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    5 Round Lasker Tournament Starts Friday, September 18

    Our second 5 round double Swiss starts September 18. Each Friday we will play one double round. The players face each other in a two game minimatch with a time control of G25 and a 10 second increment starting at move 1.

    The rounds start Fridays at 7.10 pm. All games will be played on Lichess and players are required to join our Lichess team. Prior to the start of the match all players must log on to lichess, visit our team site and make their presence known in the team chat.

    If you haven’t already done so, submit a join request here:

    https://lichess.org/team/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club

    The registration fee for this tournament is $20. Families can contact us for a reduced entrance fee. 50% of the collected registration fees will be paid out in prize money.

    To register head over to

    https://caissachess.net/online-registration/index/842

    or contact us by email and provide your name, email address, lichess username, and USCF ID (if available). Your most recent USCF rating will be used for pairing purposes only. The tournament will not be USCF rated.

    Update 9/15/20: You can pay the registration fee at the link above, or via Paypal by clicking the “Buy Now” button below

    [wp_paypal button=”buynow” name=”My product” amount=”20.00″]

    or make a cheque payable to the San Gabriel Valley Chess Club and send it to our HQ at:

    1010 N Chester Street, Pasadena, CA 91104

    The deadline for registration is Friday, Sept. 18 at 5 pm.

    First round pairings will be announced by 6.30 pm.

    Chess Tournaments
    Member Analysis: The Son of Sorrow

    Our first online Swiss tournament produced a lot of interesting games. I went over a few games in my last post already. This post features one of the games played in the Randy-Lisa match.

    Randy, the rating-favorite, started the game with 1.d4 and Lisa immediately started to fight back by choosing the King’s Indian Defense. Randy killed any hopes of a black pawn storm against the white king by picking the fianchetto system and soon afterwards the game entered Benoni territory.

    The game offers a number of instructive moments. Randy was determined to show why this opening is called “Son of Sorrow”, hurled his d, e, and f pawns forward, and eventually crushed through black’s defenses. But in the process the white king got pretty exposed himself and black was not without counter chances.

    Anybody who would like to learn more about counter chances in the Benoni should have a look at the games of the late Vugar Gashimov. One of the few elite players that consistently played the Benoni.

    I hope you find my comments somewhat useful. If you want to see one of your games featured here, please let me know.

    But now without further ado

    Chess Club News
    Mieses Arena Blitz Tournament

    On Friday, Sept 11 at 7.10pm, we will be having our first blitz tournament on Lichess. Participation is restricted to members of our lichess team. So, make sure you request membership asap.

    https://lichess.org/team/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club

    Once a member of our team you can see the link for the tournament on the team site, see link above. Alternatively use the following link to join the tournament:

    https://lichess.org/tournament/LVdxP3Um

    This is a private tournament and it is password protected. After clicking join a pop-up window will appear and ask for a password. The password is

    SGVCC

    On the tournament site you will also be able to see all the rules. It’s a 2h arena tournament. After your game you are paired as quickly as possible, so no need to wait too long, games are G5+5. The winner is whoever collects most points at the end of the 2h period. A win yields 2 points, a draw 1 point and a loss 0 points. While on a winning streak the points are doubled. In addition to this rule which we know from chess.com already. Players also have the option to go Berserk at the beginning of the game. This reduces their time to half of the initial time and the player also won’t get any time increment. In return a win yields an extra point.

    Now, head over to lichess and sign up for the team and tournament:

    https://lichess.org/team/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club

    Chess Club News
    Instructive moments from our first online Swiss

    We managed to play 56 games in our first online event. I’m very pleased that we got to see some very interesting fighting chess. The lower rated players certainly made their higher rated opponents work for every half point. I certainly got lucky more than once.

    Below you can find some of the interesting positions that occured. You can find the solutions to the questions and more here on lichess.

    Black took command of the position. What’s the best way to proceed?

    In the next game black got a very good position out of the opening unfortunately the tide turned and we reached this position:

    How should white proceede?

    After a tough struggle we reach the following position. White to move and win:

    White didn’t go for the kill in the previous position and a few moves later we reach this point:

    Can black escape his fate?

    In my game against Raphael I got a better position but suddenly we reached this position:

    Raphael just played Qd4 threatening everything. Should white resign?

    I just took a pawn on e4

    Which knight should black take? Or should he play something different all together

    There were many more interesting games played in this tournament. If you want to see one of your games published here please let me know. For more analysis head over to lichess. Once there become a member if you aren’t already and join our San Gabriel Valley Chess Club lichess team.

    You can also play through the complete annotated games here.

    Don’t forget next Friday we will have a 2h Arena blitz tournament on lichess. More on this soon.

    Chess Club News
    First San Gabriel Valley Chess Club Online Tournament Finished

    Last night we played the 5th and final round of our first online Swiss. Each round the opponents faced each other in two games one with each color and a time control of G25 and a 10 second increment. Most of the games were played on chess.com the rest was played on Lichess.

    Here are the final standings:

    Our second 5 round double Swiss will start on September 18th. Rounds will start Friday nights at 7.10 pm and the tournament will be held at https://lichess.org. More details will be posted soon.

    On Friday, September 11th, we will have a 2h G5+5 event on lichess. If you haven’t already done so, join our lichess team:

    https://lichess.org/team/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club

    Chess Match
    Chess Club News
    The Secrets of Chess

    Players castling on opposite sides presents imbalances that usually result in attacks at both kings simultaneously. Each move or tempo is crucially important in which side succeeds first. However, one of the Secrets of Chess is that as Black you must first equalize your position before you attack, otherwise your attack will “run out of steam” fast.

    In the game below our Dr. Nimzo (aka Chis Stychinsky) decides that his attack is better than Black’s in the Daily Match with the Badgers Brook Chess Club of Broxburn Scotland. Watch how the Doctor writes a prescription for an attack on Black’s king:

    The move 12. Ng5 starts an all-in approach toward the attack of Black’s king, while 12…Qa5?! commits Black to an attack on White’s king, but at the cost of separating the Queen from the defense of his own kingside.

    After Move 19
    Position After Move 19

    In retrospect 12.… Bxa2 is an improvement. With White’s 15. g4 he plans to shove the pawn down black’s throat with g5-g6. 16.…Nd7? is an error; better is 16. cxd3. White’s 20. Bh6? is dubious at best, but it does have the aspect of being a strong psychological move (Secret #2!) that must have been a shock to Black. This type of move is much more suited to shorter time limit games. Black is now focused on the defense of his monarch and wants to remove pieces with the regrettable 22.…de4??. However the calm 21.…Qc7!-Qf4 solves Black’s problems. White proceeds with a surgically precise combination with 22. Rhg1! and the stunning Rxd7 from which there is no way out for Black. Way to go Chris!

    Chess Cuisinart
    Chess Tournaments
    The ‘Chess Cuisinart’ of Daily Play

    SGVCC member “Wandering Knight” (aka Randall Hough) sets an early blazing trail with four straight wins against international Daily Club competition. Not beginners luck! Randy has more chess experience than most of us put together: National Master, National Tournament Director, International Arbiter and more. But what made him into the “Chess Cuisinart” of Daily Play? Let’s look and learn:

    Black opts for the ultra sharp Najdorf Sicilian defense and White plays a theoretical novelty (TN) on move 10 with f4, opening dark square weaknesses. Black hops on these weaknesses with 13)…Qb6!, Qa7, and follows with b5, then b4, picking up a pawn. After 20)…Nf2+ (again a dark square!) picking up more material and leading to the exposing of Whites’s king. A satisfying mate on g2 ends the game. Well done Randy!

    Chess Tournaments
    1st SGVCC ON-LINE SWISS TOURNAMENT!
    UPDATE

    Please, use the following link to register:

    https://caissachess.net/online-registration/index/819

    Standings at: https://caissachess.net/live/819 

    ——————

    We are pleased to announce our first 5 round event starting August 7th and concluding on September 4th.

    Entry is free and rounds will start each Friday at 7:10 p.m. The games will be 25 minute + 10 sec. with two games against the same opponent per round. Chess.com will be the playing site and chess.com’s rapid ratings will be used.

    We will also have a Prize Fund! Overall 1st-3rd is $60/40/30. Best Junior (u16), Senior (60 and over) and Best Female player are all $25 each. Registration ends on August 7th at 5pm. So sign up early!

    To join, use the Contact Form to send a message with your full name, USCF ID, and chess.com username before 4pm on Friday, August 7th.

    Games will start Fridays at 7:10 pm. To play, please log into the Chess.com Live server a few minutes before the start of the round, and challenge your assigned opponent to a G25+10 game. After the game is finished, play a second game with reversed colors. Finally, download the PGN for both games and email them to sgv.chessclub@gmail.com. Mention the round, players, and result in the subject.

    Clubs League
    Chess Tournaments
    SGVCC Goes International!

    We may all be physically stuck at home but your fellow Club members are making their presence felt abroad—online that is! We are presently in team matches against clubs from Scotland, France, and Singapore. We also have our old foes the Reno Chess Club. The matches started on July 15th and are what is called “Daily Play” by Chess.com, who organized the event. But in fact it is more like old school correspondence chess as you have three days to make a move. Each participant plays two games against the same player in each match.

    The match against Singapore has the most players, with seven on each team. But someone may have forgotten to remind our opponents of the time control as Randy Hough won his first game in record time—-a mere 3 days! Randy was surprised at the speed of his opponent’s moves but certainly took advantage of it.  His e6 pawn push was a nice way to pick up the errant Black Bishop on g4. It is our featured game:

    In fact, we are now up 4-0 against the team from Bishan, Randy also won his second game and Chris Stychinsky, not to be outdone, also finished 2-0.

    But, it is much more likely that the matches are going to take many months to finish. We are still waiting for our match against Thousand Oaks Chess Club to conclude, which started last March and is 93% done, with @ObedientRunner playing the clock out in a lost position. We will be providing periodic updates but you can check out the games yourself by following these links:

    United Kingdom: https://www.chess.com/club/matches/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club/1145550

    Singapore: https://www.chess.com/club/matches/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club/1147218

    France: https://www.chess.com/club/matches/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club/1147212

    Reno: https://www.chess.com/club/matches/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club/1147214

    Azerbaijan: https://www.chess.com/club/matches/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club/1147248

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