How to reach the Tournament Directors:

How to reach the Tournament Directors
Chris Wainscott chris.wainscott13@outlook.com 414-839-5232
Robin Grochowski rgrochowski@wi.rr.com 414-861-2745
Allen Becker allenbecker@wi.rr.com 414-807-0269

Friday, February 03, 2012

Feb 17 - 19, 2012 2012 U.S. Amateur Team Championship - North (Northbrook, IL)


RESULTS

One section: Open.

Open: 5SS, G/90+30/increment, 2-day: rd.1-2 G/60.
Crowne Plaza Hotel, 2875 N. Milwaukee Ave., Northbrook, IL 60062. 847-298-2525.
PRE-REGISTRATION LIST
Prizes: Awards to top two teams, top teams with average rating u1900, u1600, and u1300.
Award for Best Team Name.
Winning team qualifies for national play-offs.
Prizes to best team composed of juniors (high school and younger-must declare eligibility to win prize).
Prizes to top score on each board.

56 comments:

Anonymous said...

Never be afraid to try something new (such as this tournament). Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.

Chris said...

Yeah, but those amateur's lost the unicorns...

Anonymous said...

Oh those silly unicorns!

Anonymous said...

Be careful mentioning unicorns in blogs, gentlemen; for there is an ancient prophecy which warns:

When horses sporting spiral horns appear
on pages that exist in cyber realms,
then let the wary traveler have fear,
and climb the branches of the highest elms.

Anonymous said...

Can anyone give a suggestion to play against the scandinavian (1.e4 d5 2.exp Qxp 3.Nc3 Qd6 or Qd5)? I'm about 1900 but never thought about this opening. Help will be greatly appreciated.

Chris said...

Is there something specific that gives you issues?

Anonymous said...

I don't know anything like general ideas.

Anonymous said...

Qd6 is popular right now. Qa5 is playable, as is Qd8.

Chris said...

I am looking for a team. Anyone need a team member?

Anonymous said...

DENIED!!

Chris said...

Is no one playing in this?

Or am I too much of a loose cannon for most of you? :)

Anonymous said...

register at the official site and they will find you a team.

Benzo38 said...

Thinking of making a team called, How to lose your wife in 3 days!

Chris said...

That would win team name for sure!

The Gansta said...

Based B Boy Skeetks

Anonymous said...

Probably win the prize for stupidest team name ever!

Anonymous said...

No I think you don't get the point...they name themselves stupidly so they turn out to look smart...but actually stupid anyways!! ;)

Anti-Gansta Gambit said...

It's all good.

Anonymous said...

How can I find a team that doesn't involve anything that was previously mentioned?

Anonymous said...

Don't get too excited after winning any games- the hotel staff might become irritated. Everyone knows that nobody likes chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.

Anonymous said...

Almost time to play. Get your teams together quickly. This tournament should be a lot of fun.

Anonymous said...

back to the scandinavian question...if you're 1900 well. as you well know there is no helping you. .but playing blitz games with white vs. derek 'we'll knock your' sachs 'off' might help

Anonymous said...

just don't pretend he's tiviakov and you should be okay

Chris said...

Any results for club players?

Southwest Chess Club said...

Chris, yes. Our team ("Bye please wait") drew with the Santarius/Betaneli/Jing/Sachs team "we'll knock your sachs off"). My friend Jason, imported from California,drew with Betaneli on Board 2. Jim Coons drew with Jing on Board 3, and I somehow managed to defeat Santarius on Board 1. Robin lost a close game on Board 4 so we drew the match!

Anonymous said...

It's Jin, not Jing.

Chris said...

Congrats Allen on a great result!

Southwest Chess Club said...

We've got 1.5/2 match points now, likely playing a strong team in Rd 3 (2-day and 3-day schedules merge in Rd 3 at 4 pm). Among the players here are GM Shabalov, IM Young, FMs Monokroussos, Betaneli, Santarius, etc., NM Hendrickson...

http://chessweekend.com/usat/wall.html

Chris said...

Keep up the strong play!

Southwest Chess Club said...

"Bye Please Wait" team... we now have 2/3 (drew Round 3 match), so we play a team in Rd 4 led by Tansel Turgut, 2381.

Here's the updated Wall chart, etc:

http://chessweekend.com/usat/wall.html

and individual scores so far:
http://chessweekend.com/usat/wall.html#Individual

Anonymous said...

Wow come on robin...work harder next time.

Anonymous said...

Thinking about it...Allen has a pretty high chance of being undefeated....because the chance of SWCC vs the Shabalov team is slim.

Chris said...

No updates on the wall charts all day...

Anonymous said...

Are the in the tourn Chris?

Chris said...

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand the question...

Southwest Chess Club said...

Rating results:

http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201202196412

Robin said...

Best Team Name goes to our team, Bye (please wait)!

Anonymous said...

i thought it was the best team name myself . though sleepless knights wasn't bad either

Alex Betaneli said...

Congratulations to Allen Becker on his amazing result! Defeating Erik Santarius is no easy feat and going 3-2 on board one is fantastic. Kudos to Erik who went 4-0 (beating an IM and a 2400 on the last day) and gained rating.

Chris said...

What team won?

Anonymous said...

see http://chessweekend.com/

Anonymous said...

i also enjoyed watching the little masters go head to head velikanov and awonder liang both from wisconsin! must be the cheese

Anonymous said...

okay maybe awonder isn't a master yet. but . . .(looking at my watch) any minute now he should end up the youngest american master in history

Anonymous said...

anyone here have any wisconsin cheddar and carr crackers i'm famished

Anonymous said...

oh and we mustn't forget john veech's 3.0 performance and of course james's coons miraculous draw in round 2

JB said...

Congrats to all the fine performances by Wisconsinites!
I sure would like to see some game scores.
Anyone with an interesting game they would care to share with us?

Anonymous said...

how about an exciting position from round 5 instead. .set this one up on your board at home and try to find the right continuation. btw. isaac braswell (vs. daniel parmet) only had about 25 mins left on his clock when i stumbled onto their game. so go set your stove timer for 25 mins and if you hear a beep before you make a decision you lose. .btw isaac made the craziest decision possible but still won. there is a reason why people revere players like tal and shirov. now we can add mr braswell to the list. the initial position alone is a delight to behold white to move a rook down. White pawns on a2,b3,c2,f2,g2(?),h2 (?),Qh8,Ne4,Bb2,Ra1,Kg1 Black pawns a7,b7,c7,d5,f5,h5,Kf7,Qe7,Rooks e8 and a8 Bc8,Nc6

Anonymous said...

now try to solve the problem with the black knight on b8 instead of c6 (it might have been there). . .white is still won!! elegant solutions await the dedicated

Anonymous said...

Lol I was doing this in my head and I thought Qg7 was checkmate then I set it up and realized queen is on e7.

Anonymous said...

maybe ivanchuk could do it in his head MAYBE but you're right the black king can quietly slip away but thats just the beginning!

Anonymous said...

oh btw isaac braswell made the move Nd6+?!?!?! the series of exclammation and question marks denoting: INSANE if i were sitting in a chair at the time i would have fallen out of it because i didn't see that move at all..instead i just felt my knees wobble

Anonymous said...

http://main.uschess.org/content/view/11632/658/

Anonymous said...

Nd6 isn't that crazy...helps the rooks come in the attack with tempo.

Anonymous said...

Allen, can you please post your game?

Southwest Chess Club said...

[Event "USATN"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2012.02.17"]
[Round "1.1"]
[White "Becker, Allen"]
[Black "Santarius, Erik"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C87"]
[WhiteElo "2025"]
[BlackElo "2380"]
[Annotator "Becker,Allen"]
[PlyCount "105"]
[EventDate "2012.02.17"]
[EventType "team"]
[SourceDate "2007.01.20"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 d6 7. c3 Bg4 8. h3
Bh5 9. d3 Nd7 10. Be3 h6 11. Nbd2 Bg5 12. Nf1 Bxe3 13. Rxe3 O-O {Time control
is Game/90 with 30-second increment. Erik thought for 15 minutes on castling,
so I have 58 minutes left and he has 70 minutes.} 14. Ng3 Bxf3 15. Rxf3 g6 {I
liked this. White's pieces are gathering on the Kingside, and Black has made
a few unforced pawn moves. I also have the Ruy Bishop.} 16. Qd2 Kg7 17. d4 Qe7
18. Rf1 {I thought for 12 minutes on my last two moves. This Rf1 move seemed
a bit odd, but in reality it's part of a definite plan to advance my f-pawn to
pressurize the center (obviously after Rf3 moves to d3/e3).} Nb6 19. Bb3 Na5
20. Bc2 c5 21. d5 {Now that his Knights have fled over to the Queenside, it
makes perfect sense to not only strand them there for awhile, but also to
stabilize the center which will foster the Kingside attack.} Nbc4 22. Qc1 b5
23. b3 Nb6 24. Re3 c4 25. f4 Nd7 26. f5 cxb3 27. axb3 Nb7 28. Ref3 Qg5 29. Qe1
Kg8 30. Nh1 {It's nice to be able to play Nh1 against a 2400 player and go on
to win! I have 6 minutes left, while Santarius has 28 minutes.} Qd8 31. Qd2 g5
32. f6 {Isolating the g5 pawn from a possible ...f6, while also opening up the
f5 square for attacking pieces.} Kh7 33. Rf5 Rg8 34. Ng3 a5 {My moves are
flowing easily. Suddenly, Black decides to strut his outside passer. I think
for 3 minutes and continue the attack.} 35. h4 Rg6 36. hxg5 Qg8 (36... hxg5 37.
Rxg5 Nxf6 38. Nf5) 37. Bd1 Rxg5 38. Rxg5 Qxg5 39. Qxg5 hxg5 {We now enter an
endgame where I have 90 seconds left on the clock (but 90 seconds added for
each move), while Santarius still enjoys a 21-minute time bank. Black's
g5-pawn is weak, all my forces are massed against his King, and Black's only
threat revolves around his a-pawn advancing to a1.} 40. Bg4 {Keep following
this Bishop. It has moved so far: f1-b5-a4-b3-c2-d1-g4, but it further will
go to h5, and then backwards to e2 and finally b5 (the Ruy position). From b5,
the Bishop will help lock in the King for the final mating drive.} Nb6 41. Kf2
Rh8 42. Ke3 Nc5 43. Bh5 Kg8 44. Rf5 Kf8 {Still having 90 seconds, I couldn't
calculate for long, so didn't look too far for a plan involving Rxg5/Rg7/Rf7+/
Nf5 etc. It looks winning, but there is the matter of Black's a-pawn to
attend to, so I decided to play both sides of the board.} 45. Be2 {b5 is weak!}
a4 46. b4 Nb3 47. Bxb5 a3 48. Rf2! {I guess Black is playing against my
clock, but I now have 2 full minutes...plenty of time.} Nc1? {I guess Black
is playing against my clock, but I now have 2 full minutes...plenty of time.}
49. Rc2 Rh2 50. Rxc1 Rxg2 51. Kf3 (51. Rh1 Rxg3+ 52. Kf2) 51... Rb2 52. Rh1
{I can't describe the joy at knowing his King could not move to e8! Thank you,
Ruy Bishop.} Kg8 53. Nf5 1-0

Chris said...

Sadly, Isaac Braswell took his own life last Friday 3/02...

I only met him briefly in Nov, but he seemed like a nice kid...