It was yet again a dramatic day of top notch chess with some major upsets, and well deserved wins by many players.
Artem Aleksenko vs. Ron Lopez
In the epic final match for first place, Artem and Ron dueled for almost 2hrs and 30 minutes. The critical move was 31…Qa2 when it appears Ron missed a better tactic and gave away his advantage with a losing trade. Artem entered the endgame up a rook and ultimately received Ron’s resignation.
Kareem Khan vs. Billy Zifchak
Kareem did it again! We told everyone to watch out for him. Billy was ahead out of the opening capturing a second knight with his queen, but this left her in a very precarious position. Carelessly, Billy castled and allowed a devastating discovered attack on move 13. Though Billy pressed on, Kareem carefully squeezed his advantage and there was nothing to be done to stop him. Chess.com ranked Kareem’s move 13. Bxh7+ as a “brilliant” move, reported an overall accuracy of 80% for his game, and said he played as if ranked 1050. Well done.
Joe Burns vs. Josh Pinchuk
This was a very competitive game! Josh played an aggressive response to Joe’s Ruy Lopez opening and developed a strong attack in the middle game. Black had white on the back foot with a slight material and positional advantage but let it slip with 34…Rxg2+. Joe played well above his rank to get to the end game where he was able to turn the tables. *transcribed from notation, some moves at the end may be missing or inaccurate
*If you would like us to post one of your games, send a PGN file from lichess.com or chess.com to piermontchess@gmail.com, or hand in a scoresheet at the end of any tournament.