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1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 c5 I was not afraid of the London system.


For a game I had to win to claim the national championship, the London Sys- tem was definitely not in my wish list of openings either. I decided to play aggres- sively anyway.


3. c3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Qb6 5. Qc1 Nc6 6. e3 Bf5 7. Nbd2 e6 8. Be2 cxd4 9. exd4 h6


I was trying to play for a win so I would like to keep my white bishop.


10. 0-0 Be7 11. Ne5 Nxe5 12. Bxe5 0-0 13. Nf3 Ne4 14. Nd2 Nxd2 15. Qxd2 Bg5 16. Bf4?


I expected f2-f4 but I got the “better”


one. 16. ... Bxf4 17. Qxf4 Qxb2 I got one pawn!


18. Qe3 Rfc8 19. Rfc1 Rc7 20. g4 Bg6 21. Bd3 Rxc3


I got another pawn!


22. Rxc3 Qxc3 23. Rd1 Bxd3 24. Qxd3 I was thinking of a variation like 24.


Rxd3 Qa1+ 25. Kg2 Rc8 when I have two extra pawns and better pieces.


24. ... Qxd3 25. Rxd3 Rc8 26. Rb3 b6 27. Ra3 a5 28. Rb3 Rc4 29. Rd3 b5 30. Rd2 b4 31. Kf1 Kf8 32. Ke2 a4 33. f4 Ke7 34. h4 Rc3


Black plans ... b4-b3.


35. Rb2 b3 36. a3 Rh3 37. Kd2 Rh2+ There’re many ways to win in this posi-


tion and I just transferred it to a simple king and pawn endgame.


38. Kc3 Rxb2 39. Kxb2 Kf6 40. Kc3 h5!


-+-+-+-+ +-+-+pzp- -+-+pmk-+ +-+p+-+p p+-zP-zPPzP zPpmK-+-+- -+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-


After 40. ... h5 A forced end to the game.


41. f5 hxg4 42. fxe6 Kxe6 43. h5 g3 44. h6 gxh6 45. Kb2 g2 46. Kc3 g1=Q 47. Kb4 Qxd4+ 48. Ka5 Qc5+ 49. Kxa4 b2 50. Kb3 b1=Q+ 51. Ka4 Qcb5 mate.


Ruth Haring, president of the United


States Chess Federation, attended the All-Girls National Championships as part of her ongoing effort to increase chess participation among girls.


uschess.org


She said the overall increase in rating


strength of the players was to be expected, just as many players improve, consolidate what they’ve learned, then improve more to earn a higher rating. “Chess is a game where if you have a


little bit of talent and you’re willing to work hard, you can get really good,” Har- ing said. “When you see these young people achieve great things in chess, they have good support from their parents and their trainers.” Haring said she was particularly


impressed with the quality of play she observed at the All-Girls National Cham- pionships. “Everybody was working hard,” Har-


ing said. “There were people playing games out until it was king versus king. It was very, very tough fights. “Nobody was agreeing to a quick draw.


That’s a tribute to the fighting spirit. If there’s any chance to win, these girls were playing. If there was a glimmer of a chance to win, they were going to play to the very end.” Indeed, this writer saw two girls in the


8 and younger section play to a draw in a game where there was nothing left but kings and four or five pawns each. Afterward, they did what most grand- masters (GMs) do after they agree to a draw in a complicated position—they started going over their endgame to see what would have happened had they con- tinued to play. Somewhat disturbingly—even though


there wasn’t a soul around them that they were bothering because all the games in their section had been completed—a TD disrupted the girls’ post-game analysis and ordered them to get up and promptly report their scores. In all the tourna- ments I’ve ever covered, I’ve never seen a TD treat GMs in such a way. In fairness, the TD told the girls they


were free to go over their games outside the tournament hall, but once the girls got up, various forces pulled them in differ- ent directions, and they never got to fully explore what would have happened had they played on, thus losing out on a potentially valuable endgame lesson. Maybe they’ll have to be GMs to get a little more respect. Haring is optimistic that GM status is


within reach of at least some of the girls who played in the All-Girls National Chess Championships. “I’m hoping we get a handful of super-


stars out of this tournament,” Haring said in an interview in the tournament hall after taking customary pictures with the trophy-winning girls. “That would be great for all girls,” Har-


ing said. “Our future grandmaster or woman grandmaster might have been in this room today.”


.


KCF All-Girls National Championship At A Glance


Date: April 20-22, 2012 Location: Swissotel, Chicago, Illinois


Top Individual Finishers: 18 and younger: 1st, 5: Anupama Rajendra; 2nd-6th, 41


⁄2 : Anna


Matlin, Rachel Gologorsky, Maggie Feng, Linda Diaz, Eszter Morvay; 16 and younger: 1st, 51 Poteat; 2nd, 41


⁄2 ⁄2 : Lilia : Jessica Regam;


14 and younger: 1st-2nd, 5: Joie Wang, Apurva Virkud; 12 and younger: 1st, 51


⁄2 : Ashritha


Eswaran; 2nd-3rd, 5: Sangeeta Dhingra, Anjali Toly; 10 and younger: 1st-2nd, 51


⁄2 ⁄2 : Ramitha


Ravishankar, Jennifer Yu); 8 and younger: 1st, 51


: Maggie Ni; 2nd-


7th, 5: Naomi Bashkansky, Elizabeth Miller, Zhiya Wang, Iris Zhou, Kayla Liebeskind, Sadie Edelman).


Top Team Finishers: 18 and younger: 1st, 81


⁄2 ⁄2 : Homer Hanna


High School (Ivana Santos, Kath- leen Prebbble, Lauren Rogers); 2nd, 61


: De La Salle (Samantha


Tobias, Sandra Tobias, Melody Chang); 16 and younger: 1st, 111


⁄2 :


: Bull Run Elementary (Maggie Luo, Neha Pattanaik, Varsha Venkatesh); 2nd, 12: Weibel (Serafina Show, Anvi Surapaneni, Desiree Ho); 8 and younger: 1st, 91


⁄2


: Greenwich Academy (Helena Servin-Demarrais, Ashley Aufderheide, Alexa Nakanishi, Charlotte Gaudet); 2nd, 9: PS 116 (Chloe Cohen, Juliette Moreland, Cholene Kramer). Chief Tournament Director: Glenn Panner


⁄2 Chess Life — July 2012 31


I.S. 318 (Maya McGreen, Mariah McGreen, Anita Maksimiuk, Yuxin Zhuo); 2nd, 11: Hunter College Campus School (Lilia Poteat, Sophia Flanagan, Julia Katz);14 and younger: 1st, 4: I.S. 318 (Shanniah Wright, Haby Diallo, Edeli Cuate); 2nd-3rd, 5: Rocky Run Middle (Joie Wang), Baker Middle School (Apurva Virkud); 12 and younger: 1st, 12: Hunter College Campus School (Jane Zhang, Florizelle Songco, Chloe Berg); 2nd, Greenwich Academy (Drew Korn, Hunter Korn, Kaitlin Ganshaw); 10 and younger: 1st, 121


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