Championship Standings after Round 3

2006 BCC Championship

3.0 - FM Chase
2.5 - FM MacIntyre, NM Riordan
2.0 - NM Cherniack, Times
1.5 - NM Martirosov, NM Krasik
0.0 - Williams, Salomon, Rihel

Key 4th Round Matchup: Chase-Riordan

2006 Hauptturnier

Note: Since there are only nine players in the Hauptturnier, one receives a bye each week. Therefore, not all players have played the same number of games through three rounds. To adjust for this, the rankings below are based on the ratio of points earned to games played, not absolute points earned.

2.0/2 - Glickman
2.5/3 - Clayton, Iglesias
2.0/3 - Lee
1.5/3 - Driscoll, Gorczyca
0.0/2 - Oresick, Hager
0.0/3 - Frazier

Key 4th Round Matchup: Lee-Glickman

BCC Champ Rd. 2: Krasik-Rihel 1-0

Krasik sacrifices two pawns in the opening for a dominating position. This game was discussed earlier in the comments to another post. I've moved the relevant thread here.

Krasik,I (2202) - Rihel,J (1953) [A45]
BCC Championship (2), 18.09.2006

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 Ne4 3.Bf4 c5 4.f3 Qa5+ 5.c3 Nf6 6.d5 Qb6 7.e4 Qxb2 8.Nd2 d6 9.Nc4 Qxc3+ 10.Bd2 Qd4 11.Rc1 Nxe4 12.fxe4 Qxe4+ 13.Ne3 e5 14.Nf3 Be7 15.Bb5+ Kf8 16.0-0 Qg6 17.Ba4 Bd7 18.Bc2 e4 19.Kh1 Ke8 20.Rb1 b5 21.Qe1 f5 22.Nh4 Bxh4 23.Qxh4 Rf8 24.Bd1 Qf6 25.Qxh7 g6 26.Ng4 Qf7 27.Qh4 Qe7 28.Bg5 fxg4 29.Re1 Qe5 30.Bc2 Bf5 31.Bxe4 Kd7 32.Bd3 Qxd5 33.Qh7+ Kc8 34.Qe7 Bxd3 35.Qxf8+ Kb7 36.Re7+ Nd7 37.Rxd7+ Ka6 1-0

BCC Champ Rd. 2: Chase-Williams 1-0

Chase outplays Williams in the endgame.

Chase,C (2292) - Williams,C (2186) [A07]
BCC Championship (2), 18.09.2006

1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 c6 4.0-0 Bg4 5.d3 Nbd7 6.Nbd2 e5 7.h3 Bh5 8.e4 Bc5 9.Qe1 dxe4 10.dxe4 0-0 11.Nb3 Bb6 12.a4 a5 13.Bd2 Bxf3 14.Bxf3 Qc7 15.Be3 Rfe8 16.Bxb6 Qxb6 17.Qc3 Qb4 18.Qxb4 axb4 19.Rfd1 Ra7 20.Be2 Kf8 21.a5 Ke7 22.f3 Rb8 23.Bc4 Rba8 24.Kf2 b6 25.axb6 Nxb6 26.Rxa7+ Rxa7 27.Be2 Nfd7 28.f4 f6 29.Ke3 Ra2 30.Rb1 Na4 31.Na5 Kd6 32.Nc4+ Kc7 33.Bd3 Ndb6 34.fxe5 fxe5 35.Kd2 b3 36.Rf1 Nxc4+ 37.Bxc4 Nc5 38.Rf7+ Kb6 39.Rxg7 Nxe4+ 40.Kd3 Nc5+ 41.Kc3 bxc2 42.Kxc2 Ra7 43.Rxa7 Kxa7 44.g4 h6 45.h4 Ne4 46.Bd3 Ng3 47.Kd2 e4 48.Bc4 1-0

A Tale of Two Matches

There is no question that watching a US Chess League match live online is a far different experience than reviewing the results and games the next day. Consider last Wednesday's matchup between the Boston Blitz and the Carolina Cobras. The Thursday morning quarterback checks the website and thinks, "Ho-hum. The two GMs won their games and Krasik had a nice attacking win to secure the match. No real surprises here. Let's see who we are going to beat next week." But Blitz fans who watched the match live on the ICC, listened to the commentary on chess.fm, checked out Globular's aborted live blogging report, and read the kibitzers comments had a significantly more stressful experience.

It all began after IM Milman played 20.Qxh7 against GM Christiansen. On chess.fm, GM Akobian said something to the effect of, "All Milman has to do is push his h-pawn down to the eighth rank and he wins. That will take him 5 moves, so that's how long Larry has to breakthrough on the Queenside. And I don't see how he can do that." The kibitzers were throwing out lines indicating that an immediate a3 or b3 wasn't going to achieve much. Then one suggested d5 saying, "It's probably the best option in a bad situation." Was Christiansen actually in trouble? I checked out Globular's Blog:

Larry just made me feel better by admitting while outside for a smoke that "It's a wild one. I don't understand what's going on."

Larry doesn't know what's going on?! My god, could he actually be losing? Well, it's not the end of world. Remember when he lost to Charbonneau and the rest of team won all their games? It could happen again.

So I checked out the other boards. GM Perelshteyn had the two bishops and was looking fine against FM Hoekstra. Vadim's position looked tough against NM Jones, but it was still early. On Board 4, Ilya's opponent was trying to make the case that development isn't as important as everyone says -- after 12.Nc4, NM Kirby had only one piece not on the first rank and he used his next three moves to get his Knight from e8 to a6!

Then on Board 2 the following moves were played: 30...Ne2+ 31.Kh1 Ng3+ 32.Kg1 Ne2+. Had Eugene fallen into a perpetual? What if the Blitz only get a half point from the top boards? Krasik looked fine, but Martirosov had long term problems -- bad bishop vs. good knight -- and White's outpost on d5 was unassailable. Could Boston actually lose this match after I'd gone out on a limb in my earlier post? How were those words going taste on the way down?

Thankfully, none of these fears came true. Perelshteyn continued the game with 33.Kf2 and while 35...Qd2+ looked scary to me, Eugene had everything under control and won the ending with his passed d-pawn. Milman couldn't find Akobian's 5-move winning plan (I wonder if Varuzhan could have if he was sitting in front of the White pieces?) and eventually Larry's attack broke through. It was 2-0 for the Blitz on the top boards, just like everyone had expected before the match began.

Krasik sealed the Cobras fate by punishing Kirby for his lack of development. An attack on the Kingside yielded the exchange and then several pawns. The Queens came off and Black's position was easily resignable. But Kirby played on, so Ilya traded off all the remaining pieces, including giving back the exchange to reach a King and Pawn ending any 1300 player could have won (even while playing online poker at the same time). Still, Kirby played on. Commissioner Shahade commented that surely "Krasik will complain about his opponent not resigning such a position." I'm going to save Ilya the trouble:

NM Kirby, there's no picture of you on the USCL website so I can't tell if you are actually ten years old. If you are, at least that would explain why you played the end of the game as if you were in a scholastic tournament and couldn't know for sure whether your opponent knew how to mate with King and Queen (yes, I know the game didn't actually get quite that far, but between two masters the end position in this game is essentially no different). Let's show some respect for your opponent, and for the game, next time.

On Board 3, Martirosov hung on for quite awhile and even looked to be making some headway on the Kingside. However, it was inevitable that an endgame would be reached and White's superior piece and position would prevail.

The Blitz won 3-1 and moved to 5-0 for the season. It was quite an exciting match to watch even if the result seemed predictable the next day.

Every silver cloud has its dark lining

Frequent readers of The 64 Square Jungle may come away with the notion that there is nothing better for young minds than healthy chess competition. While that's certainly true for many kids, we rarely hear the perspectives of those who did not find competitive success and for whom tournament chess became a life-defeating, not life-affirming, event.

Here is one such story:

The worst feeling in the world is finding out you’re not as special as you think you are.

Maybe we should start calling it the BCL

I know we are a little bit self-occupied up here in the northeast, what with all that Boston - Hub of the Universe stuff. Nevertheless, it seems that every conversation about the USCL ends up being about Boston and the Blitz.

Here are some excerpts from Commissioner Shahade's interview with San Francisco Mechanics IM Benedict Arnold ... er, I mean, Josh Friedel:

2. In Boston you are considered to be an arch-villain, having left the Boston Blitz to play for the San Francisco Mechanics in one of the biggest free-agent moves of the offseason. Why did you move across the nation? How does it feel to be so despised by such a large city?

Please. I lived near Boston for over 19 years, and the only thing I fear there are the drivers. Also, as you can see by their record, the Blitz hardly need me. In fact, they paid me more to leave this year than to play last year!

4. Ok let's get more serious, talk to us about the league. What teams/players have impressed you the most?

I have one word for everyone. Ilya Krasik (That's two words - editor's note). The guy is amazing. They should put him on board 1 instead of board 4, switching him up for that Joker LarryC. Rxe4? Did anyone see that? True, d5 was most likely easily winning, but that Krasik had to play Rxe4 just to show to the world he's a badass.

6. Tell us the difference between the team and match atmosphere in Boston and San Francisco.

The support in both places was amazing. In Boston, I had the treat of driving through downtown Natick to get to the match. That really prepped my head. Also, having come all prepared for my game, I'd have LarryC tell me to play this random, unsound piece sacrifice instead....

And what do you suppose is the centerpiece of Chessville's most recent article on the USCL? Ilya Krasik's Week 3 Game of the Week.

Chris Chase win streak stops at 20 games

My favorite baseball statistical feats are the streaks -- hitting streaks, scoreless inning streaks, winning streaks. So, looking over the crosstables of the BCC chess club, I happened to notice that Chris Chase has had an impressive September run of 20 consecutive wins, including his 3 wins in the BCC championship. This streak was broken by a draw against Foygel in the last round at the Metrowest tournament. During this time, Chris has captured first place in 5 tournaments in a row, a streak that is still alive. During this time, he has beaten 8 experts and 2 masters. Not too bad.

Now, what I would really like to know is -- what is the longest BCC win streak we know about? How about tournament wins? We can include only events held at the BCC if you want, or include results from other tournaments (like at the MCC). Anyone have any insight? I took a quick peek through old crosstables of usual suspects, but this is not so easy to do without more research.

Quick! Trademark the initials

I don't think many of us worry about people thinking that "BCC" stands for the Biloxi Chess Club, or Burlington, Burlingame, Bend, Boynton or Bremerton for that matter. But this might prove to be a real threat -- Drawing The Lines' Neil G. is taking a hand in resurrecting the historic Brooklyn Chess Club.

Check out their new website (the webcam is a pretty cool idea!).

Wamala waives probable cause hearing

From The Nashua (NH) Telegraph:

A Lowell High School math teacher declined to appear in Nashua District Court on Tuesday and waived his right to probable cause or bail hearings on the 30 felony sexual assault charges against him.

Severine Wamala ... has been jailed since his arrest Sept. 12, unable to post $1 million bail....

Wamala had been scheduled for a probable cause hearing Tuesday in Nashua District Court, at which prosecutors must show a judge they have enough evidence to support the charges. Wamala and his lawyer, public defender Scott Rankin, also could have argued to reduce his bail, but opted to waive the hearing entirely.

Wamala’s case now will be sent along to the Hillsborough County Attorney’s office to be presented to a grand jury in Hillsborough County Superior Court.

From The Lowell Sun:

Lowell High School Math Department Chairman Severine Wamala, accused of 30 counts of rape and incest, refused to face the cameras yesterday in Nashua District Court.

Wamala, 45, waived his right to a probable-cause hearing, choosing not to appear beside his attorney Scott Rankin, a New Hampshire public defender.

Rankin told the judge his client did not want to appear publicly in court, but had waived his right to a hearing that would have forced the district attorney to outline the charges against Wamala and the evidence linking him to the crimes....

Two young women sat quietly in the back of the court room during proceedings, accompanied by two representatives from Bridges, a Nashua-based nonprofit agency dedicated to helping victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

They were the only people in the courtroom gallery at the time of Wamala's hearing, excluding members of the media.

Related Posts: More on the Wamala case - Please tell me this is some mistake

BCC Champ Rd. 1: Martirosov-Chase 0-1

A tough game for Vadim who had the advantage more than once and certainly wasn't losing on the board when he lost on time.

Martirosov,V (2270) - Chase,C (2292) [B15]
BCC Championship (1), 15.09.2006

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6 4.Nf3 d5 5.h3 Nf6 6.e5 Ne4 7.Nxe4 dxe4 8.Ng5 c5 9.c3 cxd4 10.cxd4 Nc6 11.Be3 Qa5+ 12.Qd2 Qxd2+ 13.Kxd2 0-0 14.Bc4 h6 15.Nxe4 Rd8 16.Kc3 Bf5 17.Ng3 Rac8 18.Nxf5 gxf5 19.a4 f4 20.Bxf4 Nxd4 21.Rhe1 Nc2 22.Bg3 Nxa1 23.Rxa1 b6 24.b3 a6 25.Kb4 e6 26.Bxa6 Bf8+ 27.Kb5 Rc2 28.Kxb6 Rb8+ 29.Bb7 Bc5+ 30.Ka6 Rc3 31.Rb1 Bb4 32.Kb6 Rcc8 33.Bf4 Bc5+ 34.Ka6 Rc7 35.Rc1 Rcxb7 36.Rxc5 Rb6+ 37.Ka5 Rxb3 38.Rb5 Ra8+ 39.Kb6 Ra3 40.a5 Rb8+ 41.Kc5 Rc8+ 42.Kb4 Rac3 43.Rb8 Rxb8+ 44.Kxc3 Rb5 45.Bxh6 Rxa5 46.Kd4 Kh7 47.Be3 Ra4+ 48.Kd3 Rh4 49.Bg5 Ra4 50.Be3 Rh4 51.f4 Kg6 52.Ke4 Rh8 53.Kf3 Rh4 54.Bf2 Rh8 55.h4 Rb8 56.g4 Rb3+ 57.Be3 Ra3 58.h5+ Kg7 59.f5 exf5 60.gxf5 Ra4 61.Bf4 Ra1 62.h6+ Kh7 63.Kg4 Rg1+ 64.Kh5 Rg2 65.Bg5 Re2 66.Bf4 Rg2 67.Kh4 Rf2 68.Kg3 Ra2 69.Bg5 Ra6 70.Kf4 Ra4+ 71.Kf3 Rc4 72.Ke3 0-1 on time.

Playing chess at work

One area of competition which gets little to no coverage in the mainstream chess press is Corporate Challenges. Wouldn't it be great if your boss asked you to represent the company in a chess tournament and gave you work time to use for training and preparation?

In this post from Deloitte in Malaysia, they profile their chess team and discuss its prospects in an upcoming tournament. Those PriceWaterhouseCoopers weenies better watch out!

Boston Blitz Notebook

The US Chess League website notes that the Washington Times published an article covering the league. While that is technically true, it would be more accurate to say that the piece reported on the Boston Blitz. The article is entitled "Boston blitzes into lead" and starts out as follows:

The Red Sox may be fading, but the Blitz are doing their best to uphold Boston's honor in the never-ending rivalry with New York.

The second season of the U.S. Chess League is in full swing after a highly promising inaugural campaign won by the Baltimore Kingfishers. The Boston Blitz, anchored by GMs Larry Christiansen and Eugene Perelshteyn, have taken the early lead in the tough Eastern Division by winning their first four matches.

The article also offers annotations to Ilya Krasik's Game of the Week win over New York's FM Privman.

Sure, some of the other teams in the league are mentioned in passing, but you can easily skip over those parts. :)
*****
Globular's Blog announced the Blitz's intent to bring out the double-barreled shotgun line-up this week. While one can hardly complain about a team with two GMs at the top, I was wondering if Carolina might counter with a balanced line-up that could offer them significant rating advantages on the lower boards. Unfortunately for them, their roster doesn't really offer that kind of option.

As a result, this week's matchups look quite favorable for the Blitz (Boston has White on Boards 2 & 4):

GM Larry Christiansen - 2633 vs. IM Lev Milman - 2523
GM Eugene Perelshteyn - 2614 vs. FM Matthew Hoekstra - 2401
NM Vadim Martirosov - 2259 vs. NM Craig Jones - 2280
NM Ilya Krasik - 2162 vs. NM John Kirby - 2222

While anything can happen when the games are played on Wednesday evening, it's difficult to see in advance how the Cobras win this match. Even if they manage to nick one of the GMs for a draw, it seems highly unlikely that they could shutout Vadim and Ilya on the lower boards.

Well, now that I've gone out on a limb, let's hope the team doesn't do anything that would force me to eat my words.

Update #1: JG picks Boston to win 3-1.

Update #2: The two "official" USCL prognosticators pick Boston 2.5-1.5 and 3-1 respectively.
*****

Clint Ballard began the silliness by claiming that having a non-Master team manager was the key to success in the USCL. Now Jen Shahade suggests that the great starts of Boston, Seattle and San Francisco can be attributed to the fact that each team receives full-time coverage in the chess blogosphere. To improve the prospects of her team, the New York Knights, she has committed to posting about them every week.

Of course, it's not hard to poke holes in Jen's theory -- just consider the Blitz's 2005 campaign or this 2006 example. Boston should be in excellent shape to capture the division title if New York's comeback strategy depends on voodoo.

Do top collegiate athletes go to class?

I went to college at a Division 1 Hockey school. It should come as no surprise that we often speculated about whether the players actually took classes, particularly because they weren't in any of ours. Our suspicions were further raised by the fact that many of them were Québécois and, as far as we knew, the school didn't offer any classes taught in French.

While these kinds of concerns are probably prevalent at many major universities, I'm happy to report that we now have anecdotal evidence that it's not a problem at one of the Division 1 Chess schools.

The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker

Those of you with a copy of the September issue of Chess Life can turn to page 42 for "G8 Predecessors Win Amateur Team Championships" by CJA Chess Journalist of the Year Pete Tamburro. The article covers the improbable run of four Boylston Chess Club members who won the 2006 US Amateur Team Championship. The piece includes a picture of the team at the club, but regrettably, the associated caption at the end of page 43 does not list the team members in the correct order. For the record, left to right in the picture are Charlie Mays, NM Alex Cherniack, Lawyer Times and NM Charles Riordan.

To me, one of the most interesting aspects of the article were the mentions of the jobs three of the four players hold. While I've been involved with the club for many years and know these guys and many other members pretty well, I must admit that I don't know that much about what most do outside of chess.

I know we have one member who is in the construction business since his name always comes up every time we talk about doing something structural to our space. A few work at local universities -- a Dean, a Librarian, a Researcher, and probably others. There are several lawyers who come in handy when we need to renegotiate our lease, and at least one MD whose services were actually required during a tournament some years back.

As for the G8 Predecessors, the article states that in addition to the GM-killer on Board 1, the team was comprised of a technical writer, a postal worker, and a homeless shelter counselor.

Chess. Not Chess.

Thom Lawrence and his friends found traditional chess a bit too limiting and frustrating, so they introduced five new rules to spice things up.

1. Shuffling
2. Kamikaze Kings
3. Limited Pawn Moves
4. Taking Your Own Pieces
5. Stacked Castles

Now you might think that these are just variations on variants you are already familiar with (and maybe they are), but it's not quite that simple. For example Shuffling is not quite the same as FischerRandom:

...we chucked our pieces on the desk and then sorted them: the leftmost would be placed on the A-file, the rightmost on the H-file. Pretty random, although your Queen likes to roll a long way so usually ends up on the A- or H-file.

And, I'm not familiar with any precedent for Kamikaze Kings:

At any time, a player may attempt to flick his king into his opponent's. If it knocks the king over without harming any innocent minions, the game is stalemated. Otherwise the flicker loses.

Blitz ride tactical oversight to another win

While most of us are taught not to take pleasure in the misfortune of others, it's going to be hard for many class players not to take at least a bit of solace from the fact that even experienced Masters can make absolute howlers now and then. One such blunder by Philadelphia's FM Rogers turned a tight US Chess League match between the Masterminds and the Blitz into a relatively easy win for Boston.

Continuing this season's trend, the Blitz let their opponents take the early lead. On Board 2, IM Costigan played a strange set-up against FM Winer's e6-Sicilian involving b3 and Bd3 (perhaps it might be called the hybrid Kopec/Queenside Fianchetto variation?). After weakening the dark squares around his King, failing to break a pin and getting his minor pieces lined up on the d-file facing doubled rooks, Winer fell victim to a nice combination/mating attack.

Further up the line, Philadelphia's newest player FM Smith was no match for GM Perelshteyn. Facing the King's Indian, Eugene won a key central pawn (a d-pawn of the passed variety), traded down into an ending and pushed the passer right down his opponents throat -- a remarkably efficient display.

With the match tied at 1-1, the outcomes on the lower boards would prove decisive. On Board 4, NM Martirosov countered NM Wilson with the Exchange Variation of the Gruenfeld. Vadim managed to win a pawn and trade down to a Rook and Bishops of opposite colors ending. However, before the whispers of "MVP" could reach an audible level, the Rooks were exchanged and the game petered out into a dead draw. Perhaps Martirosov might have taken more risks by keeping the Rooks on if things had not been going so well on Board 3 by this time?

And so, we've arrived at the game which undoubtedly left Philadelphia fans scratching their heads. An Accelerated Dragon (by transposition), NM Riordan seemed to be building a nice initiative around move 15. However, he didn't seem to be able to do much with it and by move 25, he may have been better but not decisively so. In the meantime, Charles had managed to get into significant time trouble with about two minutes remaining for the rest of the game (plus, importantly, a 30 second increment per move). All the talk in the gallery was about how Riordan often gets into time pressure before finishing off his opponents. One kibitzer claimed it was an intentional strategy on his part.

Intentional or not, time may well have played a role in what happened next. Perhaps FM Rogers was trying to keep the pressure on Charles by moving quickly himself or maybe he just had a moment of tactical blindness. In any case, with 30...Rf6 he sacrificed a Knight for a checkmate that wasn't there. Riordan took the piece, defended the mate threat, dispatched his opponent and won the match for Boston 2.5-1.5. This outcome was certainly a disappointment for the Masterminds who otherwise had very good chances to at least draw the match.

For the Blitz the win brings them to 4-0 for the season, now two match wins ahead of their nearest competitors in the Eastern Division. Next week they look to continue their winning streak against the Carolina Cobras.

My name is John Doe

Now, I always thought that the author of Chess News & Events had an appropriately unique and obscure name given that he came from a place most us know little about (except when we decide to use their cities and bridges for target practice). Instead, it turns out that there was little chance that a Serbian chess blog could be written by someone with a different name.

Serbia has this weird thing: 47.8% of the men are named Goran .... in Belgrade phone list you can find 75,976 Urosevic, G. .... In his first year of school there were 17 Gorans in his class. Our hero arrived in School, said "Hi, Goran!" and 16 other boys answered "Hi, Goran!" .... there are 25,324 Urosevic, G. registered in Serbian Chess Federation.

Read "The Real Life of WCNers - Goran Urosevic."

BCC Champ Rd. 1: Rihel-MacIntyre 0-1

Jason holds the balance with FM MacIntyre all the way into the endgame, but loses due to the previously mentioned underpromotion debacle.

Rihel,J (1953) - MacIntyre,P (2334) [C77]
BCC Championship (1), 11.09.2006

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 d6 6.c3 g6 7.0-0 Bg7 8.Re1 0-0 9.d4 exd4 10.Nxd4 Bd7 11.Nd2 Re8 12.f3 d5 13.Nxc6 Bxc6 14.Bxc6 bxc6 15.exd5 Rxe1+ 16.Qxe1 cxd5 17.Nb3 a5 18.Be3 a4 19.Nc5 Qd6 20.Qf2 Nd7 21.Nxd7 Qxd7 22.Bd4 Qb5 23.Bxg7 Kxg7 24.Qd4+ Kg8 25.Re1 c6 26.Qd2 Rb8 27.Re2 Qc4 28.a3 c5 29.Kf2 d4 30.cxd4 cxd4 31.Re4 Rd8 32.Qe2 Qc6 33.Qd3 Qd6 34.g3 Qc5 35.Kg2 h5 36.Re2 Qd5 37.Re4 Kh7 38.Re7 Rb8 39.Re2 Kg7 40.Rd2 Rd8 41.Kf2 Kg8 42.Re2 Rb8 43.Rd2 Rb3 44.Qe4 Qxe4 45.fxe4 d3 46.Ke3 Kf8 47.h4 Ke7 48.Rxd3 Rxb2 49.Rd4 Rb3+ 50.Rd3 Rb5 51.Rd4 Ra5 52.Kf4 Ke6 53.Rb4 f6 54.Rb6+ Ke7 55.Rb7+ Kf8 56.Rb8+ Kg7 57.Rb7+ Kh6 58.Rb6 Rc5 59.Rxf6 Rc3 60.Rf7 Rxa3 61.Ra7 Ra1 62.e5 a3 63.e6 a2 64.e7 Rf1+ 65.Ke5 a1Q+ 66.Rxa1 Rxa1 67.Ke6 Kg7 68.e8N+ Kf8 69.Nd6 Ra6 70.Ke5 Ke7 71.Ne4 Ra5+ 72.Kf4 Ra4 73.Ke3 and Black won in a time scramble. 0-1

BCC Champ Rd. 1 : Times-Salomon 1-0

Black loses a pawn and then sacrifices the exchange for a perpetual check that isn't quite there.

Times,L (2139) - Salomon,B (2005) [E60]
BCC Championship (1), 13.09.2006

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.0-0 d6 6.c4 Qe8 7.Nc3 e5 8.Re1 Nc6 9.Nb5 Qe7 10.d5 Nb8 11.h3 a5 12.Be3 Na6 13.Rc1 Nd7 14.Qd2 b6 15.b3 Ndc5 16.Qc2 f5 17.a3 f4 18.gxf4 Bf5 19.Qc3 Ne4 20.Qb2 exf4 21.Bd4 Bh6 22.e3 Nac5 23.Rcd1 Ng5 24.Nxg5 Qxg5 25.exf4 Qd8 26.Qc3 Bxf4 27.Re2 a4 28.b4 Nb3 29.Bh8 Qd7 30.Nd4 Nxd4 31.Qxd4 Bh6 32.Rde1 Bg7 33.Bxg7 Qxg7 34.Qh4 Qf6 35.Qg3 Rf7 36.c5 bxc5 37.bxc5 Rb8 38.cxd6 Qxd6 39.Qc3 Rbf8 40.Rc1 Qf4 41.Rd1 Qd6 42.Rd4 Bd7 43.Rb4 h5 44.Rb7 Bc8 45.Rb4 Bd7 46.Qd2 Kh7 47.Qc1 Rf4 48.Rxf4 Rxf4 49.Rc2 Rf7 50.Rxc7 Qf6 51.Qe3 Qa1+ 52.Kh2 Qb2 53.h4 Qf6 54.Qg3 Kg7 55.d6 Qe6 56.Bh3 Rxf2+ 57.Qxf2 Qxh3+ 58.Kg1 Qg4+ 59.Kf1 Qd1+ 60.Kg2 Qg4+ 61.Qg3 Qe2+ 62.Kg1 Qd1+ 63.Kg2 Qe2+ 64.Qf2 Qg4+ 65.Kf1 Qd1+ 66.Qe1 Qf3+ 67.Kg1 Qg4+ 68.Kf2 Qxh4+ 69.Ke2 Qh2+ 70.Qf2 Qe5+ 71.Qe3 Qh2+ 72.Ke1 Qh1+ 73.Kd2 Qg2+ 74.Kc3 Qg4 75.Qd4+ Kh6 76.Qxg4 Bxg4 77.d7 Bxd7 78.Rxd7 h4 79.Kd3 Kg5 80.Ke3 Kg4 81.Kf2 Kh3 82.Rg7 Kh2 83.Rxg6 h3 84.Rh6 1-0

BCC Champ Rd. 1: Williams-Cherniack 0-1

I was sitting next to this board and saw all the craziness firsthand. The game was a French Tarrasch with the currently trendy 3...Be7. Alex allowed Chris to offer a well-known pawn sac by playing 8...Qb6 (a perfectly reasonable line) rather than the more recently popular moves 8...g5 or 8...a5. From there the game turned into a sac-fest with pieces flying everywhere.

Williams,C (2186) - Cherniack,A (2264) [C03]
BCC Championship (1), 11.09.2006

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Be7 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.e5 Nfd7 6.Bd3 c5 7.c3 Nc6 8.0-0 Qb6 9.Re1 cxd4 10.cxd4 Nxd4 11.Nxd4 Qxd4 12.Nf3 Qb6 13.Qa4 Qb4 14.Qc2 Nc5 15.Bxh7 g6 16.Bxg6 fxg6 17.Qxg6+ Kd7 18.Bd2 Qc4 19.Qg7 Re8 20.Rac1 Qb5 21.Nd4 Qxb2 22.Be3 b6 23.Qg4 Bb7 24.Re2 Qb4 25.Rec2 Rg8 26.Qh3 Rh8 27.Rxc5 Rxh3 28.Rc7+ Ke8 29.gxh3 Rc8 30.Rxc8+ Bxc8 31.Rxc8+ Kd7 32.Rc6 Bc5 0-1