Cobras crush New York 4-0 !!

The week Jan Ehlvest entered the Tennessee house, the rest of the league's eyes fell on the Cobras as the team they'd most like to play. The Cobra's answer speaks for itself.

Simpson,Ron (2346) - Bonin,Jay (2370) [B32]
USCL Carolina vs New York Internet Chess Club (4), 17.09.2008

Comments by Ron Simpson

A little history:
I grew up in New York City and Jay Bonin was one of the many big guns in the metropolitan chess community. I met Jay in the mid 1970s. I was a teenager with a rating of about 1900 and Jay was a full IM. Speed Chess was the main chess activity and no one seemed to play for free, or at least the big guns didn't play me for free. Jay must have beaten me over a 1000 speed games and a few tournament games. It was almost impossible to go to the Marshall, Manhattan, or Long Island chess clubs without running into Jay Bonin. Beating Jay Bonin, on line, for all see, is just too good for words. Carolina beating NYC by the score of 4-0, was fantastic. But beating Jay Bonin, my childhood chess monitor, priceless!!

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6 6.N1c3 a6 7.Na3 Be6 8.Nc4 Rc8 9.Be3 Nd4 10.Bxd4 Bxc4 11.Bxc4 Rxc4 My thoughts about moves 9 to 12 is that Jay was trying to play very straight forward and achieve a innocuous position. The position favors white because of Black's underdevelopment, weak squares, and coordination difficulties. I think the idea to trade the knight and Bishop resulted in a position which doesn't allow Black much flexibility. 12.Be3 h6 Diagram

[12...Be7; 12...Nf6] 13.Qd3 Rc6 14.0-0-0 Nf6 15.f3 Be7 16.g4 Moves 12 to 16 where logical moves with respect to achieving a solid position with little risk. I wanted to play 15.f4 but this would only allow counter play for unclear attacking chances. So, Jay's 17...Kd7 appeared to be the best place to put the king under the circumstances. But after 18.g5. Black's position is problematic. How is Black going to connect his rooks, put the knight on a good square, and not jeopardize the g/h pawn? 16...Qa5



7.h4 Kd7 18.g5 Rxc3 18...Rxc3 sealed the deal for Black. Black is now playing for a draw because the next few moves are just about forced. 19.Qxc3 Qxc3 20.bxc3 hxg5 21.hxg5 Rxh1 22.Rxh1 Ne8 23.Rh7


Rh7 was difficult for me because all of my plans required long range calculations. The main ideas were to march my King up the b-file and attack the "a and b" pawns while holding my g-pawn. But I didn't want to put my rook on a completely defensive square (e.g.: g1). The point of Rh7 was that the Bishop and Knight could not attack my g-pawn and defend his g and f pawn simultaneously. The results were as the text showed a trade of pieces and pawns. 23...Bf8 24.f4 exf4 25.Bxf4 Nc7 26.Be3 Ne6 27.Kb2 Be7 28.Kb3 Bxg5 29.Bxg5 Nxg5 30.Rxg7 Nxe4 31.Rxf7+ Kc6 32.Re7 Nc5+ 33.Kc4 Diagram

The position stemming from move 32 was like playing with the house's money. White would have to make a really big blunder to lose. But the win was difficult to find. 33...Na4 34.Rh7 Nc5 35.Kb4 Ne4 36.a4 Nc5 37.a5 Ne4 38.Re7 Nc5 39.Kc4 Na4 40.Re1 Nc5 41.Rb1 Diagram

I found the plan to exploit the b6 square. The game is basically over. I focused on preventing any counter play that the lonely knight could try. A King and Rook vs a Knight is really an unfair fight. 41...Nd7 42.Kd4 Kc7 43.Kd5 Nf6+ 44.Ke6 Ne4 45.Rb4 Nc5+ 46.Kd5 Kd7 47.Rh4 Kc7 48.Rh7+ Kb8 49.c4 Ka7 50.Re7 Na4 51.Kxd6 Nb2 52.Kc5 Black resigns 1-0

Some pictures from week 1.

Rybka, Fritz, and Lev make
for some good post mortem sessions!









Ron Simpson and Craig Jones


Ron in action.
Seems the "old" guys prefer
to use a board, while Lev and Oleg are comfortable
with the screen only.

2008 Opener

Ron Burnett had a nice game last year against Lev, so this game is not so unexpected. Everyone but Lev was thinking that a bit of revenge was in order.

(2) Milman,L (2502) - Burnett,R (2412) [B06]
USCL Carolina vs Tennessee Internet Chess Club (1), 27.08.2008

1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Be3 c6 5.Qd2 b5 6.Bd3 Nd7 7.Nf3 best per theory. It's almost comical to see these symetrical setups like white's. something every 9-year old plays. 7...Qc7 Diagram

8.0-0 Ngf6 9.Bh6 0-0 10.Rfe1 e5 11.Ne2 d5? a mistake, and it's downhill for Black 12.Bxg7 Kxg7 13.dxe5 Nxe5 14.Nxe5 Qxe5 15.exd5 Nxd5 16.Bxb5 cxb5 17.Nc3 Qf4 18.Qxd5 Be6 19.Qxb5 Rab8 20.Qc5 Rxb2 21.Ne4 Rb6 22.Qd4+ f6 23.a4 Bf5 24.a5 Re6 25.g3 Qf3 26.Ng5 Rxe1+ 27.Rxe1 Qb7 28.Qd6 Kg8 29.Re7 Qxe7 (as Lev showed after the game, 29...Qb1+ 30.Kg2 Qxc2 31.Rg7+ seals it - See diagram below)

31...Kxg7 32.Qe7+ Kh6 33.Qxh7+ Kxg5 34.Qh4#] 30.Qxe7 fxg5 31.Qxa7 Bxc2 32.Qc5 Bf5 33.a6 Black resigns 1-0

Cobras

Lev Milman and Oleg Zaikov

Craig Jones and Jonathan Schroer

Jonathan and Lev

In the Shadows of Duke Chapel

Cobras game of the week

(25) Schroer,J (2449) - Lugo,B (2430) [D44]
USCL Miami vs Carolina Internet Chess Club (3), 12.09.2007

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Nxg5 hxg5 10.Bxg5 Be7 11.exf6 Bxf6 12.Be3 Nd7 13.Qf3 Bb7 All eyes were on Jonathan's game. The pre-game preparations were focused on Jonathan going for an all out win. Per Craig Jones, after 14. Ne4, "the game begins". 14.Ne4

14...Be7 15.0-0-0 Nf6 16.Nc5! The time consumed by the players at this point indicated both were out of any preparation. Jonathan played this move after a VERY long think. 16...Bxc5 17.dxc5 Nd5 18.g3 More than anything, the IMs instinct's are working here. With the passed h pawn, white strives to maintain control. He didn't want to allow any sort of Qg5+ and Nb4 lines. [ 18.Bd4 Qg5+ 19.Kb1 Qg6+ 20.Bd3!] 18...Qa5 Qe7 19.Bd4 quite a contrast from black's B on b7 19...Rf8 20.a3 0-0-0 21.h4 Ba6 22.Bc3 Qa4 23.Be2 Qb3

24.Rxd5!
Played almost instantly and without reservation. The combination of white's dark squared bishop and passed h pawn is decisive, as black's attack is not enough. 24...Rxd5 25.Kb1 Rfd8 26.h5 Kb7 27.h6 Rf5 28.Qe3 b4 29.axb4 Rd3 30.Qc1 Rxf2 31.h7 Rxe2 32.h8Q Bb5 33.Qe8 Ba4 34.Rh8 Rxb2+ [ 34...Qc2+ 35.Qxc2 Bxc2+ 36.Ka2 Bb3+ 37.Ka3] 35.Bxb2 c3 36.Qc8# Black checkmated 1-0

Week 1: San Francisco vs Carolina

Greetings from North Carolina where it’s always sunny and the skies are blue,

and home to the Carolina Cobras of the United States Chess League!

The Cobras play their games at Duke University, in the shadow of Duke Chapel.

(We make no claim correlating the grand chapel overhead with last season’s regular season finale!)

Our first match’s lineup consisted of Duke Junior Lev Milman on board one. Duke Sophomore, and last years USCL board 3 All Star, Oleg Zaikov on second board. Team captain and two time United States Postal Chess champion, Craig Jones on board three. Rounding out the squad was Satyajit Malugu. Satyajit is a Master’s student at the Department of Computer Science at N.C. State in nearby Raleigh.

After facing the now usual first match network and equipment glitches, we were underway.

Lev surprised everyone from the start by not playing the Sicilian. A Ruy Lopez Marshall shows up on the board, with Friedel playing Bobby Fischer’s 12. g3. As with Fischer’s g3 games, the game appeared to fizzle out until move 32. It seemed to me that white’s push to d5, instead of sitting tight, would have lead to an easy draw. Serious help from his opponent in time pressure, no doubt, allowed Lev an active rook on the 7^th and the win.

We were without IM Jonathan Schroer or SM Andrey Chumachenko tonight on board 2, so we knew we’d have our hands full. This put Oleg and Craig playing up on boards 2 and 3 against the meat of the Mechanic’s lineup. Our team captain, Craig Jones, has nothing but praise for Oleg’s talent and mature style. This time though, Oleg had it tough against Vinay Bhat. After Oleg’s aggressive Saemich Nimzo, black liquidated the center, with his Knights gaining control of c4. Oleg never seemed to recover and resigned after dropping a second pawn.

It was now SF 1-0.

After some major computer network connectivity issues Craig Jones on board 3 started significantly down on time. SFs Pruess showed that 11.Nb3 in this Classic French is a tough idea meet.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bc5 9.Qd2 0–0 10.0–0–0 a6 11.Nb3 b6 12.h4 Bb7 13.Rh3 Rc8 14.h5 Na5 15.Bd4 Nxb3+ 16.axb3 Qe7 17.Kb1 Bxd4 18.Qxd4 f6 19.exf6 Qxf6 20.Qxf6 Rxf6. After Black’s queenside play stalled, there 18….f6 and the ensuing Q trade has left black’s center weak, which Pruess takes full advantage of.

21.g3 Rc7 22.Rh2 b5 23.Bh3 Nc5 24.b4 Nd7 25.Ne2 e5 26.fxe5 Nxe5 27.Nf4 Nf3 28.Be6+ Kf8 29.Rf2 Ng5 30.Bxd5 Bxd5 31.Rxd5 h6 32.Rxg5 hxg5 33.Ne6+ Ke7 34.Rxf6 Rc6 35.Rg6 Rxe6 36.Rxg7+ Kf8 37.Rxg5 1-0

Morozevich as black against Anand gives an example of how to drum up Q side play for Black in their San Luis 2005 encounter. with 11…. Bb4 12.Bd3 b5 13.Rhf1 Nb6 14.a3 Be7 15.Nd4 Qc7 16.Nxc6 Qxc6 17.Bd4 Nc4 18.Qe2 Rb8 19.Bxh7+ (with a perpetual in hand, this may be induced due to Black’s pressure) Kxh7 20.Qh5+ Kg8 21.Rd3 f5 22.Rh3 Bc5 23.Rff3 Bxd4 24.Rfg3 Rb7 25.Qh7+ Kf7 26.Qxg7+ Ke8 27.Qxf8+ ½–½

After Oleg’s relatively early loss, boards 1, 3, and 4 seemed up in the air.

On board 4 it appeared we’d surely pick up a win, but the young Daniel Naroditsky proved quite slippery indeed. Sometimes hanging in there long enough to take advantage of an opponents mistake will do the job. “Tough game, chess!” ...and the Cobras weep.

All in all, we had our chances and were competitive, but enough of that, losing is not fun!

We'll be back next week and ready to play!

See ya!!

Regards


John Timmel

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