Brodsky and Tang Share First at National Chess Congress

Like many chess players, IM David Brodsky learned how to checkmate with just a knight and a bishop early in his chess career. But it wasn’t until the National Chess Congress, held in Philadelphia over Thanksgiving weekend, that he actually had to do it during a tournament. “I had it in storage for a while,” Brodsky said of the knowledge of how to checkmate with a knight and bishop, which he ended up having to do in the final round on Board 2 against FM Jason Liang. “I was never worried that I wouldn’t be able to achieve it.”

[pgn]

[Event "National Chess Congress"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.12.01"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Brodsky, David"]
[Black "Liang, Jason"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C42"]
[WhiteElo "2579"]
[BlackElo "2357"]
[PlyCount "203"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. O-O Be7 8.
Nbd2 Bf5 9. Re1 Nxd2 10. Qxd2 Bxd3 11. Qxd3 O-O 12. c3 Qd7 13. Bf4 a6 14. Re2
Rae8 15. Rae1 Bd8 16. g3 h6 17. h4 Re7 18. Rxe7 Bxe7 19. Kg2 Rd8 20. h5 Rc8 21.
Qd1 Bf8 22. Nd2 Nd8 23. Nf1 Ne6 24. Bd2 Kh8 25. Ne3 Ng5 26. Qg4 Qxg4 27. Nxg4
Ne4 28. Bf4 Nd6 29. f3 Re8 30. Rxe8 Nxe8 31. Ne3 c6 32. c4 dxc4 33. Nxc4 Nf6
34. Be5 Nxh5 35. Na5 f6 36. Bc7 g5 37. Nxb7 Ng7 38. Bb6 Nf5 39. Kf2 h5 40. Nd8
Bd6 41. g4 hxg4 42. fxg4 Nh6 43. Kf3 Kg7 44. Bc5 Bh2 45. Nxc6 f5 46. gxf5 Kf6
47. b4 Kxf5 48. a4 g4+ 49. Kg2 Bf4 50. b5 a5 51. b6 Ke4 52. b7 Bc7 53. Bb6 Bd6
54. b8=Q Bxb8 55. Nxb8 Nf5 56. Nc6 Ne3+ 57. Kg3 Nc4 58. Bxa5 Kd5 59. Ne7+ Kxd4
60. Bb4 Nb6 61. a5 Na8 62. Kxg4 Nc7 63. Kf5 Kc4 64. Be1 Kb5 65. Ke5 Na6 66. Kd6
Nc5 67. Nc6 Ne4+ 68. Kc7 Nc5 69. Nd4+ Ka6 70. Kc6 Nb7 71. Nb3 Nd8+ 72. Kd7 Nb7
73. Kc7 Ka7 74. Bf2+ Ka8 75. Kd7 Kb8 76. a6 Ka8 77. axb7+ Kxb7 78. Kd6 Ka6 79.
Kc5 Kb7 80. Bg3 Ka8 81. Kc6 Ka7 82. Nc5 Ka8 83. Nd7 Ka7 84. Nb6 Ka6 85. Bb8 Ka5
86. Nd5 Ka4 87. Kc5 Kb3 88. Nb4 Kc3 89. Bf4 Kb3 90. Bd2 Ka4 91. Kc4 Ka5 92. Be3
Ka4 93. Bb6 Ka3 94. Nd3 Ka4 95. Nb2+ Ka3 96. Kc3 Ka2 97. Kc2 Ka3 98. Bc5+ Ka2
99. Nd3 Ka1 100. Bb4 Ka2 101. Nc1+ Ka1 102. Bc3# 1-0

[/pgn]

Brodsky won the National Chess Congress on tiebreaks Sunday, having scored 5.5 out of 6 points along with GM Andrew Tang. Tang said the interesting thing about winning first place is that he hasn’t really been studying chess since he began his studies at Princeton University earlier this year. “It’s funny because since college started, I haven’t looked at chess much but my results have been fabulous,” Tang said. “It’s strange. Maybe taking a break was good.” Tang said his most critical game came during the final round – Round 6 – against GM Magesh Panchanathan. “In the first four rounds, my pairings you could say were a bit fortunate,” Tang said. But his final round, he felt was a challenge because he had Black against a fellow GM. “So it was definitely a critical game,” Tang said. “I thought I was doing pretty well throughout the game,” Tang continued. “I’m not sure what was happening in the opening. But pretty quickly I won an exchange.”

[pgn]

[Event "National Chess Congress"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.12.01"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Panchanathan, Magesh"]
[Black "Tang, Andrew"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C45"]
[WhiteElo "2582"]
[BlackElo "2580"]
[PlyCount "118"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
[SourceVersionDate "2019.12.02"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. e5 Qe7 7. Qe2 Nd5 8.
h4 Bb7 9. c4 Nb6 10. Rh3 O-O-O 11. Nc3 Re8 12. Bd2 f6 13. exf6 Qf7 14. Re3 Bc5
15. fxg7 Bxe3 16. Bxe3 Qxg7 17. O-O-O c5 18. g3 Kb8 19. Qd2 d6 20. Nb5 Re4 21.
Qa5 Nc8 22. Qc3 Qf8 23. Bd3 Re8 24. Qc2 Qf7 25. Nc3 Nb6 26. b3 Nd7 27. Kb2 Qg7
28. Ka3 Ne5 29. Be2 Nc6 30. Nd5 Rhf8 31. Qd2 Nd4 32. Bh5 Re6 33. Nf4 Re5 34.
Be2 Nf5 35. Nh5 Qg6 36. g4 Nxe3 37. fxe3 Rfe8 38. Nf4 Qh6 39. h5 Rxe3 40. Nd5
Bxd5 41. cxd5 Qf4 42. Bb5 Rf8 43. Bd7 h6 44. Bf5 a6 45. Qa5 Kb7 46. Qa4 Qxa4+
47. Kxa4 Rxf5 48. gxf5 Re4+ 49. b4 Rxb4+ 50. Ka5 Rf4 51. a4 c4 52. Kb4 Rxf5 53.
Kxc4 Rxh5 54. Kb4 Rg5 55. Kc4 h5 56. Rb1+ Ka7 57. Rh1 Rg4+ 58. Kc3 h4 59. a5
Ra4 0-1

[/pgn]

Brodsky said he got “fairly lucky” early on in the tournament. “Round One should have been a draw,” Brodsky said of his game against WIM Evelyn Zhu. “She defended pretty well but in the end she just blundered. “Then Round Three I was in big trouble. I offered a draw at some point but he turned it down,” Brodsky said of Samrug Narayanan. “I ended up winning. He fell for one trick in the position and that was just it. “Basically instead of recapturing the piece like normally, I took a pawn and got an attack against his king. I didn’t have to recapture. He missed some detail.” Brodsky, who is in his senior year in high school in Westchester County, New York, said he plans to study computer science. In terms of a career, he plans to study “maybe something to do with data science, big data, something like that.” “But I still have plenty of time to decide.” Brodsky – a protege of GM Farrukh Amonatov – said he didn’t do any special preparation for the National Congress. He said he puts in about an hour of study per day. Tang said he’s “not totally sure” if he will stick with math. He turned 20 years old a day before the National Chess Congress began. He’s only a freshman in college now because he took a gap year in which he “mostly played chess.” Tang said his next big tournament will be at the Pan-Am collegiate games, which is the qualifying event for the Final Four of Chess. He said Princeton has a pretty good shot at making it to the Final Four, listing IM Vignesh Panchanatham, FIDE Master Ethan Li and FIDE Master Kapil Chandran as strong players who can potentially lead the team to victory. “Our average rating is pretty high,” Tang said. “We can compete with any team.” Tang said winning the first place price of $2650 came in handy. “It’s nice. I’m a college student,” Tang said. Brodsky won $2750 – collecting a $100 bonus after winning on tiebreaks. FM Jason Liang found himself within striking distance of first place at the National Congress. Defeated by Brodsky in Round Six, Liang still tied for first place among under 2400 players in the premier section. “I think this is the biggest prize I’ve ever won,” Liang said of his $1350 prize. Liang, a student of GM Alex Lenderman, said he didn’t do any special preparation for the tournament but that he looked at the games of opponents prior to each round in order to learn more about their style. Did it pay off? “Kind of I guess,” Liang said. “I didn’t get like trapped in the opening or anything like that.” Liang also won against two GMs – Alexander Stripunsky and Elshan Moradiabadi. Stripunsky didn’t assign too much meaning to his loss against Liang but said Liang “played well.” “I made a stupid blunder, so it was my fault,” Stripunsky said. Be that as it may, a win against a GM is a win against a GM. Given the fact that Liang is still in middle school and training under a renowned GM, expect to see Liang steadily rising through the ranks on and beating more GMs along the way.

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Jamaal Abdul-Alim is a regular contributor to US Chess Online and Chess Life Magazine. When the weather is nice you can often find him at the chess tables in DuPont Circle in Washington, D.C. Follow Jamaal on Twitter @dcwriter360.