Catching Up

First of all, to all blog fans, sorry for the week's delay as I had many things to do. I will try to make up for it with this one :) First of all, as you might have noticed, I'm 4 - 0 so far in the US Chess League, and my team is also. However, it's really all about the team, and I just do what I can to try to help us win. In fact, every match, I felt that even though I did the best I could and played a decent game, my game really wasn't the most important one in deciding the match. The first two matches, Eli played two excellent games against two very strong masters, outplaying them very accurately. The last two matches, the real hero was our young rising star, Parker Zhao. He came in the third match, without any preparation, but very rested. I feel that's the most important thing for him as the match began at 9:00PM, and it was important for him to be able to keep his focus for the whole game. Stripunsky joked beforehand, telling Parker on the phone, "Parker, you're so unprofessional". But in reality, Parker knows very well how to go about his games. Alex Stripunsky teaches him very successfully, and he plays the main lines, unlike myself, and knows them very well. He almost always manages to get an advantage with White, equality with Black, and most importantly generally feels comfortable with his plans. He studies very late every day, and for him, who happens to be sitting in front of him isn't that big of an issue, and I really admire him for that.

For me though, the only way I tend to be able to win big games is by preparing very hard and playing my opponent a little bit. For example, against Ginsburg the reason I played a decent game is because I told myself: "He plays very well with White and knows theory very well so just do not play the most common lines, do not just make logical moves, and most importantly play patiently. Some people described it as a one-sided game. I would say the only reason for that was because Mark probably played a little bit too defensively throughout, and I really didn't try to take immediate advantage of that, just kept improving my pieces and gaining a bigger and bigger initiative, until he couldn't hold pressure anymore and fell apart. I give Mark a lot of credit for his solid defense the whole game and some interesting positional ideas, but I guess it was just not quite enough. I was especially proud of my moves 17... a4! fixing the pawn structure, stopping b4 forever, and 30... Na7! intending Nb5 to rid myself of his Bishop on c3. You can find that game here and obviously also in Greg's videos and the Quiz on Week 3, where the Na7 move was even headlined.

As for my game vs Enkbhat, I felt I almost had to play the opponent. I know his knowledge of theory is very good, he plays very comfortably when he has a clear plan, and he's a great solid player, very hard to break through. However, I played a slightly off beat line, to try to throw him off a little bit, which was an idea I learned courtesy of my great coach and wonderful person/friend, IM Dave Vigorito, who coincidentally is also playing for the Boston Blitz. I hope we won't have to play each other in Week 10, but either way, good relationships stay either way even if we have to play; as an example take David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez going to lunch together :) By the way, the line I played against Ginsburg, was also due in big part to Dave as I feel I played this line very accurately and may even add it to my repertoire. So, if you're interested in a strong player/coach who can really help with opening holes and plans, and making a good friend, he's your man! So, all the credit for my 5. h3!? in the Enkhbat game should go to him :) The idea is to play Bf4-h2 and avoid any possible line with Nh5 Bd2 Nf6 drawing. Then after 5... b5, I followed with 6. c5!? blocking up the Center and the Queenside, basically making it impossible to breakthrough in either place. I know that Enkhbat generally likes to play fairly standard chess and so I found a little bit of Emory Tate in myself and made an interesting move 14. g4!? after 13... Nfd7 as that seemed to be a good way to throw him off his game. If 14... Be4, I have a strong line 15. Nxf7 Kxf7 16. Ng5+ Kg8 17. Ne6! Qc8 18. f3 Ne5! 19. fxe4 Qxe6 20. dxe5 +/=. But he instead played 14... Be6. After that it was an interesting game where I castled Queenside, and Enkhbat was brave and took my pawn on the h-file, opening up both my g and h files. He played very well and solidly for a while, until he made an inaccuracy with 23... Ra7?! (a fairly standard move), not realizing the full idea of my 23. Nd2!? idea as he should have traded on d3. So, I ended up playing 24. e4! Qf7 25. f3! totally controlling the center. Then, in this complicated position, I thought 25... g5!? and 26... Bg6 was a good idea, defending h7 and blocking the g-file for a while. The position is still at best only unclear for me. But Enkhbat played 25... Be6, and after 26. Qh2, he found himself in a very tough position. Then, 26... f5 totally shut his play down, as after 27. e5, he's totally paralyzed with no real counterplay. He tried to get some towards the end, but by that point, my attack was simply unstoppable. But again, the real hero was Parker. He came in, Black against a strong master Zimmer, and just played an excellent game, with no mistakes, following every correct plan, including the 25... g5! idea. Michael Thaler did what he was supposed to do: played a good game being a favorite against Ian Harris and quickly beat him. Eli also played a very good game and even got a draw offer from Blehm, being White, but unfortunately Eli tried playing on in a slightly better position, and in time pressure made some inaccuracies and lost. But either way he still played his heart out.

You can't imagine how proud I am to be on this team and to have such great teammates. We have terrific chemistry together, all playing under excellent conditions and just trying to have fun. We have places nearby to eat, and we can have drinks in the club. I love the personality of our team as we are all willing to help each other, from Alex Stripunsky helping me with prepare for my games, to Ben Katz playing his heart out and doing his best to prepare, with which I help him also. I really believe we can do something special this year as I don't see the chemistry and momentum going away.

Hope you all enjoyed this blog for the last two weeks. Until next week,

Alex Lenderman