Timur Gareev Wins the Chicago Open
The event is still finishing up, but GM Timur Gareev (of Uzbekistan, though he has lived in the U.S. the past five years) has clinched clear first place (and $10000) with 7.5/9. Going into the last round there was a four-way tie at 6.5 with Gareev, Pentelea Harikrishna, Tamaz Gelashvili and Alejandro Ramirez in the lead. In the last round Harikrishna - Ramirez was a tough draw, while Gareev won a nice game with White in a Ragozin. Gareev's structure was better, and over time WPDO - weak pawns dropped off.
There are surely many exciting and interesting games from the event, but I'll present one that I found amusing:
Howard Chen (2350) - Jacek Stopa (2460), Round 8:
1.d4 f5 2.Nc3 g6 3.e4 fxe4 4.Nxe4 Bg7 5.h4 d5 6.Ng5 Nc6 7.N1f3 Qd6
White's rabid approach hasn't burned any bridges yet, but that changes now:
8.h5? h6 9.Bd3? hxg5 10.Bxg6+?
White's compensation is inadequate (read: "nonexistent") even after an oblivious reply like 10...Kf8, but there's even better...
10...Qxg6! (Oops.) 0-1
Reader Comments (2)
Oh man...poor Howard Chen...this is so sad!!!
[DM: Agreed - and worse than losing is to have bloggers show the loss. Sometimes I'll write a post or do an internet show on a famous "victim" (e.g. Kieseritsky of "Immortal Game" fame), so if you know of a great win by H.C., write in!]
I just played a game a couple of days ago and this same tactic happened to me, after I had gone for a piece sacrifice that turned out to not be all that clever. Obviously even good players (like Chen) can fall for this tactic, but since I had just recently read this post, to allow it in my own game was a bit disappointing. Here is the game, I was black.
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.f4 d5 4.fxe5 Nxe4 5.Nf3 Be7 6.d4 Bh4+ 7.g3 Nxg3 8.hxg3 Bxg3+ 9.Ke2 h5 10.Bh3 c6
11.Qg1 h4 12.Bxc8 Qxc8 13.Qxg3 Qf5 14.Qxg7 Qxc2+ 15.Bd2 Rf8 16.Rxh4 Nd7 17.Ng5 O-O-O 18.Nxf7 Rg8 19.Qh6 Rg2+ 20.Ke1 Rdg8 21.Rh1 R8g6 22.Qf4 R6g4 23.Rc1 Qxb2 24.Rb1 Qc2 25.Nd6+ Kd8 26.Rh8+ Rg8 27.Qh4+ 1-0
[DM: Ouch. On the plus side, now you're sure never to make that mistake again!]