Commentary by IM Greg Shahade
Below are the highlights from this weeks Tuesday Night Masters. We had 16 players this time.
ROUND 1
Revenge was the key word for this round, as Yudasin and myself tried to amend for last week’s first round losses. Eisen defeated Yudasin with black the previous week, but it was not to be this time as Yudasin slowly ground Eisen down. Eventually a middlegame position arose with equal material, yet Lew resigned as it was virtual zugzwang. I took a page out of my fathers book by playing the English opening against Milman. Since Milman beat me last week, yet my father had a winning position against him with the English, I decided to give it a shot. Things worked out pretty well as I quickly got a winning position. On board 1, Bonin continued to have trouble against Novikov, going down with the white pieces as he did the previous week. The big upset of the round was Pader beating D’Arruda. The favorites won all the other games.
ROUND 2
There were two very interesting games this round. On board one Ariel, with the black pieces, was able to hold Novikov to a draw in a long endgame that went the distance. On board two we had our typical crazy mistake filled game. Yudasin was up a few clear pawns against Lapshun when he blundered a mate in one. Stripunsky beat Sarkar in a tough rook endgame, and I beat Pader in a closed Sicilian where I was better out of the opening, then much worse, and then better again. D’Arruda’s rough tournament continued as he transformed a winning position against Privman into a loss.
ROUND 3
There were 3 undefeateds this round: Stripunsky, Shahade and Lapshun. On board one I was paired with Stripunsky and got my typical bad opening. Unfortunately this time I wasn’t able to weasel out of it and eventually Stripunsky chalked up the W. After beating Yudasin, Lapshun said to me “I didn’t beat a GM for 2 years and now I beat 2 in 2 weeks!”. Making it three, with the black pieces against Novikov is not an easy task. Lapshun sacked a piece early on but perhaps it was unsound because Novikov seemed to win quite quickly afterwards. On board 3 Ariel (1.5) had a completely dominating position against Yudasin(1) when he put a knight on c6, overlooking the move R h6 x c6. Bonin was given a second chance in the tournament when Furdzik blundered mate in one in a totally winning position. D’Arruda’s event continued to get worse, as the usual solid finisher slipped to 0-3 with a loss to the youngster Lev Milman. The only thing I saw in the Young – Pader game was Young’s 2 queens delivering mate in the time scramble. The qualifier Zimbeck picked up his first point, albeit in very controversial style, as there was a mad time scramble, including an illegal move by Eisen. Zimbeck had two rooks for a queen and also a mating attack, yet made a terrible blunder in the time scramble allowing Eisen to win both rooks for the queen, but the chance was overlooked and Zimbeck eventually mated Eisen.
ROUND 4
The final round ended peacefully on board 1, as the good friends Stripunsky(3)and Novikov(2.5) agreed to a quick draw, thus clinching clear first for Stripunsky, and his first ever clear victory in the Tuesday Night Masters (He was once part of a 4 way tie for first). On board two Yudasin beat Sarkar with the white pieces, thus guaranteeing Yudasin a share of 2nd place with Novikov. Bonin and Shahade were playing on board 3, with the winner also guaranteed a part of 2nd place. Bonin had white and didn’t get very much out of the opening, yet somehow I played a series of moves allowing white a strong attack. Eventually I found a way to give up a piece, and then played a move that was very hard to defend against, unfortauntely the only clear way to defend against it was also mate in 5 moves. The good news for me was that Bonin overlooked this and sacked his queen for a rook and a knight. It now became a time scramble as I had about 40 seconds with time delay and Jay had about 7 minutes, and although I probably had a winning position, I screwed it up and allowed Jay to draw. Of course in the meantime I also hung a mate, which Jay overlooked since he was down to about 20 seconds as well. On board 4 Lapshun got his piece of the pie after coming back from a lost position to beat filler-extraordinaire Ron Young. Lev Milman won against Donny Ariel, thus picking up some more rating points. The way he is going in these events he will be 2350-2400 in no time. So once again our winner was Stripunsky, picking up $280 and in a 3 way tie for 2nd was Novikov, Yudasin and Lapshun.
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9th New York Masters Action USA (USA), 14 v 2002
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1 2 3 4 Total
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1. Stripunsky, A g 2637 + 8 + 7 + 5 = 2 3.5 ($280)
2. Novikov, Igor g 2668 + 6 =11 + 4 = 1 3.0 ($70)
3. Yudasin, Leonid g 2666 +16 - 4 +11 - 7 3.0 ($70)
4. Lapshun, Yury f 2450 +10 + 3 - 2 + 8 3.0 ($70)
5. Shahade, Greg m 2554 + 9 +14 - 1 = 6 2.5
6. Bonin, Jay R m 2376 - 2 + 9 +12 = 5 2.5
7. Sarkar, Justin m 2435 +13 - 1 +10 - 3 2.0
8. Young, Ronald f 2270 - 1 +13 +14 - 4 2.0
9. Milman, Lev 2277 - 5 - 6 +15 +11 2.0
10. Privman, Boris f 2265 - 4 +15 - 7 +14 2.0
11. Ariel, Donny f 2447 +12 = 2 - 3 - 9 1.5
12. Furdzik, Rafal 2209 -11 +16 - 6 =13 1.5
13. Zimbeck, David 2127 - 7 - 8 +16 =12 1.5
14. Pader, Douglas 2221 +15 - 5 - 8 -10 1.0
15. D'Arruda, R f 2437 -14 -10 - 9 =16 0.5
16. Eisen, Lewis 2308 - 3 -12 -13 =15 0.5
1st - $280
2nd - $135
3rd - $65
RATINGS USED ABOVE ARE WEEKLY UPDATE RATINGS, TO KEEP EVERYONE CURRENT WITH THE LATEST RATING TRENDS.
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