UTD Team Wins 14th Annual Gligoric Transatlantic Cup

In the 14th annual meeting of their 16-board match, the University of Texas at Dallas chess team defeated a team from the University of Belgrade on November 15th by a convincing 10.5-5.5 score. UTD now leads the series 8.5-5.5. A complete match history is available in the program book, which is free to download and read. The time control for the event is 40 minutes/5 second increment, so play was relatively fast. Brian Yang was the FIDE Arbiter in Dallas representing the Belgrade team. Brian’s job was to represent the Belgrade team and to monitor the UTD team for any violation of rules, cheating, etc. Over in Belgrade, it was Nebojsa Baralic on the behalf of UTD who monitored the UB team for any misconduct. UTD’s IM Craig Hilby (Computer Science sophomore) drew first blood with his victory over Damjan Jandric. The annotations are by GM Julio Sadorra, head coach of the UTD team.

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[Event "ICC 40 5"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2019.11.15"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Jandric, Damjan"]
[Black "Hilby, Craig"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C54"]
[WhiteElo "2144"]
[BlackElo "2432"]
[Annotator "Sadorra, Julio"]
[PlyCount "34"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
[WhiteTeam "University of Belgrade"]
[BlackTeam "University of Texas at Dallas"]

{The first game to finish and first win for UTD happened on board 10, and it
did in an entertaining fashion!} 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. Nf3 Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5.
d3 d6 6. c3 a6 7. a4 Ba7 {Here, we have a very popular position in the Italian
game opening.} 8. h3 h6 9. Re1 g5 $5 {This is a really nice decision by the
top junior from California as it gives White some problems early in the game
by taking advantage of the h2-h3 weakening. I think such moves are also
unpleasant to face in shorter time-controls. It's also worth noting that Black
does not need to castle before launching an attack because the center is fixed
and under control.} 10. d4 $2 {A dogmatic way of playing the position. White
follows the principle of meeting a flank attack with a central strike, but
fails to both execute this idea well and understand the current position. Thus,
he either overlooks or underestimated Black's next move.} ({A prudent reaction
to the situation is} 10. Nh2) 10... g4 $1 11. hxg4 Bxg4 {Black has not only
opened up a lines of attack on the kingside, but White's center is also about
to collapse!} 12. dxe5 (12. d5 Ne7 {Enhances the power of the bishop on a7 and
gives Black a free-hand kingside attack.}) 12... Bxf3 $1 {The most forcing and
accurate way to increase the intitiative.} 13. Qxf3 Nxe5 {Black gains in
strength as he keeps bringing pieces towards the kingside with tempo.} 14. Qe2
Nfg4 15. Rf1 Qh4 {Black brings everyone to the party and finishes the game
with some nice tactics:} 16. Bf4 Nxf2 $1 17. Be3 (17. Rxf2 Qxf4) 17... Nfg4 {
White resigns.} 0-1

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Sadorra also explains the next victory by the Dallas team in IM Emil Stefanov (Economics sophomore) over Dusan Kalinic.

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[Event "ICC 40 5"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2019.11.15"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Stefanov, Emil"]
[Black "Kalinic, Dusan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B07"]
[WhiteElo "2393"]
[BlackElo "2118"]
[Annotator "Sadorra, Julio"]
[PlyCount "65"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
[WhiteTeam "UTD"]
[BlackTeam "UB"]

{The next win came from Bulgarian IM Stefanov.} 1. d4 d6 2. e4 Nf6 3. Nc3 c6 4.
f4 Qa5 5. Bd3 d5 6. e5 Bg4 {Black plays a surprise sideline but White reacts
well by using his space advantage and better placed pieces.} 7. Qd2 $1 {
an awkward move but it's only temporary as White will achieve harmony soon!}
Ng8 8. h3 Bd7 9. Nf3 g6 10. Qf2 h5 11. Bd2 Qc7 12. Ng5 {White is positionally
winning and now starts to invade the weak squares in the Black camp.} Qc8 {
trying to stop e6 and f5.} (12... e6 {does not help due to} 13. O-O-O {and g4
is coming next.}) 13. O-O-O Bh6 14. Qh4 {Slowly bringing pieces towards the
kingside.} Bf5 15. Bxf5 Qxf5 16. g4 {With this pawn beak, White has a winning
attack.} Bxg5 17. fxg5 Qd7 18. Ne2 {A nice maneuver, aiming to pressure e6, g6
and h5 squares.} Na6 19. Nf4 e6 20. gxh5 Ne7 21. Qg4 c5 22. hxg6 Nxg6 23. Nxg6
fxg6 24. Rhf1 {White is a clear pawn up and Black's position is riddled with
too many weakness. The rest of the game shows Stefanov using great piece play
and nice tactics to get the win.} Ke7 25. dxc5 Nxc5 26. Bb4 b6 27. Rf6 Rhg8 28.
Rdf1 Rg7 29. Qf3 Qe8 30. Bxc5+ bxc5 31. Rxe6+ Kxe6 32. Qf6+ Kd7 33. Qxg7+ {
Black resigns} 1-0

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Finally, the game that clinched the match win was Tony Yim (Finance and Economic junior) versus Matija Lojovic.

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[Event "ICC 40 5"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2019.11.15"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Yim, Tony"]
[Black "Lojovic, Matija"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E35"]
[WhiteElo "2288"]
[BlackElo "2053"]
[Annotator "Sadorra, Julio"]
[PlyCount "109"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
[WhiteTeam "UTD"]
[BlackTeam "UB"]

{This is the game that clinched the match win for us occured on board 13.} 1.
d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 d5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 c6 7. e3 Bg4 {The
game has transformed from Nimzo-Indian into a Carlsbad structure which
commonly occurs in QGD.} 8. Nge2 $5 {avoiding the exchange of light squared
bishops after Bh5-g6.} (8. Bd3 Bh5) 8... Qd6 9. h3 Bh5 10. Ng3 Bg6 11. Nf5 Bxf5
12. Qxf5 Nbd7 13. Bd3 Qe6 14. O-O Bxc3 $2 {There was no good reason to give up
the bishop pair.} 15. bxc3 Qxf5 16. Bxf5 Ne4 17. Bxe4 dxe4 18. a4 $1 {After
this move, White has a long term initiative on the queenside. White will
attack the b-pawn on the file and the rook pawn will later act as a pawn lever.
} b6 19. c4 O-O 20. Rfb1 c5 21. a5 $1 {With this pawn break, Black will have a
pawn weakness one way or another.} Rfc8 22. d5 f6 23. Bf4 Kf7 24. f3 $1 {
Creating pressure on the other side of the board (Principle of Two Weaknesses).
} Re8 ({If} 24... f5 25. fxe4 fxe4 26. g4 {and White will round up the weak
pawn on e4 in the future.}) 25. fxe4 g5 26. e5 $1 {A strong small tactic which
Black may have missed.} gxf4 (26... Nxe5 27. Bxe5 fxe5 28. Kf2 $1 {With a huge
advantage in this double rook ending due to passed pawn, more active rooks,
and existing Black weaknesses.} (28. axb6 axb6 29. Rxa8 Rxa8 30. Rxb6 Ra4 {
allows some counterplay.})) 27. e6+ Ke7 28. exf4 $1 {Great understanding from
the top junior from Arizona--the pawns are much more valuable than the knight!}
Nf8 29. axb6 axb6 30. Rxa8 Rxa8 31. Rxb6 f5 (31... Ng6 32. Rb7+ Ke8 {and now
the simplest is to keep collecting and start pushing the pawns.} 33. Rxh7 {
A sample line could be} Ra1+ 34. Kf2 Nxf4 35. d6 Nxe6 36. Re7+ $18) 32. Rb7+
Kf6 33. g4 $1 {Pawn Power. Black's knight is crying and helpess against
White's plan of pushing down the pawns.} fxg4 34. Rf7+ Kg6 35. hxg4 h6 36. Kg2
Re8 37. Kf3 Nxe6 {A sign of desperation which leads to a lost rook ending. The
rest is straightforward and Tony easily converts his material advantage to win
the game, and the match for UTDallas!} 38. dxe6 Rxe6 39. Rc7 Re1 40. Rc6+ Kg7
41. Rxc5 Rf1+ 42. Ke4 Re1+ 43. Kf5 Re7 44. Re5 Rc7 45. c5 Kf7 46. Ke4 Kf6 47.
Kd5 Rd7+ 48. Ke4 Rd1 49. Rf5+ Ke6 50. Rh5 Re1+ 51. Kd4 Rd1+ 52. Ke3 Re1+ 53.
Kf2 Rc1 54. c6 Kf7 55. Rxh6 {Black resigns} 1-0

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For more on the UTD team and the annual Transatlantic Cup, visit the UTD chess website: https://utdallas.edu/chess/