Rohde Wins 2019 Nassau Chess Club Championship

The 2019 Nassau Chess Club Championship was played on ten consecutive Monday nights from October 21 to December 23. It was won by GM Michael Rohde with a score of 8.5 out of 10. In second was NM Zahar Hilkevich with 7.5, and third was IM Jay Bonin with 7. In the following game against Hilkevich, Rohde takes advantage of an early exchange of dark squared bishops in the Dutch Stonewall. Black usually prefers 8. … Qe7 to prevent this. Later with the pseudo-sacrifice 15. Nxb6, White establishes a strong bind on the queenside dark squares and semi-open c-file, occupying them with his major pieces and playing against Black’s weak a- and c-pawns.

[pgn]

[Event "Nassau Chess Club Championship"]
[Site "Mineola, NY"]
[Date "2019.11.25"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Rohde, Michael A"]
[Black "Hilkevich, Zahar"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A90"]
[WhiteElo "2475"]
[BlackElo "2259"]
[PlyCount "91"]
[EventDate "2019.10.21"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "10"]
[EventCountry "USA"]
[SourceVersionDate "2019.10.22"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 e6 3. d4 c6 4. Qc2 f5 5. g3 Nf6 6. Bg2 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. b3 b6
9. Ba3 Bb7 10. Qb2 a5 11. e3 Na6 12. Bxd6 Qxd6 13. Nc3 Nb8 14. Na4 Nbd7 15.
Nxb6 Nxb6 16. c5 Qd8 17. cxb6 Qxb6 18. Rfc1 Rfc8 19. Qa3 Qd8 20. Ne5 Nd7 21.
Nxd7 Qxd7 22. Rc5 Qe7 23. Rac1 Ra7 24. b4 Rca8 25. bxa5 Qd8 26. Qb4 Qc7 27. Rb1
Bc8 28. Qb6 Bd7 29. Qxc7 Rxc7 30. Bf1 Kf7 31. Rb6 Ke7 32. Ba6 Raa7 33. Kf1 Kd6
34. f4 h6 35. h4 Ke7 36. Ke2 Kf6 37. Kd3 g5 38. hxg5+ hxg5 39. Kc3 g4 40. Kb4
Ke7 41. Bd3 Kd6 42. a6 Be8 43. Rb8 Bd7 44. Ka5 Bc8 45. Kb6 Kd7 46. a4 1-0

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The Nassau Chess Club meets most Monday nights at the First Presbyterian Church of Mineola, in Nassau County, Long Island. More information can be found at the club’s website. There is also a Facebook group where you can find a complete list of previous club championship winners since 1976. The club is run by NTD Harold Stenzel, who first suggested making the championship an annual event in that same year, and has been the primary tournament director and club president since the late 1970s.

"The Dungeon" (photo Tim Mirabile)

Because the club is a short walk from the Mineola Long Island Railroad Station, it is easily reached from New York City, so the Club Championship has drawn many strong players from the New York metropolitan area. That it awards 80 Grand Prix points – almost certainly the most distributed by a once-weekly tournament – and a guaranteed prize fund of $3500 also boosts its popularity. GM winners from past years include Gennady Sagalchik, Joel Benjamin, Alexander Stripunsky, Alexander Wojtkiewicz, Igor Novikov, Alexander Lenderman, and Michael Rohde, who has now won or tied for first nine times. The most frequent winner is IM Jay Bonin, winning or tying for first eleven times. Super-GMs Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura both played at the club frequently as children.