Last Friday fortunately we had no BYE. Melvin, who last week lost because of one second short on the clock played again a good game and this time he was rewarded the full point when he managed to give an x-ray check with his white queen on h8 and black Kf6 and (unprotected) Qd4.

 

 

Conrad Ackerman, the new contender who last week managed to beat Koji in the heat of time pressure chose a very solid approach with white against David. David, a Philidorian and used to manoeuvring his black pieces in little space, rushed an unprotected pawn onto g5 to lure the white pieces, mostly on the 2nd and 3rd rank so far, into black terrain. Conrad accepted the challenge and in addition sacrificed a piece for two pawns to nestle his knight in the 6th rank and started an assault on black’s exposed king. But black held and with little time on the clock David won the game.

 

 

Miguel Angel seemed somewhat out of concentration and against James it is best to stay very focussed – soon Miguel Angel was two pawns down, more than enough for James to win the game on auto-pilot.

Ray, similar to Miguel Angel, seemed to lack the focus so necessary to beat an experienced player like Michel. Through a wrong recapture by Ray, Michel’s white pieces could easily go for a brutal checkmate approach towards the black king and claim the win.

Henry and Long had the longest game. Henry had to defend tediously with white against Long’s black dominance the entire game. But when it got to the end of the 180 minutes of the match, there was not enough material on the board anymore to create a checkmate and the game ended in a draw.

 

 

 

 

Pairing for round 3 will be done Wednesday noon.