The first round ended in our favor with a critical win with the score 2.5-1.5 against the polish team Chude_Dziki. Our opposition started the “Kasparov division” as the last team in terms of average ELO, but it is my belief that they will be a tough opponent for most of the other teams.
LightSprtans 2.5-1.5 Chude_Dziki
Board1: marjohn 1/2-1/2 MlodyBog
Board2: PaulonioSL 0-1 cjldx
Board3: rudyray 1-0 ArturPL
Board4: hajdzik 1-0 tschack
On board 1 marjohn (that’s me) had white against MlodyBog, a very stable and positional player with a little higher ELO. The opening went smooth for both of them with concrete plans of playing on opposite sides. White started attacking the K-side while black tried to open lines at Q-side. Both of them managed to get what they wanted: white got space on the K-side and black opened lines at the Q-side. In the middle game though it seemed that white could won a pawn and thus black forced or better tried a 3-fold repetition. White could have avoided and decline the unofficial draw offer but I felt that my dark squares where too weak and his knight at d4 too good.
On board 2 cjldx played a very complicated game as black against paulonioSL. It was a Kings Indian Defense from the old stories against the Saemisch variation (with f3). The middlegame position was so complicated and so double edge that none could predict the outcome at that point. Eventually, the opening of the center via a tactical shot to win a pawn on the Q-side gave black the initiative and an inacuraccy by white gave him the better odds overall. Moreover, white’s Kind was stuck at the center and that made things easier for the attack. A nice win by Cj!
On board 3 rudyray played a classical Spanish variation against ArturPL. Both players made the usuall “Spanish” manouvres at the opening but at the end of it Rudy managed to create a permanent weakness of the pawn structure at the K-side of black. At first sight it seemed tiny but since all of white’s pieces where targeting the black King within 5-6 moves Rudy created a dangerous attack on the K-side. Black tried to defend the position but the tactics favored white almost in every variation and his position was collapsing, thus he resigned.
On board 4 the newest member of our team, tschack, was playing against hajdzik. This was the longest game for our team and a very complex one. White sacrificed too minor pieces for a rook and a pawn at f7 and also managed to weaken the position of black’s King. Both players played good moves during the middle game but the fragile position of black’s Kind decided the fate of the game. The critical mistake was the sacrifice of the bishop by Black at g3. This move unfortunately did not had a winning continuation and also helped white to open lines against his king which was stuck at the center. After the final exchanges the endgame was lost for black.
That was the best way to start this TL!