Macaspac is now 10-0. Tomorrow, he gets a chance to tie Tia’s record. That alone will motivate him to try harder and that will be bad news for King as the latter needs at least a draw to make the team or earn a playoff with Duke.
Today I met with Dr. Tim Redman at the Jupiter House, a coffee shop in Denton, Texas. Although we both work for The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), we live about four miles from each other in Denton. Tim had just finished his report, for the July issue of Chess Life, on the Chess Collectors International convention.
I teach online courses for The University of Texas at Dallas, via the UT TeleCampus. In spring of 2008, my 38 students ranged from beginners up through Grandmaster. As discussed in my article for the Dallas Morning News, my students learned to combine chess with educational goals. Now competing in China are my former students GM Alejandro Ramirez, IM Marko Zivanic, and FM Igor Shneider. As reported in the UTD CHESS blog, also playing against Nankai University are UTD's IM Davorin Kuljasevic and IM Jacek Stopa.
This year’s invitees to the annual championship are listed below. Other top Army players like SSG Rudy Tia (seven-time champion), LTC David Hater and LTC Michael Cerezo were not in attendance.
The struggle between Baniel and Drake will be a fight for second place. The game to watch is Duke vs. King. Both players will be motivated to draw if they want to enhance their chances for making the team but we shall see how this particular contest plays out. The last four rounds will be more about trying to make the team now.
Baniel and Drake settled the game peacefully in just ten moves. Both are assured of spots in the team with three rounds left to go. A tense game developed between Duke and King. Both are new to All-Army Chess and instead of halving the point early, both decided to fight for the point. This strategy benefits one and hurts the other. Veteran players over time have adopted a strategy, borne out of experience, guaranteeing a spot in the top six. The strategy involves playing to draw against equal or stronger opposition and play to win against weaker opponents.
Macaspac and Pitts finished their games fairly quickly. Both are entertaining games especially Pitts'. He was behind two pawns but West’s 19…d5 was an error. He underestimated and reacted poorly to Pitts’ king-side aggression. Allowing the queen to stay on g5 allowed the knight fork on h5. West seemed oblivious to the threat because he recaptured on f6 with the queen instead of the rook which would just cost him an exchange.
Although I have written two books: Children and Chess (A Guide for Educators) and Science, Math, Checkmate , I have never had a blog before. I am excited about the prospect of quick feedback from MonRoi Web site visitors. I look forward to providing fun and helpful chess information to you. As you can tell from my book titles, I am primarily interested in how chess might be used as an educational tool.
The battle between co-leaders was decided quickly in round 4. Pitts blundered a pawn without any compensation. The game since then was lopsided in Black’s favor. Macaspac efficiently converted his advantage into a win. Macaspac has one more tough game with Baniel in round 6 tomorrow. If he overcomes him, he will easily become the champion this year.
