Sunday, March 20, 2011

Gems from USATE 2011

Lewis - Hart, White to play  
Higgins - Chen, White to play
Most - Meinders, White to play
Vigorito - Miller, White to play


I have annotated eight gems from the US Amateur Teams East (a.k.a. World Amateur Teams) 2011.  You can download the PGN file (so your computer can help you understand any of the puzzles above that confuse you -- they are pretty difficult, I must confess), or download the whole USATE 2011 PGN of games gleaned from TWIC #853 (download zipped PGN or CB file).


Of course, by now everyone knows it was the West Orange Crush taking first prize at the 1,200 player event.  Tournaments in the South, North, and West make the World Team a far-reaching contest.  Those looking to relive the experience can check out quite a bit of video on YouTube, including a long clip featuring the impressive musical performance by Khess (starting six minutes into this otherwise boring video) and overly-complete video of the last round of the bughouse event.  The crosstable shows that I basically broke even (losing only three points), which is about what I'd expected from a 50% score (which was lucky based on my games).


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

in the Vigorito-Miller game, 14...c5 is not ?!, it's just the main line. 14...Ne5 is bad because the queen sacrifice 15.dxe5! is known to be good for White.

Michael Goeller said...

Thanks for the note. I'm not so familiar with the theory here (and have collected no books in the area to consult) but it looked better based on computer analysis. If 14...Ne5 is no good, then maybe I should start playing this line as White.... :-)

Michael Goeller said...

Pairings Set for US Amateur Teams playoff at USCF online. Play starts Saturday at 1 pm EST on ICC.