Great Game By Jorobo

Tellurium Rd 6. It didn't look like White did anything seriously wrong but suddenly Black was winning. Some very nice tactics by jorobo. The win completed a 3.5 to .5 match win and puts Tellurium on the verge of a playoff birth.

To The Playoffs!

Niobium Rd 6. The deciding game in the match went in Krysto's favor and Niobium qualifies for the playoffs.
A match score of 5 of 6 and a game score of 18 points ( Average of 3 per round!) will get it done! Only one other team of the 29 teams in the U1600 section could finish with a better record.
Great job everybody. Keep it going in the playoffs.

Development

Tellurium Rd 6. CamNewton was way ahead in development and converted it to a winning position.
RCKTPWRD took this picture and says:
"I saw this praying mantis yesterday and thought I could get some neat shots of it. Then I spot this Anole on the wall and watch as it stalks the mantis and eats it!"

Miles On Fire

Niobium Rd 6. A crush from milesotoole. His opponent went bonkers.
Someone wrote a song about Miles O'Toole. You can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRS5341WYC8

Round 6 Games

Tellurium Rd 6. The money round. Teams are trying for playoff positions.
Here's a good win from azbycx.

A Fine Win By Milesotoole

Niobium Rd 5. A little opening mistake left White down a pawn. But after that it was milesotoole completely out playing his opponent to score the point.

Again

Strontium Rd 5. We all blow won games. And we also get some gift wins. You tend not to remember the later but generally it evens out. Strontium is pushing the envelope here and got another victory from a lost position.
What are you going to do? Take it!

Another Win By Elalfer

Strontium Rd 5. A key win got Strontium a draw in the match and clear first place going into the final round.
I really liked the way Elalfer finished his opponent off.

The Bomb

Rhenium Rd 5. A key win by universe got Rhenium a drawn match and a share of the division lead going into the sixth round.
Not much was happening, then the game exploded. Great play by universe.
The picture is the aftermath of Hiroshima.

Well Played By Krysto

Niobium Rd 5. Krysto got an advantage on one side of the board and turned it into a nice win.

Berke Delivers Mate In 11

Niobium Rd 5. A real wipe out. Great tactics by Berke

Epaulet Mate

Strontium Rd 5. Iowa-Archer has now won five straight for Strontium.
Epaulets are those decorations on the shoulders of military men.
The unfortunate Rooks reminded someone of military epaulets and the name stuck.

Round 5 Games

Rubidium Rd 5. otib2006 got Rubidium off to a good start to round 5. He was quite lost but managed a Knight fork to turn the tables. Happens all the time.

flyingpawns Wins

Niobium Rd 4. The final game of Niobium's great 3.5 to .5 victory in round 4.
I was trying to come up with some comments on the game but came to the conclusion it was just bad. Too many mistakes. It looked like both players were off form. Also part of the problem was that Black was playing too fast. flyingpawns did play better in the end. So here's the game with just the !'s and ?'s.

A Good Win By Elalfer

Rubidium Rd 4. White's pieces got uncoordinated and Elalfer nicely took advantage. Good play.

The Wizard Of Oz

Rubidium Rd 4. Krysto made some nice moves. Good win.

FlyingTiger Wins

Niobium Rd 4. FlyingTiger made it look easy

The Miracle Concluded

Strontium Rd 4. Here's Iowa-Archer shooting a brown deer.
A few posts back I showed the miracle saves being made by Strontium in round 4. In the final game of the match we see more of the same. In what could have been an 0-4 loss turned into a match win.

CamNewton Scores

Tellurium Rd 3. A passed pawn on d5 blockaded. CamNewton breaks the blockade and shoves the pawn forward with great effect.

A Positional Gem

Rhenium Rd 3. Great positional play followed by stellar endgame play by BadHabitMarco. Rhenium takes the lead in their division.

Great Game By TerryMalloy

Rhenium Rd 3. TerryMalloy shows the power of the two Bishops.

Good Win By jorobo

Tellurium Rd 3. jorobo outplayed his opponent.

Three Miracles For Strontium

Strontium Rd 4. Once in a while you'll see a miracle save of a lost game. But three in a row from the same team in the same round. First was Milesotoole

Later in the same game we got to this position.

Then it was time for burnsy.

Lee-D also found himself busted.

The team did a lot better than the driver of that car. They can even win the match.

Good Win By Campagnolo

Rhenium Rd 3. Campagnolo kept adding little advantages until they added up to a win. Good game.

A Fine Win By FlyingTiger

Niobium Rd 3. FlyingTiger made some speculative moves, super hard to meet by by his opponent. The result was a very nice win. Niobium thus won the match.

Iowa-Archer Gets An Easy Win

Strontium Rd 3. Iowa-Archer tried a little Knight fork trick and his opponent either wasn't aware of the harmless move or panicked.

A Brilliant Attack.

Strontium Rd 4. This is great stuff. milesotoole sacrifices the house to deliver mate. The game is from the U1400 section amazingly. White played like Tal. aww-rats, the GOTW guru, posted a video on the game at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aKRFG_7oIs