On Thursday night there were two CDCL matches at the Schenectady club; the Geezers hosted the Albany team, and the Schenectady A team hosted the Guilderland club.
The Geezers went down 1-3 with board one Michael Mockler holding a draw with the redoubtable Matt Katrein and John Phillips doing likewise with Dean Howard on board three. Rishard Chu and I on boards four and two did not do so well. Richard had an unpromising position versus Tim Wright, the last Albany Area Chess club champion, from early in the game on board four. Things then proceeded to a material minus and a loss soon.
My outing against Mr. Michelman was, if anything, less auspicious. By the thirteenth move I had a near hopeless game as Black in the Slav Defense, and although I struggled on, the game had to be resigned on move forty. Surrendering sooner would have more polite, but Peter had gotten himself into some fairly serious time trouble calculating an excellent sacrificial line. The Geezers were by that point in serious trouble regards drawing the match; Richard Chu’s game was clearly worse and Mockler and Phillips had few winning chances. The sporting situation called for doing my utmost, alas my few tricks were not enough. Michelman demonstrated once more that taking risks in the opening against him is a costly proposition.
In the other match the Schenectady A team met the Guilderland team. A brief aside re: team names. The Albany team is in fact the strongest team of the old Albany Area Chess Club. They have kept up their representation of Albany in the League during the two year’s they were without a meeting place. Recently the Albany Area Chess Club was reconstituted under the same name at the Hamilton Union Presbyterian Church in Guilderland. The Guilderland team is in effect the second team of the Albany Area Chess Club. Next season we may well see a more rational naming of these two teams.
On to the match. Schenectady A won by the convincing score 3 ½ - ½. Deepak Aaron on first board was held to a draw by John Morse. I was not too surprised. Morse had peaked well over 2200 in the past, and he is always dangerous. There were points in the game when it appeared Deepak was going to have to struggle to hold the position. In the end Aaron showed nice technique to create counter-play and split the point.
The Philip Sells - Peter Henner game was another closely fought contest, and again I thought the Schenectady A player was worse at one point. Maybe my judgment was incorrect. While I was tied down to a losing battle with Michelman and therefore not able to assess with any accuracy what was going between Philip and Peter, they staged a dramatic battle. There was an oddly placed Bishop, fistfights for squares, tactics everywhere, all-in-all a dour contest that Mr. Sells won.
Patrick Chi played against Art Alowitz’s Benko Gambit on board three. This the fourth time I have watched Patrick be met with the Benko. It is also the fourth time I watched him win versus this opening. Some advice to Patrick’s future opponents; maybe try something different. Patrick took to heart some advice for White in the Benko from GM Har-Zvi; put the Knight on b5 supported by a pawn on a4. This was the pattern Mr. Chi used in the games I have seen. It works very well indeed. Those Grandmaster types know things, and they tell us the things they know often. The question is; why don’t more of us students listen? Patrick surely did!
The final game of this match on the fourth board was on paper a ratings mismatch. John Barnes at a solid 1850-1900 played Charles Eson at about 900. This was another game for which I had only some brief glimpses during play. Somewhere in the middle game one passing look told me Charles had done well to that point; material was even, the pawn formations had no glaring weaknesses on either side. Barnes had the more reasonable disposition of his Rooks, but Charles’ pieces did not look too badly placed. The next time I passed by the table the game had ended but there was no time to find out just how Eson had lost. The suddenness of the finish leads me to suspect a hung piece. Charles and I meet most Wednesday mornings in Altamont, the Home Front Café, for coffee and chess. It will be a chance to find out how things went wrong for him.
Through the good offices of Bill Townsend we have updated standings for the Luegue current through Thursday.
They are:
Schenectady A 5-0 Match Points 18.0 Game Points
Albany 5-0 Match Points 16.5 Game Points
Sch’dy Geezers 3.5-3.5 Match Points 15.0 Game Points
Guilderland 3-4 Match Points 13.0 Game Points
Saratoga A 2.5-0.5 Match Pts 9.0 Game Points
RPI 2-5 Match Points 9.5 Game Points
Uncle Sam, Troy 2-4 Match Points 7.5 Game Points
Saratoga B 0-6 Match Points 3.5 Game Points
As is typical most years the Schenectady A team and the Albany team are in a tight race. Both teams have two matches yet to play; one each against the Saratoga A team and a match with each other. Along with the Saratoga A team, these two make up the elite of the League. Future weeks promise some interesting chess for the local fans. I’ve not heard why the Saratoga team is lagging the schedule. They have played the RPI team that often has problems with conflicts at the end of the school year which eliminates one worry. This year RPI made a concerted effort and were the first team to finish their schedule. Kudos for the Engineers!
The Schenectady A team is averaging 3.6 game points per match. The Saratoga A team is averaging 3.3 per match, as is the Albany team. Within the “big three” the one-half match point dropped to RPI by Saratoga A looms large. In effect the Saratoga team has conceded draw odds to their rivals for the first spot, Schenectady and Albany. I expect the Geezers will be overhauled for third place in the League by Saratoga A, but the Geezers appear to be secure in fourth. The Geezers had opportunities to do better against Saratoga and Schenectady by drawing the matches. The Guilderland team was our primary rival for fourth. They have completed the schedule with three match points letting the Geezers get to fourth by a bare half match point.
This post has run on long enough for today. The only game I have in hand from the Geezers - Albany match is mine with Michelman. I will post it next if for no other purpose to illustrate poor preparation of an opening, or maybe just goofy play by your humble correspondent. Bill Townsend collected most of the score sheets from these matches. I am looking foward especially to seeing Mockler - Katrein and Aaron - Morse in Bill’s column in the Schenectady Gazette soon.
More tomorrow.
A poetscript: Just checked my email and both Bill Townsend and Michael Mockler have frowarded some games from this year's League play including the Mockler - Katrein game from Thursday. Excellent! More grist for the mill. They will be in print shortly.
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