| December 2000 will be remembered for the record-breaking snow (at least
in Flint) that was dumped around the state. But a total of 50 players took
advantage of a break in the weather on December 16 to travel to Boynton
Middle School in Detroit. The Michigan Women’s Championship was held concurrently
with the Action. |
| There was the usual plethora of scholastic players from the Metro-Detroit
area, but the top was fairly strong compared to previous years. Leading
the way was IM Ben Finegold, who definitely had a dominating year on the
Michigan chess scene. There was one master (Sergei Chobanyan), one expert
(Ameer Ghobrial), followed by four A-players. |
|
Round 1
|
| The rating differences in the first round were very large and it went
pretty close to form. The one exception was Brad Feller (902) holding Matt
Herreshoff (1684) to a draw. There were a couple of close calls in that
I was lucky to beat Spencer Finegold when my pawn queened one tempo before
his and just happened to be covering his queening square. Also, Joseph
Gadson had a piece on Mike Skidmore before succumbing to time pressure. |
| Most of the games were decided by hanging pieces. In this game, black
grabbed more than his fair share of space and used it to set up an attack
on white’s king: |
|
| Jonathon Hartsfield (1096) |
|
| Ameer Ghobrial (2103) |
|
| [C00] French: Queen's Knight |
|
|
1.e4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d3?!
| Giving Black space and the initiative. He could transpose into more
usual French lines with 3.d4 or 3.exd5. |
| Fianchettoing this bishop doesn't seem like a good idea, since he will
just be biting on the strong center pawns. A better idea would be to try
to weaken the center with 6.c3 |
| White just doesn't seem to have very many options. Almost every piece
is severely limited. |
| This does nothing more than expose the king even more. White would
have been better off giving up the exchange, although he still would have
been in a world of hurt. |
|
|
|
Round 2
|
| Most of top players within the top group moved on to the next round
perfect. Upsets included Shawn Rayon (1248) using an outside passed pawn
to defeat Michael Marson (1779) and Clint Prong (1230) over Justin Aldrich
(1637) when Justin grabbed the wrong knight and cost himself a piece. |
| Jennifer Skidmore again was playing in both the Action and Women’s
Championships simultaneously. Here, she blatantly attacks the black king
and black helps things along by voluntarily removing one of his own defenders: |
|
| Jennifer Skidmore (1924) |
|
| Walter Raugh (1425) |
|
| [B23] Sicilian: Closed (Zukertort) |
|
|
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4
| Prelude to an attack. The Closed Sicilian takes black away from the
more heavily analyzed lines of the Sicilian. |
| Forced, since the bishop would run out of squares otherwise. |
| Grabbing a pawn but removing a key king-side defender. Black would
be better off centralizing his other rook with 26...Rae8. |
| Cutting off communication with the kingside. |
| Now, with the bishop far away, all the black squares around the king
are free to use for the attack and mate will follow. |
|
|
| Other than the two upsets, the remaining perfect scores were all Class
B and above. Included were Ben Finegold, Sergei Chobanyan, Ameer Ghobrial,
Jennifer Skidmore, Jeff Aldrich, Robert Al-Shareef, Mike Skidmore, Tony
West, William Jointer, Harold Steen, Shawn Rayon, and Clint Prong. |
|
Round 3
|
| 1. |
M. Skidmore |
0 |
B. Finegold |
| 2. |
Chobanyan |
1 |
West |
| 3. |
Jointer |
0 |
Ghobrial |
| 4. |
Rayon |
1 |
J. Skidmore |
| 5. |
Je. Aldrich |
1 |
Steen |
| 6. |
C. Prong |
0 |
Al-Shareef |
|
| Skid gave up his two bishops for Ben’s two knights by the middlegame,
but the bishops just dominated: |
|
| Mike Skidmore (1831) |
|
| Ben Finegold (2588) |
|
| [B30] Sicilian: Rossolimo |
|
|
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.Bxc6
| The Rossolimo is another way to avoid the main lines of the Open Sicilian,
but it does have some drawbacks. It immediately gives up the bishop pair
and strengthens Black's center. |
| White gives up the other bishop to open up the game. But, bishops are
usually better in space, and they will soon dominate the knights. |
| The key to the game is now control of the e- and f-files. Black is
much better prepared to take advantage. |
| Taking advantage of the king on the back-rank. The scope of the bishops
severely limits the queen's options. |
| And White resigns before Black can mate. |
|
|
| On the other top boards: Chobanyan had a strong attack going when West
unguarded a rook. Ghobrial took a couple pawns out of the opening and then
won a piece by catching Jointer with a pawn-fork. Rayon and Jennifer Skidmore
were even in an opposite-color bishop plus rook endgame when Jennifer inexplicably
hung a rook. Jennifer promptly withdrew from the Action to concentrate
on the Women’s championship. Steen outplayed me in the opening and won
a pawn, but I managed to win his rook that was stuck in the corner. Al-Shareef
had several options for winning with Prong’s king exposed when the score-sheet
that we had ran out. |
| Matt Herreshoff was the lone point and a half going into this round.
Here, he keeps pace by converting a passed pawn: |
|
| Matt Herreshoff (1684) |
|
| Michael Marson (1779) |
|
| [E01] Catalan: Irregular (Tarrasch) |
|
|
1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 e6 3. Bg2 d5 4. Nf3 c5 5. d4
| The game starts out as an English, but this move transposes it into
the Catalan. |
| Black seems to have won the battle of the center. |
| But white still has a volley left. Black probably should have been
happy to just exchange it off, but he tries a maneuver that causes more
harm than good. |
| Black now finds himself with problems on the white squares. And the
Ba6 has nowhere to go. |
| 19... Bb7 was the best way to defend. After the text, there is no way
to protect the bishop and stop the pawn. |
|
|
| White catches black right out of the opening, but he doesn’t bring
enough pieces into the attack. Black manages a counter-attack and white
castles into it: |
|
| Kent Hershberger (1088) |
|
| Justin Aldrich (1637) |
|
| [C41] Philidor: Lopez |
|
|
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 Bg4 4. c3 Nf6?
| Better is 4... c6 preparing to counter in the center. |
| Hitting black's two weak pawns on f7 and b7. |
| White has been playing with only two pieces. He really needs to bring
more pieces to the party. The knight wasn't in immediate danger as 16.
Nc3 Na5 17. Qb5+ Kxe6 18. Qxa5 just brings the king further into danger. |
| Allowing black to counter-attack. |
18... Nxe4! 19. Bxe7 Rxf4 20. g3 Rxf2 21. d5 Nxe7 22.
Qxe4 Rxb2 23. Qxh7?
| Leaving his king utterly alone. |
|
|
| 3.0: |
B. Finegold, Choyanyan, Ghobrial, Je. Aldrich, Al-Shareef, Rayon |
| 2.5: |
Herreshoff |
|
|
Round 4
|
| 1. |
B. Finegold |
1 |
Je. Aldrich |
| 2. |
Al-Shareef |
0 |
Chobanyan |
| 3. |
Ghobrial |
1 |
Rayon |
| 4. |
West |
1 |
Herreshoff |
|
| With the pawns locked up, Ben’s two knights danced circles around my
two bishops. |
| Al-Shareef created an open d-file, but Choganyan was the one able to
take advantage and use the file to complete his attack: |
|
| Robert Al-Shareef (1841) |
|
| Sergei Chobanyan (2295) |
|
| [A07] Reti: King's Indian |
|
|
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 Nbd7 4. O-O e5 5. d3 Be7 6.
Re1
| I don't like the idea of using the rook to support the e4 push. It
won't open the file for the rook. |
| And now black is the one to take advantage of the file that was opened
by 7. e4. |
| Maybe a case of wrong rook. Playing 13. Red1 would give the queen another
option after black's next move. It is not like the rook was needed on the
e-file. |
| Removing the dark-squared bishop. |
| Winning a pawn but giving the queen access to the white king via the
d2-square. |
| And the scoresheets ran out. But black has a piece and a simple idea
is 35 ...Bd3, winning at least a pawn. |
|
|
| On board three, Ghobrial won a piece right out of the opening and dominated
the game versus Rayon. West appeared to be winning a piece when his score-sheet
ended. |
| After giving up a pawn, black puts his rook on a bad square and white
finds a combination to win a piece: |
|
| Spencer Finegold (1015) |
|
| Anthony Holden (1459) |
|
| [A13] English: Agincourt |
|
|
1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. d3 Bb4 5. Bg5 h6 6.
Bh4 g5 7. Bg3 d5 8. cxd5 Nxd5 9. Qc2 Qf6 10. Rc1 h5 11. h3 e5 12. e4 Nd4
13. Qa4+
| White could win a pawn with 13. Nxd4 exd4 14. exd5 dxc3 15. bxc3, but
he might have been worried about opening the e-file with his king still
sitting there. |
| 20... h4 buries the bishop. |
| The h-pawn was there for the taking once white castled. Instead, black
gives up a pawn to try to open up the king-side, but all it succeeds in
doing is solidifying white's kingside. |
| Maybe he thought the bishop was pinned to the rook? Either way, white
finds the combination to win the bishop and calmly brings home the point. |
|
|
| 4.0: |
B. Finegold, Choyanyan, Ghobrial |
| 3.0: |
Je. Aldrich, Al-Shareef, M. Skidmore, West, Jointer, Ju. Aldrich, Steen,
Rayon, S. Finegold |
|
|
Round 5
|
| 1. |
Chobanyan |
0 |
B. Finegold |
| 2. |
Je. Aldrich |
1 |
Ghobrial |
| 3. |
Ju. Aldrich |
0 |
Al-Shareef |
| 4. |
M. Skidmore |
1 |
Steen |
| 5. |
Rayon |
0 |
West |
| 6. |
Jointer |
0 |
S. Finegold |
|
| The battle of the two top rated players. Chobanyan decides against
trading queens and it costs him a piece: |
|
| Sergei Chobanyan (2295) |
|
| Ben Finegold (2588) |
|
| [B26] Sicilian: Closed |
|
|
1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. d3 d6 6. Be3
Qa5
| Coaxing the bishop away from the e3-square, which strengthens black
grip on the d4-square. |
| Black isn't worried about the discovery because he has not left any
targets for the white knight. |
| Not giving white the opportunity to play f5. |
| I don't see why white doesn't want to trade queens. His control of
the e-file definitely give him a small advantage. |
| Setting him up. I suspect that time had already become a factor. |
| Just like that, the queen is trapped. Best white can do is go down
a piece. |
| That is all we have, but Sergei put a fight for quite a long time after
they stopped keeping score. In fact, this was the only game that Ben was
even close to time pressure. |
|
|
| I had to play Ghobrial, being the top remaining three pointer. We stayed
fairly even until time pressure, when Ghobrial made a big mistake after
the score-sheets ended: |
|
| Jeff Aldrich (1900) |
|
| Ameer Ghobrial (2103) |
|
| [D43] Semi-Slav: Anti-Meran |
|
|
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 e6 5. Bg5 Bb4 6. Qb3
| I've found that for me, this is the best way to defend against the
Cambridge Springs Defense. Without the text move, black would play Qa5
followed by Ne4 with threats against both Nc3 and Bg5. |
| The plan here is to exchange and then play the other pawn to c4. |
| Effectively stopping the c4-push because white does not want to give
up the bishop for the knight in this position. |
| I think black's rooks would be more effective on the e-file. |
| The primary purpose for this move is to stop the knight from going
to f4 after an e4-push, which black immediately prevents. It also creates
a hole for any potential bank-rank shapes down the road. |
| With this move, I achieved one of my goals in this position. Most of
the maneuvers have been aimed at weakening black’s c-pawn and then using
the half-open c-file. |
| And this is where we stopped keeping score. To let you know what happened,
in time pressure, black eventually played Kc7 and then moved his knight,
allowing my rook to take on c6 and win the rook on c8. |
|
|
| Justin had a good attack going against Al-Shareef, when time pressure
set in. |
| Steen put the question to Skid’s bishop, so Skid decided to sac it
to open Steen’s kingside. Steen defended poorly: |
|
| Mike Skidmore (1831) |
|
| Harold Steen (1618) |
|
| [B40] Sicilian |
|
|
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. Nc3 a6 4. d3 d6 5. Be2 Nc6 6. O-O
Be7 7. Re1 Nf6 8. Bg5 Qc7 9. Qd2 b5 10. h3 b4 11. Nd1 Bb7 12. Ne3 h6 13.
Bf4 O-O 14. Bf1 e5
15. Bxh6?!
| Nothing wrong with being aggressive at an Action tourney. |
| Black actually had a good defense with 16... Bc8 17. N3h4 Nd4. The
idea is to remove the knight(s) from f5 with exchanges or otherwise. With
the text, black just get crushed. |
|
|
| Rayon tried to create a passed pawn versus West in a king and pawn
endgame, but only managed to lose the pawn. Spencer pretty much outplayed
Jointer from start to finish. |
| 5.0: |
B. Finegold |
| 4.0: |
Chobanyan, Ghobrial, Je. Aldrich, Al-Shareef, M. Skidmore, West, S.
Finegold |
|
|
Round 6
|
| 1. |
B. Finegold |
1 |
Ghobrial |
| 2. |
M. Skidmore |
0 |
Chobanyan |
| 3. |
West |
0 |
Je. Aldrich |
| 4. |
Al-Shareef |
0 |
S. Finegold |
|
| Not only did Ghobrial lose in round five, but he still had to play
Ben. He actually had a couple of opportunities, but no doubt time played
a factor: |
|
| Ben Finegold (2588) |
|
| Ameer Ghobrial (2103) |
|
| [D43] Semi-Slav: Anti-Meran |
|
|
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 Bb4 6. cxd5
| Until this move, the game has been the same as my game with Ghobrial.
Ben has a different idea. With the pawn exchange, the queen won't x-ray
through to the Bg5. |
| I don't see why he wouldn't exchange here. Now, white wins a pawn by
force. |
| Allows black to win back the pawn and then some. |
| Missing the skewer. Although, I don't see why he would choose this
move over 29... Nd7 where his knight would have more options. |
| Setting up a trap that black falls for, probably due to time pressure. |
| 38... Rf8! stops the trap and gets the exchange back. |
|
|
| So that gives Ben Finegold the Action title to add to all the
other titles that he has won this year. |
| Chobanyan moved to five points when he took the advantage right out
of the opening and Skid had to sacrifice an exchange just to get a little
breathing room. |
| I also made it to five when West’s queen went on a little exploration
mission to my queen-side and it ended up costing him an exchange: |
|
| Tony West (1731) |
|
| Jeff Aldrich (1900) |
|
| [B14] Caro-Kann: Panov |
|
|
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6.
Nf3 Bb4 7. a3 Be7?!
| It's probably better to exchange the bishop for the knight. That is
the price of committing the bishop with my sixth move. The text just wastes
a tempo. |
| In this position, black's idea is to go after white's isolated d-pawn.
White wants to push and trade the pawn off, the use his lead in development
in an open game. |
| White misses his chance to push the d-pawn. |
White instead tries to create a queen-side majority by trading queens.
He misses the
defense, though, and his queen gets knocked around. |
20... Ne7 21. Qb6 Bc6 22. Ne5 Nd5 23. Qc5 Be7 24. Qc2
Nxe3 25. Rxe3 Bf3 26. Qd2
| White could give up the queen for a rook and bishop with 26. Qxc8 Rxc8
27. Rxf3 which is only slightly better than the game continuation. |
| And white resigns a few moves later. |
|
|
| Spencer missed a move in his notations versus Al-Shareef, so I didn’t
have the whole game, but he managed to queen a pawn in the endgame. Spencer’s
fourth upset in a row put him into a three-way for second place with myself
and Sergei Chobanyan. The three of us split 2nd Place, Class A, and Class
E money. Actually, if there were another round, Spencer would have had
to play his dad. |
|
|
Michigan Action Prize Winners!
|
A proud father w/ his son.
Ben (1st Place) & Spencer (Tie for 2nd) Finegold
|
|
Jeff Aldrich (Tied 2nd Place)
|
|
Sergei Chobanyan (Tied 2nd Place)
|
|
Jay Babka (1st Class B) & Robert Hayley (1st Class C)
|
|
Shawn Rayon (1st Class D) & Brad Feller (1st U1000/Unr)
|
