Creativity, scheming and fireworks on the boards were overflowing as the Grand Prix tournament approaches the finish line.
Every Sunday, SCA Chess Academy from Shanghai holds an online tournament on www.chesskid.com to give the students of the game a chance to put into practice their gained knowledge.
Last May 24, under 15 junior players from around the world pitted their talents against each other.
Time control was 8 minutes +2, 6 rounds.
Here are the results:
This time the coveted top honors went to:
Good job!!
Here are just a few exciting moments from the games:
Last week, Michael Jiang (SCIS-MichaelJ) playing White, fell victim to Harry Wang’s (VKBS-Harry) Englund Gambit. Déjà vu, these protagonists played the same line again! 1.d4 e5?! 2.dxe5 Nc6 3. Nf3 Qe7 4. Bf4 Qb4+ 5. Bd2 Qxb2 but on the 6th move, Michael continued with 6.Nc3!, a significant improvement over 6.Bc3? which was punished with 6..Bb4! 7. Qd2 Bxc3 8. Qxc3 Qc1#). Then Harry played 6..Bb4 7. Rb1 Qa3 8. Nb5 [8. Nd5! is even stronger] Bxd2+ 9. Qxd2 Qxa2 10. Rd1 Kd8 11. Ng5! Ke7? 12. Nxc7 Rb8 13. Qd6+ Kd8. Now White missed the brilliant move 14. Nce6!! with the idea of fxe6 15. Nxe6+ Qxe6 (if 15.Ke8 16. Qf8#) 16. Qxe6 +- and played instead the weaker 14.e6?. Harry should then have played 14.. Qa5 but blundered with 14.. fxe6? allowing 15. Nf7# checkmate.
It remains to be seen if the Englund Gambit will see the light of day again. Obviously, Michael did his homework and benefitted a lot from analyzing his own games. Another lesson to be learned here is “repeating the same thing over and over again expecting similar results” is not a good idea.
In the next game, Eva Han (SHSID-EvaH) had the advantage of the bishop pair. He was quick to pounce on Black’s mistake 11. .Qd7? with 12. Bxf6! paving the way for a wicked pin on the d file with 13. c5.
The third game demonstrates the pitfalls of making natural looking moves without first doing concrete analysis. Lucas (SAS-LucasG) playing a losing endgame, set up a swindle with 31..Nc3+. Alas, White failed to see the danger ahead. After 32. Kb6?? [32. Kb4 Nd5+ 33. Kb3 Rb8 34. Kc4 wins for White], it was mate in 3 with 32..Rc6+ 33. Ka7 Nb5+ 34. Ka8 Rc8#.
Congratulations to all participants!
You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games before becoming a good player. – Jose Raul Capablanca
