Welcome once again to our annual pilgrimage back to Philadelphia for the Thanksgiving treat that is known as the National Chess Congress. This is one of three large annual events held in the City of Brotherly Love, the others being the Liberty Bell Open and of course the World Open.
The action has started in the 3-day schedule of all the sections. In the Premier, known because it is not an Open as it is limited to players rated 2000 or higher, with the exception of some promising juniors. There are currently four Grandmasters in the 3-day schedule with Sergey Erenburg coming in as the highest rated. He is joined by the three Alex’s, Shabalov, Ivanov and Fishbein.
The first round saw it’s fair share of action as Fishbein gave up a draw to the young talented Victory Shen while Steve Grenias upset IM Alex Lenderman on board 5. However, the game of the round goes to a flashy multi-sacrificial victory from WGM Sabina-Francesca Foisor from Romania.
Foisor,S (2495) – Fayvinov,Z (2216)
National Chess Congress, Philadelphia (1), 11/28/2008
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.cxd5 cxd4 5.Qa4+ Bd7 6.Qxd4 exd5 7.Qxd5 Nc6 8.e3 Nf6 9.Qd1 Bc5 10.Nf3 Qe7 11.Be2 0-0-0 12.Bd2 g5 13.Rc1 Kb8 14.0-0 g4 15.Nd4 h5
Position after 15…h5
16.b4 Bxb4 17.Rb1 Nxd4 18.exd4 Bf5
Position after 18…Bf5
19.Rxb4 Qxb4 20.Nb5 Qb2 21.Bf4+ Ka8 22.Qa4 a6 23.Nc7+ Ka7
Position after 23…Ka7
24.Bxa6 Kb6 25.Bxb7 Bd3 26.Rd1 Kxb7 27.Rxd3 Qb1+ 28.Rd1 Qb6 29.d5 Nd7 30.Qc2 Qg6 31.Rb1+ Nb6 32.Qb3 Rb8 33.d6 Kc8
Position after 33…Kc8
34.Nd5 Nxd5 35.Qxb8+ Kd7 36.Qb7+ Ke6 37.Re1+ 1-0
I’m not sure if the sacrifices were sound or not but they sure looked good so who cares?! IM Alex Lenderman came a cropper by missing a small tactic in his game against Steven Grenias. In the following position, Lenderman got a little too cute playing as black.
Position after 32.Qxh7
32…Bc4
White simply takes the bishop to see what is up Lenderman’s sleeve.
33.Rxc4 Qa1+ 34.Rc1 Re1+ 35.Kf2
And here Alex realized that he couldn’t win the exchange by 35…Rxc1 because of 36.Qe7 mate. Grenias went on to eventually get his king out of the checks at which point Lenderman resigned.
Hopefully I’ll get around to providing many more reports from the tournament but alas I am on TD/MonRoi/website duties so time is limited. Please feel free to leave a comment if you’ve got anything to say!
Regards,
Chris Bird