Illinois Chess Bulletin Julio - Agosto 2002 | Page 23

College of Lake County Invitational Round Robin

College of Lake County Invitational
By Rajen Gandhi
Wayne may not be Clark Kent the superman but he is Wayne
Clark! Though it took extraordinary effort to put together an 8player round robin tournament at College of Lake County,
with an average rating of 1800 plus on may 4 and 5. The end
result was a superb quality tournament providing some
fireworks on boards. At the same time the tournament had its
own soap opera moments : withdrawal of a key player at the
last minute prompting an entry of a fine player from
California with M & M in his name who has recently sneaked
into Chicago chess scene, a player falling sick after third
round, forcing him to forfeit the rest of the rounds, and then
another player who initially wanted to play the last round but
then forfeited it because he was upset. Talk about agony of
defeat! After all, this round robin was a 7- round event with
each player playing 4 rounds on first and 3 on the second
day with time control of G/75. To say the least, it was hard
nerve-wrecking work that required all the energy the
doughnuts provided.

Rajen Gandhi - Robert Riddle
CLC Invitational, 05.04.2002
Comments by Rajen Gandhi
1.e4 c5 2.f4 Nf6 3.d3 d5 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Nf3 e6 6.c3 b5
7.d4 (d4-e5 pawn structure established) Qb6 8.Bd3
b4 9.Nbd2 Ba6 10.Qe2 Bxd3 11.Qxd3 Nc6 12.0–0 b3
13.axb3 (Nxb3 loses a piece after..c4) cxd4 14.Ra6
Qb7 15.b4!
Black may have overlooked this move, and I wasn’t
about to fall for his trap by playing either 15. cxd4 or
Nxd4. He had spent a long time on 12…b3 having
calculated the trap in his strategy. I was happy to
accept his pawn sac then and return the pawn now.
15…dxc3 16.bxc3 d4 17.Nxd4 Nxd4 18.cxd4 Bxb4
(see diagram)

TABLE
Player
Robert
Rassmussen
Michael
Maloney
Rajen Gandhi
Robert Riddle
Brian
Ruggiero
Boyd Reed
Steven Napoli
Johnson Chua

Rtg

Pts Rank
6.0
1

1893
1949 5.0

2

1742 5.0
1977 3.5
1919 3.5

2
4
4

1849 2.0
1719 2.0
1916 1.5

6
6
8

after 18… Bxb4

After it was all metabolized, the youngest undefeated player,
Robert Rasmussen, stood tallest taking the first prize purse of
$100 and Michael Maloney and Rajen Gandhi shared second
place prize, $65 each.
The following games are a sample of exciting chess
wth go for the gusto attitude by the players.

Black underestimated the ensuing crushing attack.
19.f5! (GM strategy-do not waste time when you can
expose your opponent’s King!) exf5 20.e6 Nf6
21.exf7+ Kf8 22.Rxf5 Rc8 23.Ba3 Qe7 24.Re5 Rc3
25.Qxc3!! Bxc3 26.Rxe7 Bxd4+ 27.Kf1 g6 28.Rd7+
Kg7 29.Rxd4 (White misses grand finale mate with
Pf8=Q #) Kxf7 Black runs out of time in an absolutely
lost position 1–0
Steven Napoli- Mike Maloney
CLC
invitational
RR
(3),
comments
by
Mike

05.04.2002
Maloney

1.b3 Steve favors the hyper-modern approach. 1...d6
2.Bb2 e5 3.d4 Nc6 4.dxe5 [If White proceeds with
4.d5 the center becomes locked and the scope of
White's bishop is limited.] 4...Nxe5 My last move was
an invitation to go immediately into the endgame. This
exchange solves Black's opening problems and after
the exchange of queens, I have a slight edge.

Illinois Chess Bulletin

23