GM Varuzhan Akobian (STL) wins Week 2 Game of the Week

GM Akobian’s two strong wins have been key to the Arch Bishops starting the season 2-0, and his win this week against an 2013 All Star who was key towards Miami’s Championship run, GM Gonzalez, has netted him the top game honors for Week 2.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

1st Place: GM Varuzhan Akobian (STL) vs GM Renier Gonzalez (MIA) 1-0

 

With the somewhat unusual looking 29. h4!, GM Akobian maintained a strong bind on the Kingside which he soon used to devastating effect

 
 

FM Eugene Yanayt (1st Place, 5 Points): Black’s position made me sad; White did an excellent job preventing all counterplay. g5 and f5 always faced dire consequences on the light squares so Black could never get anything going. This game is a good illustration why the Czech Benoni is seldom seen at the top level. Nothing flashy in this one, what impressed most was White’s patience.

 

FM Alex Barnett (1st Place, 5 Points): Poor Czech Benoni. Everyone who is good these days says the Benoni sucks so I guess a worse version of it is even worse lol. But seriously though, this game just goes to show how strong 2750s are … it’s tight how I thought Black was chillin around move 15 or whatever when he was hollering at the dark squares, but then Akobian was just like oh nah sorry sir … your position is actually hurt, then he showed him why with the simple a4-a5, Na4, and b4 plan while Black was still scrambling to coordinate. Legit by White. Poor Czech Benoni.

 

IM Salvijus Bercys (1st Place, 5 Points): At first, I thought Black had to misplay the game because the Knight on e5 is a dream come true. Then I realized it wasn’t so easy. Now, without computer evaluation it’s hard to tell what Black should do but 15… h6 is a mistake. 15… g5! by Black has to be aggressive to try to unravel followed by 16… h5 and Nh6 ideas fighting for the weakness that is caused by 15… g5.

White’s mastery of the game after the 15… h6? is a very nice intro to “How to smother your opponent 101”.

 

FM Jason Doss (1st Place, 5 Points): This is the type of game I wish I could get against the Benoni. It’s a very nice positional squeeze by Akobian. He kept counter-play to a minimum and just kept tightening the screws. Black never seemed to have any breaks whilst his pieces stumbled over each other. The entire plan of h4-Bg4-Bh3-g3-Kg2 really made me smile for some weird reason.

 

IM Greg Shahade (3rd Place, 3 Points): A nice positional crush from Akobian, but again not an interesting enough game to be considered for Game of the Week in a crowd of such distinguished players. 22… Nf6, allowing 23. Bxe5 was the nail in the coffin for Gonzalez. Sorry I’m such a downer, but while some of these games were played well, they just weren’t especially inspiring to me.

 
 

Total score of Akobian vs Gonzalez: 23 Points

 

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2nd Place: IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat (BAL) vs IM Kassa Korley (CAR) 0-1

 

With 29… e3!, IM Korley managed to convert the notoriously drawish seeming opposite colored Bishop ending, helping give his team a big win

 
 

IM Greg Shahade (1st Place, 5 Points): Do I really think Black should have won this endgame? Not really, but it turns out to be not as easy to defend as it originally looked to me. For being able to grind out a Bishop of opposite ending like this and putting the exclamation point on Carolina’s win, I’ve gotta give this the first place spot. Carolina is definitely happy to have Kassa Korley back in the lineup in 2014.

 

FM Eugene Yanayt (2nd Place, 4 Points): You don’t see a novelty on move seven in the Catalan every day, and it seemed to work perfectly as Black quickly equalized. After finding himself worse, it seemed resourceful of White to find a simplification into a theoretically drawn opposite colored Bishop endgame, but not all theoretically drawn positions are created equal. Black played very well in the endgame.

 

FM Alex Barnett (2nd Place, 4 Points): Lol my man Kassa Korley knows I hate watching his little passive aggressive style winning, and that’s why I couldn’t bring myself rank this game first. Lol jk dude. This game was right, I mean he just chilled and put his Knight on a5 and then go back to c6 to induce Enkhbat to over extend and then traded all the pieces and won in an endgame. I’m obv hating and over simplifying or whatever, but yeah solid win over a super solid opponent with Black. Can’t believe you beat my teammate with the chill + trade all style. Grrrr. Nice game though dude

 

IM Salvijus Bercys (3rd Place, 3 Points): Why do I feel like this game was just prep vs prep with Black winning out on it? Good endgame technique in a boring game against a lackadaisical opponent.

 

FM Jason Doss (5th Place, 1 Point): Opening to endgame in just a few moves. Hard to believe this shouldn’t have been drawn at some point. Opposite colored Bishop-endgames are all drawn right? Nothing to see here folks, move along … Zzzzzzzzz

 
 

Total score of Enkhbat vs Korley: 17 Points

 

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3rd Place: GM Andrey Stukopin (RIO) vs FM Konstantin Kavutskiy (LA) 1-0

 

With 41. Ra4!, White’s unusual tripled Pawns proved to be a strength as he soon promoted the lead one enroute to the first match victory for the expansion team Ospreys

 
 

IM Greg Shahade (2nd Place, 4 Points): Stukopin played a nice game from beginning to end, resulting in a win for the Ospreys. Do I think it’s an amazing game worthy of Game of the Week? Definitely not, but the competition I’m given isn’t amazing this week so it gets a high ranking anyway.

 

FM Eugene Yanayt (3rd Place, 3 Points): Once Black failed to quickly set up to pressure the d-pawn right out of the opening and made the mistake of allowing White the protected passer on d5, White played accurately and steamrolled, even after Black got active play with 21… b5. Of course leave it to the GM to turn his tripled pawns into a juggernaut with the rear pawn defending, the middle pawn blocking, and the front pawn promoting!

 

FM Alex Barnett (3rd Place, 3 Points): Damn I don’t even know exactly where Black went wrong here. Maybe if I were a washed up GM like that Yermo dude I would put it on the engine and quote Houdini and pretend to know what I’m talking about but anyway yeah it just looks like Black was trying to chill but his ideas weren’t positionally unsound or whatever I mean is he just worse after Nd5-c7? That looks like the point when White started having the initiative. Ugh I was totally rooting for Black to win this game after his attempts to fresh it up with g5 and b5, but 2600s are just too good to beat like that. Sorry Mr. Kavutskiy

 

IM Salvijus Bercys (4th Place, 2 Points): This game was just mediocre and boring both at once. How does Black not equalize after 2. Bc4? Why does White play 1. e4 and then 2. Bc4? Who has four pieces on the back rank on move 17? I can’t tell if White won this game, or if Black never showed up.

 

FM Jason Doss (4th Place, 2 Points): I found this game entertaining, but I also felt like it was a bit absurd and messy. Black seemed to do an excellent job taking away all opening edge White possessed. Then he just sort of seems to lose his way with some odd Knight moves and gives White the center with a ton of space. There is a nice end-game motif at the end with the tripled b-pawns that can be instructive.

 
 

Total score of Stukopin vs Kavutskiy: 14 Points

 

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4th Place: GM Mackenzie Molner (ARZ) vs GM Julio Sadorra (DAL) 0-1

 

With 41… Rxd4!, GM Sadorra snared an extra Pawn that he skilfully converted in a tricky ending leading to a dominating win for the Dallas team

 
 

IM Salvijus Bercys (2nd Place, 4 Points): I love dissecting Julio’s games when he wins … unless his opponent just self-destructs. It looks like Mac overestimated his attack against two Bishops with a solid pawn structure, and paid the price when the position calmed down a bit. Solid defensive effort by Black, loss of reality for White. If other games were better, I wouldn’t rank this game second. But other games…

 

FM Jason Doss (2nd Place, 4 Points): Once again Sadorra convinces me he is a magician. Mac played the opening and early middle game wonderfully. He grips the center with near pristine piece placement including a fantastic anchored down Knight on e5. After Mac misses the smash with 31. Nxd6, he very slowly loses his edge and somehow manages to give Black a nugget of hope. Sadorra then brilliantly does what he does so well and generates play out of nowhere.

 

FM Eugene Yanayt (4th Place, 2 Points): Once Black conceded the a2-g8 diagonal to White’s light squared Bishop, White appeared to have a big advantage and perhaps thought the game was in the bag. But after missing 31. Nxd6 cxd6 32. Nd7 Rfe8 33. g5 the position became a bit tricky - the most natural path White chose to open up the g-file failed tactically, while keeping the tension may have seemed daunting (but would have retained a nice advantage) due to potential problems with the d-pawn. Black did a nice job punishing White’s mistakes and showed excellent technique in the endgame.

 

IM Greg Shahade (4th Place, 2 Points): 34. gxh6 is horrible, relieving the tension, taking away the f6 square from his own Knight. While Sadorra played fine, this felt more self inflicted than anything, perhaps due to a desperate match situation.

 

FM Alex Barnett (5th Place, 1 Point): Maccccccc Molner! I’m still mad you play 1. d4 homie! It’s all good though, the true Mac showed through when he declined the Nd7 repetition and went 30. g4! I was feeling it but sucks that it didn’t work this time. Anyway yeah, Mac was just having an off day, any other day it would have been GG for Sadorra.

 
 

Total score of Molner vs Sadorra: 13 Points

 

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5th Place: FM Pedram Atoufi (ARZ) vs NM Francisco Guadalupe II (DAL) 0-1

 

With 23… Bd6!, NM Guadalupe nicely consolidated his position despite his King’s central placement, after which he strongly converted his material advantage

 
 

FM Jason Doss (3rd Place, 3 Points): It is difficult to judge this game because I feel like Atoufi just blundered early. The biggest shame here was the opportunity for a really fun game after 18. Qh4 dxe3 19. Nh7+, sacrificing the Queen for an interesting material and positional imbalance. Guadalupe let some opportunities slip but still managed to put the ball in the bucket.

 

FM Alex Barnett (4th Place, 2 Points): I love the way Guadalupe played this game. This game illustrates that old school principle about how in order for an attack to be successful you gotta have control over the center. Now this might be like 20 billion moves of theory and the USCL video people like that Yermo dude can flame me like they love to do but whatever. But I think the whole Ng5 plan is hurt. He shoulda just went Bf4 or something. The way Black handled the coffeehouse attack was legit too. He was just like oh word free material lemme get those two pieces for a rook real quick. Lol then like three moves later after Re2 it was Black who was attacking and with a material lead thanks to White. Basically this game White went for a street hustler attack and got hurt. Black remained calm and won easily with the material his opponent so kindly hooked him up with.

 

FM Eugene Yanayt (5th Place, 1 Point): Entertaining game! It looks like White had the right idea with 15. Ng5 but couldn’t get through the complications. Retreating the Queen with everything hanging was definitely not an easy decision to make, especially when taking the Rook deceptively kept material even and pushed Black’s King to the center. I liked Black’s practical technique putting his minors on d6 and e6 to make sure his King was safe in the center.

 

IM Salvijus Bercys (5th Place, 1 Point): I don’t really know what to say. White gave up two pieces for a Rook and then lost. Unless I am missing something big, just solid technique by Black after dubious play by White. White probably missed that 15… Rxe5 holds everything after 16… Qf6.

 

IM Greg Shahade (5th Place, 1 Point): The game was complicated and White blundered with 18. Bxd4, after which black is completely winning. Instead 18. Qh4 or something like this seems just fine for White.

 
 

Total score of Atoufi vs Guadalupe II: 8 Points