Campagnolo's Draw Clinches the Match

Rhenium Playoff Rd 1. Campagnolo, facing a player 200 points above him, was able to get the draw that gets the team into the Championship match. A very tense exciting complex game.

az2112 draws a much higher rated upponent.

Tellurium Playoff Rd 1. An over 200 point underdog, az2112 got a draw. There was one point in the game he could have taken over and got a winning position.

Rhenium Goes to the Championship Match

Rhenium clinched a match win today and has qualified to play in the Championship match next week! Congratulations to everybody. I'll try to get some games up here soon.

Previous Game, Final Position

Check out the final position. All of us, at some time, get a position like this. White should play b3 here.

Salvatore Draws

Tellurium, Playoff Round 1. Salvatore gets a draw versus his higher rated opponent.

Solution to White to play

3 posts back. It's a self-stalemate. Kh5, the King goes to bed. Then he pulls the covers over him with g4, g5, and g4. Stalemate.

Maartenkoning Wins a Playoff Game

Rhenium Playoff round 1. A really nice game.

Playoffs Underway

After the Sunday games the situation is as follows. Selenium in the U1800 is down .5 - 1.5. They need two wins in the final two games to advance. It's doable. Hcube plays Wednesday and Ivio plays on Sunday Jan 2. For Tellurium in the U2000 we're down 2 - 1. azbycx goes into glorious battle on New Years Day. A win and we advance. Rhenium in the U2200 is ahead 2 - 0. Campagnolo plays Tuesday and AreYouSerious plays on Thursday. Only a draw in those two games is needed. Good Luck everyone.

White to play

You can't catch the pawn. What are you going to do?

AreYouSerious's Dog

Solution to Black to play

About 5 posts back. One of my favorite combinations.

Solution to White to play and win

See the previous post. It doesn't matter what Black plays. White plays Rg7 - Rg8 - Nf7 mate. Simple as that.

White to play and win

1/2 of a Move?

Yes, White was castling. First 1/2 move was Ke1-g1, the second 1/2 move was Rh1-e1 mate.

White to play

No games this weekend so we can have a little fun. How does White mate in 1/2 of a move?

Black to play

The world champion Karpov has just played b6. What do you play as Black?

Campagnolo in Round 6

Rhenium Rd. 6. The last of three victories for Rhenium in round 6.

Miles Finishes With a Win

Niobium Rd 6. Sadly Niobium didn't make the playoffs. Close, one more win would have done it. Miles plays a good endgame here.

AreYouSerious Does It Again

AYS got into some "serious" trouble again but emerged victorious! You may say he was lucky, but not so. He kept making good moves, setting problems for his opponent. Little by little the tide changed and his opponent faltered. Not luck, just good Chess.

Selenium in the Playoffs

Selenium made it in as a wildcard. Three of the four Element teams are in.

Rhenium in the playoffs

Rhenium, in the top U2200 section, clinched the match today and joined the playoffs. Fantastic job everyone.

Tellurium in the Playoffs

Congratulations to the members of Tellurium, we're in the playoffs.

Ivio in Battle

Niobium Round 6. Endgames are important. Win a drawn game. Draw a lost game. How about win a lost game. Some work on endgames will get these these results, and more rating points. Ah, but they're boring. Not so, it is the "truth" in chess. Like math, there is usually only one correct answer. In a middlegame you may consider two moves, say Bc4 or Bb5, both are correct in their own way, and lead to different positions. But in an endgame the choice of moves becomes more crucial. Ke2 will draw, while Kd2 will lose. In this game you will see Ivio has an idea of what to do, he wasn't perfect or anything but had some feel for the endgame. His opponent however, I hate to criticize him, did not have any "feel". A 32 point rating swing. And a win.

Maartenkoning wins quickly

Rhenium Round 6. The Benko expert Maartenkoning shows why it's a great opening.

GOTW Round 5

They made me guru for Game of the Week round 5 and here is my winner. I hate that it's a game versus my teammate. Great stuff by both players. Runner up went to AreYouSerious, see a few posts back.

The Dog Gets a New Toy

Rhenium Round 5. The match is tied at 1.5 each. AreYouSerious gets the win to decide the match in favor of Rhenium.

Campagnolo Wins an Instructive Game

Rhenium Round 5. I was just going to dash off a few notes to show Campagnolo's nice win in round 5 but got intrigued by the endgame. How did he win, could it have been drawn? Instructive stuff here. I invite you to take a look. In he end Campagnolo outplayed his opponent.

After the game Campagnolo said "Whew, scary game"

hcube Gets a Draw

Selenium Round 5

Ivio Swindled

Selenium Round 5. Selenium won 3-1 but it could have been even bigger.

Paulkov wins

Tellurium Round 5

az2112 Draws

Round 5 Tellurium. At this point the match is tied 1.5 to 1.5. az2112 is playing a player with a large rating advantage with the match on the line.

Saturday Results

Seven games played Saturday. Results: 4 wins, 2 draws, and one loss. Very good.

azbycx draws

Round 5 Tellurium.

bshribharath wins

Continuing with Selenium in round 5. bshribharath faces an opponent rated over 300 points above him and he too gets the win.

JeeniousChess wins

Selenium Round 5. Jeenious plays a player rated over 200 points above him and triumphs.

Busy Weekend for Element Teams

Seven games on Saturday and four more on Sunday. I'll post some games here as soon as I can, but I'm busy preparing move 16 novelties for my two opponents right now. Good luck to everyone.