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Openings / New Jersey Open


Openings for Amateurs—


and Grandmasters A look at the fighting openings used at the 2015 New Jersey Open By PETE TAMBURRO


W


e are all used to playing over the grand - master games from super-tournaments or our own national championships, looking for, say, the latest nuance in the Najdorf or Semi-Slav as it is presented to the chess public. You also


see chess players haunt the book stalls at tournaments searching for the latest specialty opening books. Yet most U.S. chess players go their own merry way in state


and local tournaments. They play 1. e4 and 1. d4 in equal numbers. There might be some system or repertoire they play; however, by move 10 most are on their own. They might dream about catching some international master or grandmaster in their specialty opening, but, let’s face it—what are the odds you might actually meet one in a Swiss? The odds have gotten better in New Jersey. We have been


fortunate to come up with a formula for attracting grandmasters to our New Jersey Open so our many young, up-and-coming players get a shot at testing their skills against the big guys. What do we do? We offer them free entry and free accommo-


dations at a luxury hotel in a lovely Morristown that has parks and restaurants to walk to because your car is freely parked for the weekend in the hotel. We even pick you up at the railroad station if you’re arriving that way. The prizes are decent, too. The formula worked at the 2015 event as 10 grandmasters


accepted, and four international masters showed up as well as several FIDE masters. And they fought! The tournament hall gave them a round of applause before the last round in appreciation. When the rest of us were done with our games, we would always wander over and watch their games. Here’s the honored group of grandmasters: Magesh


Panchanathan and Sergei Azarov (the winners) and Alexander Stripunsky, Mackenzie Molner, Arun Prasad Subramanian, Sergey Kudrin, Joel Benjamin, Alex Fishbein, John Fedorowicz and Michael Rohde. Thus, we got an interesting collection of games: grandmaster


versus amateur, grand master versus grandmaster and amateur versus amateur and even coach versus student. Participants got to watch the pros go after each other and quite a few of the players got to experience it right across the board.


28 March 2016 | Chess Life


Grandmaster versus Grandmaster: The Sicilian e6 lines


Many people watched, with rapt attention, the various Sicilian Defenses that were played by the grandmasters from both sides. There are quite a few “e6” Sicilian types, so two grand master battles attracted attention. Alex Stripunsky carried the shield for the e6 lines against two fellow grandmasters.


SICILIAN DEFENSE, KAN VARIATION (B41) GM Mackenzie Molner (2567) GM Alexander Stripunsky (2664) New Jersey Open 2015, Open Section (6), Morristown, New Jersey, 09.07.2015 Notes by Molner.


1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. c4 Bc5 6. Nb3


White has a small edge after 6.


Nc3! d6 (6. ... Qb6 7. Na4 Bb4+ 8. Bd2!) 7. Be2 Nf6 8. 0-0 0-0 9. Nb3 Ba7 10. Qd3.


6. ... Ba7 7. Nc3 Nc6 8. Be2 I was strongly debating this con -


tinuation during the game but didn’t love it. It appears reasonable 8. c5 b6 9. Bf4! bxc5 10. Bd6.


8. ... d6 9. 0-0 e5 10. Qd3


Interesting is 10. Be3 Bxe3 11. fxe3 Nf6. 10. ... Nge7


And, now, Molner played 11.


Rd1. He now prefers 11. Be3. After 49 moves, it was drawn.


Magesh Panchanathan had an - oth er approach: SICILIAN DEFENSE,


KAN VARIATION (B42) GM Magesh Panchanathan (2636) GM Alexander Stripunsky (2664) New Jersey Open 2015, Open Section (4), Morristown, New Jersey, 09.06.2015


1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Bd3 Ne7 6. 0-0 Nbc6 7. Be3 Nxd4 8. Bxd4 Nc6 9. Be3 Be7 10. c4 Bf6 11. Nc3 d6 12. Be2! 0-0 13. Qd2 Qa5 14. a3 Rd8 15. Rfd1 Rb8 16. b4 Qc7 17. Rac1 Ne5 18. Ba7 Ra8 19. Bd4 b6 20. f4 Ng6 21. Bxf6 gxf6 22. f5 Ne5 23. Qh6 Qe7 24. Na4 exf5 25. Nxb6 Bb7 26. Nxa8 Bxa8 27. exf5 Qb7 28. Bf1 Qe4 29. Qxf6 Nf3+ 30. Kh1


It is over after 30. gxf3 Qe3+


31. Kh1 Qxf3+ 32. Kg1 Qe3 mate. 30. ... Re8 31. Qxd6 Qe3 32.


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