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My name is Daniel Fernandez, I am 21 years old and an ex-UTD chess team member so I thought it was a good fit for me to not only cover but also cheer for my ex-classmates. I played a few matches for the Dallas Destiny in 2005, and am hoping they can turn things around this year. I will be covering the games on my ICC handle D-Fernandez (IM), so it should be easy to see my comments or spot me online. Throughout the course of the season I am going to be going providing brief match and game summaries, hope you enjoy!
Round 1 saw two young and exciting teams kick off
their
second season in the USCL.
This all-Indian match featuring two of the nicest
guys on
the chess scene, UTD’s “Indian Pussycat” and 2005 World Open winner, GM
Magesh
Panchanathan and the talented Vinay Bhat, fresh off his second GM norm
last
month in Spain, promised to be anything but a friendly game since both
players
have great fight spirit. Bhat opened with 1.d4 and chose the Trompowsky
Attack.
Panchanathan took the gambit on b2, which is already dangerous (better
options
are either e6, d6, or g6) but then went ahead and took the poisoned
pawn on c3,
which after 9.Bc7! (an idea introduced last year by GM Chernyshov in a
win over
super-GM Alexander Grischuk) and Panchanathan soon found out how
poisoned the
b2 pawn was. Although Panchanathan made a valiant effort, his attempt
to defend
his position was in vain.
San Francisco -
1 Dallas - 0
(Bhat - Panchanathan) Bhat played 9.Bc7!,
boxing the queen in
and robbing her of the escape square on a5. Panchanathan had
trouble defending after this surprise blow and fell apart quickly after
9...b6 10. Rc1 Qa5 11. Be5 Ba6 12. Bc3 Bxf1 (giving up the queen
for not enough compensation) 13. Bxa5 Bxg2 14. Bc3 and white
is virtually winning as the bishop won't escape from h1,
leaving white with a queen versus rook advantage.
The Dallas Destiny have higher rated players on
board 4 this season than they did in 2005, and it was showing after the
opening, as Keaton
San Francisco -
2 Dallas - 0
Recently minted IM Dmitry Zilberstein hoped to
take it to IM
Dmitri Schneider’s younger brother, FM Igor, a recent UTD recruit.
Zilberstein
wasted no time in doing so by playing the very sharp Marshall Gambit of
the
Queen’s Gambit declined. Following Big Brother’s analysis, Igor
misplayed by
playing 12…Qf4+, which led to an eventual loss of a tempo. He should
have
instead play 12…e5. In such a sharp line the loss of a tempo can often
lead to
devastating consequences as the game illustrated. Zilberstein
eventually won
his pawn back, and with the bishop pair and a huge lead in development,
these
advantages turned out to be too much for the young Igor to handle. This game clinched the match for San Francisco and was
another dissapointing start to the USCL season by the Dallas Destiny
San
Francisco - 3 Dallas - 0
(Zilberstein - I.Shneider) White found 30. Rd7 Kg8
31. Bd5! Bxd5 32. Re8 checkmate, clinching the match
for the Mechanics.
Kuljasevic hoped to invigorate
Final Score: San Francisco 3 -
Dallas 1