"I learned that chess can be a very cruel sport and if you are weak at some point, your name will not always save you." GM Viktor Moskalenko on beating GM David Bronstein at Wijk aan Zee in 1992. In ChessBase.com

 

The LAST North County Open began Friday, December 14^th at the usual place and time. Although 10 players have committed to the LAST five-rounder, only eight were present for the first round.

 

In the first game, a London System, Mike Ross had white versus Ken Fitzgerald. Mike chose the rather closed and safe London System and enjoyed relative equality until move 18. It seemed that White was about ready to lose a piece after Black was attacking a pinned piece twice. However, White could ease out of the sticky situation with 19 f4 Nxf4  20 Nef3 with a quick Qc2. White may or may not have seen this resource nevertheless he resigned.

 

Mike Nagaran played Sal Monteforte in the longest game of the night, a Botvinnik English. Black was equal to slightly better most of the game until move 21 when instead of 21 … exd4 he should have played 21 … cxd4. Black lost a pawn on move 28 and was rather bothered and quickly lost another. With White trading pieces, White later returned one of the pawns for a clearly winning endgame and forced resignation by move 48.

 

The third game was Jonathan Centers and Greg Sullivan, a Veresov. Jonathan has been waiting about a month to join us in a tournament and it is nice seeing a new face at the club. Black replied with a King’s Indian setup that was for the most part equal for much of the game. White missed winning a pawn in the middle game and the game remained equal for the most part. However, Jonathan blundered allowing his queen to be pinned, the only way out was to throw a rook into the line of fire but being down a rook isn’t exactly good news either.

 

The last game of the night was Jim Boyd and Vincent Monteforte. Vincent’s play has been slowly improving each game. In this game, Jim played an aggressive line against an Accelerated Dragon and Vincent did not find his way. Black lost material and was backward in development. Eventually he got his pieces untangled but too much material was lost and Jim won in 48.

 

Next week, Sam Mahaffey and John Crankshaw will join the fray with half-point byes and it will be nice to see John return after many months. Round 2 will be on Friday the 21^st, same time, same place.