Wednesday, February 17, 2010

USATE 2010 Recap

My team Insufficient Losing Chances made it to table 10 for the last round of the USATE 2010, with a record of 4-1-0. But, in the final match, we lost on our top three boards. Playing Black on board one, I missed a good move in my game against Denys Shmelov [USCF 2468], pictured above.


In this position, I should have played 22...Bd3! 23.Rxd3 Bc7 24.Bd4 Qd6 25.g3 Bb6 with a slight advantage.

Our only victory happened on board 4 where Ziping Liu won with a mating attack that involved two knights and a pawn.

Round Six: King's Indian Attack

Ziping Liu (USCF 1797) - Matt Phelps (USCF 1698), USATE 2/15/2010

1.e4 c5 2.d3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.c3 d6 6.Nf3 Nf6 7.O-O O-O 8.Bg5 Qb6 9.Qc2 Bd7 10.Nbd2 a6 11.Nc4 Qc7 12.a4 b5 13.axb5 axb5 14.Ne3 b4


15.Bxf6 exf6 16.Nd2 Rxa1 17.Rxa1 bxc3 18.bxc3 Ne7 19.Ndc4 f5 20.Ra3 fxe4 21.dxe4 Re8 22.Qd2 Rb8 23.Qxd6 Qxd6 24.Nxd6 Nc6 25.f4 Rb1+ 26.Kf2 Rc1 27.Ra8+ Bf8 28.Nd5 Kg7 29.e5 Rc2+ 30.Kf3 Nd4+ 31.cxd4 Bc6


32.Ne8+ Kh6 33.Kg4 Bxa8 34.Ndf6 g5 35.Ng8+ Kg6 36.f5#.