As a final reminder, we are having our Dr. Ostfeld Memorial ICA Championships Sunday, April 21st! For more information, click HERE.
The following Saturday, April 27th, we will have the All Girls Chess Tournament in conjunction with the Glen Rock Quads. For more information, click HERE.
Hello everyone, My name is Udeg Ahuja and I participated in the April 13th, 2024 Section 5 Glen Rock Quads. This tournament was quite important to me as I was coming back from a rough nationals and I needed a BIG trampoline to bounce back. Nearing the starting time of the 1st round, I arrived at my board and found out that I was the 2nd lowest rated player in my quad.
In my first Game I felt prepared and ready to play a great game, but it all changed when my opponent played the nasty D4!!!!!! Nah, I’m just joking but I wasn’t actually as prepared to play against d4 than I was for e4. Luckily, my opponent played with my preparation and we got into a familiar position that I was well prepared for. However, a severe turning point in my game was when my opponent on move 17 played kd1? To get out of a discovered attack, he not only broke his castling but also allowed me to get the initiative. The initiative of my attack won me the game smoothly and in fashion as well when I didn’t win his queen, I played the devastating Bd2!, not only blocking my queen from taking his, I also hung my own bishop for mate.
I was going into my second game with a lot of confidence as I had a good win in my first round, but the problem was, I was playing one of my fellow team members who I had never beaten before. I open up with my favorite opening, the Catalan. We get into a strange position where he voluntarily blocks in his own bishop to save his pawn. He ultimately blunders a pawn with a sequence to win another. I smoothly use that advantage to create a passed pawn with my rook on the second rank. I carry out with my queen from the flank and end my mating attack with a brilliant knight sacrifice from which he resigned.
My last game was arguably the toughest, as it was a must-not-lose situation for me. My opponent played the “Albin CounterGambit” in which I knew basically no theory. I was just trying to play defensively and trade as much as possible to get into an endgame. My plan did work out, however, His king was too close to my pawns and it was probably a win for him. Unfortunately for him, my 4-on-3 advantage allowed me to paralyze his king, which he didn't see. The thing was, if he stepped on square away from my pawn, I could push my pawn promote to a queen. He overlooked this fact and played Kd3??, which allowed me to break with my pawns and promote.
This tournament was probably one of my best as I reached my peak rating of 1248 and also for the first time got a 100% score. I would like to thank ICA and all the tournament directors for helping me with this opportunity.
In my second April quad I had a grandiose battle against Julian Ma. To clinch a clear first prize I had to win my third game with him. For this purpose I chose a very complicated Pirc-Modern defense hoping that my experience in that opening would prevail over the experience of my young opponent. And it worked.
In the opening Julian made a mistake on his 10-th move (see the left diagram in the picture). He probably thought that I had to retreat my g4-knight. Can you find the Black’s tactical combination which resulted in winning a pawn (an answer is in the comments)? But after that Julian played very well. At some moment he gave up his second pawn for reaching the drawn rook ending. Just look at the right diagram. Can you believe that Black does not have a win despite two extra pawns? In a game I had tried a plenty of times to make a progress but unsuccessfully. A main reason is that the Black’s king cannot cross the sixth horizontal without losing f5-pawn. At last it actually happened so we drew and both shared the first prize. Good job, Julian!
Section 5 Report by Udeg Ahuja
Section 1 Report by Yefim Treger
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