Yesterday, (6/12/2019) we had an excellent showing of 22 inmates to participate in the first annual Lone Wolf Invitational Chess Tournament at the Orofino Prison.
Winners
Invitational Section
| Open Section
|
All players will be scholastically rated on http://ratingsnw.com soon.
This was my first time running a tournament with multiple sections. We had the invitational section which consisted of 10 of our top players from our weekly chess class and the rest played in the open section.
I want to thank Thad Suits who donated an unlocking code so we could run the pairings using his swiss sys chess software within the prison. (I am not allowed to bring my laptop into the prison)
We found some issues with several of the clocks and will get those fixed soon.
The inmates were in excellent spirits and appeared to be having a great time. As the rounds add up the excitement grows as the players watch the rankings and eye the recognition of being a top contender.
As the Swiss tournament entered the 4th and 5th rounds the range of scores contracted instead of expanding so we had to run some tie breaker games at the 6th round to get clear winners.
We have some excellent players at the prison and I regularly get beat by the best of them.
The prison chess ministry is run completely on donations so if anyone feels led to give to The Chess Guy for this ministry, feel free to contact me at [email protected].
Here's one of the games that was recorded in the first round. Many players found it terribly distracting to record their games and were not proficient enough to do them well enough to be useful so I dropped the requirement in the second round. Chess class will work more on this skill to where it won't be so difficult for the players in future tournaments.
Here's one of the games played in the first round:
[Event "2019 Lone Wolf Invitational"]
[Site "Orofino Prison"]
[Date "6/12/2019"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Kenny Jones"]
[Black "Joseph Snider"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C41"]
[Opening "Philidor's defence"]
[Site "Orofino Prison"]
[Date "6/12/2019"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Kenny Jones"]
[Black "Joseph Snider"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C41"]
[Opening "Philidor's defence"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6
This is a little weak as it locks in the kingside bishop for black but it's not outside of grandmaster play.
3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bc4 Qe7
Taking the queen out early. Better was Nc6. Looks like black was preparing for Be6.
5. d4
A good grab for the center. White is ahead in development and so such an agressive move is quite in line here.
5... d5
Black counters but with a show of force that isn't there. The pawn on d5 has 3 attackers and one defender. The pawn on e5 has two attackers and one defender. Black will lose the center.
6. Bxd5 Nxd5 7. Nxd5 Qd6 8. O-O
White continues to develope while blacks queen is now tied to protecting a pawn, but insufficiently. The pawn on e5 has two attackers and black only has one defender.
8... Bg4
Pins the knight to save the e5 pawn.
9. dxe5 Qc6
Black is now down on material and doesn't want to trade queens so the pawn on e5 dies anyway.
10. Qd2?
A mistake. As you will see black opens up white's nice fortress and exposes his king to danger.
10... Bxf3 11. gxf3 Qg6+
Black would have a great attack here if only he had the center and some peices developed. The more the queen moves, the more time black wastes and the center never gets addressed.
12. Qg5
White is up 2 pawns and is happy to trade down.
This is a little weak as it locks in the kingside bishop for black but it's not outside of grandmaster play.
3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bc4 Qe7
Taking the queen out early. Better was Nc6. Looks like black was preparing for Be6.
5. d4
A good grab for the center. White is ahead in development and so such an agressive move is quite in line here.
5... d5
Black counters but with a show of force that isn't there. The pawn on d5 has 3 attackers and one defender. The pawn on e5 has two attackers and one defender. Black will lose the center.
6. Bxd5 Nxd5 7. Nxd5 Qd6 8. O-O
White continues to develope while blacks queen is now tied to protecting a pawn, but insufficiently. The pawn on e5 has two attackers and black only has one defender.
8... Bg4
Pins the knight to save the e5 pawn.
9. dxe5 Qc6
Black is now down on material and doesn't want to trade queens so the pawn on e5 dies anyway.
10. Qd2?
A mistake. As you will see black opens up white's nice fortress and exposes his king to danger.
10... Bxf3 11. gxf3 Qg6+
Black would have a great attack here if only he had the center and some peices developed. The more the queen moves, the more time black wastes and the center never gets addressed.
12. Qg5
White is up 2 pawns and is happy to trade down.
12... Qxg5+ 13. Bxg5
So now we see the queen has moved 5 times and then is traded off with white's queen that only moved once. This gains white 4 free moves! Unless there is a very good reason, never move the same peice twice in the opening!
13... Na6
Black may be tring for c5 as a nice place for his knight but generally you want your knights in the center. I would have maneuvered via d7 instead.
14. Rad1 Rd8
As black tries to get his peices active he blunders the exchange with this move. When you have the center your game almost plays itself but when you don't, many moves that seem good aren't due to the activity of whites peices.
15. Bxd8 Kxd8 16. Nb4+
The discovered check gives white a chance to force more trading down making the value of those two pawns and now the xchange an even higher percentage of the power difference between these two players.
16... Kc8 17. Nxa6 bxa6
Blacks pawn structure is far worse than whites and his two remaining pieces are still on their original squares.
18. Rd4
A good centralizing move to double the rooks on the d file but I would have chosen a white square so the black bishop can't harrass the rook.
18... g6 19. Rfd1 Bg7 20. Rd7
Gaining the 7th rank is alway good. It sets you up for cleaning out the backward pawns and trapping the king out of the center of the board as the pieces disappear to create the endgame. However this needlessly droops a pawn. Better would have been for Kenny to play f4 first and if Bh6 then Rd7 and if black does Bxf3, White respones with Rxf7 and things are even except that white's f pawns are no longer doubled.
[20. f4 Bh6 21. Rd7 Bxf4 22. Rxf7]
20... Bxe5 21. Rxf7 Bxb2 22. Rdd7 Be5 23. f4
Bd6 24. e5 Rd8?
Black has little choce left and must trade down to survive.
25. Rxd8+ Kxd8 26. exd6 cxd6 27. Rxh7 d5 28. Rxa7
I like how Kenny is staying on the 7th rank to prevent black's king from doing anything useful.
28... Kc8 29. Kg2 d4 30. Kg3 a5 31. Kg4
Kenny brings his king in for mate and all Joseph can do is push pawns or pace the floor with his king.
31... Kb8 32. Rh7 a4 33. Kg5 Kc8 34. Kf6 Kd8 35. Ke6 Ke8 36. Rh8# 1-0
So now we see the queen has moved 5 times and then is traded off with white's queen that only moved once. This gains white 4 free moves! Unless there is a very good reason, never move the same peice twice in the opening!
13... Na6
Black may be tring for c5 as a nice place for his knight but generally you want your knights in the center. I would have maneuvered via d7 instead.
14. Rad1 Rd8
As black tries to get his peices active he blunders the exchange with this move. When you have the center your game almost plays itself but when you don't, many moves that seem good aren't due to the activity of whites peices.
15. Bxd8 Kxd8 16. Nb4+
The discovered check gives white a chance to force more trading down making the value of those two pawns and now the xchange an even higher percentage of the power difference between these two players.
16... Kc8 17. Nxa6 bxa6
Blacks pawn structure is far worse than whites and his two remaining pieces are still on their original squares.
18. Rd4
A good centralizing move to double the rooks on the d file but I would have chosen a white square so the black bishop can't harrass the rook.
18... g6 19. Rfd1 Bg7 20. Rd7
Gaining the 7th rank is alway good. It sets you up for cleaning out the backward pawns and trapping the king out of the center of the board as the pieces disappear to create the endgame. However this needlessly droops a pawn. Better would have been for Kenny to play f4 first and if Bh6 then Rd7 and if black does Bxf3, White respones with Rxf7 and things are even except that white's f pawns are no longer doubled.
[20. f4 Bh6 21. Rd7 Bxf4 22. Rxf7]
20... Bxe5 21. Rxf7 Bxb2 22. Rdd7 Be5 23. f4
Bd6 24. e5 Rd8?
Black has little choce left and must trade down to survive.
25. Rxd8+ Kxd8 26. exd6 cxd6 27. Rxh7 d5 28. Rxa7
I like how Kenny is staying on the 7th rank to prevent black's king from doing anything useful.
28... Kc8 29. Kg2 d4 30. Kg3 a5 31. Kg4
Kenny brings his king in for mate and all Joseph can do is push pawns or pace the floor with his king.
31... Kb8 32. Rh7 a4 33. Kg5 Kc8 34. Kf6 Kd8 35. Ke6 Ke8 36. Rh8# 1-0