Fields of Friendly Strife on 64 Squares

 General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, the 31^st Superintendent of the United States Military Academy is famously quoted as saying:

“On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days, on other fields, will bear the fruits of victory.”

MacArthur was a strong proponent of athletics believing that athletic training made cadets into better officers and ultimately contributed to victory on the battlefield.  During his time as Superintendent he initiated an exchange program with the Royal Canadian Military Academy (RMCC) that is centered on hockey and a few other athletic competitions.  The exchange program is still a significant event on both schools calendars and, today, chess is one of the competitive events.  It is only fitting that war on the 64 squares now fits into the development of cadets! The format of the chess competition has varied from year to year.  Most years it has been a Swiss with the top scores determining which school wins. The number of scores that count has varied from year to year and sometimes the swiss tournament has been open to other military members, though their scores would obviously not count for the competition between the schools.  This year it was decided to have a fixed board competition with six boards playing in board order one game with white and one with black.  This is the fifth year of the chess competition.  West Point (USMA) has won the first four.  At the outset, I thought the fixed board competition would give RMCC more of a chance since the bottom boards tend to be more evenly matched.  If RMCC could pull out a few victories on the bottom boards, they could win the match.  RMCC had a tough task this year as they were the visiting team.  Typically, the visiting team does not bring as many players.  Also, RMCC has an enrollment of about 900 while West Point has about 4400.  With a bigger pool to draw from, West Point has a significant advantage. Before the main competition began, there was a blitz competition.  It was just one game, and West Point won the match, but it was close 5-3.  Maybe it should not have been that close:  I was asked to play because there was an extra RMCC cadet.  I was higher rated by several hundred points and was cruising to an easy win when I hung my queen! At any rate, the blitz tournament result certainly looked like the match would be competitive, and it did start that way. When the first round started, I looked at the games at about move ten, and they were all relatively balanced and most of the opening play was at least reasonable.  There were no completely beginner games, even on the bottom boards.  Unfortunately for RMCC, the match did not stay balanced for very long.  West Point wound up winning on all 6 boards!  On board six, Cadet Chirag Jain from RMCC was completely winning and then allowed West Point cadet Morgan Landers to generate a counterattack.  In this position, can you find the continuation that led to the West Point victory?

Chiang vs. Landers

Black to move.

Show Solution

[pgn][Event "USMA RMCC match"] [Site "?"] [Date "2017.01.21"] [Round "1.6"] [White "Chiang, Chirag"] [Black "Landers, Morgan"] [Result "0-1"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "6k1/2p5/2bq2pb/1pN4p/PP1P1n2/2P3P1/1B3P1P/R3Q1K1 b - - 0 1"] [PlyCount "1"] [EventDate "2017.??.??"]1... Qd5 $1 0-1[/pgn]

The cadet in charge of the West Point Chess Club is Cadet Nicholas Oblak.  Nick is a Firstie (senior) and has played in this event all four years and has not lost a game.  He continued his winning ways this year against RMCC’s first board Cadet Owen Murphy who is junior and has played in this event every year.  Nick will graduate in June and will be commissioned a Finance Second Lieutenant.  He will also be playing on the USA NATO chess team in Budapest, Hungary in March.  Here is his win from round one.

[pgn][Event "USMA RMCC match"] [Site "?"] [Date "2017.01.21"] [Round "1.1"] [White "Murphy, Owen"] [Black "Oblak, Nicholas"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D02"] [WhiteElo "1478"] [BlackElo "1958"] [PlyCount "108"] [EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. g3 d5 5. Bg2 c6 6. O-O O-O 7. e3 Bg4 8. Qd3 Bf5 9. Qd2 Qc8 10. Re1 Na6 11. a3 Nc7 12. Nh4 Bh3 13. e4 Bxg2 14. Nxg2 dxe4 15. Nxe4 Rd8 16. Nc5 b6 17. Nb3 Ne6 18. Qb4 c5 19. dxc5 bxc5 20. Qh4 c4 21. Nd2 c3 22. Nf3 cxb2 23. Bxb2 Qxc2 24. Bxf6 Bxf6 25. Qh6 Bxa1 26. Rxe6 Bg7 27. Qe3 fxe6 28. Qxe6+ Kh8 29. Nf4 Qf5 30. Qxe7 Re8 31. Qb7 Qe4 32. Qxe4 Rxe4 33. Ng5 Re1+ 34. Kg2 Kg8 35. Nge6 g5 36. Nxg5 Bh6 37. Nf3 Bxf4 38. Nxe1 Bd2 39. Nd3 Rc8 40. a4 Rc4 41. f4 Rxa4 42. f5 Kg7 43. h3 Kf6 44. g4 a5 45. Nc5 Ra2 46. Kf3 Bb4 47. Nd7+ Ke7 48. Ne5 Ra3+ 49. Ke4 Rxh3 50. Nc6+ Kf6 51. Kf4 Bd2+ 52. Ke4 a4 53. Nd4 Re3+ 54. Kd5 Rd3 0-1[/pgn]

[pgn][Event "USMA RMCC match"] [Site "?"] [Date "2017.01.21"] [Round "1.3"] [White "Sippola, Laine"] [Black "Koch, Zade"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "E91"] [WhiteElo "1534"] [BlackElo "1434"] [PlyCount "82"] [EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. Nf3 d6 5. Bg5 O-O 6. e4 c5 7. d5 Bg4 8. Be2 Nbd7 9. O-O Bxf3 10. Bxf3 Ne5 11. Bf4 Nxc4 12. b3 Nb6 13. Qd3 Nfd7 14. Rad1 Ne5 15. Bxe5 Bxe5 16. Be2 c4 17. Qe3 cxb3 18. axb3 Bxc3 19. Qxc3 Nd7 20. f4 Qb6+ 21. Rf2 Rfc8 22. Qg3 Nc5 23. Bd3 Qxb3 24. Rfd2 Nxd3 25. Rxd3 Qb6+ 26. Kh1 Rc2 27. Rc3 Rc8 28. Rxc8+ Rxc8 29. h3 Rc2 30. Rf1 Qb5 31. Kg1 Qc5+ 32. Kh1 b5 33. f5 Rc1 34. Rxc1 Qxc1+ 35. Kh2 b4 36. fxg6 hxg6 37. h4 Qc3 38. Qg4 b3 39. h5 Kg7 40. Qg5 Qe5+ 41. Qxe5+ dxe5 0-1[/pgn]

[pgn][Event "USMA RMCC match"] [Site "?"] [Date "2017.01.21"] [Round "2.3"] [White "Koch, Zade"] [Black "Sippola, Laine"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B27"] [WhiteElo "1534"] [BlackElo "1434"] [Annotator "Hater,David"] [PlyCount "41"] [EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. e4 c5 2. c3 g6 3. d4 Bg7 {4. dxc5 is ok for white, but black can play Nc6 and white has no significant advantage} 4. Nf3 d6 {Now dxc5 leads to an advantage for white. Black needs to sac a pawn, but his lead in development does not quite compensate.} 5. Be3 b6 6. dxc5 {Finally white captures on c5 which will lead to an advantage. Black has to play dxc5, but is significantly worse after Bb5+} bxc5 7. Qd5 {Black is now lost. The next few moves are forced and while the position gets a bit wild, all the lines favor white.} Qb6 {Nc6 is possible but adter Qxc6 Bd7 white is just up a piece and the position is pretty simple. Even though the complications with Qb6 don't woek, it might be a better try} 8. Qxa8 Qxb2 9. Bc4 {A "normal" move like Bd2 may allow black to untangle andget back in the game. Nfd2 is also winning, but Bc4 is very accurate.} (9. Bd2 Nf6 10. Bc4 Nfd7 (10... O-O 11. O-O Bg4 (11... Bd7 12. Qxa7 Nc6 13. Qa6 Nb8) 12. e5 dxe5 13. Ng5 e6 14. h3 Qb6 15. hxg4 Nc6 16. Qxf8+ Bxf8) 11. O-O Qxa1) 9... Bxc3+ 10. Bd2 {Simple moves work. Other moves are also good, but there are complications.} (10. Nfd2 Nf6 11. Bb5+ Qxb5 12. Nxc3 Qb2 13. Rb1) (10. Kd1 Bf6 11. Bd2 Bd7 12. Nc3) 10... Qc1+ {A cute move but white is fine. The complications are now starting to clarify and they are all in white's favor } 11. Ke2 Qxh1 12. Qxb8 {Now white wins easily} Kf8 13. Qxc8+ Kg7 14. Bxc3+ Nf6 15. Qh3 Qc1 16. Bb3 Qf4 17. Nbd2 e5 18. Qg3 Qh6 19. Qg5 Qxg5 20. Nxg5 Rd8 21. Nxf7 1-0[/pgn]

While we are certainly focused on the chess, the main event of the exchange weekend is the hockey game.  This was the 81^st game in the series.  The West Point cadets have a slight lead in the series having won 44 of the previous 80 games. An interesting trivia fact is that the Riley family accounts for 41 of the 44 victories by the West Point hockey team. Current coach Brian Riley is in his 13^th year at West Point. Riley’s father John Patrick Riley Jr. coached West Point hockey for 36 years and retired with the second highest amount of hockey coach wins in NCAA history. Riley was also the head coach of the USA Olympic team and directed that squad to its first gold medal.  Brian’s brother Rob was also the head coach at West Point from 1985 to 2004. The Riley family has been the head coach of West Point hockey since 1951! This year is an up year for the West Point cadets as they are currently leading their Division in the Patriot League at 12-8-3.  RMCC is having a down year at 4-18-0 so the West Point cadets entered this contest heavily favored.  They did not disappoint as they won by a score of 5-3. The West Point cadets also won debate, crew and judo to sweep the weekend’s events.  Next year, West Point will be the visiting team at RMCC and will be looking to retain the Challenge Cup!