GoA Chess Tournament #1

The first official GoA Tournament has begun! There are 3 groups this time, 6 players in Group A, 6 in Group B, and 8 in Group C. The bottom 2 players in each group will be relegated and the top 2 players in each group will be promoted. Depending on demand the number of groups may expand or contract in the future.

Below are the groups and links to check out the action:
Group A: GoA Tourney #1 - A Group - Tournament Pairings - Chess.com
@tospeke
@MayanActuary
@AbstractActuary
@IPD
@procrastinator
Minnesotah

Group B: GoA Tourney #1 - B Group - Tournament Pairings - Chess.com
@1695814
@Bro
@CuriousGeorge
@Werewolf
@BruteForce
devilrox

Group C: GoA Tourney #1 - C Group - Tournament Pairings - Chess.com
BenedictXVI
rgrosz789
golfer6392
macroman44
JustChillJoe
ALivelySedative
J0EBl0W
Seasplash
(will @ you guys in the next post)

We can use this thread to talk about games related to the tournament here!

@Grizz
@Macroman
@ALivelySedative
@J0EBL0W

Minnesotah, devilrox, Benedict, rgrosz, JustChillJoe, Seasplash are you on this forum? Or did I miss you? :-/

This is going to be an interesting experience in losing for me. ha

Welcome to my world!

Too bad you aren’t in group C. I’d give you an easy win. I’m just starting to get into chess. Apparently its a hard game.

Don’t worry, I’ll be there soon enough.

I’ll have a similarly rough time in group A, but should be fun.

So I’m minding my own business, playing the Benko Gambit against Mayan, and then Mayan is all like ā€œyou call that a gambit? THIS is a gambit!ā€ and we are 5 moves in to some weird counter gambit I have no idea what’s going on. :face_with_monocle:

Sounds like a game I would enjoy. I should start playing the Benko again.

Don’t even know what that is. I’m only ā€˜in’ one of my games…I think…probably wrong about that one too.

Benko Gambit is a neat opening, one of my favorites. Played as black and it occurs during a d4 opening from white and the circumstances for the gambit to be played happen a decent amount. I find some opponents as white aren’t fully prepared for it, and as black you are mostly striving for a structure for your pieces rather than memorizing a million lines/variations so it’s not so hard to play.

That makes two of us :grin:

And would it really be a game between us if it didn’t end up in some wild tactical battle wayyyy above our level of chess?

I’ve never played so many games at once, kinda fun.

Some tactics from my game with Tospeke (from last tournament but just finished, so I’m putting it in this thread)

A fun game to click through. Dzibanche vs. Tospeke | Analysis - Chess.com

Here Tospeke just sacked his knight for my pawn on f2, I’m going to take with my queen, then he’s going to push e3. What are my next two moves that keep me from losing on the spot?

We eventually went into an endgame with me a pawn down. What is the only move in this position that would allow white to maintain the draw? (I did not find it)

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Looking at the end game position, a rook trade ends up losing, so any king move or if the rook stays on the g-file loses because then it’ll be easy for black to trade rooks. So the rook must move and stay on the 3rd rank, but Rh3 loses and Re3 loses. So there are 3 candidate moves… Rc3, Rd3, and Rf3. I’m going to guess Rf3 keeps the draw because it allows you to still move up the the 6th-8th ranks if needed. That’s my instinct.

And of course I’m wrong. LOL picked the same move as Mayan… Who can figure out why I was wrong? It’s so clear looking at it now…geez

1 Like

Is it possible to set the tournament timer to five days? Three days means a problem if you’re busy over a long weekend.

In the first position, Qxf5 threatens Qxg6 (with rook pinned). I think that saves the knight.

In the second position, Rf3 seems like the natural move.

Qxf5 is the correct move, but then black takes the knight. I can’t take the pinned rook because of Re1+ followed by Qxh4. You are here and need one move to keep it -1 instead of -6 or worse

It is the natural move, which I played and which IPD talked himself into, but it is the wrong move.

The only other candidate move I have is Kg2.

Rg8 is my only other candidate move for the rook + pawn endgame.