Hickory Chess Bulletin -Issue Seven- October, 2007

Eighteen chess players converged on the Foundation YMCA Saturday, May 26, for Hickory's first rated tournament in many years.

Winning all three of his games, Randy Lovelace overcame a 202-point ratings gap to upset National Master Neal Harris of Hendersonville for first place in the Top section. Harris is past president of the North Carolina Chess Association and the 11th highest-rated active player in the state.

Gone to Asheville. That's NM Neil Harris behind him.
John Bell

In the Bottom section, new Hickory Chess Club member John Bell also won all three games to take first place in an upset. It was his first tournament.

Sponsored by the Hickory Chess Club, the tournament, Groundhog Swiss 1, was a labor of love for Tournament Director Randy Lovelace of Taylorsville. Lovelace, the number 30 active chess player in NC recently made a big return to tournament chess after years of health problems, and was directing his first solo tournament.

Still comes down from Taylorsville. That's Neil behind him,too.
Randy Lovelace

Lovelace has been holding rated games on Tuesday afternoons at meetings of the Hickory Chess Club. Groundhog Swiss 1 was held at the club's usual meeting place in meeting room A of the Foundation YMCA Miller Teen Center, 701 1st St. NW, Hickory, NC.

Tied for 2nd with Harris in the Top section with two wins were Zakir Ahmed and Stephen Maynard. Jayson Miller, Matt Embler and HCC member William Campbell won a game apiece.

Eight year-old Campbell was the tournament's youngest player.

In the lower section, Josh Rich was 2.5 for 2nd place. Tim Ballas and HCC members Grace Campbell and Robert Drury tied for 3rd with two wins.

Michael Williams, like Drury a new member playing in his first tournament, was 1.5. Winning one game apiece were Louis Bullock and HCC president Vaughn Dagenhart.

Miller, Embler, Ballas, Rich and Bullock all attend high school in Caldwell County and are students of prolific scholastic coach John Thomas, along with Kevin Chuang, Will Wilson and Winston White, who also competed. Organizers say Thomas' support was invaluable to the success of the tournament.

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Both first-place winners took home a $60 prize. Lovelace, who had not planned to play until NM Harris entered the competition, recouped the expense of holding the tournament and only made ten dollars.

Online Crosstable:
http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?200705267851.2-12460063

No Shadow for These Groundhog Games

Neal Harris/Randy Lovelace
Groundhog Swiss 1, r2, Hickory, NC (5/29/07)
Annotations by NM Neal Harris

1. e4 e5 2. d4 (Trying to pick up a few seconds on the clock; merely a transposition) 2...exd4 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. Bb5!? (Relfsen Attack. I have played it on and off since the 1970's.) 4...Bb4+?! (Clocks a lot of time- if White is willing to gambit the c-pawn for development... Alternative piece arrangements include 4...Bc5 followed by 5...Nge7 or 5...d6.)

4...Bb4+

5. c3 dxc3 6. O-O Nf6 (6...cxb2? 7.Bxb2 and defending g7 is problematic. 7...Nf6 8.e5 and 8...Nh5 is probably forced.)

7. bxc3 Be7 8. e5 Ne4 9. Qa4!! Nc5 10. Qg4 Kf8?! (I was happy with my Q swing versus Qa4/Qg4... 10...0-0 is playable. If 11.Bh6 then Ne6 holds. I was looking at 10...0-0 11.Bh6 Ne6 12.Bc4?? until I saw 12.d5 followed by Ng5. I was debating if I should play 12.Bd3 when Randy played 10...Kf8?!)

11. Qh5 ?! (I didn't look at any other moves; 10...Kf8?! convinced me that I didn't have to "do anything" to win. Lack of objectivity, patience, and just plain laziness on my part.)

11...b6?! (Another surprise!)

12. Nd4!? Nxd4 13. cxd4 Ne6

14. d5 Nd4 (I have the center, better king, and more development.)

15. Bc4 b5!? 16. d6!?

16. d6

(This move is not bad is the sense that it loses... my advantage stays the same: [1] better king, [2] more development, and Black's glue piece [holds the position together] is traded off. However, if I had actually been thinking I would have analyzed 16.Bd3! a little more.)

16...bxc4 17. dxe7+ Qxe7 (18...Ke7 19.Qh4+ snares the Nd4.)

18. Ba3 c5 19. Nc3 Bb7 20. Rab1 Bc6 21. Rfd1 Ne6 (White has a nice advantage: [1] safer king, [2] better development, [3] better pieces, and [4] Rh8 is useless thanks to 10...Kf8.)

22. Nd5? (A miscalculation on my part! 22.Qg4 and then 23.Nd5 was much better!)

22...Bxd5 23. Rxd5 Nf4 24. Qf3 Nxd5 25. Qxd5 Rc8 (I thought 26.Rb7 won... i.e., 26.Rb7 Qe6 27.Bc5+ Kg8 28.Rc7! Rb8 29.Qb7 and I am threatening all kinds of back rank mates... However just 29...Qe8 holds with a Black advantage.)

26. g3 Kg8 27. Rb7 Qe6 28. Qd2 h5

28....h5

(And White is objectively lost! [1] Black's king is safer, [2] Rh8 is on its way out, [3] Black had more material and [4] the c4 pawn needs watching...)

29. Rxd7 Rh6 30. f4 h4 31. Rd6 Qg4 32. Rxh6 gxh6 33. e6 Qxe6 34. Bb2 Re8 35. Kf2 h3 36. Kf1 Qe4 37. Be5 Qh1+ 0-1

It is very easy to feed your game into one of the chess software programs and let it analyze your games. I do not believe in that approach. Rarely do you get accurate explanations as to why a player does things. I can not play like a computer. I do not want to play like a computer! Relying on computer generated analysis to rationalize your moves will eventually destroy your creativity and undermine your confidence in your own ideas. I enjoy chess too much!

[Editor's note: The Bulletin staff agrees, but being rated 958, lacks the chess insight to generate the quality of analysis the better games deserve. Should any of the higher-rated players reading this be interested in annotating games, their help would be most welcome.]

I have played Randy many times. I won a knight a little too easily in our last game (which was drawn due to a "Lovelace swindle") as a result I did not respect him enough in this game. I do not know what my won/loss record is versus Randy; however he is a dangerous player!

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…New players confused about what a simul is?

Louis Bullock/Vaughn Dagenhart
Groundhog Swiss 1, r1,

1. d4 d5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. e3 Bf5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. Bd3 Bg4 6. h3 Bh5 7. g4 Bg6 8. Bxg6 hxg6 9. Ne2 Nxg4 10. hxg4 Rxh1+ 11. Nfg1 e5 12. Kd2 exd4 13. exd4 Qg5+ 14. f4 Qxg4 15. Kc3 O-O-O 16. a4 Bb4+ 17. Kb3 Bd6 18. a5 Re8 19. Qd3 Nb4 20. Qb5 c6 21. Qa4 Qf5 22. Ka3 Nxc2+ 23. Ka2 Nxa1 24. Ng3 Qg4 25. Nxh1 Qxg1 26. Kxa1 Qxc1+ 27. Ka2 Qxh1 28. a6 Qe4 29. axb7+ Kb8 30. Kb3 Qd3+ 31. Ka2 Qb5 0-1

Joshua Rich/Grace Campbell
Groundhog Swiss 1, r1

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. Be3 O-O 5. Qd3 e6 6. O-O-O d5 7. Bg5 dxc4 8. Qxc4 Qd6 9. e4 Qc6 10. Qb4 Nxe4 11. Bb5 a5 12. Qe7 Qd6 13. Nxe4 Qxe7 14. Bxe7 b6 15. Bxf8 Kxf8 16. d5 exd5 17. Rxd5 Bh6+ 18. Ng5 Bb7 19. Rd8+ Kg7 20. f4 Bxg5 21. fxg5 Bxg2 22. Bc6 Bxc6 23. Nf3 Bxf3 24. Re1 Na6 25. Rd7 Nb4 26. Re6 Bg4 27. Rde7 Bxe6 28. a3 Nd3+ 29. Kd2 Rd8 30. Rxc7 Nc5+ 31. Kc3 Rd3+ 32. Kc2 Bf5 33. Rc6 Rd6+ 34. Kc3 Rxc6 35. Kd4 Rd6+ 36. Ke5 Rd2 37. b4 Nd7+ 38. Kf4 Ra2 39. h4 Rxa3 40. h5 axb4 41. h6+ Kg8 1/2-1/2

Zakir Ahmed/Stephen Maynard
Groundhog Swiss 1, r2

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. g3 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. Bg2 O-O 7. O-O Nc6 8. a3 a5 9. d4 Bg4 10. Nb5 Qd7 11. e4 Nb6 12. e5 Rad8 13. Be3 Nd5 14. Qc2 Nxe3 15. fxe3 e6 16. Rac1 Bh6 17. Qc3 Bxf3 18. Bxf3 Nxe5 19. Nxc7 Nxf3+ 20. Rxf3 Rc8 21. Rf2 Bxe3

21...Bxe3

22. Qxe3 Rxc7 23. Rc5 Rxc5 24. dxc5 Qd1+ 25. Rf1 Qd5 26. b4 axb4 27. axb4 Qc4 28. Qf4 Qxf4 29. Rxf4 Rc8 30. Rc4 Kf8 31. b5 Ke7 32. Kf2 e5 33. Ke3 Ke6 34. c6 bxc6 35. b6 Kd5 36. b7 Rb8 37. Rb4 c5 38. Rb6 f5 39. h4 c4 40. Kd2 Kc5 41. Rb1 Kc6 42. Rc1 Rxb7 43. Rxc4+ Kd5 44. Rc3 Rb4 45. Ke3 Rg4 46. Rd3+ Kc4 47. Ke2 e4 48. Ra3 h6 49. Ra4+ Kb3 50. Ra8 Rxg3 51. Rh8 h5 52. Rg8 f4 53. Re8 e3 54. Rf8 0-1