FC Chess Tournament: Final Round!

[Yelnoc]

Alright, I'll be starting this tournament within a few days.  We have 12 people on the list and 11 signed up, so the first 11 to confirm participation will go.  If you aren't on the list but still want to play, please sign up below.  That list was made a while ago and I expect more than one of them will not be available.

[The Mikado]

Confirming.

[Oakvale]

Confirming I'm in. If anyone wants to add me on gameknot, my name's the same as here, oakvale.

[Gustaf]

I can jump onboard for the hell of it. Name is gustafus.

[Franzl]

I'm still in. Although scheduling games will perhaps be slightly difficult with upcoming travels.

[anvi]

Confirming

[Napoleon]

I still intend to play.

[Yelnoc]

Awesome, I'm glad there is still interest. 

I looked more into the mini-tournament frame that I had meant to run this on, and it appears that everyone needs to be ranked (i.e. have played at minimum six games and won three of them) to participate.  Obviously that won't work for our purposes, so we will be reverting to my original bracket system.  This means two things.

1. You all are responsible for setting up the games I assign you.  I will set up the brackets and monitor the games once they start, but only you can challenge your opponent to a match.

2. There will be 16 players, which means we still need three more forumites to sigh up.  Don't be bashful; this won't be some tournament of masters.  Oakvale and Mikado can both tell you how bad I am at chess, yet I'm still setting this up.

[The Mikado]

Awesome, I'm glad there is still interest. 

I looked more into the mini-tournament frame that I had meant to run this on, and it appears that everyone needs to be ranked (i.e. have played at minimum six games and won three of them) to participate.  Obviously that won't work for our purposes, so we will be reverting to my original bracket system.  This means two things.

1. You all are responsible for setting up the games I assign you.  I will set up the brackets and monitor the games once they start, but only you can challenge your opponent to a match.

2. There will be 16 players, which means we still need three more forumites to sigh up.  Don't be bashful; this won't be some tournament of masters.  Oakvale and Mikado can both tell you how bad I am at chess, yet I'm still setting this up.

You still beat me. 

[anvi]

Hey Yelnoc, does gameknot require 16 players for a tournament or something?  There are ways to set up round robin or Swiss System tournaments with an odd number of players, of course. Just asking in case we don't get more volunteers.

[Yelnoc]

Hey Yelnoc, does gameknot require 16 players for a tournament or something?  There are ways to set up round robin or Swiss System tournaments with an odd number of players, of course. Just asking in case we don't get more volunteers.

No, we won't be using the gameknot tournament system because of the aforementioned problems.  I wanted to get 16 people so that single elimination would work without a hitch, because with correspondence chess I am afraid other tournament set-ups would take much too long.  Not that I have a problem with a lot of chess, but I'm trying to budget in short attention spans ( ).  If we don't find three more people soon though, then a Round Robin might be a good idea.

EDIT:  I just realized only 8 people have confirmed interest, so if none of them speak up in a day or so we might just put them on an alternates list and start an 8-man tournament.

[anvi]

EDIT:  I just realized only 8 people have confirmed interest, so if none of them speak up in a day or so we might just put them on an alternates list and start an 8-man tournament.

This might be a good idea.  Summers can suddenly see people doing lots of other things, which might explain the length of the confirmations list.

[Yelnoc]

Alright, we will go with the eight confirmed.  I drew the first round match ups with random.org and the numbering in the OP.  In case you were wondering "M1" means Match One of that round.

Round 1
M1: Franzl vs Mikado
M2: Napoleon vs Oakvale
M3: Homelycooking vs Yelnoc
M4: Gustaf vs Anvikshiki

The player whose name is listed first will be white, and send the challenge to the player listed second, who will be black.  I will PM all of the white players; if you are black, just sit tight until you get your challenge.  For the whites, note that you should call your challenge "Atlas Chess Tournament Round 1" and you should have Time per Move set to "2 days."  I will cover all of that in the PM though, so don't worry.

For those interested the winners of M1 and M2 will play each other as the winners of M3 and M4 will play each other in the semi final match, and the winner of those two games will play each other for the final.  I will be updating this post with more information as the tournament moves forward, so please remember to check the OP.

[Yelnoc]

For those of you who want to see the games, below are links.  The first one will hopefully take you straight to the board, while you will need to click on the game with the last two.

Homelycooking vs. Yelnoc
Gustaf vs. Anvikshiki
Franzl vs. Mikado
Napoleon vs. Oakvale

[Bacon King]

I'm down to join, if you can get enough other people to turn the alternates pool into the other half of a 16 man bracket

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

I either didn't realise or forgot that the timelimit is two days. Put me in the alternates pool as well please.

[Yelnoc]

I'm down to join, if you can get enough other people to turn the alternates pool into the other half of a 16 man bracket

Just make an account on Gameknot and give me your username and I will do that.

I either didn't realise or forgot that the timelimit is two days. Put me in the alternates pool as well please.

You already are.


It's unfortunate that the Napoleon vs Oakvale game has not yet begun.  I'm thinking if Napoleon does not send a challenge by tomorrow we will have to replace him with an alternate.

[Yelnoc]

All of the round one games have begun.  You can view them by click on the links a few posts up.  Let's try to get through these games relatively quickly, so as I said earlier, set a time with your opponent when each of you can play.

As games finish, I will post here the winner, the end board, and maybe the move log.

[The Mikado]

Franzl beat me. 

Good game, Franzl!

[Franzl]

Franzl beat me. 

Good game, Franzl!

Good game

That checkmate was the first thing I did just now after arriving in the US. Good omen?

[Gustaf]

So, we're done. No award to guessing who won.

[Yelnoc]

Homely beat me soundly.  Now that I'm back home, I'll have the game summaries up soon, and once Napoleon and Oakvale finish, we will move on to Round 2.

[anvi]

Don't let Gustaf's emoticon fool you!  He played an excellent and very competitive game.  I was pretty sure for a while there we were on our way to a draw!  Thanks for the good game, Gustaf!  I'll send you my analysis soon.

[Yelnoc]

Alright, here is the first game analysis as promised.  Unfortunately, I cannot use the back/forward buttons to visualize the moves that are cataloged below the board, so I won't be able to give the in-depth analysis I thought I would. 


Homelycooking vs. Yelnoc

Homely started out with the standard King's Pawn opening and I countered by playing my king's pawn short with the aspiration of setting up a French defense.  We played a somewhat cagy opening; I established a fairly extensive pawn center while he played around me with his pieces.  I ran into trouble when my king side rook came under fire from his Knight but, in true Yelnocian form, I didn't even see the threat and lost the piece.  From that point on it was all downhill for me, though I did manage to draw the game out to 35 moves.



1.   e4   e6
2.   d3   d5
3.   Nf3   Nf6
4.   e5   c5
5.   Bg5   Be7
6.   exf6   gxf6
7.   Bh6   e5
8.   Nc3   d4
9.   Ne4   f5
10.   Bg7   Rg8
11.   Bh6   Rg6
12.   Bg5   fxe4
13.   Bxe7   Qxe7
14.   dxe4   Rg4
15.   Qd3   Be6
16.   Nxe5   Qc7
17.   Nxg4   Bxg4
18.   Be2   Be6
19.   O-O-O   Nc6
20.   Qg3   Qd8
21.   Bb5   Rc8
22.   c3   Ke7
23.   e5   Qf8
24.   f4   a6
25.   Bxc6   bxc6
26.   Rhf1   f6
27.   Qh4   Bf5
28.   g4   Be4
29.   g5   Ke6
30.   exf6   c4
31.   Rfe1   Kf5
32.   Qxh7+   Kxf4
33.   Rxe4+   Kxg5
34.   h4+   Kxf6
35.   Rf1#   
CHECKMATE

[anvi]

Yelnoc,

Thanks for posting your game!

I hope you don't mind if I make a few friendly annotations.  I love to analyze chess games, and every game should be an opportunity to learn something, so just a few remarks.

If I were Black, after 1. e4 e6 2. d3 d5 3. Nf3, I would be inclined to just trade queens immediately with 3...dxe4 4. dxe4 Qxd1+ 5. Kxd1.  That way, White can't castle, and Black won't have to worry about being attacked in the opening even though it will take him some time to develop his queenside pieces.

Black's 4...c5? is of course an error, since it should lose a piece immediately after 5.ef.  But, after White returns the favor with his own error, 5. Bg5?, Black can still save the piece with 5...h6.

White's attempt to counter-attack with 10. Bg7? was also incorrect, as it ended up returning the won piece for no reason.  Correct was simply withdrawing the Knight, 10. Ng3, and if Black tries to trap the Bishop with a sequence starting with 10...f4 that leads to placing the rook on g6, White can simply return his Knight to the Bishop's protection with 11. Ne4.

Black's 15...Be6? loses sight of his e5 pawn.  Better to defend it with a developing move like 15...Nc6.

Black's game pretty much comes apart irrevocably after 16...Qc7?? losing the exchange on top of the pawn.  Better to retreat the rook with 16...Rg7 with a possible follow up 17...Qg5, which pressures the g2 pawn, prevents White from castling queenside, and if White tries to chase her off with 18. Nf3, Black simply plays 18...Qf4 and switches to stepping up pressure on White's e-pawn.  The lesson of the last several moves is all the same; sometimes in chess it's imperative to block before you punch!

Final note.  After Black's 22...Ke7?, if I were White, since I'm already a piece ahead, I would "trade down" to a winning endgame with 23.  Qg5+ Ke8 24.  Qxd8+ Rxd8 25. Bxc6+ bc 26. a3 and the rest should be easy.  When you have a decisive material advantage in the middle-game, it's in the interest of the player who is ahead to force equal tradeoffs of pieces until the winning endgame is reached, lest the opponent be allowed to hang on by complicating the position.  The player who is behind in this situation should do the opposite: avoid piece tradeoffs and try to complicate the position and give himself as many chances as possible.