Three Element Teams In The U2000 Playoffs

Bohrium, Tellurium, and Technetium have all qualified for the playoffs in the U2000 section.
Three of the eight teams, quite an accomplishment. Wish them all good luck.

Tellurium In The Playoffs

Tellurium Rd 6. White made a couple of mistakes and livis took advantage. This was the decisive game of this match which got Tellurium in the playoffs.

LittleWarrior Wins A Nice Game

Bohrium Rd 6. This was a very interesting game. LittleWarrior makes an exchange sac on move 13. A true sacrifice as he doesn't get any material back, just a lot of pressure. Too much pressure for his opponent.

Niobium To The Playoffs

Niobium Rd 6. To continue Niobium's playoff quest. Down 0-1 Krysto got a win. Then in the third game to be played Salvatore got a forfeit win. How could this happen. So it's 2-1 in favor of Niobium. Niobium needs just a draw to go to the playoffs. Their opponents need a win to advance. In the final position it is a dead draw but White has to continue, maybe something will happen. Instead he agrees to a draw. Here's the game.

The Magician Ivio

Niobium Rd 6. Niobium needs to win the match to get to the playoffs. Their opponents need just to draw. And the situation before this game was 0-1. A must game for Niobium. I usually can't watch games while at work but the boss had left and I had to take a look. And what I first saw didn't look promising. Let's see how Ivio turned the game around and got a key win.

A Poisoned Pawn

Caesium Rd 6. Black took a pawn and had to regret it. Campagnolo, with a series of strong moves, sweep his opponent off the board. Real good play. Does anyone know who this monument is for?

Strontium To The Playoffs

Strontium Rd 6. In Rook endgames you need to get your Rook active. Miles did that. His opponent had a couple of chances to activate his Rook but didn't. Miles got a good win.

Lee-D Wins Another

Strontium Rd 5. A great tournament by Lee-D, 5 wins and a draw.

room-matt Wins

Technetium Rd 5. A really fine game by room-matt.

Brilliant

Strontium Rd 5. A great attack executed flawlessly by Milesotoole. aww-rats, the Game of the Week guru for this week made a Youtube video of the game. You can see it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViAoJjKu3vc

Salvatore Gets An Important Point

Niobium Rd 5. A very fine game by Salvatore. He got the advantage and turned the screws.

Missing The Threat

Technetium Rd 5. A quick win by cesaralexander

Elalfer Wins

Rubidium Rd 5. A solid win by Elalfer. He's having a good tournament.

White Wins

If you don't see the winning idea fairly quickly you've identified an endgame principle you need work on.

Lee-D Wins Again

Strontium Rd 5. Nicely done by Lee-D

upsan Victorious

Bohrium Rd 5. A couple of mistakes were punished by upsan.

S(tuff) Happens

Selenium Rd 5. Totally busted. But a grave error by White let toukon take the point.

bshribharath Wins

Selenium Rd 5. Very good game from bshribharath

Battling Back

Selenium Rd 4. When you go down material or get a bad position there is no need to panic, lash out and make things worse. Just play good moves and make your opponent win it. Maybe he will make a mistake. Sirian does just that exactly and came away with the win.

Milesotoole Gets The Win

Strontium Rd 4. Miesotoole plays a good endgame.

Blockade

Niobium Rd 4. Berke took some time on his moves and overcame his opponent. It might look like a mismatch rating wise but the guy was playing very well. Very good play by Berke. The game completed a 4-0 match win.

Ivio With The Win

Niobium Rd 4. It was very even. But Ivio understood what was "really" going on.

Battling Back

Technetium Rd 4. room-matt got into some trouble in this game but kept making good moves and got a nice win.

Excellent Play From az2112

Tellurium Rd 4. az2112 played very fine positional chess in this game.

Impressive Game By LittleWarrior

Bohrium Rd 4. From move 28 on LittleWarrior played like a Grandmaster.

Caesium Rd 4. As soon as Black castled long you knew something bad had to happen. BadHabitMarco shows how to punish this.

Salvatore Gets The Win

Niobium Rd 4. White resigned early but Salvatore had a much better position anyway.

futureGM On The Attack

Bohrium Rd 4. A real nice attack.

ben622 Wins A Nice One

Technetium Rd 4. ben622 outplays his opponent.

Krysto Gets Revenge.

Niobium Rd 4. Good game by Krysto.

Berke Scores A Point

Rubidium Rd 4. Berke won "quickly".

Round 4 Games

Rubidium Rd 4. The game swung back and forth. In the end otib2006 had played better.

Mikesotoole Wins

Strontium Rd 3. The draw got a drawn match. A theoretical battle in a popular variation.

Sirian Gets The Win

Selenium Rd 3. Sirian got himself in a mess this game but kept battling, presenting problems for his opponent. Because of this White really fell apart in the endgame. White's game fell off the tracks. A 4-0 sweep by Selenium.

Paulkov Wins

Rhenium Rd 3. Rhenium had a great result in round 3, winning 3.5 to .5

Worth A Close Look

Bohrium Rd 3. One after another, great moves by LittleWarrior. I will make this game a lesson plan for a student.

Another TouchDown

Tellurium Rd 3. A nice win by CamNewton, lots of tactics. Am I wearing the pun out?

ben622 Gets The Win

Technetium Rd 3. With unbalanced material it's sometimes hard to see who is doing better. One solution is to play good moves and it becomes clear.

bshribharath Wins

Selenium Rd 3. A little trick got bshribharath the point. Selenium leads the match 3-0.

Impressive Win By jorobo

Tellurium Rd 3. jorobo outplayed one of the best players in the league, Chatica, 2311 league rating. And for half the game he was playing on the increment. Really great stuff.

How To Win In 9 Moves

Rhenium Rd 3. DARKwizard1 shows us how. His opponent helped.

AntMantis Devours His Opponent

Selenium Rd 3. Mantises are exclusively predatory. They will only eat meat that they have caught themselves. Insects form the primary diet, but larger species have been known to prey on Chess players.

Lee-D Wins Yet Again

Strontium Rd 3. Lee-D goes to 3-0 for Strontium.

Ivio Wins Again

Niobium Rd 2. Black opened up the position to Ivio's favor.

Toukon Wins

Selenium Rd 3. Some missed moves in the endgame but toukon played it better than his higher rated opponent.

Great Attack By King-Ghost

Bohrium Rd 2. The deciding game in the match. A very fine attack by King-Ghost made the score 3-1 in Bohrium's favor.

Good Game From milesotoole

Niobium Rd 2. Black made some mistakes. milesotoole really showed how to punish those mistakes.

Ivio Wins

Niobium Rd 2. Ivio has an ability to win completely lost games. Here he keeps setting problems that his opponent can't figure out. It should be a draw in the end though.