Results after day 2 (of 3) at the 2004 Colorado Open

Another agonizing day of chess is complete, and still one more to go!

Day 2 begins with me at my office freshening up on my openings again. The first round begins at 9 and I am as ready as I'll ever be for Marco Guerra. I get the white pieces. Vibi faces off against a youngster (with an impressive rating).

Marco plays the Sicilian (who doesn't??) and he gets my Moscow. Long story short, he resigns in 20. Don't people know hot to play Sicilian on me? Word should be out by now. ;)

Vibi plays a great game but blunders a knight to an overworked defender tactic. Too bad, too, he was playing a very good Sicilian!

Well, we had quite a few hours between rounds! I enjoyed a Chicken Parm for lunch and we went over our games and then played some frisbee to release some stress. The coming round would be war for me...yeeeps...

As I'd predicted, I was paired with Kesley Goetting and played the black pieces. I'd peered over at his previous game and noted that he played 1.e4, so I knew it was time to bring my French, and I did!

He played an Advanced French and I found myself in early pressure. A prematue ...f6 and white has a beautiful outpost on e5 for his pieces that cramped me for sometime. About to go up a pawn, though, Kesley decided to try to queen his rook pawn and passed on the opportunity to go up material.

The endgame is wild!!!! He brings his king all the way down, only to meet resistent in the form of a passed pawn of my own up the center! He is forced to exchange passed pawns but the ensuing position proves that his king is now outside "the theater of war." Advantage black. I go up a pawn, my rook pawn, and promptly go about queening except for one thing...

...I misplayed it... :-)

Had I been a better endgame player, I would have made the right move which is beyong explanation here. Amusingly, I went about it in the correct way and then decided midstream to go another way...and hence a draw...

Vibi wins round 4, his first win of the tourney, with a beautful win of a rook and pawn for a bishop!!!!!!

It's now 9 PM, and in 12 hours is round 5. The competition will be the best tomorrow, but there will be some weary souls, too. For the exciting conclusion to the tournament, stay tuned...