Here are some pictures taken by Kevin E Chen during the 2009 LIberty Bell Chess Tournament by Keven E Chen.
Kevin was kind enough to email me these pictures so I could post them on my chess blog. Thank You Kevin ! Just a side note, Kevin also played in the Liberty Bell Chess Tournament and he also has his own team for the upcoming Amateur Team East Chess Tournament that takes place in February. Info is listed below for that event.
February 14-16, 2009
39th Annual - Celebrate the 60’s! 6SS, 40/2, SD/1. Parsippany Hilton, 1 Hilton Ct., Parsippany,N.J. 07054. Chess Rate valid until 1/16. Reserve early 973-267-7373 or 1- 800-HILTONS. Morris/Essex train to Morris Plains 1.5 miles.
Open to 4- player teams with one optional alternate.
In this round five game my opponent focused on White's queenside only to be shut down by my knight on C5. And eventually I cramped Black's pieces on the seventh rank and neutralized their scope and activity.
Having secured the Queenside, by White's 20th move Rc1 and White's 21st move Nc5,I preceded to pawnstorm Black's castled king on the kindside.
Seeing that forced mate or the loss of material on the seventh rank, my opponent resigned.
Entering this last round I had four and a half points (4.5 pts). This was a must win game for the seond through fourth place prize money. I got lucky with a lot of help from my opponent
My opponent was Vijay , a 10 year kid , who played tenaciously for a draw as Black througout the game. My opponent decided to break thru the center in the middle game and put pressure on the G files with his rook towards my King.
I controlled the C file with both rooks and counter played on the queenside. After the center was completely gone, my opponent decided to King walk and chased down my King side pawns which was not good strategy on his part because I locked up his King on the H file. Using my King , I was basically a piece up and took after his queenside pawns with my Rook and King.
At this point the game was a dead draw , so I decided to swindle my opponent by setting him up to take my B pawn with his rook , which if he does take the B pawn he would lose his rook by my King moving and attacking it and in the process releasing a deadly discover check on his king from my rook on the same rank.
Some would say this was a blunder on Black's part but I believe it was a swindle because I moved my rook up next to him trying to entice my opponent to exchange which would have been unbenificial for him, so he did the next best thing by taking what he thought would be a free pawn.
Just a few notes , the Liberty Bell tournament took place at the Sheraton at 17th and race streets in Philadelphia, PA
The overall turnout at the Liberty Bell was larger than usual, 445 players in eight sections compared to 374 in 2008 and 330 in 2007.
The first game listed is played by me which was previously posted in my blog post "Four Queens For Christmas 2008 " on December 20, 2008. (diamondback)
Much better is move 29. Nf6+ for white which totally crushes Black and completely avoids the Four Queens scenario of white queening multiple pawns..diamondback Just click on that variation and it highlights in red and play it out on the board.
The three games listed below were played by Scott A. December 20, 2008 Saturday quad. In this lower quad Scott played a youngster named Charles and also played against two veterans Sal and Dion.
Dion has played in many chess quads throughout South Jersey and Central Jersey he has told me on occassion that Hamilton Chess Quads in Groveville, New Jersey are very well organized and priced right.
I believe Sal has particpated in many Hamilton Chess Quads this year and last month finished clear first in his quad section, someday I have to ask him to cotribute to my chess blog by submitting one of his games.
Scott has just played in three or four Hamilton Quads and has finished clear first in several. Scott-Charles.pgn
This year the turnout at the December 20, 2008 Hamilton Chess Quad appeared to be less than last year's, perhaps because the date was so closed to Christmas and everyone was using the last Saturday before Christmas for some last minute shopping.
In m first round quad at the December 20, 2008 Hamilton Quad in Groville, New Jersey I violated a basic opening principle by bring out my queen early by snaching up pawns. Fortunaely for me I was not punished for this by my opponent , just the contrary I managed in the endgame to queen three passed pawns to give white a total of four queens counting the orignal queen that I started the game with. This game is placed at the end of this post, just click on "Show Chess Board" Unfortunately, in my last round game I played poorly by dropping a minor piece by placing the knight en prise. I only needed a draw in the last round to bring home the Christmas money but left instead with just two wins and one lost and placed second in my quad.
Much better is move 29. Nf6+ for white which totally crushes Black and completely avoids the Four Queens scenario of white queening multiple pawns..diamondback Just click on that variation and it highlights in red and play it out on the board.
Saturday's Hamitlon Chess Quads on November 15, 2008 at Ray Dwier Rec Center was standing room only. TD Ed do a fantastic job with crowd control with a total of 42 paticipants. There were Nine Quads and One Swiss. There was a dispute in Quad 6 by one of the players that spilled over in the kitchen of Rec Center but TD Ed put out the fire quickly.
Ed provided enough tables , chairs and boards for all players. There is one more room that is under lock and key that is not used for Chess Quads but maybe Ed S. should ask for the key for that spare room because the Year End Chess Quad on December 2008 (I will Post the date later ) usually draws close to Fifty players.
Enough said about Hamilton Chess, a chess venue for the amateur chess player, now about my game with Scott A my Bishop pair was not enough to hold a draw over my opponent Scott A. who played White. With white's two rooks and extra pawns this was just a matter of trading down.But Scott's excellent play against me was not enough to win our Quad section. That honor goes to Sal Geraci, who scored a win against all three of his opponents.
In the first chess playing diagram is the postion before I used a sham piece exchange with one of the bishop pair which was more of a desparado tactic that my opponent did not fall into.
The second chess playing diagram shows how Chess Master 10th Edition usings White's two rooks to trade down Blacks' bihsop pair for a won endgame postion.
Finally the last game posted below is a dead drawn postion, which I offer my opponent a draw in the second time control but he said it was too eary in the game, this is after we have played about 75 moves. After playing for five hours I blundered away the postional draw. I knew instinctedly that my white pawn on H5 and my bishop would hold black's h, g, and f pawns at bay especially if black moved the g pawn I would take en passant. So I am posting this endgame that was analysed by Chess Master 10th Edition which confirmed my analysis for a draw.
Here is a game , I just played at Hamilton Chess Club Quads on October 18, 2008 in round three with Robert C. current USCF rating for him is 1397 and climbing. I have played him three times before and only won once.
In this game, instead of looking for resources and counter play after a he moved his bishop setting up a fork between my Knight and Queen, I panic like a deer staring into headlights of an onmoving car.
Lesson learn today , look for counter play and resources even when under tacital attack. I used Fritz 8 that was given to me by Atomic Patzer to analyse some possible counterplay ,which is in this Chess Flash playing diagram.
I am not stating that Black can win or even draw this game , but there was definitely counterplay as shown by Fritz 8. Diamondback
Just click on the move variations after the chess board is opened, and the move variations will highlight in red, continue to click on the variations to play the analysis.
Below is a rated game played in the under 1300 section of Hamilton Quad in Quad Six between Dion and Diamondback. The tactic here in this game is the Classical H7 Sac !
In this game Dion, who played white presented Diamondback with a Greek gift, sacing his bishop on my h7 to take advantage of my unprotected backrank.
This second game posted below is between Scott A. and Dion C. in the first round. Congrats ! to Scott A. who took first place in our quad with a score of 3-0. The second game posted is a win by Scott A. (white) against Dion in quick fashion.
This chess blog is for all amateur chess players under the USCF rating of 2200. and this is my first chess blog. In the future I will add chess diagrams and some light annotations to my chess games I post here. *** Please note this content of this post was first published on August 24, 2008 Sunday *** the date of my first ever blog post here on Google Blogger E Blogger.
Here's a chess scoresheet for a chess tournement that was just played recently by myself at Hamilton Chess Quads at Groveville , New Jersey. I played White. The game was played on August 23, 2008.
Click on Show Chessboard to open game and Click on any variation move which plays that variation out .
The real names of the players have been changed to protect their privacy.
USCF Rating (1381) - USCF Rating (1441) [A09]Hamlton Quads Aug2008 23.08.2008 Diamondback vs The Italian Stallion Groville , August 23, 2008 1-0
The game was played rather fast by opponent even though the time control was 40/80 minutes and 15 moves every 30 minutes for the second time control.
After move twenty -five the game was in the bag for White. In fact after move 25, Black stopped writting down the moves on his scoresheet, something the TD should keep and eye out for, but I did not cry foul because Black's postion was lost.
Also during the last ten moves of the game, my opponent was talking trash as to why I was'nt moving as fast as he did. At that point the TD stepped in and told him to stop running his mouth.
Here is a game that I played in Round 2 of the 2008 New Jersey Championship in the under 1600 section with Carlo. I played Carlo before in the 2008 Memorial Day NJ Individual Amateur East championship in the under 1400 section and he resigned with a strong postion so I knew he can play well when he turns it on.
An interesting side note this kid starts sixth grade in a few days and I know he will be a strong player in a two or three years.
Perhaps when I traded my strong central knight for a passive bishop was the beginning of the end, I will let you be the judge on where I started to self destruct in the middle game.
Atomic Patzer is always telling me " study tactics as much as you can "
Today is the last day of the 2008 New Jersey Championship which was held over the Labor weekend at the Ramada in Somerset , New Jersey.
The best result for me was after each round when I drove nearby to the Pronto Deli or Starbucks for a coffee or sanwich. Need I say more. I was totally unprepared for the competiton in my section. You would always see the kid's parent looming over their child when I played the yougsters. Or maybe that person was the Kid's personal chess coach or both.
I participated in the under 1600 section and the oldest opponent that I played was aged 85 years old and the yougest player was aged 8 years old. There is a lot to learn from your losts, especially when a eight year old knows more about Chess Opening Theory than you.
Here is one of my games that shows my poor judgement that it was not the best decision to exchange rook for rook instead of Knight takes rook. I reasoned that it this exchange was better so that my opponent would take back my rook with black's pawn and then White's knight would then recapture Black's pawn , if I had taken the rook with my knight then Black would recapture with his pawn and that pawn would be a dangerous passed pawn.
As always, ther first chess playing diagram is the actual game played.
The second chess playing diagram is analysis on move 26 by ChessMaster 10th edition
My first game that I played at the Greater Somerset Chess Club Quads on June 22, Sunday, 2008 was with Holy Tolito which drained me mentally and phyically because I had the black pieces.
The second game I played was against Atomic Patzer, who generated my interest in chess blogging from his orignial chess blog and now he has a much improved heavily video laden chess blog that is titled none other than " Atomic Patzer just another chess fan blogging " http://ubutec.com/atomicpatzer/ .
My last game in that same GSCC Quad was a hard fought draw against Country Boy. As I remember that Quad , Country Boy was playing for a win but it was a dead draw postion, which even a Grand Master could not transform into a win.
The chess scoresheet listed below from the first game of the Quad with "Holy Tolito" is a very bitter lost for two reasons. I could have intiated drawing chances, if I took the F pawn on move 31 for Black instead of Bishop C5, I reasoned that blocking the C file was better than taking the F pawn.
Secondly, I actually walked into a Helpmate for my opponent by not paying attention to his moves, which he was setting me up for mate. I had illusions of queening my pawn but actually received mate with his pawn.
The first playable chess game diagram is the actual over the board game moves, Holy Tolito is White and Diamondback is Black.
The second chess game diagram is the possible drawing sequence of moves , if Black took the F pawn on move 31. Again , White: Holy Tolito Black: Diamondback
I have changedthe real names of the players for privacy reasons. The ratings are true USCF ratings. After the game my opponent said to me that He was not familar at all with the opening I played as Black and asked me what the name of the opening was.
I believe the opening played by black is a variation of the Old King's Indian. Someone out there in the Chess Blogosphere may know the exact name of this opening.
In the second game below, all the moves were played out by ChessMaster 10th edition after Black's move 31 Bshp x F pawn .
