Capitol City Open III

Yesterday, 8 April 2023, was a local club Swiss tournament in Tallahassee, FL. Plenty of players, a great turn out. There were a lot of first time tournament players, myself included. There was a broad Under 1000 USCF rated section, mostly unrated players with some rated players. Also, there was a large Under 1400 rated section with around eight to ten players, I think. There were six players in the Open, which is anyone above 1400 rating, with all six of them being over 1700 USCF rating. That translates to around 2000 online rating on Chess.com.

I wasn't sure if I belonged in the U1000 section, which is why I entered there. I needed to determine where I belonged. I won all four rounds I played in the match against—I would say—stronger and stronger opponents. Of course there were mistakes and missed wins, as there would be. There were also both me and my opponent missing those opportunities and defenses on the board. All around the games were fun and intense, so I'd like to go over them here.

The time control for the tournament was 25 minutes per player with a 5 second delay for writing moves; G25d5.

ROUND 1: ANENYA Unr. vs JACOB TAYLOR Unr.

A fun game but my opponent chose a less than ideal line against my response to e4.

CARO-KANN: Hillbilly Attack, 2. ... d5

1. e4 c6

2. Bc4 d5

3. exd5 cxd5

4. Bb3 Nc6

This line of bringing the bishop out, inviting d5, doesn't work well for white without appropriate and equal fight for the center (something my opponent did not immediately do.)

She plays a move that gives me a slight edge.

5. d3 Bf5

6. Nd2

She develops her knight passively, not wanting to incite an attack on it with my e pawn, but her plan I found strange. She plans to reroute the knight to have both of hers on the king side.

6. ... e6

7. Nf1 Bd6

8. Nf3 Nge7

9. Ng3 O-O

10. O-O Bg4

11. h3 Bxf3

12. Qxf3 Nd4

13. Qe3?

A mistake where she should have played back to the queen's home square to prevent a pin and further attack by my own queen. The computer wants to play extremely positional here, but I thought I saw something else and got "tunnel vision" or had a lack of vision. In the next sequence I miss winning chances until she makes a sealing mistake attempting to defend a delicate position.

13. ... Nef5 (a missed win to play Qb6)

I am not wholly sure why Qb6 is better besides what the computer says. I think it makes it easier for white to make fatal mistakes.

14. Qd2??

Qd2 by Anenya blunders her position and I totally missed the idea of immediately taking her knight on g3 with my bishop, thinking that having the queen able to land instead of the knight would give some kind of advantage. However, Qc7 is another missed win by myself, leaving the position equal and leaving Anenya a chance to escape disadvantage.

14. ... Qc7

15. Re1 Bxg3

She misses a win of disrupting my position with Nxf5, and I play innaccurately by taking with the bishop.

16. fxg3 Qxg3

17. Re3?

17. ... Nxe3

18. Qxe3 Qxe3+

19. Bxe3 Nf5

Now the game is a forgone conclusion.

20. Bc5 Rfc8

21. Bb4 Nd4

22. Ba4 b5

23. Bb3 Nxb3

24. axb3 Rxc2

25. Rf1 Rxb2

26. Rc1 a5

27. Bc5 Rxb3

28. d4 a4

29. Bd6 a3

30. Rc7 a2

31. Rc1 a1=Q

32. Rxa1 Rxa1+

33. Kh2 Ra2

34. h4 h5

35. Kh1 Rh3+

Here I forgot that the pawn existed, but it by no means ruins my chances. It isn't even a mistake by the computer's standards because my advantage is impossibly larger than hers.

36. gxh3 f5

37. Bh2 b4

38. Bg1 Ra1

39, Kh2 Rxg1

40. Kxg1 b3

41. Kf2 b2

42. Ke3 b1=Q

43. Kf4 Qe4+

44. Kg5

Mate in two.

44. ... f4!

45. Kxh5 Qf5#

ROUND 2: MICHAEL CATTELL 830 vs JACOB TAYLOR Unr.

An intense and innaccurate opening by my opponent and I; however, he blunders all advantage when he fails to evaluate all my threats.

INDIAN GAME

1. d4 Nf6

2. e3 c5

3. dxc5 e5

4. Bc4 Bxc5

An equal position even though—after the game—my opponent said he forgot about protecting the pawn. The engine thinks it was alright to lose it.

5. Nf3 Nc6

6. O-O d5

7. Bb5 Qc7

8. Qd2!?

A move I was unsure of. I didn't know its purpose because I was looking for an attack it had on my position. I ruled that it may have been inaccurate during the game and it was by almost 1 point of advantage.

8. ... Be6

9. b4!? Be7!?

10. Bb2 e4!?

Here my opponent has a fighting chance with 11. Be5 Qc8, invading my tight position. Instead he chooses possibly the worse naturally available option.

11. Ng5? Ng4!

Ng4! threatening an exposed attack on the hanging knight as well as checkmate! A double attack! And Mr. Cattell misobserves!

12. Nxe6??

Mate in One! My heart was racing.

12. ... Qxh2#

ROUND 3: JACOB TAYLOR Unr. vs AARON RULLEN 708

A fun and exhilirating game where an insane and missed opportunity arises in the midgame for my opponent to equalize the position after dislodging my king from safely castling.

CARO-KANN DEFENSE: MAIN LINE, 4. ... Nf6

1. e4 c6

2. d4 d5

3. Nc3 dxe4

4. Nxe4 Nf6

A line I was unfamiliar with. I am used to 4. ... Bf5, 5. Ng3 Bg6 in response to the classical invitation. Unsure of what to do in continuing I didn't want to take and invite a position that was too open, and my decision to keep it semi-open later made my opponent's position more difficult towards the end game. I played the knight back.

5. Nc3

A move he had never seen, but perfectly acceptable.

5. ... Bf5

6. Nf3 e6

7. a3 Be7

8. Bd3 Bg4

9. Be4

A move I almost immediately considered a mistake, but I wanted to leave the e2 square open to reroute my knight if a strong defense became necessary. We play a series of "good" classified moves by Chess.com into a unique position where my opponent finds some winning chances.

9. ... O-O

10. Be3 Nd5

11. h3 Nxe3!

He creates a unique attacking opportunity!

12. fxe3 Bh4+

13. Kd2 Bh5

14. g4 Bg6

15. Qg1!?

I should take his bishop, but I didn't want to open his rook to a freshly damaged position. I instead saw a possibility to prevent any invasion by his dark bishop and simultaneously either trap the dark bishop or create attacking chances on his kingside.

15. ... Nd7?

He missed an opportunity to save his bishop from a move which is hard to see.

16. g5! Nc5

17. Bd3

A catostrophic mistake. A missed win, possibly a blunder. I should take his bishop! I plan to defend my position, but I missed his possible win! Here, Aaron has 17. ... Bxd3!! and if 18. cxd3 Nb3+!, in fact my only move—which doesn't immediately lose a point positionally—is to take his bishop on h4 and leave the bishop he has placed beside my king totally alone. My position suffers immensely to this attack. Fortunately he misses it as well.

17. ... Nxd3?

18. cxd3 Qa5

19. Nxd4 Bh5

20. Ng2 Qxg5

21. Nf4 Qa5

22. Qg3!? Bg6

23. b4 Qc7

24. Rag1 Rad8?

He misses a chance to fight for the center with pawn to e5.

25. Nxg6!?

An innaccuracy, but a use of my idea from round two, a double attack. I thought I had good attacking opportunities after this move, and I do, but the computer dislikes it for my open ability to push the h pawn.

Yet, my opponent misses the interactions caused by my move and plays

25. ... fxg6??

26. Qxc7! Rf2+

Now the game is a forgone conclusion.

27. Ne2 Rdf8

28. Qe7 R2f6

29. h4 R8f7

30. Qd8+ Rf8

31. Qd6 Re8

32. Rf1 Kf7

33. Rxf6+ gxf6

34. Rf1 Re7

35. Rg1 h6

36. Qf4 g5

37. hxg5 hxg5

38. Rxg5 Ke8 and Resigns

ROUND 4: JACOB TAYLOR Unr. vs NATHAN HEBURN Unr.

As of now, this is my immortal game, even with a mistake I think it is the best I have played an attacking idea and utilized my pieces to assert an imminent victory against a good opponent who fell short in the opening and steadily lost because of just one missed idea of playing against my center.

KING'S INDIAN DEFENSE: SÄMISCH, NORMAL DEFENSE, 6. Be3 Nbd7

1. c4 Nf6

2. Nc3 g6

3. e4 d6

4. d4 Bg7

5. f3 O-O

6. Be3 Nbd7

I immediately play a mistake, although my only one, thinking there was no harm to it. And the harm would be hard found because the result was exactly what I intended to play into: a block to his dark bishop and a closed center position.

7. f4? Re8!?

8. Be2 e5

9. fxe5 dxe5

10. d5! Nh5?

Nh5 opportunes me the move: Bxh5, destroying his kingside structure, creating a hard to escape and invadible castle for his king to reside in. Fighting into the center with b5 was his best chance for a more equal position.

11. Bxh5 gxh5

12. Qxh5 Nf6

13. Qe2 Bg4?

14. Nf3 Rf8

15. O-O h6

16. h3 Bxf3

17. Rxf3 Nh7

18. Raf1 Ng5

19. Rg3

The beginning of a fatal attack!

19. ... f6

20. Qg4 Qe7

21. h4 Nh7

22. Bxh6! Rf7

Here I thought for a long while. For a few minutes trying to figure out how I was going to invade his position, and further suffocate his tense, tight, constricted opportunites. I found this idea of bringing the knight into the attack without losing any tempi!

23. Nb5! a6

A thought by him to kick back my knight, thinking that this next combination wouldn't be possible!

24. d6! cxd6

25. Nxd6!!

A tactically brilliant move to win material, tempo, and position by removing the queen from the defense of pressure on the g7 square!!

25. ... Raf8

I considered Nf5, forking the queen and the g7 square, no longer a bishop there but a blockade against imminent destruction. I did not play it because I was having trouble calculating its complexities so I simply took the rook on f7.

26. Nxf7 Rxf7

27. Qc8+ Nf8

28. Bxg7 Rxg7

29. Rff3 Rxg3

30. Rxg3+ Kf7?

31. h5 Ne6??

A blunder of mate in one! This seals a fantastic and fun game as well as a lively tournament.

32. Qg8#

I won the U1000 section as the only player with 4 points (4wins) and am likely to receive some sort of tentative United States Chess Federation (USCF) rating soon. In fact let me check on that.

No, there is no tentative rating yet. I'm sure it won't be too high, but I am likely to be at least 1000 officially. Over the board play is very interesting when in tournament format, and I am excited to play more and more officially! Thanks for reading and going along with the progression of these games because there is something to be learned in all of them.

Here is a link to all the games. I recorded them in a Chess.com library to further my analysis since I have a membership and a detailed analysis there. (I dislike the crude nature of Lichess's analysis. It feels so cold and rude to my sensible chess abilities LOL.)

https://www.chess.com/c/exrUKppN

Just click on the analysis button at the top menu of the library and you can use the selector to switch games without having to navigate back to the library page. Tanks a bunches.