Atlas Chess Tournament '21 (Final Scores)

[Oakvale]

After valiantly struggling on, I regret to announce I've been suffocated to death in my first game, congratulations to muon on a lethally sharp performance.

1. e4 d5 2. d4 dxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. f3 exf3 5. Nxf3 Bg4 6. Be3 e6 7. Bc4 Bb4 8.
O-O Nc6 9. d5 Ne5 10. Bb5+ Nfd7

Nfd7 to block the bishop is what Chess.com's auto-analysis tells me was the crucial blunder, which seems right - I was in serious trouble from then. In retrospect my impulse was to not remove the e5 knight from piling up on f3 but simply swapping out which knight I block with prevents the brutal Qd4 being so scary and might save my kingside pawn from the coup de grâce in a couple of moves. I should have spent a bit more time thinking about this one. The f3 attack is a bit of an idle threat regardless - how am I going to capitalise on that?

11. Qd4 Bxc3 12. Qxc3 Nxf3+ 13. gxf3 Bf5

The auto-analysis suggests castling instead and giving up the bishop as lost, which actually didn't cross my mind - my initial thought was to play Bh3 and attack the rook, but I doubt that'd work in correspondence: in blitz it might buy you a crucial tempo with a rook retreat, allowing castling.


14.
Qxg7 Rf8

All over bar the shouting. A cursory glance would suggest there's no way to survive here that doesn't end in my 1. giving up my queen and 2. having a pawn on the 7th rank. Yikes!

15. Bc5 c6 16. dxc6 1-0


This was a fun position on move 11:

[Oakvale]

Thanks to YPestis for the game! The queen blunder was unfortunate but that aside my opponent played very well and is definitely somewhat underrated. Not a huge amount to say but the game went:

1. e4 d5

There's been a disproportionate Scandinavian theme in this tournament so far!

2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 c6 6. Bd2 Bf5 7. Bc4 e6 8. O-O
Bd6 9. a3 Bg4 10. Be2 Qh5 11. h3 Bxf3 12. Bxf3 Qf5 13. g4 Qa5 14. d5 Nxd5 15.
Nxd5

This knight blunder is the issue - it loses a piece or...

...cxd5 16. Bxa5 b6 17. Bb4 Bxb4 18. axb4 O-O 19. c4 Nd7 20. cxd5 exd5 21. Qb3
Nf6 22. g5 Nd7 23. Bxd5 Rad8 24. Rxa7 b5 25. Rd1 h6 26. g6 Nf6 27. Bxf7+ Kh8 28.
Rxd8 Rxd8 29. Qf3 Rd6 30. Ra8+ 1-0

[Oakvale]

Thanks for the game Scott! You're underrated for sure - out of the opening I was pretty unhappy with my position. Obviously things were decided by an unfortunate blunder but had that not occurred I would have been getting nervous.

[Oakvale]

Have sent a challenge to NOVA Green.

[Oakvale]

I apologise for the slowness of my ongoing game - I've been trying to move as fast as I can for the last week or so (not that I begrudge my opponent for taking more time: those are the rules and we've all got real lives).

I do agree that a shorter time control might be in order next time around: I think most of us like the correspondence format - I play a lot better (obviously!) when I've got hours to think about a move. However 24 hours would seem to strike the right balance between the need to not have the tournament last a year and maintaining the relaxed, thoughtful pace of games that the format allows.

[Oakvale]

My game with NOVA has concluded, 1-0. Thanks to Nova for a hard-fought game: I had a lot fun in this one and it was never easy.

1. c4 e5

My recollection is that I glanced at NOVA's profile for some cursory research and saw he likes to play the French against my usual e4. Like any decent person I dislike playing against the French, so an English it is.

2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. g3 Bb4 5. Bg2 d6 6. O-O Bxc3 7. bxc3 Be6 8.Qb3 Rb8 9. d4 Bd7 10. dxe5 dxe5 11. Ba3 e4 12. Nd4 Na5

13. Nf5 Bxf5

Threatens the extremely cheesy Nxg7#. In a real-time game there's a pretty strong possibility that the opponent impulsively takes the pseudo-hanging queen here. Another reason correspondence leads to better games. The chess.com auto-analysis engine says this is a mistake, which is probably true, but how do you resist?

14. Qb5+ Qd7 15. Qxa5 Qc8 16. Qe5+ Be6 17. Rfd1 b6 18. Bxe4 c5 19. Bc6+ Kf8 20. Bc1 Bxc4 21.Bg5 Bxe2 22. Re1 Bg4 23. Bxf6 gxf6 24. Qxf6 Rg8 25. Bd5 Qd7

26. Bxf7 Qxf7

The critical moment here: the idea is after Qxf7 Qh6+ Rg7 Qd6+ Kg8 white grabs a rook. A fun little bit of geometry. Unfortunately this is volatile enough that a simple misplay from black leads to a forced mate.

27. Qh6+ Qg7 28. Qd6+ Kf7 29. Re7+ (Black resigned) 1-0

As I said, thanks to my opponent for a very entertaining game. It was fun and made me think.

[Oakvale]

My game with patzer has ended, 1-0. Congratulations to patzer on a well-deserved win and thanks for an extremely tough game in which I never felt like I even had an opportunity to win an advantage.

This is a classic cautionary tale - in a drawn position, I thought about offering a draw a couple of times but then reasoned, eh, why not make a few more moves? I mean, come on, what am I going to do? Blunder the endgame? A disappointing note to conclude the tournament on but on the other hand it was a very intense and interesting game, so I can't complain.

I might have a few thoughts later but at first glance I only see one move that really merits immediate comment.

1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. e3 O-O 6. Bd2 c6 7. a3 Bxc3 8. Bxc3
b6 9. Rc1 Ba6 10. b3 Nbd7 11. Bd3 Qe7 12. O-O Ne4 13. a4 f5 14. Ne5 Nxe5 15.
dxe5 Qc7 16. cxd5 Nxc3 17. Rxc3 Qxe5 18. Rxc6 Qxd5 19. Bb5 Bxb5 20. Qxd5 exd5
21. axb5 Rfc8 22. Rfc1 Rd8 23. h4 h6 24. Rc7 d4 25. exd4 Rxd4 26. g3 Rb4 27.
Rc8+ Rxc8 28. Rxc8+ Kh7 29. Rc7 Rxb3 30. Rxa7 Rxb5 31. h5 f4 32. g4 f3 33. Kh2
Rb3 34. Kg3 Kg8 35. Rb7 b5 36. Kf4 b4

37. Kf5 Rb2 ??

What was I thinking here? This ignores White's forcing rook moves and leaves my pawns doomed. My best explanation is it's an example of how one can develop tunnel vision in these positions: I simply didn't pay any heed to the attack until after I'd made the fatal move, and that slow sinking feeling set in. If we were playing bullet or something you might play on, hoping for a counter-blunder, but there's little chance of such a thing in correspondence - and certainly not against a very strong player like patzer. As such, the only reasonable conclusion is to fall on your sword rather than be surgically picked apart for a few more moves.

38. Kg6 Kf8 39. Rf7+ (Black resigns) 1-0