For several years now, the Arnold Denker Tournament of High School Champions has been held concurrently with the U.S. Open. This year, Michigan’s representative was Aaron Kahn. Aaron scored a respectable four points losing only to eventual co-champion Mackenzie Molner from New Jersey and another player rated over 2300. The other co-champion was Pieta Garrett from Arizona. Aaron also defeated one of the 2003 co-champions, Ryan Milisits.

An additional invitational tournament was also held for the first time this year. For the Susan Polgar Invitational Tournament for Girls, Ashley Carter was the inaugural representative from Michigan. The winner of the tournament was Roza Eynullayeva from Massachusetts with a score of 5.5/6. Here is what Ashley had to say about the event:

“My experience at the Susan Polgar Invitational was one of the best experiences I ever had. It was held in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and it was 6 rounds in 6 days. There was very tough competition between some of the best girls in the country under 18 years old. At the tournament there were about 36 girls who were rated anywhere from 900 to 2100. I was glad that I finished 4.0/6 and tied for 5th place overall.

For me, the best part of the tournament was just being there! It was the first Polgar Invitational ever and they will probably have this tournament every year from now on, so I will always remember that I went to the very first one. Also, I made some friends there because I usually don't go to tournaments where there are only girls. I really enjoyed playing in this tournament because I was able to compete with (and make friends with) the top junior girls in the country. Finally, I would like to thank the Michigan Chess Association for selecting me to be Michigan's representative!”

Stephanie Friedman (1448)
Ashley Carter (1745)
Round 3
Caro-Kann: Exchange, B13

Notes by Ashley Carter

1.e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.d4 Bf5 5.Bd3 Bxd3 6.Qxd3 e6 7.Nf3 Nf6 8.0–0 Be7 9.Ne5 Nc6 10.Be3 0–0 11.f4

This gives me an outpost for my knight on e4.

11...Nb4

This looked good because after the queen retreats my knight can go to e4.

12.Qd1 Ne4

If she takes on e4, I will have a passed pawn, and after f5 my pawn structure should be OK.

13.Nxe4 dxe4 14.a3 Nc6

Here I think 14...Nd5 would've been better (to control the center and gain more space) but I didn't play it because of c4 later.

15.c3 Qc7 16.Qg4 f5 17.Qh5 Bf6 18.Kh1 Bxe5

I played this because I thought my knight was better than her bishop, and also because her knight had a nice outpost while my bishop wasn't doing much.

19.fxe5 Ne7

I wanted to move my knight to d5 (to control more of the center).

20.Bd2 Nd5 21.Rad1 g6 22.Qh3 b5

This move prevents c4, freeing my queen to move to a different file (to make it more active).

23.g4 a5

Instead of this move, I think 23...f4 would've been better (giving me connected passed pawns).

24.gxf5 gxf5

24...exf5 was safer for my king, but it would give her a passed pawn on e5.

25.Rg1+

I didn't think this was dangerous for me because I can bring my rook to g8 next move to get her rook off the g-file.

25...Kh8 26.Rg6 Qf7 27.Qh6

Trying to attack e6 twice, she didn't realize her rook was actually hanging. I was expecting either 27.Rh6 or 27.Rdg1.

27...Qxg6 28.Qh3 f4 29.Rg1 Qf7 30.Qf1 e3 31.Be1 f3

From here I can promote one of the pawns and have an easy win.

32.Bg3 f2 33.Rg2 e2 34.Qxf2 Qxf2 35.Bxf2 Rxf2 36.Rxf2 e1Q+ 37.Kg2 Rg8+ 38.Kf3 Rf8+ 39.Kg4 Qxf2 40.b4 Qf3+ 41.Kh4 Rf4+ 42.Kg5 Qg4+ 43.Kh6 Qg6# 0–1