GM Corrales Wins Clear 1st at Eastern Congress

GM Fidel Corrales won clear first at the 22^nd Eastern Chess Congress held in Princeton, New Jersey October 26-28^th. Corrales signed up for a last round half point bye when he registered. Would this help or hurt him? This tournament Corrales won all his game and locked up first place before he left early, so in this case the last round bye definitely helped. Corrales beat expert Terry Luo in round 1 then in succession defeated FM Gregory Markzon, IM David Brodsky and GM Alexander Shabalov. He stood alone at 4-0 and was guaranteed at least a tie for first. The only player who could catch Corrales was GM John Burke, but he would have to defeat GM Sergey Erenburg with black. That game ended in a draw and Corrales finished 4 ½ – ½ and won $2100. This year’s Eastern Chess Congress drew 314 players including six GMs, three IMs, and four FMs. There were 24 masters in the 44 player Premier section. Round one had a few interesting results. The first surprise was that top seed GM Timur Gareyev did not show up and forfeited round one. There was only one upset in round one. In the 3 day schedule, expert Peter Boris defeated NM Isaac Martinez.

[pgn][Event "Eastern Chess Congress"] [Site "?"] [Date "2018.10.26"] [Round "1.7"] [White "Boris, Peter"] [Black "Martinez, Isaac"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B08"] [WhiteElo "2046"] [BlackElo "2301"] [PlyCount "107"] [EventDate "2018.??.??"]1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Be2 O-O 6. O-O a6 7. a4 b6 8. Re1 c5 9. Bf1 cxd4 10. Nxd4 Bb7 11. g3 Nc6 12. Nxc6 Bxc6 13. Bg2 Nd7 14. Ne2 Qc7 15. Nd4 Bb7 16. c3 Rfd8 17. f4 b5 18. axb5 axb5 19. Rxa8 Bxa8 20. Be3 Rb8 21. Qc2 b4 22. c4 Qa5 23. Nb5 Qa2 24. Bd4 Rxb5 25. Bxg7 Rc5 26. Bd4 Rxc4 27. Qf2 Qb3 28. Qe3 Qxe3+ 29. Bxe3 Nc5 30. Bxc5 dxc5 31. Rd1 Bxe4 32. b3 Bxg2 33. bxc4 Be4 34. Kf2 b3 35. Rd8+ Kg7 36. Rb8 Bc2 37. Ke3 Kf6 38. Rb6+ Kf5 39. h3 h5 40. Kf3 e6 41. Ke3 g5 42. Rb5 gxf4+ 43. gxf4 f6 44. Rxc5+ e5 45. Rb5 b2 46. Rxb2 exf4+ 47. Kf2 Ba4 48. Rd2 Bc6 49. c5 Ke5 50. Rd6 Be4 51. Rd8 Bd5 52. Rh8 Bf7 53. c6 Kd6 54. c7 1-0[/pgn]

One board away, FM Boris Privman turned in a miniature against Boyang Zhao. Can you find the winning move?

FM Boris Privman vs. Boyang Zhao

White to move and win.

Show Solution

[pgn][Event "Eastern Chess Congress"] [Site "?"] [Date "2018.10.26"] [Round "1.6"] [White "Privman, Boris"] [Black "Zhao, Boyang"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D02"] [WhiteElo "2261"] [BlackElo "2012"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "2r2rk1/pbq2ppp/1pn1pb2/3pN3/3p1P2/2PBPR2/PP1N2PP/R2Q2K1 w - - 0 15"] [PlyCount "5"] [EventDate "2018.??.??"]15. Bxh7+ $1 {and Black resigned. If} Kxh7 (15... Kh8 16. Rh3 g6 17. Bxg6+ Kg7 18. Rh7+ Kg8 19. Bxf7+ Rxf7 20. Rxf7 Qxf7 21. Nxf7 Kxf7 22. Qh5+) 16. Rh3+ Kg8 17. Qh5 1-0[/pgn]

There were a few draws in round one. The most notable draw was in the three day schedule on board one. GM Sergey Erenburg drew with FM Josef Friedman. Erenburg was pushing for the win, but he was in severe time pressure in the sudden death time control. He had less than one second on his clock (with a 10 second delay) and was unable to win the rook and pawn ending. There were no upsets on the top boards in round two. After two rounds, there were seven perfect scores: GMs Alexander Shabalov, John Burke, Fidel Corrales, Alex Fishbein, IMs Alexander Katz and David Brodsky and SM Lev Paciorkowski. There were two decisive games as GM Shabalov defeated GM Fishbein and GM Corrales defeated IM Brodsky. GM Burke drew with IM Katz and SM Paciorkowski was paired “down” to the top odd man GM Erenburg and Erenburg won. So, on the final day, there were only two perfect scores going into round four: GMs Shabalov and Corrales. Both GMs were due black, but GM Shabalov was higher rated, so Corrales would get his second white in a row and third in the four games he played. Corrales made the most of it and defeated Shabalov to emerge as the only 4-0. Because he had a last round bye, he was guaranteed at least a tie for first. Here Corrales provides some notes to the critical game.

[pgn][Event "Eastern Chess Congress "] [Site "?"] [Date "2018.10.28"] [Round "4.1"] [White "Corrales Jimenez, Fidel"] [Black "Shabalov, Alexander"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C18"] [WhiteElo "2537"] [BlackElo "2548"] [Annotator "ficor"] [PlyCount "77"] [EventDate "2016.04.12"] [EventCountry "USA"]1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Ba5 6. Bd2 cxd4 7. Nb5 Bc7 8. f4 Nc6 9. Nf3 Nge7 10. Bd3 h6 11. Qe2 a6 12. Nxc7+ Qxc7 13. Qf2 Bd7 14. O-O O-O 15. g4 f6 16. exf6 Rxf6 17. g5 hxg5 (17... Rxf4 18. Qg3 hxg5 19. Bh7+ Kh8 20. Qxg5 Rf7 21. Qh5) 18. fxg5 Rf5 19. Bxf5 Nxf5 20. Nh4 Nce7 (20... Rf8 21. Ng6 Rf7 22. Qf3) 21. Bb4 Bb5 22. Bxe7 Qxe7 (22... Bxf1 23. Nxf5) 23. Nxf5 exf5 24. Qxf5 Bxf1 25. Rxf1 Qe3+ 26. Rf2 Qe1+ 27. Kg2 Qe4+ 28. Kg3 Qxf5 (28... Re8 29. Qf7+ (29. h4 g6) 29... Kh8 30. Qh5+ Kg8 31. g6 Qe3+ 32. Rf3 Qe1+) 29. Rxf5 Kh7 30. h4 Rc8 31. Rf2 g6 32. Rd2 Rc4 33. b3 Rc3+ 34. Kf4 b5 (34... d3 35. Rxd3) 35. Ke5 d3 36. Rxd3 Rxc2 37. Rxd5 Rc3 38. Rd7+ Kg8 39. b4 1-0[/pgn]

The only player ½ point back was GM Burke who could tie Corrales if he was able to beat GM Erenburg with the black pieces. That game ended in a draw and Burke tied for second. Three other players joined the tie as GM Shabalov defeated IM Sarkar, IM Katz defeated SM Daniel Cremisi, and IM Brodsky defeated NM Andrew Ardito. NM Alan Zhang also had a chance to join the tie, but he would have to defeat GM Fishbein to do so and he was not able to do that. The four players who finished at 4-1 won $450 each. There was a seven way tie for the top Under 2300 prize all at 3-2. The surprising player in the tie was one of the lowest rated players in the tournament. Class A player Alexander Hu started with a full point bye and then drew with FM Privman. He then suffered his only loss to SM Cremisi before drawing with NM Warren Wang and beating expert Evan Park. Hu was joined in the tie by FM Privman, NMs Yefim Treger, Vincent Umayam, Andrew Ardito, & Alan Zhang, and expert Terry Luo. The section winners were:

Under 2100

Tejas Rama, 5-0, $1500

Under 1900

Timothy Xie, George Didita, & Ethan Modi, 4 ½ - ½, $900

Under 1700

Alexander Goldovsky, 4 ½ - ½, $1400

Under 1500

Henry Boswell, 5-0, $1300

Under 1250

Alec Almeida, 5-0, $1000

Mixed Doubles

Kamelia Sharuda & Augusto Guiterrez, 8-2, $400 to each player

Blitz Tournament

SM Daniel Cremisi, 7 ½ - ½, $105

NTD Steve Immitt directed for Continental Chess Association assisted by David Hater, Jabari McGreen, Hector Rodriguez, and Ernesto Rivera. Full tournament details can be found at www.easternchesscongress.com. Previous Continental Chess tournaments can be found at the Continental Chess website at http://www.chesstour.com/cross.html.