Rd. 9: MacIntyre-Riordan 0-1

Paul's sacrifices didn't work out and as a result Charles captured his piece of the Championship.

MacIntyre,P (2334) - Riordan,C (2330) [B87]
BCC Championship (9), 11.6.2006

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Be3 b5 8.Bb3 Bb7 9.0-0 Nbd7 10.f4 b4 11.Na4 Be7 12.f5 e5 13.Ne6 fxe6 14.fxe6 Nf8 15.Nc5 Bc6 16.Rxf6 Bxf6 17.Ba4 Qc7 18.Qd5 Rc8 19.Nxa6 Qb7 20.Nxb4 Qxb4 21.Bxc6+ Ke7 22.a3 Qxb2 23.Rd1 Qxa3 24.Rd3 Qb4 25.c3 Qb8 26.c4 Nxe6 27.c5 Rxc6 28.Qxc6 Qb1+ 29.Kf2 Qxd3 30.Qb7+ Ke8 0-1

BCC Champ Rd. 8: Riordan-Salomon 1/2

Surely a disappointing result for Charles who seemed to have the advantage the entire game. He was forced to give perpetual check in order to counter Brian's mate threat at the end.

Riordan,C (2330) - Salomon,B (2005) [B91]
BCC Championship (8), 10.30.2006

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.g3 Bg4 7.f3 Bd7 8.g4 e5 9.Nf5 Be6 10.Bg5 g6 11.Ne3 h6 12.Bxf6 Qxf6 13.h4 Nd7 14.Ncd5 Qd8 15.Qd2 Nb6 16.0-0-0 Nxd5 17.Nxd5 Be7 18.Kb1 Rc8 19.h5 g5 20.Qb4 Bxd5 21.Rxd5 Qc7 22.Bd3 0-0 23.Rc1 b5 24.Qd2 Qb6 25.c4 b4 26.c5 Rxc5 27.Rcxc5 dxc5 28.Bc4 a5 29.Rxe5 Bf6 30.Rd5 Rd8 31.e5 Be7 32.Qd3 Qc7 33.Rxd8+ Qxd8 34.Qg6+ Kh8 35.Qxh6+ Kg8 36.a3 a4 37.Qg6+ Kh8 38.Qd3 Qb8 39.axb4 Qxe5 40.b5 Bf6 41.Qe2 Qc7 42.h6 Kh7 43.Qe8 Kxh6 44.Qxf7 Qe5 45.Qh5+ ½-½

Riordan and Chase Crowned Co-Champions

Charles Riordan and Chris Chase both won their games last night finishing tied for first in the BCC Championship with 7 points. Charles overcame FM MacIntyre early in the evening, but Chris had to sweat out his game with NM Cherniack until 11:30pm finally grinding down his opponent in a pawn up ending. Lawyer Times defeated NM Martirosov in an interesting Q+2P vs. 2R endgame to secure third place. Congratulations to the winners!

2006 BCC Championship - Final Standings

All scores are out of nine games.

7.0 - NM Riordan, FM Chase
5.5 - Times
5.0 - NM Cherniack
4.5 - FM MacIntyre, NM Martirosov, NM Krasik
4.0 - Williams
2.0 - Rihel
1.0 - Salomon

2006 Hauptturnier - Final Standings

All scores are out of eight games.

6.5 - Glickman
6.0 - Lee
5.5 - Clayton
4.5 - Driscoll
4.0 - Iglesias, Oresick
3.0 - Frazier
2.5 - Gorczyca
0.0 - Hager

Final crosstables for both events are posted at the BCC website.

BCC Champ Rd. 7: Martirosov-Riordan 1-0

This is the game that made it a tournament again. I'm not sure how much of this was theory, but White got into Black's Kingside with his heavy pieces fairly quickly. 20...Qc7 was the losing move though Black was already under significant pressure.

Martirosov,V (2270) - Riordan,C (2330) [B53]
BCC Championship (7), 2006.10.23

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Qxd4 Bd7 6.Bxc6 Bxc6 7.Nc3 Nf6 8.Bg5 e6 9.0-0-0 Be7 10.Rhe1 0-0 11.e5 Bxf3 12.exf6 gxf6 13.Rd3 fxg5 14.Rxf3 d5 15.Rh3 Bf6 16.Qd3 Re8 17.Qxh7+ Kf8 18.Rf3 Rc8 19.Qh6+ Bg7 20.Qg6 Qc7 21.Nb5 Qe7 22.Nd6 Rc7 23.Rxf7+ Qxf7 24.Nxf7 Rxf7 25.Rxe6 Rc8 26.f3 Rfc7 27.Re2 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

BCC Champ Rd. 5: Rihel-Riordan 0-1

Jason traps Black's Queen but from that point on gets thoroughly outplayed by Charles.

Rihel,J (1953) - Riordan,C (2330) [B57]
BCC Championship (5), 2006, 09.10.2006

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bc4 Qb6 7.Nf3 Bg4 8.h3 Bh5 9.Nd5 Nxd5 10.Qxd5 Bg6 11.Be3 Qb4+ 12.c3 Qxb2 13.0-0 e6 14.Qd3 d5 15.Bb3 a6 16.Ng5 Be7 17.Rae1 0-0 18.Bc1 Qa1 19.Ba3 Qxe1 20.Rxe1 Bxa3 21.Qe3 dxe4 22.Nxe4 Bxe4 23.Qxe4 Rfd8 24.Bc2 g6 25.h4 Rd5 26.f4 Rad8 27.Rb1 R8d7 28.Re1 Be7 29.g3 Bf6 30.Qf3 Rd2 31.Bb1 Bd8 32.h5 Bb6+ 33.Kh1 Rf2 34.Qg4 Rdd2 35.Qh3 Ne7 36.hxg6 hxg6 37.a4 Kg7 38.Rf1 Rfe2 39.g4 Rd8 40.f5 exf5 41.gxf5 f6 42.fxg6 Rh8 43.Qxh8+ Kxh8 44.Rxf6 Re1+ 45.Kg2 Rxb1 46.Rf7 Bc5 47.Kf3 Nxg6 48.Rd7 Ne5+ 49.Ke4 Nxd7 0-1

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.)