Halfway There

There were lots of interesting games played in Round 3. The completion of this round takes us to the halfway point of the tournament. In Sections A & B the first round-robin is now complete and starting next week the matchups will offer players the chance to correct errors made (and to make new ones of course) the first time around.

There are still a couple more games to be played as each round seems to spread out over the week under the new formula. This seems a minor price to pay for tournaments to which all the participants seem committed. Thank you everyone. The times of the unplayed games are listed on the pairings and results sheet and if you want to watch you need only search for one of the players and then go to the game list in their profile. If anyone has suggestions for creative excuses I can give my boss as to why I really need to be away from my desk on Monday while Paul (@E3Engineer) and Pascal (@pascalg) decide who will take the lead in Section A please pass them on.

In the other game in Section A on Thursday, Ron (@BigData1969) tried out his new favourite response to e4, the Alekhine's Defense in his game with Gus (@sourbaum). The opening went fine but then Gus found an interesting (if unsound) rook sacrifice that put Black's king under a lot of pressure that resulted in Ron having to give back the material. White seemed to have an a advantage in the resulting Q+R vs R+R+N ending but active play by Black and errors on both sides resulted in a draw. Entertaining chess and a good illustration of how there are often resources to find or complications to throw at your opponent even when things look pretty bleak. The emotional/psychological resiliency required to do this is as much a chess skill as the ability to calculate or a knowledge of openings.

@Flexxoo vs @Darktigr was a chaotic Scotch Game that saw White's king make it all the way to g6 even while the queens were still on the board. The monarch survived his visit to enemy territory - just barely - and White went on to win. Probably the most interesting thing about this game was that we learned that players can send messages to the spectators in the chat even if they can not see any of the responses. @Darktigr kept up a running commentary on his game for the benefit of those of us watching.

In Section C Denis (@denisbouchard) vs @IndiscreetSacrifice was a nice win for White. Black made the mistake of offering to exchange all but a pair of bishops even though his pawns were broken into four separate groups, two of which were doubled. Far too many weaknesses to defend without pieces on the board to complicate things for his opponent. In this game @IndiscreetSacrifice played nearly forty moves and ended the game with more time on his clock than when he started. This might actually be a first for our classical tournaments.

In the only game played so far this round in Section D, John (@hodjon) met @CloudlessEchoes's Caro-Kann and after a fairly complex middlegame, White took a small advantage into a rook and pawn ending. White played the ending well and built an overwhelming advantage to take home the point.

See you all in Round 4 !

David