Marshall Monday U1800, Jan 8 - Feb 12 2024 Recap

Last week I finished another SS-6 90+30 weekly tournament at Marshall. Here are the games:

Round 1 - Astor vs. Zucker

Since I've been playing 1. e4 e5 more consistently, I've started facing the Spanish more often. In fact, I've studied "just enough" theory to understand what's going on in the opening, and have found my opponents don't always play mainline. However, I also don't always capitalize on such minor mistakes.

Although the Spanish has a reputation for being theory-heavy, I'm findings the games more interesting and less stressful as black, given white doesn't have immediate tactics (in most closed variations, if you play correctly).

In this game, after white forgot to play 8. c3 I failed to play 9. ... Nxb3! The whole point of 8. ... Na5 is to chase down and capture white's light-squared bishop. Not doing so caused some long-term problems for the game as white had stronger central control.

Also, I had been studying some of Marin's "A Spanish Repertoire for Black" which is a bit above my level but still fun to read. This lead me to play 12. ... Nc4, and white immediately captured with 13. Nxc4. I had thought that white would ignore my knight to continue with Nf1, but nope!

Overall the resulting position was not great and I found myself in a worse endgame. Missing Nxb3 did not decide the game by any means, but it did make it a lot harder...

Game 2 - Zucker vs Grynszpan

In this game I got to play the Panov Attack, but my opponent played a weird move: Be6!? Actually, this move is theory, as I had noticed it in a book I had borrowed from the Marshall library: The Easy Guide to the Panov-Botvinick Attack (Aagaard, 1998). Another book a bit above my level, but at any rate I had skipped the chapter on the move Be6 (yes, it had a whole chapter) "who is going to play this move in my section?" Hah.

At any rate, a big mistake I made was thinking that 15. dxe5 was somehow a good move that made black's bishop "bad." I have to remember to beat down such thoughts in my head. It's not the first game where I missed a more promising variation because I was convinced I could block off my opponents bishop (it never works, they just move it away from the blocked diagonal). I didn't capture the free pawn with 15. Qxe4. Obvious!

I was struggling at the end of this game, but missed an incredible, crushing tactic. See if you can find it:

Game 3 - Vasquez vs Zucker

This game is something of a tragedy... I "tried something different" and ended up getting myself wrapped around the axle - and was brutally punished for it.

Actually kind of comical is that I played Be6, subconsciously copying what I had seen in the previous game and telling myself it was "solid" without doing any calculation! Ugh.

I'm still struggling to play against these 1. d4 London / Colle / Pseudo-Catlan openings.

I reviewed this game with IM Jay Bonin and he immediately pointed out that cxd4 was a mistake. If you play an early c5 against d4, you need to maintain the tension, and possibly transpose to another opening. If they play dxc5 that of course works in your favor as they have surrendered a central pawn.

Game 4 - Kantey vs. Zucker

I had to play black for the second game in a row. Again I faced the Spanish against David Kantey. Previously, I had played a filler game (when I had a full-point bye) and actually got a draw against him. Could I repeat?

Having studied just a little more theory, I was able to get something of a small advantage in the opening, but missed a critical capture on move 29. After almost 2 hours, I finally cracked and blundered a knight fork that would lose the exchange - and resigned.

Side note: Mr. Kantey is the author of a book based on experience working at the The Chess Shop in Greenwich Village, titled... "The Chess Shop": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59699729-the-chess-shop

Game 5 - FULL POINT BYE

Having lost 4 games in a row, I was again in last place and the odd-man out. I got a full point bye and instead of playing someone from the upper section, I opted to spend the evening playing and reviewing casual games in the skittles room.

Something I discovered: after playing a 10+0 casual game, I was able to completely reconstruct the entire game from memory with my opponent. Felt good to be able to do that.

Game 6 - Zucker vs. Pinn

For the grand finale, I played a 1500 (on his floor) player. Knowing I was playing a stronger, but vulnerable (also winless) opponent, my strategy going in was "hold on as long as possible until it's a draw or he blunders."

Not unlike my previous game vs. Kantey two weeks earlier, I was able to eke out a win after almost 3 hours, when my opponent hung a knight fork late in the game. Unlike me, he didn't resign immediately and I had to extinguish his counter-play and grind out the win.

Takeaways

Interestingly, after 4 losses and only 1 win, my elo actually increased: 1017 -> 1042

https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202402129012-30684520

After playing in the U1800 section twice and only scoring once, I decided to shift back to the Wednesday U1600 90+30 tournament - taking a bye in round 1.

I've been thumbing through "Beating the Open Games" - which is a black repertoire playing e4-e5 - but not to learn "theory" as much as get new ideas on valid moves to play as black in the opening.

I expect that I'll face the 1. d4 Colle / London / Psuedo-Catlan again, but will try my best to play slow against it. In a recent Lichess 4545 LoneWolf game, I found that if I just play solid moves and stop all of white's ideas, the best they can hope for is a draw. Given I'm facing this opening mostly from 1200 - 1300 players, a draw is fine in terms of elo / tournament standing... I'll take it vs a loss at this point.

Although I don't want to "play for a draw," if my opponent plays a d4 opening that allows black to equalize...I'll see the draw as a "win" at this point.

And, if you are in NYC, there is another ALTO Tournament this coming Saturday at Marshall! I'll be there.

https://www.marshallchessclub.org/tournaments/entry_list/7725