Tactics Time Newsletter Happy Easter!

Published: Sun, 04/08/12

Newsletter Issue Happy Easter 2012

Tactics Time

Happy Easter!

Good Idea: Finding Easter eggs on Easter Sunday. Bad Idea: Finding Easter eggs at Thanksgiving.~ Unknown


T

oday I would like to wish you a Happy Easter, filled with happiness, peace and love, and show you an "Egg" that I laid last weekend at the "Colorado Class" tournament in Manitou Springs, CO (March 31- April 1, 2012).

In the position on the right it is White to move.

Answer below.

Last weekend I played in the Colorado Class tournament, which was a lot of fun. Colorado has added a lot of new tournaments in the past few years including this one. There were about 70 players, which is quite a good turnout these days.

Congrats to the 2012 Colorado Class Champions:

   Master/Expert: Brian Wall, 3 1/2 out of 4
   Class A: Alexander Yu, a perfect 4
   Class B: James Powers, 3 1/2
   Class C: Justin Alter, 3 1/2
   Class D: Peter Swan, 3 1/2
   Class E & Under: Kathy Schneider, a perfect 4.

Nice work!

The time control was Game 90 with a 30 second increment. So each player started with 90 minutes, and after every move 30 seconds gets added to your clock. This time control is becoming popular here, because it gives players plenty of time to mark all of their moves down, and prevents some of the "time scrambles" that often cause problems for players.

There are some good tournaments coming up in Colorado as well including:

Fred Spell and Joe Fromme's Annual Tribute to Bobby Fischer tournament. This is May 5-6 2012. I did a podcast with Joe this past weekend as well, which you can listen to here: http://tacticstime.com/?p=3093. He talked about his ideas for directing tournaments, and his love for Bobby Fischer, which I thought was very interesting. Grandmaster Tejas Bakre from India will be playing in this event as well, which is exciting!
Lee Lahti's "Wild West" tournament in Saratoga Wyoming. He hasn't published the official TLA yet, but the dates will be July 20-22, 2012 at the same resort and hot springs as last year. This was an amazing tournament.
The Colorado Open is expanding this year to be a "Colorado Chess Festival", and will have Grandmaster Alex "The Yerminator" Yermolinsky in attendance!
Liz Wood has published some new Pueblo events as well, which are always fun as well!

You can find more information about all of these tournaments at http://www.coloradochess.com.

You can also see the latest April 2012 issue of the Colorado Chess Informant there as well. My Tactics Time column appears on page 17.

My opponent in the position above was Jeff Baffo. Jeff is a great guy, loves chess, and was the editor of the Colorado Chess Informant before I took over in Winter 2003. Jeff taught me some tips and tricks on how to use Microsoft Publisher, and got me started on my road to being a "chess writer".

Jeff has played hundreds of correspondence games over the years, and has a very impressive chess library and collection, that has its own room in his house. He knows a lot about opening theory, and enjoys playing uncommon openings.

Jeff is known for playing 1. Nc3 and knows a lot about it. Once Life Master Brian Wall played it against him, and Jeff remarked "Nobody makes me bleed my own blood! NOBODY!!" - quoting White Goodman in the 2004 movie "Dodge Ball", which cracked me up!

Here is the complete game:

[Event "2012 Colorado Class"]
[Site "Manitou Springs, CO"]
[Date "2012.03.31"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Baffo, Jeff"]
[Black "Brennan, Tim"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "1832"]
[BlackElo "1812"]
[PlyCount "71"]

1. Nc3 d5 2. e4 d4 3. Nce2 e5 4. Ng3 c5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Bc4 Nf6 7. Ng5 Be6 8.
Nxe6 fxe6 9. Bxe6 Qd6 10. Bh3 g6 11. O-O Bg7 12. d3 O-O 13. f4 exf4 14. Bxf4
Qe7 15. Qd2 Nd7 16. Bxd7 Qxd7 17. Rf2 Rf7 18. Raf1 Raf8 19. Ne2 Qe6 20. b3 Ne5
21. h3 b5 22. Bh6 Rxf2 23. Rxf2 Rxf2 24. Kxf2 Qf6+ 25. Kg1 Bxh6 26. Qxh6 Qa6
27. Qf4 Nf7 28. Qb8+ Kg7 29. Nf4 Qf6 30. Nd5 Qg5 31. Qf4 Qd8 32. Qc7 Qh4 33.
Qxc5 Qe1+ 34. Kh2 Qf2 35. c3 Ng5 36. Qxd4+ 1-0

You can play through this game here: http://tacticstime.com/?page_id=3114.

Answer:

Here Jeff played an "opening trap" against me that is similar to the "Fried Liver" attack. He told me that he has played this trap hundreds of times, and even Masters have fallen for it, which eased the pain I felt falling for it :-)

Here 7. Ng5! adds an extra attacker to the f7 square. Black has no way to defend this square a second time, except with the queen, and will lose at least a pawn. I had played 6...Nf6? on the previous move, which was a lazy developing move, and I didn't even consider this possibility of an early from the Baffonator!

So be especially careful when facing new openings, and when your opponent has spent years playing it, and you are seeing it for the first time!

Happy Easter!

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