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 “I do whine because I want to win and I'm not happy about not winning and I am a whiner and I keep whining and whining until I win,” ~ Donald Trump
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his position comes from the game Surya Parasuraman (1994) -
Christofer Peterson (2125), Round 8 of the US Open played last Saturday.
In the position on the right it is Black to move.
Answer below.
Some news and notes and funny memories about the 2015 US Open...
- This was my first US Open, and I had a really great time. I had been to most of the other major tournaments out there, but this was my "white whale", and was glad to finally get a chance to do it.
- Alexander Shabalov put on a clinic winning his first 8 games, and getting a draw the final round to win the tournament. It would have been cool to see him go 9-0. His last round game wasn't a "grandmaster draw" though, and he was fighting the whole time. Congrats to him!
- I finished in the middle with 4 wins, 4 losses and 1 draw. So not horrible, but nothing great.
- I got the draw in the final round against a 1955 player from Nigeria, and it was over in about an hour. I saw Joel Johnson, who asked how my game went, and I saw draw. He said "oh, a 'let's get the hell out of here!' draw". I have a loud laugh, and I said a loud "HA!" in the playing room.
- All of my pairings were very mismatched. I did not have a single opponent that was plus or minus 150 points of my 1800 rating. (1650-1950) They were all above or below that.
- Luckily I didn't have to play any Colorado people. There were over 20 Colorado people there, which made it extra fun.
- Next year's US Open is in Indianapolis, Indiana. 2017 is in Norfolk Virginia. I would love to do this tournament again.
- I got to see Joel Johnson's famous chess book collection. Joel has literally hundreds of chess books. Shelves and shelves of them. Really amazing.
- Joel had an opponent who offered him like 18 draws during the game, and even start a conversation whining about the position. That sounded really annoying! Joel turned them all down, and eventually lost the game - lol (His opponent reminded me of the above Donald Trump quote - I whine until I win)
- I noticed a lot of players who would hover over the piece with their hand, but not touch it. They would do this for like a minute. I asked Joel if this was an Arizona thing, but he said it wasn't. I never saw this before. It was also somewhat annoying (but not as bad as 18 draw offers!)
- Shirley Herman had an opponent who took 90 minutes to make the first 9 moves of the game. This was like the bore your opponent to death attack!
- This really cool photo in particular when "viral" on facebook, with 115 shares!
- Paul Covington organized a group photo for all of the Colorado people, Friday night at 6:45. Shirley Herman came running in at the last second yelling "Wait for me!!!" I haven't seen the photo yet, but looking forward to that.
- Chris Peterson's opponent didn't show up for round 9, giving him a forfeit win, and a share of the under 2200 prize money. But then Chris had to spend the next few hours watching his prize money share get smaller and smaller as there were a bunch of famous Masters and IMs getting upset by other under 2200 players. lol
- Chris was the only Colorado player to get any prize money - $200. Brian Wall remarked that Colorado spent 20K to win $200 lol
- They gave away awards to people who had attended multiple US Opens ( 5 US Opens, 10, 15, 20, etc). They said the record is Arthur Bisguier with 53!
- One of my long time readers, Fred Jarmuz, won $1,383.00 in the Class D section! I got to meet Fred, which was cool. I sent him an email of congrats, and he wrote back "Thanks Tim, I'm glad I picked up your program. Doing tactics works!!!"
Here is the complete game:
[Event "2015 US Open"]
[Site "Biltmore Hotel, Phoenix, AZ"]
[Date "2015.08.08"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Parasuraman, Surya"]
[Black "Peterson, Christofer"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B22"]
[WhiteElo "1994"]
[BlackElo "2125"]
[PlyCount "78"]
[EventDate "2015.??.??"]
1. e4 c5 2. c3 d5 3. exd5 Nf6 4. Qa4+ Bd7 5. Qb3 Qb6 6. Qxb6 axb6 7. c4 e6 8.
dxe6 Bxe6 9. Nc3 Nc6 10. b3 Nd4 11. Rb1 Bf5 12. Rb2 Kd7 13. f3 Bd6 14. Kf2 Be5
15. Nge2 Ne6 16. g3 Rhd8 17. Bg2 Kc8 18. h3 Ne8 19. f4 Bf6 20. Bf3 g5 21. g4
Bd3 22. f5 N6c7 23. a4 Na6 24. Kg2 Nb4 25. Ng3 Nd6 26. Rd1 Kc7 27. Be2 Be5 28.
Bxd3 Nxd3 29. Rb1 Nf4+ 30. Kh2 Nxc4 31. Nb5+ Kc6 32. bxc4 Ne2 33. Bb2 Bxg3+ 34.
Kg2 Rd3 35. Ra1 Nf4+ 36. Kh1 Rad8 37. Bf6 Bf2 38. Ra3 Rxa3 39. Nxa3 Rd3 0-1
You can play through this game here: https://denverchess.com/games/view/13295
Answer:
Chris played 38...Rxa3! which sets up a fork, and a very pretty mating net.
If Black recaptures with 39. Nxa3, which happened in the game, Black plays 39...Rd3! which threatens the knight, and threatens 40...Rxh3#, which White is powerless to stop.
Nice work Chris, and congrats on a fine US Open!
Happy Tactics!
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