Bill Smith Open Round 1 - Chen the Going Gets Tough
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7/10/2012
Cory Chen (far) in his win over John Anderson.
The Bill Smith Open got under way last night with a slightly disappointing turnout given how many people played in the previous tournament, the McGuire Open. The summer usually brings a large increase in the
number of players but there were only four experts who played in round 1 last night, probably the club's lowest number for some time. We do have a few more players scheduled to join in later rounds, including
one or two experts, so things can only get better!
Top board featured Mike Carlson (2081) against Bertram Buggs (1636). Carlson hadn't played in Arcadia for a while, so this was a welcome return, particularly as he is a strong player. Carlson had the white
pieces and won fairly quickly.
Matthew Hayes (2051) was surprised to be as high as board 2 given that he lost rating points in the last tournament, but the low turnout of experts helped to elevate his board number. He took on Edward Wu (1573)
with the black pieces and, although white battled valiantly, Wu was forced to resign when faced with being mated or losing his queen.
On board 3, David Argall (2000) defeated Justin Chang (1558). Argall, who had white, certainly couldn't take Chang for granted after he had such an impressive tournament last time around. However, this time the
expert player proved too strong and the game finished quite quickly.
On board 4, Tim Deng (1548) had a sensational win over expert Dane Hinrichsen (2000). Deng, playing white, had a dangerous attack against black's semi-exposed king, and this eventually proved decisive. This is one of
Deng's best ever wins in Arcadia.
Deng's win wasn't the only shock result in round 1. Cory Chen (1514), no stranger to the odd upset win, defeated John Anderson (1944), quite a shock given that Anderson finished in outright second place in the last tournament.
The upsets continued as Steven Niles (1562) beat out Tim Thompson (1926) with the white pieces, a game that Thompson looked to have under control until the blunders took their toll and allowed Niles to seal a memorable win.
Anthony Ge (1432) had a wonderful victory over Bill Kiplinger (1809), and with black to boot. Kiplinger looked to have a good position but got lost in the weeds as the tactics flowed. Finally, Mark Self (1329) was in David King's
(1796) grill all night long, his pieces swarming around black's king who wasn't aided by the three pieces black hadn't yet developed. King's king (yes, really) was finally exposed and the inevitable defeat came swiftly afterwards.
The Bill Smith Open will continue Monday, July 16.
