2019 Summer Classic Begins in STL

The 2019 Summer Chess Classic kicked off yesterday in Saint Louis. Hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club, the Summer Classic is part of a quarterly series of events designed to give young and emerging Grandmasters from around the world the ability to compete in high-level round robins. This edition of the Summer Classic features three separate tournaments. The A, B, and C groups are all six-person double round-robins, and each group will be contested from June 18-28. The time control is 40 moves in 90 minutes, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, and an increment of 30 seconds is added on every move. No draws can be agreed before move 30. The total prize fund for the three tournaments is a cool $75,000. The Fields A Group

Howell, David W L	2692
Jones, Gawain C B	2709
Le, Quang Liem	2694
Shankland, Sam	2717
Swiercz, Dariusz	2667
Xiong, Jeffery	2684

  B Group

Gabuzyan, Hovhannes	2619
Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	2642
Fridman, Daniel	2644
Kovalenko, Igor	2651
Oparin, Grigoriy	2644
Sevian, Samuel	2677

  C Group

Chirila, Ioan-Cristian	2561
Gordievsky, Dmitry	2592
Hakobyan, Aram	2559
Jacobson, Brandon	2486
Moradiabadi, Elshan	2548
Neiksans, Arturs	2566

  Round 1 After an organizational meeting at noon, the players got right to work with Tuesday’s first round of play. All of the sections had the same result – two draws, one decisive game. A Group Swiercz and Liem Le drew by repetition in 27 moves, while Jones and Xiong took a bit longer (48 moves total) to reach the same result. David Howell drew the first blood in the A Group, defeating Sam Shankland in a long endgame.

[pgn]

[Event "Summer Chess Classic - A Group"]
[Date "2019.06.18"]
[Round "1.2"]
[White "Shankland, Sam"]
[Black "Howell, David W L"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C67"]
[WhiteElo "2717"]
[BlackElo "2692"]
[Annotator "Hartmann,John"]
[PlyCount "170"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
[WhiteTeam "United States"]
[BlackTeam "England"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "USA"]
[BlackTeamCountry "ENG"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. dxe5 Nf5
8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. h3 Bd7 10. Rd1 Kc8 11. g4 Ne7 12. Ng5 Be8 13. f4 h6 14. Ne4 b6
15. c4 h5 16. Kf2 Ng6 17. Nbc3 Be7 18. b3 (18. Kg3 f6 19. e6 f5 20. gxf5 Nh4
21. f6 Nf5+ 22. Kf3 gxf6 {1-0 (63) Kryvoruchko,Y (2706)-Najer,E (2634) Czechia
2015}) 18... Bd7 19. Kg3 Bh4+ 20. Kf3 Be7 21. Nf2 (21. Kg3 Bh4+ 22. Kf3 Be7 $11
) 21... hxg4+ 22. hxg4 f5 23. exf6 Bxf6 24. Bb2 c5 25. Rd2 Rf8 26. f5 Nh4+ 27.
Kg3 Be5+ 28. Kxh4 Bf4 29. Kh3 Bxd2 30. Nce4 (30. Nd5 Bh6 31. Re1 $13) 30... Bh6
$17 31. Rd1 Bc6 32. g5 Rxf5 33. gxh6 gxh6 34. Kg4 Rf7 35. Nf6 Kb7 36. Rd2 Rg7+
37. Kf4 Rg2 38. Be5 Rf8 39. Ke3 Rg5 40. Kf4 Rg2 41. Ke3 h5 42. Nd3 Rxd2 43.
Kxd2 h4 44. Nf4 Rh8 45. Ng4 Re8 46. Bf6 Re4 47. Bg5 h3 48. Nh2 Bd7 49. Ne2 Bf5
50. Be3 Re8 51. Nf4 Bb1 52. Nf1 Bxa2 53. Nxh3 Bxb3 54. Kc3 Bd1 55. Nf4 a5 56.
Bc1 Bg4 57. Ne3 Be6 58. Nd3 Rh8 59. Ba3 Rh3 60. Kd2 Rh2+ 61. Kc3 Rh3 62. Kd2
Bg8 63. Bc1 Bh7 64. Nf4 Rh4 65. Ne2 c6 66. Ba3 Ka6 67. Kc3 Re4 68. Kd2 Re8 69.
Nc1 Bg6 70. Ng4 Re4 71. Ne3 Rh4 72. Ne2 Bh7 73. Nc1 Rd4+ 74. Kc3 Kb7 75. Nf1
Kc7 76. Nd2 Rh4 77. Kb2 Rh2 78. Kc3 Rh3+ 79. Kb2 Rh2 80. Kc3 Kd6 81. Ncb3 Rh3+
82. Kb2 Rh2 83. Kc1 Rh4 84. Kb2 a4 85. Nf3 Rxc4 0-1

[/pgn]

B Group Oparin and Gabuzyan drew in 77 moves, while Sevian missed a win in a desperately unbalanced endgame against Fridman.

[pgn]

[Event "Summer Chess Classic - B Group"]
[Date "2019.06.18"]
[Round "1.1"]
[White "Sevian, Samuel"]
[Black "Fridman, Daniel"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C42"]
[WhiteElo "2677"]
[BlackElo "2644"]
[Annotator "Hartmann,John"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "6k1/1r4p1/7p/4P2P/PbR3P1/1P6/K1P5/8 b - - 0 37"]
[PlyCount "35"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
[WhiteTeam "United States"]
[BlackTeam "Germany"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "USA"]
[BlackTeamCountry "GER"]

37... Kf7 38. c3 Ba5 39. b4 Bc7 40. Kb3 Ke6 41. Rc6+ Kxe5 42. a5 Kd5 43.
Ra6 Bf4 44. c4+ Kd4 45. Re6 Bd2 $2 (45... Rc7) 46. Rd6+ Ke3 47. Rxd2 Kxd2 48.
a6 $2 (48. b5 $1 Ra7 49. b6 Rxa5 50. b7 Ra1 51. Kb2 $18) 48... Ra7 49. b5 Kd3
50. c5 Kd4 51. b6 Rxa6 52. b7 Kxc5 53. b8=Q Rb6+ 54. Qxb6+ Kxb6 1/2-1/2

[/pgn]

Ganguly’s choice of the Exchange Caro-Kann proved inspired against Kovalenko, and he took the full point after Kovalenko went astray right before the time control.

[pgn]

[Event "Summer Chess Classic - B Group"]
[Date "2019.06.18"]
[Round "1.3"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Kovalenko, Igor"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B13"]
[WhiteElo "2642"]
[BlackElo "2651"]
[PlyCount "97"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
[WhiteTeam "India"]
[BlackTeam "Latvia"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "IND"]
[BlackTeamCountry "LAT"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nc6 5. c3 Nf6 6. Bf4 Bg4 7. Qb3 Qd7 8.
Nd2 e6 9. Ngf3 Bd6 10. Bxd6 Qxd6 11. O-O O-O 12. Rfe1 Bxf3 13. Nxf3 Rab8 14.
Qd1 Qf4 15. Qe2 a6 16. a3 Nd7 17. Qc2 g6 18. Re3 Rfe8 19. Rae1 b5 20. g3 Qf6
21. Qe2 Nb6 22. b4 Rbc8 23. h4 Re7 24. Nh2 Qg7 25. h5 Nd8 26. Qd2 Rec7 27. hxg6
hxg6 28. Rc1 Qh8 29. Kg2 Qg7 30. Ng4 Nd7 31. a4 bxa4 32. Bxa6 Ra8 33. b5 Nb8
34. Ra1 Nxa6 35. Rxa4 Rca7 36. bxa6 Rxa6 37. Rxa6 Rxa6 38. Re1 g5 39. Qb2 Ra8
40. Qb5 Qf8 41. Rh1 Qe7 42. Ne5 Ra7 43. Qb1 Qf6 44. Qh7+ Kf8 45. Rh6 Qg7 46.
Qh8+ Qxh8 47. Rxh8+ Ke7 48. Rxd8 Rc7 49. Rg8 1-0

[/pgn]

C Group Brandon Jacobson, the only IM in the whole of the Summer Classic, got on the board early with his 26 move win over Cristian Chirila. The game featured a topical line in the Grunfeld, something that Chirila specializes in, and he was holding firm against Jacobson’s obvious pressure before a tough mistake did him in.

[pgn]

[Event "Summer Chess Classic - C Group"]
[Date "2019.06.18"]
[Round "1.1"]
[White "Jacobson, Brandon"]
[Black "Chirila, Ioan-Cristian"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D85"]
[WhiteElo "2486"]
[BlackElo "2561"]
[Annotator "Hartmann,John"]
[PlyCount "51"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
[WhiteTeam "United States"]
[BlackTeam "Romania"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "USA"]
[BlackTeamCountry "ROU"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Nf3 c5 8.
Rb1 O-O 9. Be2 b6 $5 (9... cxd4 10. cxd4 Qa5+ 11. Bd2 Qxa2 12. O-O {is one of
the absolute main lines of the Grunfeld.}) 10. O-O Bb7 11. d5 $5 Bxc3 12. h4
Qd6 (12... Nd7 {was the choice of Nepomniachtci and Mamedyarov, among others.})
13. h5 Nd7 14. Rb3 (14. hxg6 hxg6 15. Rb3 Bf6 16. Bh6 Rfc8 {1-0 (29) Mareco,S
(2589)-Hansen,E (2472) Istanbul 2012}) 14... Bg7 (14... Bf6 {was tried in two
correspondence games:} 15. Nd2 (15. hxg6 hxg6 16. Qd2 Rfc8 17. Bc4 b5 18. Bxb5
c4 $132 {1/2-1/2 (24) Konstantinov,M (2216)-Krueger,H (2137) LSS email 2013})
15... Qc7 16. Rh3 g5 17. Nc4 Rad8 18. Qc2 Kh8 19. Rd1 {1-0 (53) Konstantinov,M
(2206)-Husemann,A (2072) LSS email 2013}) 15. hxg6 hxg6 16. Ng5 Nf6 17. Rh3
Rad8 18. Qc2 Bc8 19. Rh4 e5 20. Qb3 Rfe8 21. f4 $5 Re7 22. Qg3 $6 c4 $4 {
Now Black's position falls apart.} (22... exf4 $1 23. Bxf4 Nxe4 24. Bxd6 Nxg3
25. Bxe7 Nxe2+ 26. Kf2 Re8 27. d6 $13) 23. Ba3 $18 Qd7 24. fxe5 Nxd5 25. Qh2 {
Threatening 26.Rh8+ Bxh8 27. Qh7+ Kf8 28.Qxh8#.} f6 26. exf6 1-0

[/pgn]

The Gordievsky-Hakobyan and Neiksans-Moradiabadi games were both drawn.

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Play continues each day at 1pm CDT through June 17th, and final round action begins on June 28th at 11am. There is a rest day on June 23rd. There will be live commentary for the three events on the Saint Louis Chess Club YouTube channel each day. Broadcasts begin at 3:30 CDT for rounds 1-9, and at 1:30pm for the tenth and final round. CLO will offer periodic updates in the coming days.