[Event "Oregon Closed - Championship Section"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2026.02.13"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Tang, Austin"]
[Black "Zavortink, Matt"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Matt Zavortink"]
[ECO "B45"]
[WhiteElo "2197"]
[BlackElo "2285"]
[WhiteFideId "-1"]
[BlackFideId "-1"]
[PlyCount "81"]
[GameId "2284456146571300"]
[EventDate "2026.??.??"]
[SourceVersionDate "2026.02.13"]

{[%evp 0,30,34,34,51,45,45,29,33,38,38,60,57,30,24,33,21,37,35,15,26,17,17,17,25,16,16,30,17,-3,11,-25,9] This game was a really abysmal, self-inflicted loss, following the same pattern of some other games I've lost in the last few years. It's really important to learn and improve after poor games, and I hope that some of my comments here may be helpful for other players who have self-destructed in a similar manner! I'll keep my comments somewhat sparse on this one and focus on where and why my brain started to lose its attachment to reality.} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 {We've had this position one time before, in an Oregon Open. I remember that game well, mostly because part way through the opening phase, right as Austin started to think, a homeless man barged into the tournament hall and threw several cups of water into the air, splattering some of the players.} 6. Ndb5 {Avoiding my preparation in the 6.Nxc6 line we'd played previously. And bluffing that he's well-prepared in the Sveshnikov. But also calling my bluff that I'm ready to play the Sveshnikov.} Bb4 {A sad, insipid move. People have been arguing about this move for decades, with most of the debate centering on how bad it is. Is it really bad, or just a little bit bad? I figured with this move I could at least reach a solid position and not have to navigate any crazy lines he had prepared.} (6... d6 7. Bf4 e5 8. Bg5 a6 9. Na3 b5 {Transposes to the (old) main line of the Sveshnikov.}) (6... Bc5 {Another interesting move that has become popular in the last few years. But this is very sharp and I didn't want to see whatever he had prepared.}) 7. a3 Bxc3+ 8. Nxc3 d5 9. Bd3 $5 (9. exd5 {The main line, giving black an isolated pawn.}) 9... dxe4 10. Nxe4 Nxe4 11. Bxe4 Qxd1+ 12. Kxd1 {White is probably slightly better though the king on d1 somewhat balances the bishop pair.} Bd7 13. Re1 {He blitzed this move out, so I figured he must still be in his preparation. But I didn't understand the point.} O-O-O 14. Bd2 {He blitzed this out as well. Now I really didn't understand what was happening though as I thought black's next move was obvious and strong.} Nd4 {Isn't black fine? Isn't this totally equal? I will get to play ...Bc6 next and trade off white's bishop pair. If white shields the g2 pawn with a move like f3 I can play ...Bc6 Bd3 Nb3! and I get to trade a bishop anyway.} 15. b3 {White is intending Kc1 and Kb2 at some point, though this felt very slow to me. I think this is where I really started to lose my objectivity. I felt like white had already committed some kind of innaccuracy. After all, this line with 9.Bd3 is perhaps objectively slightly better for white. But here I can already immediately trade off the bishop pair, the thing that's supposed to give white an advantage. And b3 seems so slow! I also noticed that there were some forcing lines in the position, like ...f5 Bd3 Bc6 which makes two threats! It would be really nice if all of these things meant that black is better, which I started to believe, despite the fact that all of the lines I calculated looked completely equal.} e5 (15... Bc6 {I should probably do this, following up on the original idea of ...Nd4. First just trade off the bishop pair, then think about what to do next!}) (15... f5 16. Bd3 (16. Bf3 {lets black double white's pawns, but is it really so bad with opposite colored bishops and a big weak square on e5?}) 16... Bc6 {threatening to take g2 and to take b3.} 17. Bf1 Be4 {I looked at this for a while but just couldn't see any follow up after white defends c2. This is very risky as I've passed up my chance to get rid of white's bishop pair and severely weakened my structure. So I better have something good if I go for this!}) 16. Bc3 {Now again I got sucked into looking at some ridiculous lines and wasting time. Just go ...Bc6 and create an equal position!} Bg4+ (16... Bc6 17. Kc1 f6 $11 (17... Bxe4 18. Rxe4 Nc6 {I remember looking at this during the game, which is also totally fine. I think I didn't like letting him go f4 and trade a bunch of pawns, again, because I had some unjustified feeling that I should have more of an advantage.})) (16... f5 $6 17. Bxd4 Be6 $2 {I got tempted by this for a couple minutes} 18. Bd3 Rxd4 19. Rxe5 Bxb3 {Looks promising as I'm threatening ...Rxd3. Eventually I realized white will just move the king to unpin the c2 pawn and I will drop f5.}) 17. Kc1 Ne2+ (17... f5 {Again, I think I wasted some time looking at this move, which is completely equal like everything else.} 18. Bd3 Nxb3+ 19. cxb3 Rxd3 20. Bxe5 $11) 18. Kb2 Nxc3 19. Kxc3 {Ok, I did finally actually capture a bishop, so that's good. But I spent almost an hour of time on the last three moves! I was still in denial about how equal the position is. Realizing I needed to play faster, I quickly committed a blunder:} Rd4 $4 20. f3 Be6 {Now while he was thinking I realized I had missed f4 when I'm completely busted.} 21. Rad1 $4 {Giving me another chance! Now this is a classic case of one mistake leading to another. I recognized that my previous move had been a blunder, but in this position I still wanted to find a way to make use of the rook on d4, rather than admit that putting it there was simply wrong.} (21. f4 {Cleanly wins a pawn, with interest:} f6 (21... f5 {Makes things even worse:} 22. Bf3 Rxf4 23. Rxe5 Bd7 24. Re7 {White is threatening Rxg7 but also Bxb7+ followed by Rxd7 so I'm completely busted.}) 22. fxe5 fxe5 23. Bf3 {and I can't defend e5.}) 21... Rhd8 $2 (21... Rxd1 $1 {This is the best move. But it's difficult to accept that ... Rd4 was stupid and that the rook should immediately move again.} 22. Rxd1 Kc7 {White's rook looks nice on the d-file but black is not any worse and can start pushing the kingside majority. I looked at this and calculated the following completely nonsensical variation.} 23. Kb4 f5 24. Bd5 $4 (24. Bd3 $15) 24... Rd8 25. c4 {I thought I shouldn't allow this but probably because I let my preconceived notion that I didn't want to play ...Rxd1 bias my perception. In fact black is winning here!} Bxd5 26. cxd5 Kd6 {Eventually white will lose the d-pawn.}) 22. Rxd4 exd4+ (22... Rxd4 $4 {Allows the same tactic as before:} 23. f4 $18) 23. Kd3 {I thought I would be able to easily hold this position despite my isolated pawn, since I should be able to organize a bishop check to drive white's king away whenever he brings the rook to attack the pawn. But this was wildly optimistic. White has many ways to approach the position and this is clearly a lot less practical than trading rooks on d1 on move 21.} h6 (23... g6 $14 {Better according to Stockfish.}) 24. f4 {The difficulty of this position is highlighted by Stockfish's strong assertion that black must play .. .b6 here. When Stockfish begins running it evaluates this position around +1.2, but as it "thinks" longer it figures out ways for black to hold.} Rd6 25. a4 Kc7 26. f5 Bc8 27. Kc4 {Stockfish says I can draw with ...a5!, giving away my d4 pawn but getting my remaining pawns on the correct color relative to the bishops.} b6 $4 28. b4 $18 h5 29. Rf1 a5 $6 30. b5 Bd7 31. h3 g6 32. fxg6 fxg6 33. Bd5 Bf5 34. Kxd4 Kd7 35. c4 Bc2 36. c5 bxc5+ 37. Kxc5 Bf5 38. b6 Be6 39. Bxe6+ Rxe6 40. Kb5 Re2 41. Ka6 1-0

[Event "Oregon Closed - Championship Section"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2026.02.13"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Raptis, Nick"]
[Black "Russell, Corey"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Wilson Gibbins"]
[ECO "E01"]
[WhiteElo "2331"]
[BlackElo "2200"]
[WhiteFideId "-1"]
[BlackFideId "-1"]
[PlyCount "71"]
[GameId "2282997143657713"]
[SourceVersionDate "2026.02.13"]

{[%evp 0,71,12,15,13,16,8,0,17,0,12,22,17,19,38,44,35,28,32,43,49,59,62,48,52,31,35,18,20,45,15,-11,28,37,166,135,313,288,280,292,291,292,282,303,293,328,274,277,345,319,349,326,513,470,409,368,447,459,479,466,555,497,507,485,499,470,501,450,472,485,477,501,471,498]} 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3 e6 4. Bg2 {Nick's move order strives for a Catalan without allowing some of Black's trickier lines involving an early d5xc4 or Bf8-b4+. But it does allow Black some alternative approaches, and Corey tries one of them.} c5 5. c4 cxd4 6. O-O Nc6 7. Nxd4 {Nick and Corey have conspired to reach a reversed Gruenfeld position.} Bc5 8. Nb3 Be7 9. cxd5 exd5 ({White scores well after} 9... Nxd5 {but none of White's tries impress Stockfish} 10. Nc3 (10. e4 Ndb4) (10. Bd2 a5 11. a4 O-O 12. Nc3 Ncb4) 10... Nxc3 11. Qxd8+ Nxd8 12. bxc3 Bd7 13. Be3 Bc6 {Nick was fortunate that Stockfish declined its invitation to the Oregon Closed this year :-). Seriously, practical chess plays out very differently from what your annotator sees with an engine running.}) 10. Nc3 {And now we have sort of a Tarrasch variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined.} O-O 11. Bg5 Be6 12. Bxf6 ({White doesn't have to cash in.} 12. Rc1 $14) (12. Qd3 $14) 12... Bxf6 13. Nxd5 Bxb2 14. Rb1 Ba3 15. e4 Qd6 {Not a mistake, but an inaccuracy. This gives Nick a target, and he takes aim with the next move.} (15... Re8 $11) (15... Rc8 $11) 16. Nd2 {Threatening both Nd2-c4 and Rb1xb7} Bxd5 $2 ({Stockfish suggests} 16... Ne5 {and believes Black's two Bishops are sufficient compensation after} 17. Rxb7 Qa6 {but it isn't obvious to me.}) ({The more human move} 16... Qd7 {defends the pawn on b7 and gets the Black's queen out of range of the knight attack when it reaches c4.} {After} 17. Qa4 {White has a slight edge}) 17. exd5 Na5 (17... Ne5 18. Rxb7 $16) 18. Qa4 $1 {Equal material, opposite colored bishops, yet white is winning. Nick will demonstrate White's advantage with a precise sequence of moves.} b6 19. Ne4 Qe7 20. d6 $1 Bxd6 21. Nxd6 Qxd6 22. Bxa8 Rxa8 23. Rfd1 Qg6 {Black is has a pawn to compensate for the exchange deficit, but it doesn't make any difference. White's major pieces dominate the board, and Black's knight is only a spectator.} 24. Rbc1 h5 25. Qd7 h4 26. Rc8+ Rxc8 27. Qxc8+ Kh7 28. Qh3 Qh5 29. Rd4 g5 30. Qf5+ Qg6 31. Qxg6+ Kxg6 32. gxh4 gxh4 33. Rxh4 Nc6 34. Rc4 Ne5 35. Rc7 a5 36. f4 1-0

[Event "Oregon Closed - Championship Section"]
[Site "Portland, Oregon"]
[Date "2026.02.14"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Gibbins, Wilson"]
[Black "Russell, Corey"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Fritz 19 and Corey Russell"]
[ECO "A30"]
[WhiteElo "2223"]
[BlackElo "2200"]
[WhiteFideId "-1"]
[BlackFideId "-1"]
[PlyCount "115"]
[GameId "2280781142196254"]
[EventDate "2026.02.13"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "7"]
[EventCountry "USA"]
[SourceVersionDate "2026.02.13"]

{[%evp 16,115,48,39,88,85,108,52,58,60,256,84,294,304,290,230,398,420,416,138,143,133,177,188,195,206,190,184,292,219,224,227,219,135,136,116,114,116,113,117,129,115,117,111,115,114,116,104,112,113,123,117,116,94,103,99,102,98,92,97,101,82,96,94,122,110,203,200,197,199,201,173,380,197,264,252,466,561,546,558,599,539,832,819,812,820,790,690,817,680,1132,1008,1252,986,1052,946,1557,1359,2076,1655,29982,29983] So all comments are Fritz 19 with my comments denoted by a - cjr at the end. - cjr} 1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 b6 4. g3 Bb7 5. Bg2 e6 6. O-O a6 7. d4 cxd4 8. Qxd4 d6 9. b3 Nc6 (9... Nbd7 $14 {I had great difficulty in thinking clearly this game. This was the first game of the closed and also there are no masters in Southern Oregon where I live other than myself so don't much practice playing masters over the board. As is typical when away from home, I got no little to no sleep at the hotel. That's not really an excuse I know the kngiht belongs on d7 as it shores up b6. For some reason I was worried about losing my pawn but I have resources which I wasn't able to see over the board. For example 9. ... Nbd7 10. Ba3 Nc5 is an effective defense. Also I've played the hedgehog many times and normally know the knight doesn't belong at c6 and there's a potential drawback which we will discuss shortly. - cjr}) 10. Qf4 $16 Qc7 11. Bb2 (11. Rd1 $16) 11... Be7 {White is slightly better.} 12. Rac1 {[%cal Oc3d5] Threatens to win with Nd5!} Rd8 $2 {Stll fixated on the defense of the d pawn. Due to the variation Fritz points out I need to do ...Qb8 with the idea of ...O-O and ...Rfd8. White is clearly better due to my sloppy opening play. - cjr} (12... Ne5 $1 $14) 13. Rfd1 $2 (13. Nd5 $18 {is more deadly.} exd5 14. Bxf6 Bxf6 15. cxd5) 13... O-O $2 {[#]} (13... Ne5 $16) 14. Nd5 $1 $18 {[%mdl 512] This positional sacrifice should not have surprised me, as I have used this very positional tactic myself many times. As I mentioned I had difficulty thinking clearly. - cjr} exd5 15. cxd5 Qd7 $2 (15... Nxd5 16. Rxd5 Qd7 17. Bxg7 Kxg7) 16. dxc6 Bxc6 17. Qc4 $2 {Over the board I would have done the exchange sac too, as it looked quite devasting. I was sure Qc4 was an inaccuracy although White's position is so good he can get away with it. - cjr} (17. Rxc6 $18 {has better winning chances.} Qxc6 18. Nd4) 17... Bb5 $16 18. Qc7 {White has more active pieces. - Fritz Also there is a very strong positional basis for white's move as he has the far superior pawn structure so it will be hard for black to avoid a loss in an endgame. - cjr} Qxc7 (18... Rc8 $16 19. Qxb6 Bxe2) 19. Rxc7 $18 Rd7 (19... Bxe2 $2 20. Re1 Nd5 21. Rxe2 $18) 20. Rc2 Rdd8 21. Nd4 Rc8 (21... d5 {keeps fighting.} 22. Nxb5 axb5) 22. Rdc1 (22. Rxc8 $6 Rxc8 23. a4 (23. Nxb5 axb5 24. Bxf6 gxf6 $18) 23... Bd7 $18) 22... Rxc2 23. Rxc2 {Nxb5 would now be deadly.} (23. Nxc2 $6 Rc8 $16) 23... d5 {If I don't give my e7 bishop some moves then Nf5 will be disastrous which is why I sacked this pawn. Also there was a possibility of bishops of opposites which may give me some chances to draw. - cjr} 24. Nf5 Bc5 25. Bxf6 gxf6 26. Bxd5 Rd8 {I had a neat tactic here I was hoping he would fall for but of course he didn't. E.g., 27. e4? Bd3 28. Rd2 Rxd5! 29. exd5 Bxf5 and I could think about winning it. Also of course after Rd2 not ...Bxe4? as Bxf7 would win my rook. - cjr} 27. Be4 Rd1+ 28. Kg2 Bd7 29. Kf3 Bxf5 30. Bxf5 $16 {[%mdl 4096] Endgame. KRB-KRB} a5 31. Rc4 Rf1 32. e3 h6 33. Bd3 Rd1 34. Rg4+ Kf8 35. Bc4 Rd2 36. a4 Rb2 37. Rf4 Kg7 38. Ke4 Bd6 39. Rf5 Kg6 40. h4 {[%cal Bh2h4,Bh4h5][%mdl 32] Black has one last idea to hang on. First he needs to recognize the most straight-forward plan for white is to sack his rook for the black bishop then have his king mop up the queen side pawns and the white a pawn wins the game. Therefore black must play 40. .. .. Rd2 here to stop that. Then black just plays moves like ...Rd2, ...Rd1 etc. If white trades rooks the bishop endgame is easily drawn. - cjr} Bb4 (40... h5 $16 {was called for.} 41. Rd5 Bb4) 41. h5+ $18 Kg7 {[#]} 42. Kd5 $1 Rd2+ 43. Kc6 Bc5 $2 (43... Rd8 44. Kxb6 Rd6+ 45. Kc7 Rd2) 44. g4 (44. Rxc5 $142 bxc5 45. Kb6 Rxf2 46. Kxa5) 44... Rd6+ (44... Rd8 {might work better.} 45. Kb5 Rc8) 45. Kc7 {[%cal Of5c5] And now Rxc5! would win.} Rd1 $2 {[#]} (45... Bb4 46. Rb5 Ba3) 46. Rxc5 $1 {[%mdl 512]} bxc5 {KR-KB} 47. Kb6 {[%csl Ba5,Bc5]} f5 48. gxf5 (48. Kxc5 $2 {is the wrong capture.} fxg4 49. Be2 Rc1+ 50. Kb5 f5 $19) 48... Rh1 49. Kxa5 (49. Kxc5 Rxh5 50. e4 Rh1 $17) 49... Rxh5 50. Kb6 Rxf5 51. a5 Rf6+ 52. Kxc5 Rxf2 53. a6 Ra2 54. Kb6 h5 {[%cal Bh6h5,Bh5h4,Bh4h3][%mdl 32]} 55. a7 h4 56. Bd5 h3 57. a8=Q ({Less strong is} 57. a8=B Rb2 $16) 57... Rxa8 58. Bxa8 {Weighted Error Value: White=0.29 (precise) /Black=0.65} 1-0

[Event "Oregon Closed - Championship Section"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2026.02.14"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Zavortink, Matt"]
[Black "Tabet, Roger"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Matt Zavortink"]
[ECO "E94"]
[WhiteElo "2285"]
[BlackElo "2144"]
[WhiteFideId "-1"]
[BlackFideId "-1"]
[PlyCount "49"]
[GameId "2284456146571301"]
[EventDate "2026.??.??"]
[SourceVersionDate "2026.02.13"]

{[%evp 0,49,18,9,30,3,44,35,58,56,38,46,55,33,67,54,69,44,67,56,64,33,29,30,30,-56,49,53,108,90,104,96,196,246,291,351,355,225,361,526,533,613,618,676,676,478,631,557,894,884,895,1043] After losing the first game the night before I figured there was no way I could win the tournament so I just needed to show up and try to play my best. I got lucky in this game and was able to win directly out of my opening preparation, only needing to think deeply one time.} 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. d4 {Objectively this is a nonsensical move order, first avoiding the Grunfeld with 1.Nf3 but now allowing it. But I had my reasons based on my opponent's repertoire.} O-O 5. e4 d6 6. Be2 Na6 7. O-O e5 8. Be3 Ng4 {I had a feeling I would reach this position and had prepared quite a bit. The database shows ...Ng4 as the most popular move, but looking through the games it's clear that really strong players have moved on to other options in the last decade!} 9. Bg5 Qe8 10. h3 {This position was a bit of a chore to prepare and remember because black has many options. Black can retreat with Nf6 or play exd4 first and then Nf6 or Ne5. And black can throw in h6 first and then try to play either of those two options! But I was confident I remembered my analysis.} h6 11. Bh4 exd4 (11... Nf6 {One of the main positional ideas of h3 can be seen in this line:} 12. Bxf6 Bxf6 13. c5 $1 {Black's structure gets completely trashed, for example:} exd4 14. Nd5 Bd8 15. Bxa6 $14) 12. Nd5 $1 {This idea is somewhat less good if black hasn't included the moves ...h6 and Bh4 because there ...f6 will come with tempo against the bishop on g5, allowing black to drive the knight back with ...c6.} (12. Nxd4 $6 {In this case black's knight clearly belongs on f6:} Nf6 {White must make some kind of positional concession to defend e4 so black is probably doing alright.}) 12... Ne5 (12... g5 {Probably black's best option, this was one of the crazier lines I had prepared and I was trying to remember the details at the board:} 13. hxg4 gxh4 14. Nxh4 c6 15. Nf4 {A pretty weird position where white will soon lose the e4 pawn. But the engine gives about +1 since white has great control of the weakened light-square on the kingside, with moves like Nf5, Nh5, and Bd3 in the air.}) 13. Nxd4 {Here I knew that black's best move according to the engine was the sad ...g5, and that the evaluation was about 1. 5 in that case.} Kh8 $2 {Now I'm out of my preparation. I did my normal 20 minute think and found the strongest way to continue.} 14. f4 $1 (14. Nb5 {Is good according to Stockfish, but messier than necessary:} g5 15. Bg3 (15. Nbxc7 Nxc7 16. Nxc7 Qd8 17. Nxa8 gxh4 {Not so clear to me during the game, and not really a good use of time to calculate whether or not you can extract the a8 knight when there are simpler options.}) 15... Qd8 {Is maybe not so bad for black, white's knights will get kicked back by ...c6}) (14. Nf6 $4 Qe7 $17 {This is the point of black's ...Kh8 move.}) (14. Bf6 {A bit tempting, trying to go Qd2 next to threaten the h6 pawn! But white's pieces get driven back:} Bxf6 15. Nxf6 Qd8 16. Nd5 c6 {Black misses the dark-squared bishop but the position isn't so obviously bad with ...Nc5 coming next.}) 14... Nc6 (14... Nd7 {This move prevents black's queen from defending c7 and thus loses tons of material:} 15. Nb5 {During the game I was happy to see that the attempt to complicate with} Qxe4 {gets crushed by} 16. Bd3 {when the queen has to retreat to e6 or e8 and get forked by Nxc7 next}) 15. Nb5 Qd7 {A very sad position for black with all of the pieces bottled up on the queenside. Given enough time black would like to move the c6 knight and force white black with the threat of ...c6, so I thought it was important to maintain the forward momentum here.} 16. f5 {Threatening to trap the bishop with f6.} (16. Bg4 f5 17. exf5 gxf5 {This is an achievement for white, weakening black's structure. But what's the follow up idea? I thought the game continuation was cleaner.}) 16... Be5 {Black admirably tries to give material and complicate the position in typical King's Indian style, but thankfully it's easy to maintain control as white.} (16... g5 17. f6 gxh4 18. fxg7+ Kxg7 {Black gets crushed by many moves, a nice one is} 19. Rf6 {planning Qd2 and Raf1.}) 17. fxg6 f5 {One more long-ish think here to find the most precise way forward.} 18. exf5 Rxf5 19. Rxf5 Qxf5 20. Bd3 Qf8 21. Qh5 $1 {I was happy to spot this idea back on move 18. Black cannot defend h6 because I have ideas like Rf1-f7 and Bg5} Be6 22. Rf1 Qg7 23. Bg5 Kg8 24. Nf6+ Bxf6 25. Bxf6 {Black resigned since ...Qf8 will be met by g7 and Qxh6.} 1-0

[Event "Oregon Closed - Championship Section"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2026.02.14"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Raptis, Nick"]
[Black "Zavortink, Matt"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Annotator "Matt Zavortink"]
[ECO "E94"]
[WhiteElo "2331"]
[BlackElo "2285"]
[WhiteFideId "-1"]
[BlackFideId "-1"]
[PlyCount "66"]
[GameId "2284456146571302"]
[EventDate "2026.??.??"]
[SourceVersionDate "2026.02.13"]

{[%evp 0,66,18,33,27,19,45,49,33,35,39,33,39,42,56,42,59,12,56,56,53,53,66,52,52,60,56,57,44,45,39,12,21,13,17,11,9,15,14,12,11,0,-1,-16,-2,0,3,-6,-9,-11,-2,-37,-33,-62,-48,-52,-60,-78,-61,-64,-64,-64,-73,-73,-63,-1004,-1004,-1004,-1014]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 d6 5. e4 O-O 6. Be2 Na6 {Having just beaten this variation as white, I decided to try it as black.} 7. O-O e5 8. Re1 {This is the main alternative to the main line with Be3 as I played in the previous game.} Bg4 9. dxe5 {Here I felt a bit foolish for not knowing the move. Especially as in my pre-tournament notes I had identified this line with Re1 as something Nick might try against me. Unfortunately there are a lot of weird tactics in the position that I had to waste time calculating.} Bxf3 (9... dxe5 {I really felt like I should be able to play this move but couldn't quite work out how I would get my sacrificed pawn back. Here are some of the lines I calculated.} 10. Qxd8 Raxd8 11. Nxe5 Bxe2 12. Rxe2 Nc5 $1 {Threatening to take on e4.} (12... Rfe8 13. Nf3 Nc5 14. Bg5 {I thought white just keeps the pawn here.}) ({The typical K.I.D. response to Nxe5 doesn't work:} 12... Nxe4 $4 13. Rxe4 {and the e5 knight is defended.}) 13. Nf3 (13. f3 $2 Nfxe4 14. Nxe4 Rd1+ $1 15. Kf2 Bxe5 16. Nxc5 Bd4+ {showing why black needed to throw in ...Rd1+ earlier!}) 13... Nfxe4 14. Nxe4 Rd1+ 15. Ne1 {I made it all the way here during my in-game analysis. But didn't find the one good move for black, which is very obvious when you actually see the position:} Nd3 $1 $15) 10. Bxf3 {After my 20 minute think Nick blitzed this move out instantly.} (10. exf6 {I wasted a lot of time looking at this line, particularly white's queen sacrifice.} Bxe2 11. fxg7 $5 (11. Rxe2 $5 Qxf6 {Stockfish thinks white is slightly better here, though the edge is a lot smaller than what white typically gets in this structure since black has already succeeded in trading a couple pieces.}) 11... Bxd1 12. gxf8=Q+ Qxf8 13. Rxd1 {For whatever reason I really had to convince myself that this position was alright for black. It felt a bit scary to give up my dark-squared bishop and face a possible attack from moves like Nd5 and a future Bb2. Stockfish says it's -1, which is exactly what the material balance is.} f5 {I was planning this move.} 14. exf5 Qxf5 $17 {Looking at the position now it's more obvious to me that black is getting good play on the weakened light squares with moves like ...Nb4/c5 and of course ...Re8.}) 10... dxe5 11. Be3 {He played this move quite quickly, and I realized that I probably could've gotten here with either 9...dxe5 or 9...Bxf3, as playing this kind of position was probably his plan all along. So I felt mildly annoying at having spent a bunch of time calculating back on move 9! But I suppose it was important. We've reached a standard King's Indian exchange structure. As is typical, black's pieces currently don't look too active, and white will be able to develop a slight initiative with moves like Qb3 and Rad1. But in the long run black's structure is healthier since I have an outpost on d4. I'm also happy to have achieved ...Bg4xf3 as this leaves me with 3 minor pieces that can access d4 to white's 2. White needs to be very careful about entering any endgame where the light-squared bishop remains stuck inside of the pawn structure, especially if black succeeds in getting any minor piece to d4. The next several moves are critical. Black needs to figure out how to defend while maintaining a harmonious position.} c6 {There aren't really any other moves to consider, if I start with something like ... Qe7 then Nd5 is awkward.} 12. Qb3 {White attacks b7. Here I spent 20 minutes and was happy with the solution I found. Black needs to defend b7 and also be able to start rerouting the offsides a6 knight, which would clearly like to go to e6 to eye the d4 outpost. To achieve this, black will have to play one weird move! There's simply no way to do it with normal, intuitive, forward moves.} Qe7 (12... Qa5 $2 {I really wanted this move to work as it seems like the most active option in the spirit of the King's Indian. But it just doesn't!} 13. Qxb7 Nb4 {I am threatening ...Nc2 and also maybe to draw with some kind of perpetual attack on white's queen.} (13... Rfb8 14. Qxc6 Nb4 15. Qa4 $1 Qxa4 16. Nxa4 Nc2 $18 {I win an exchange but white has won two pawns and has an easy plan to start pushing forwards on the queenside. White is just winning.}) 14. a3 {I was happy to spot this move during the game which I thought just definitively refuted my idea and allowed me to mentally move on!} Nc2 15. b4 Qd8 {Now white can play either rook to d1, saving the material. I also noticed that white can play Qxc6, just giving an exchange but getting a lot of space and activity on the queenside in return. So this idea seemed like a dead end. Though now when I analyze the position with a more powerful cloud engine it actually thinks black is OK here! Though I still think practically it was correct to avoid all of this.}) (12... Qc7 {This seemed a bit weird but black does have the idea of playing ...Nd7 followed by ...Nac5-e6. It just didn't seem to work though:} 13. Rad1 Nd7 (13... Rfd8 $6 {It was important to see that most versions of this move blunder a pawn:} 14. Rxd8+ Rxd8 15. Bxa7) 14. Qa3 $1 $16 {Black's pieces look quite clumsy.}) (12... b6 {Doesn't really help:} 13. Qa4 $14 {I have to play a clumsy move like ...Qc8 anyway.}) 13. Rad1 Rfb8 $1 {This is the point of ...Qe7. I was very happy to find this somewhat bizarre looking move which just fixes all of black's problems. I overprotect b7 to free up my queen, but the main point is that now I can play ...Nc5 and not fear Qa3 because I am able to play the typical King's Indian move ...Bf8! breaking the pine and activating my dark-squared bishop.} (13... Rfd8 $2 {Once again loses a pawn:} 14. Rxd8+ Rxd8 15. Bxa7 $14) (13... Nc5 $2 {Walks into a pin:} 14. Qa3 b6 (14... Nfd7 $4 15. Rxd7 $18) 15. Na4 Nfd7 16. Bg4 $16 {Things are starting to go wrong for black.}) (13... Rfc8 {The engine very mildly prefers this move but it's inhuman. If I'm going to move the rook somewhere weird I might as well just defend my b7 pawn to avoid having to calculate Qxb7 on every turn.}) (13... h5 $5 {Stockfish also likes this move which I find interesting, highlighting that white isn't actually threatening anything and doesn't really have an obvious way to make progress on the queenside or on the d-file. One follow up idea is ...Kh7 and ...Bh6.}) 14. Rd2 Nc5 (14... Nc7 $5 {I guess this move keeps more pieces on the board and more life in the position, to be honest I didn't even consider it.}) 15. Bxc5 {I was surprised he played this. It feels like this move admits that white has nothing. Which might be true, but also doesn't seem like a thing Nick would do!} (15. Qa3 Bf8 {Is the point when I can probably continue with ...Ne6 next.}) (15. Qc2 {I am somewhat surprised he didn't play this move. To be honest I hadn't considered this position much, I just assumed I must be OK with my knight getting to e6, which Stockfish confirms is true. But perhaps here there's more room for him to try to outplay me than in the game continuation.} Ne6 16. Red1 b6 $11 {preparing ...Rd8 without hanging the a7 pawn seems logical} (16... h5 $5 {Stockfish move, of course!}) (16... Qf8 $5 {preparing ...Bh6 to weaken white's control of d4.})) 15... Qxc5 16. Red1 {Over the last few moves I have made a few small positional gains. I have gotten rid of my out of play a6 knight and traded it for white's bishop pair, which has gotten me closer to isolating white's bad f3 bishop. Here I wasn't exactly sure what to do and of course had already spent too much of my precious time, so I figured I should just try to trade off white's active rooks. As far as I could tell the order of moves made almost no difference in this position.} Bf8 {Hinting at ...Qb4 and preparing ...Be7 to support ...Rd8.} 17. a3 Qb6 18. Qc2 Rd8 {The position is still objectively equal, as long as white finds the correct plan, which of course Nick does.} 19. Na4 $1 Qc7 20. c5 $1 {Improving the relationship between white's minor pieces and pawn structure. Once white plays b4, the f3 bishop can try to become more active on the a2-g8 diagonal. c5 also creates an outpost for white on d6. This is a really essential plan for white in the exchange K.I.D. structure and often the only way white is able to maintain an equal position.} Rxd2 {Trying to play quickly, again I really couldn't tell if anything mattered, I can probably go ...Be7 first or even start undermining white's queenside pawns, I thought it was all just equal.} 21. Qxd2 Be7 (21... b5 $5 {I did not consider this move that immediately forces cxb6 when black must be at least equal.}) 22. b4 Rd8 23. Qc2 {Here I spent a decent chunk of my remaining time as it is important for me to ensure I can deal with white's idea of Nb2-c4, creating pressure against e5 and possibly occupying the d6 outpost. I think a stronger player would see the solution to these problems way faster than me since they would have more knowledge of the typical middlegame maneuvers in a position like this one.} Rxd1+ 24. Qxd1 h5 $1 {I thought this was an important move to prevent white from activating the bishop with Bg4. For instance if I had instead played 24... Qd7? white would play 25.Qxd7 Nxd7 26.Bg4 when the idea of Bc8 next will probably cost me the game.} 25. Nc3 {Prophylaxis against my knight maneuvers.} (25. Nb2 {Against this I was planning a simplifying move, though in reality I think Nick may have avoided this because he saw a more ambitious plan for black.} Nh7 $5 {Really interesting idea that I didn't consider until after the game. I think this may be why Nick didn't play Nb2. Black wants Ng5-e6-d4, finally claiming the d4 outpost. White is not quite in time to stop it.} (25... b6 {This was my planned move which is just very equal.} 26. cxb6 axb6 $11) 26. Nc4 (26. Be2 Ng5 {The best route for the knight because it attacks e4, meaning that white does not have time to get in Bc4 to capture the knight when it lands on e6. Stockfish says 0.00 but I think from a human perspective it looks like something has gone mildly wrong for white.}) 26... Ng5 27. Qa1 Bf6 28. Nd6 Ne6 {Another scenario where it looks like white has messed up. Although white's knight has temporarily made it to the outpost, black is ready to play . ..Nd4 and then ...Be7 to boot the knight out. As always the evaluation of the position depends on some very specific details, here Stockfish again says 0.00. I found the following engine sequence extremely instructive:} 29. Be2 {Stopping ...Nd4 because of Bc4.} b5 {Stopping Bc4!} 30. Bd1 {Hoping for the same idea on b3.} Nd4 {Stopping Bb3, now black is ready for ...Be7 winning material.} 31. Qa2 $1 {Stopping ...Be7 which would now hang f7, and preparing Bb3 which will force black to play ...Nxb3. Stockfish shows many paths to equality:} Bg7 {Rerouting to attack the knight from f8, without interfering with the queen's defense of f7.} 32. Bb3 Nxb3 {Only move to defend f7.} 33. Qxb3 Bf8 34. Qd3 {Only move to defend the knight.} Qd8 $11 {At the end of all that, both sides appear a bit stuck. White's knight looks nice but does not threaten anything. It's also pinned to white's queen. Then again black probably shouldn't take it and give white a passed pawn after cxd6. So Stockfish shuffles around and makes a variety of draws.}) 25... a5 {Again, being a bit low on time, I am just trying to simplify the position. I still thought everything was very equal.} (25... Nh7 {Now this is too slow to do anything:} 26. Be2 Ng5 27. Bc4 {White is ready to take the knight before it can get to d4.}) 26. Be2 {Objectively not bad, but maybe not recognizing the potential danger.} (26. Na4 axb4 (26... Nh7 $5 {Once again I can consider this.}) 27. axb4 Nd7 {It's very equal as black can play ...b6 or ...b5 next.}) 26... axb4 27. axb4 b6 {Now suddenly the position becomes practically difficult for white. Nick found the correct idea that Stockfish plays, but unfortunately an inferior version.} 28. Bc4 $6 (28. cxb6 {Just loses a pawn:} Qxb6 29. b5 cxb5 30. Bxb5 {Now there are multiple ways to win a pawn, strongest according to Stockfish is} Bc5 31. Qe2 Ng4 32. Nd1 Bxf2+ 33. Nxf2 Nxf2 34. Qxf2 Qxb5 $19) (28. g3 $1 {This bizarre move is Stockfish's recommendation. Basically it's just fixing white's back-rank issues and will then play a slightly faster version of the idea Nick played in the game.} bxc5 29. b5 $1 cxb5 30. Bxb5 {White is ready to go Bc4 and then Nd5, supporting the loose minor pieces with Qd3 if necessary. Critically, setting up the idea in this way takes only 3 moves (Bb5, Bc4, Nd5), compared to the 4 moves required in the game (Nxb5, Nc3, Bc4, Nd5)! Once white gets Nd5 in it's clear that the position should be a draw; black's extra pawn is permanently blockaded and black actually must be careful about potential pressure on the f7 pawn.}) 28... bxc5 29. b5 cxb5 30. Nxb5 Qa5 $1 {White isn't quite in time to reach the desired setup.} 31. f3 $6 (31. Qd3 $2 Qe1+ 32. Qf1 Qxe4 $19) (31. h3 $1 {Stockfish still holds on with this move since} Nxe4 $2 {runs into} 32. Qb1 $3 {when black is still improbably equal after the forced move} Ng5 {allowing} 33. Qxg6+ Kf8 $11) 31... Qb4 (31... h4 $1 $17 {Stronger according to Stockfish.}) 32. Qb3 $4 {An uncharacteristic blunder.} (32. Qc1 {I was anticipating this move when I was planning ...h4 beginning to soften white's king position, though even better is} Nd7 $1 {planning ...Nb6 to break the blockade, though to see that this is good requires you to see the line} 33. Nc7 Nb6 34. Nd5 Nxd5 35. Bxd5 Bg5 $1 $16 {when the bishop activates a different way}) (32. Qd3 $15 {Still holding.}) 32... Qe1+ 33. Bf1 c4 $1 {Very thematic. Breaking the blockade and activating the dark-squared bishop wins on the spot. White resigned. If anyone actually read this far, I'll let you figure out why for yourself. As I was packing up Carl walked by, looked at the position for a moment and said "oh you guys agreed to a draw here?"} 0-1

[Event "Oregon Closed - Challengers Section"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2026.02.14"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Bimod, Karthik"]
[Black "Saputra, Yogi"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Wilson Gibbins"]
[ECO "E42"]
[WhiteElo "1972"]
[BlackElo "2001"]
[WhiteFideId "-1"]
[BlackFideId "-1"]
[PlyCount "131"]
[GameId "2278671811878912"]
[EventDate "2026.??.??"]
[SourceVersionDate "2026.02.13"]

{[%evp 0,128,12,21,24,18,17,12,12,16,15,20,25,18,16,12,15,1,60,19,27,23,35,39,36,31,34,26,53,64,65,70,95,67,73,48,77,32767,97,65,86,75,120,129,127,127,126,118,133,126,127,133,135,131,120,129,114,106,119,123,32767,32767,143,150,176,98,93,65,85,89,95,82,101,92,103,99,109,106,107,98,118,108,150,157,167,165,155,163,178,169,148,177,185,154,180,139,176,176,204,177,188,188,185,259,243,130,121,132,140,90,85,111,116,60,94,96,109,78,65,56,82,26,56,37,165,174,585,581,724,817,951]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 {The Rubinstein variation of the Nimzo-Indian - a mature opening choice from a young player.} c5 5. Nge2 ({By developing his knight to e2, White avoids the doubled pawns that often occur in the Huebner variation of the Nimzo-Indian. For an example of how it might turn out badly for White, check out game 5 from the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match.} 5. Bd3 Nc6 6. Nf3 Bxc3+ 7. bxc3 d6 8. e4 e5 9. d5 Ne7 10. Nh4 h6 11. f4 Ng6 12. Nxg6 fxg6 13. fxe5 dxe5 14. Be3 b6 15. O-O O-O 16. a4 a5 17. Rb1 Bd7 18. Rb2 Rb8 19. Rbf2 Qe7 20. Bc2 g5 21. Bd2 Qe8 22. Be1 Qg6 23. Qd3 Nh5 24. Rxf8+ Rxf8 25. Rxf8+ Kxf8 26. Bd1 Nf4 27. Qc2 $2 Bxa4 $1 {0-1 Spassky,B (2660)-Fischer,R (2785) World-ch27 Fischer-Spassky +7-3=11 Reykjavik 1972 (5)}) 5... d5 6. cxd5 (6. a3 {is the main line, but Karthik's move is natural too.}) 6... exd5 7. a3 Bxc3+ 8. Nxc3 {And after these normal moves we are in a roughly equal position that surprisingly appears only 9 times in my database. Chess isn't played out yet.} c4 $6 {This gets Black into trouble. Since White has the bishop pair it seems logical to keep the game closed and create the possibility of a pawn roller on the queenside with b7-b5 and a7-a5. But it doesn't work out that way.} (8... cxd4 9. exd4) 9. Bd2 (9. b3 $1 b5 $6 (9... cxb3 10. Qxb3 {is similar to the game continuation and better for White.}) 10. bxc4 (10. Nxb5 $2 Qa5+) 10... bxc4 11. Bxc4 $1 {and Black can't recapture, as} dxc4 $2 12. Qf3 $1 {recovers White's material investment with interest.}) 9... Nc6 (9... a6 $1 {gives Black the chance to get his pawns rolling on the queenside.} 10. b3 (10. e4 $5 dxe4 11. Bg5 h6 $1 (11... b5 $6 12. a4 Bb7 13. axb5 axb5 14. Nxb5) 12. Bxf6 Qxf6 13. Bxc4 O-O 14. O-O (14. Nxe4 Qg6 15. Ng3 Qc6 16. Qb3 Qxg2 17. O-O-O $13) 14... Nc6 $11) 10... b5 11. bxc4 bxc4 12. Bxc4 $2 dxc4 13. Qf3 Ra7 {The move 9...a6 gave Black's rook a place to hide.}) 10. b3 $1 cxb3 11. Qxb3 {White is a little better here. His bishops are not yet active, but Black must be careful not to open the position. The isolated pawn on d5 is easily defended for the moment, but Black must always keep a piece or two commited to it. White continues to make minor threats, Black occassionally has to weaken his position a little in response, and the bishops eventually stretch the defense to the limit.} O-O 12. Bd3 Na5 13. Qb4 Bg4 14. f3 Be6 15. O-O Rc8 16. Rfc1 b6 17. Nb5 Qd7 18. Rab1 Rfd8 19. Rxc8 Rxc8 20. Qd6 Qxd6 21. Nxd6 Rd8 22. Nb5 Nc6 23. Rc1 Bd7 24. Be1 Re8 25. Kf2 {[%csl Ge3]} h6 26. Nd6 Re6 27. Nf5 h5 28. Ng3 g6 29. Ne2 Kf8 30. Nf4 Re8 31. Bb5 Rc8 32. Kf1 g5 33. Nd3 Ne7 34. Rxc8+ Nxc8 35. Bb4+ Ke8 36. Ba6 Bf5 37. Ne5 Bd7 38. Kf2 h4 39. Ke2 Nh5 40. Kd2 f6 41. Nxd7 Kxd7 42. Bb7 a5 43. Bf8 Ne7 44. Bxe7 Kxe7 45. Bxd5 Kd6 46. Bb3 Ng7 47. Kd3 Nf5 48. e4 Ne7 49. g3 b5 50. gxh4 gxh4 51. f4 f5 52. exf5 Nxf5 53. Ke4 Ng7 54. f5 Nh5 55. Kf3 a4 56. Ba2 Nf6 57. Ke2 $2 {White has played well in this ending and has kept Black under pressure. But this minor slip lets Black back into the game.} (57. Kf4 $18) 57... h3 $1 {Black siezes his chance for a draw.} 58. Ke3 Ng4+ 59. Kf4 Nxh2 60. Kg3 Nf1+ 61. Kxh3 Ne3 $2 {Perhaps Black has winning chances? If the Black King can cope with White's central passed pawns, then Black's distant passed pawns will be hard to stop.} ({Only one move draws} 61... Nd2 $1 62. f6 Ne4 63. f7 Ke7 $11) 62. f6 $1 {All other moves lose.} Nc2 63. d5 $1 Nxa3 {Black's queenside majority could win if he had the time, but White strikes first.} 64. f7 Ke7 65. d6+ Kf8 66. d7 1-0

[Event "Oregon Closed - Championship Section"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2026.02.15"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Zavortink, Matt"]
[Black "Russell, Corey"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Matt Zavortink"]
[ECO "A49"]
[WhiteElo "2285"]
[BlackElo "2200"]
[WhiteFideId "-1"]
[BlackFideId "-1"]
[PlyCount "55"]
[GameId "2284456146587687"]
[EventDate "2026.??.??"]
[SourceVersionDate "2026.02.13"]

{[%evp 0,55,34,19,18,1,16,-29,-26,-17,-25,-23,-9,-7,26,8,20,8,15,24,24,29,31,13,32,16,37,53,38,43,43,63,81,52,48,49,56,78,81,68,189,409,413,408,368,375,450,385,450,443,461,284,759,773,29983,29986,29987,29988] Another lucky, mercifully easy game that I won as a direct result of my opening preparation.} 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. b3 $5 {I remember thinking this move looked ridiculous the first time I saw it, but it makes it surprisingly tough for black to play typical King's Indian or Grunfeld moves on autopilot.} Bg7 4. Bb2 O-O 5. Bg2 d6 6. d4 {I used to really enjoy playing this position as white, but I eventually became disillusioned with the number of weird moves black can play here that are OK. For instance, ...b6, ...b5, and ...a5 are all close to equal according to Stockfish! This is an issue with a lot of flank openings. But I chose this line for this game because I was suspicious that my opponent was going to do something very old fashioned and very bad!} e5 $6 {This move was recommended in the ancient book The Unconventional King's Indian by Watson. But modern engines have not been kind to it.} (6... Nbd7 {If black wants to play this ... e5 idea they should at least play this move first since white has nothing better than castling kingside:} 7. O-O e5 (7... Re8 $1) 8. dxe5 Ng4 9. Qd2 Ngxe5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. c4 {White has reached a nice version of the typical Budapest gambit pawn structure (maybe there's a more appropriate name for it?) and should have a solid edge with ideas of Nc3-d5 or e4 and f4. But I think some King's Indian players could be happy shuffling around and defending this posiion, despite Stockfish's grim assessment!}) 7. dxe5 Ng4 8. Nc3 $1 {A weird option that is only available to white in this exact version of the ...e5 idea.} Nxe5 9. Nxe5 Bxe5 (9... dxe5 {Usually engines prefer to play this structure as black, though this version is quite bad:} 10. Qxd8 Rxd8 11. Nd5 Rd7 12. O-O-O {Black is in a strange bind.}) 10. Qd2 a5 11. O-O-O {This is white's idea. We want to launch an attack with h4-h5 next and probably Nd5 to trade the dark-squared bishops.} Na6 {Now I was out of my preparation. Actually I was annoyed at myself because I did remember that ...a5 and ...Na6 were the moves Stockfish wanted to play for black! Though I didn't look at them because they had almost never been played in the database!} 12. h4 {What else?} Nb4 {I thought this was a bit optimistic. Now I was amused, because in all of the games I had quickly perused in this line, I kept seeing grandmasters play Kb1 when I didn't understand why they weren't just blasting ahead with h5. Often Stockfish agreed with me that white should just go h5. But in this case black is threatening to take on c3 and take on a2, so I felt forced to play the GM-approved Kb1 after all!} 13. Kb1 (13. h5 {Actually this is still playable!} Bxc3 14. Bxc3 Nxa2+ 15. Kb1 Nxc3+ 16. Qxc3 {White's attack looks pretty dangerous!}) (13. a3 Bxc3 14. Bxc3 Na2+ 15. Kb1 Nxc3+ 16. Qxc3 h5 {White should be a bit better here but why not keep more pieces on the board? Especially since black's knight on b4 is not stable and the bishop on e5 can be harassed by white's kingside pawn storm.}) 13... Bf5 {I did not understand this move. Surely it improves my position to play e4?} 14. e4 Bg4 15. f3 Be6 {Now I did my first long think of the game. I considered h5 immediately, f4 first, and a3 first.} 16. f4 (16. h5 g5 {I didn't really like this. Ok, in a way I was definitely overthinking things, since basic chess logic would suggest that if black has to play ...g5 their position must be extremely bad. But it wasn't clear to me what my plan is after} 17. f4 Bf6 {Black is getting entrenched on the kingside dark squares and I didn't see an easy way to make progress. A really cool way suggested by Stockfish is:} 18. e5 dxe5 19. Ne4 $1 Qxd2 20. Nxf6+ Kg7 21. Rxd2 Kxf6 22. Bxe5+ Ke7 23. fxg5 {White has simply won a pawn with a completely dominating position.}) 16... Bg7 (16... Bf6 {I guess I wasn't sure what I was going to do after this since h5 would transpose to the previous line, though there I've maintained some other options as well.}) 17. a3 {It seemed prudent to kick away black's knight and reduce black's attacking chances.} (17. h5 a4 {This shouldn't really work but I thought it was giving black more play than they deserve:} 18. Nxa4 Nxa2 {I didn't think there was a reason to let things get this messy, though of course now when I look at this position for a moment I find some winning ideas very similar to what occur later in the game.}) 17... Nc6 18. h5 Nd4 {I didn't understand this move at first. I was probably planning Nd5 soon anyway, and now it also creates a discovered attack against black's knight? But then I realized black is intending to meet Nd5 with c5, the idea being that they have shielded their bishop on g7, keeping their king (somewhat) safe.} 19. hxg6 hxg6 {Kind of shocking to me, I figured of course he was going to take with the f-pawn to keep the h-file closed. Now I looked at the line 20.Ne2 Nxe2 21.Bxg7 Kxg7 22. Qxe2, when white is probably winning, but didn't see an immediate knockout. But visualizing this line and seeing black's king on g7 caused me to immediately see the strongest idea:} 20. f5 $1 {Throwing in this move first greatly improves the above variation.} gxf5 21. Ne2 c5 {Black pitches a pawn to keep things closed.} (21... Nxe2 22. Bxg7 Kxg7 {The difference here, compared to the previous variation, is that with the inclusion of f5 and gxf5 I can just mate black!} 23. Qh6+ Kg8 24. Qh7#) 22. Nxd4 cxd4 23. Bxd4 f6 24. exf5 Bf7 {Now I thought for a couple minutes, I have won a pawn and could play a move like Bb2 to win d6, but I found the most precise and aggressive continuation:} (24... Bxf5 25. Bd5+ $18) 25. Rh4 a4 26. Rg4 $1 {Switching the attack from the h-file to the g-file.} Bh5 27. Rxg7+ Kxg7 28. Qg5+ 1-0

[Event "Oregon Closed - Championship Section"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2026.02.15"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Raptis, Nick"]
[Black "Tang, Austin"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Wilson Gibbins"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "2331"]
[BlackElo "2197"]
[WhiteFideId "-1"]
[BlackFideId "-1"]
[PlyCount "65"]
[GameId "2281210915807403"]
[SourceVersionDate "2026.02.13"]

{[%evp 0,65,10,-16,1,-6,-16,-22,-14,-27,-20,32767,-8,-26,-28,-24,-25,-24,-36,-39,-19,-49,-40,-42,-26,-42,-4,-2,-30,-35,-17,-19,-29,-48,-14,5,-4,4,122,51,142,97,200,125,214,196,176,173,222,161,161,32767,137,138,131,144,127,131,251,138,439,367,379,32767,726,767,711,743]} {Going into round 5, Austin and Matt Zavortink are tied for first at 3-1, with Nick and Jason Cigan a half point behind at 2.5-1.5. Nick needs a win.} 1. g3 e5 2. Bg2 d5 3. d3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Bd6 5. O-O O-O 6. Nc3 Re8 7. e4 d4 8. Ne2 c5 9. Nd2 Nc6 {Engines prefer Black in this position - Black has more space. Engines are confident in their ability to maneuver with the extra space and defend against tactics. Nick doesn't care - he has a reversed King's Indian position and attacking chances on the kingside.} 10. h3 Rb8 11. f4 b5 {Black has a winning position on the queenside, if he can get there before White crashes through on the kingside.} 12. f5 Na5 {This seems logical, supporting the c5-c4 pawn break. Stockfish says it is too slow.} (12... a5 13. g4 h6 $5 {I wouldn't want to create a hook for White to open lines on the Kingside, but Stockfish says it is a good idea to hold up the g-pawn's advance, sometimes to buy time for a king evacuation.} (13... c4 14. Nf3 (14. dxc4 $2 bxc4 15. Nxc4 Bc5 16. Kh2 Ba6 $17) 14... h6 15. Kh1 Kf8 $15) 14. Nf3 Kf8 $15) (12... c4 13. g4 $13) 13. g4 $1 $14 {Nick is in his element. Austin won't blunder, but Nick will steadily improve his attacking position on the kingside. Note to self - avoid King's Indian positions against Nick.} c4 14. Nf3 Nd7 15. Ng3 b4 16. b3 cxd3 17. cxd3 Nc6 18. g5 g6 19. h4 a5 20. h5 Kg7 21. Nh4 Nf8 22. Qf3 Rb7 {One of the advantages of Black's space advantage is that this rook on the queenside can help defend his kingside. It isn't enough - Nick's attacking potential is too great.} 23. Bh3 Kg8 24. Bg4 Rc7 25. Bd2 Na7 26. Rac1 Nb5 27. Rxc7 Qxc7 28. hxg6 hxg6 29. Bh5 {White has other moves to retain his overwhelming advantage, but this is the flashiest.} gxh5 (29... Bc5 30. fxg6 fxg6 31. Nxg6) 30. Nxh5 Nd7 31. Nf6+ Kf8 (31... Nxf6 32. gxf6 Rd8 {tries to make a path for his king to flee, but} 33. Bh6 {keeps Black's king in the checkmate zone.}) 32. Qh5 Ke7 33. Nd5+ 1-0

[Event "Oregon Closed - Championship Section"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2026.02.15"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Haessler, Carl"]
[Black "Zavortink, Matt"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Annotator "Matt Zavortink"]
[ECO "C00"]
[WhiteElo "2200"]
[BlackElo "2285"]
[WhiteFideId "-1"]
[BlackFideId "-1"]
[PlyCount "90"]
[GameId "2284456146587688"]
[EventDate "2026.??.??"]
[SourceVersionDate "2026.02.13"]

{[%evp 0,90,30,30,41,-7,16,-7,4,4,4,-43,-30,-26,-13,-24,-40,-66,-65,-62,-68,-68,-30,-47,9,-58,0,-87,-72,-127,-117,-111,-111,-126,-116,-116,-120,-132,-105,-96,-93,-95,-16,-21,-2,2,-8,-11,-13,-8,-8,-51,-51,-51,-48,-60,-60,-58,-58,-58,-66,-55,-38,-84,-53,-105,-116,-121,-78,-70,-36,-36,-25,-131,-137,-144,-144,-149,-147,-147,-160,-183,-153,-222,-203,-275,-275,-275,-275,-298,-275,-29997,-29998]} 1. e4 e6 2. d3 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. Ngf3 {I've had something weird prepared here for a while, but this was my first chance to play it in an over the board game!} Nc6 5. g3 $6 (5. c3 $1 {This is generally considered white's best move as really knowledgeable King's Indian Attack players want to avoid the line mentioned below (not the stupid line I played!). If black tries to play in the same style, white will simply develop the bishop on the f1-a6 diagonal:} dxe4 (5... e5 $5 {Reaching some kind of Reversed Philidor?}) (5... a5 $5 {The main move, waiting to play ...dxe4 until white commits to g3. Now after} 6. e5 Nd7 7. d4 {we've reached a Guimard Variation where white has wasted a turn but black has gained the move ...a5, which is not bad but certainly not the most productive thing either!}) 6. dxe4 e5 7. Bb5 $14) (5. e5 Nd7 6. d4 {We've reached a Guimard variation where black has an extra tempo, which should be enough to make it =} f6) 5... dxe4 6. dxe4 b6 $5 (6... e5 {This is generally black's idea in this line, arguing that white's bishop on g2 will be no better than king's bishop on c5. I won from this position in a past state championship against Ryan Richardson.}) 7. Bg2 {Falling for it.} Ba6 {Now it's a bit awkward for white.} 8. Bf1 {Blitzed out instantly. I assume he thought he could play Kxf1.} (8. c4 Qd3 {I've had this a lot online, the database tells me I have scored 2/3 from this position in Titled Tuesday!}) 8... Bxf1 (8... Bb7 $5) 9. Rxf1 {Now I did my normal long think. It's clear black has won the opening battle but it wasn't obvious to me how I'm supposed to develop. I figured castling queenside made sense to quickly get a rook on the d-file, Stockfish mildly disagrees.} (9. Kxf1 $2 Nxe4) 9... Qd7 $11 (9... Qe7 {I thought about this hoping for some awkward ...Qb4 stuff but didn't really believe it.}) (9... Be7 $1 $15 {The engine wants to play the most normal moves possible, Be7 and 0-0. Shocking!} 10. Qe2 O-O {This is quite awkward for white and Stockfish suggests bizarre moves like Rg1, Rh1, and a3.} 11. b3 (11. c3 Nd7 $1 {Maneuvering towards the weak d3 square.}) 11... Nd4 $1 $17) 10. Qe2 O-O-O 11. c3 {Here I realized I may have been overestimating my edge a bit. I was planning to allow e5, but realized ...Ng4 Qe4 is awkward. So I thought for 20 minutes and during this time Carl fell asleep!} e5 (11... Ng4 {Going to e5 and then d3. I wanted this to win but it just doesn't.} 12. Nc4 b5 $6 {Trying too hard.} (12... f5 $5 $11 {Interesting engine move I didn't think about at all!}) 13. h3 $14) (11... g6 {I wanted to prepare ...Bh6 since he is probably going to go b3/Bb2/0-0-0, but I got spooked by e5 again:} 12. e5 Nd5 13. Ne4 {Stockfish still says it's equal after ...h6, but then what was the point of ...g6?}) 12. b3 $6 {Carl took 10 minutes to play this move but it's because he was asleep for 8 minutes and then spent another minute trying to figure out what my last move had been. Stockfish really prefers b4 with an equal position since that improves white's chances in the ...Qd3 variation below.} g6 $6 $15 {The second strongest move.} (12... Qd3 $1 {This obvious move is the best move but I miscalculated one line.} 13. Qxd3 (13. Bb2 $2 Qc2 $19 {Stopping him from castling.}) 13... Rxd3 14. Ng5 {This is the move I completely misevaluated. I figured the idea of getting my rook to d3 isn't very good if I just have to come back to d7 or play the backwards ...Nd8 after which white can go Bb2 and drive my rook back.} (14. Bb2 Nxe4 {Cleanly wins a pawn.} 15. Nxe4 (15. Ke2 Nxd2) 15... Rxf3) 14... Rxc3 $1 15. Nxf7 Rg8 {Black is simply completely winning here as I've gained access to d4 for my knight and b4 for my bishop! Stockfish says -3!}) 13. Bb2 Bh6 14. O-O-O Qd3 15. Qxd3 $1 Rxd3 16. Kc2 $1 Rhd8 17. Bc1 $1 {Carl finds a string of good defensive moves and now I wasn't sure if I really had an advantage.} b5 $1 {Hoping to go ...b4 and gain control of the d4 square.} 18. a3 {It's only move 18 but in typical style my time was already getting lower than it should. I thought perhaps ...a5 intending to meet b4 with a4 could be best, fixing white's pawns on the dark-squares, and Stockfish agrees. But I couldn't really figure any of it out and it seemed a bit risky to give him a later c4 break, so I decided to just pass.} a6 19. Ne1 R3d6 20. f3 $11 {White has fixed most of his problems.} Na5 {I played this move quickly, threatening some cheap tactics on d2/b3.} 21. Ng2 $1 {He played this quickly as well, I guess appreciating that my tactic doesn't work!} Rd3 (21... Bxd2 {Appears to win a pawn, but it does not:} 22. Rxd2 Rxd2+ 23. Bxd2 Nxb3 $4 {White's king is overloaded, but:} 24. Bg5 $18 {and both of my knights are hanging.}) 22. b4 {I don't think white needed to rush with this move. I figured I should occupy c4 while I had the chance.} Bxd2 23. Rxd2 Rxd2+ 24. Bxd2 Nc4 {Now an interesting moment. During the game I was wondering if I was really any better if white plays the calm Bc1 simply defending. My knight looks nice on c4 but I have no way to make progress on the queenside. Even if I get in both ...a5 and ...c5, maybe supported by ... Kb6, white can just sit, and trading pawns on b4 doesn't obviousy help me. Instead Carl blundered a pawn, I believe because he thought everything was working the same way as in the previous Bg5 tactic.} 25. Bg5 $4 (25. Bc1 $11) 25... Nxa3+ $17 26. Kc1 (26. Kb3 {He was counting on this move, when again both of my knights are hanging, but he missed:} Nc4 27. Bxf6 Rd2 $1 $19 {Threatening the knight and mate on b2 (...Nd2 is also good but this is better).}) 26... Rd6 27. Ne3 (27. Bxf6 {I thought he would do this:} Rxf6 28. Ne3 Rc6 29. Kb2 Nc4+ 30. Nxc4 Rxc4 {I thought I would have winning chances with so many pawns still on the board. Stockfish says ...bxc4! is even stronger, supporting ...Rd3 when I can walk my king up and break with ...c5.}) 27... Nd7 (27... Rd3 $1 {A nice Stockfish move I didn't consider:} 28. Kb2 $2 Rxe3 29. Bxe3 Nc4+ $19) 28. Kb2 Nc4+ 29. Nxc4 bxc4 30. Kc2 Rd3 31. Bc1 (31. f4 {I believe against this move I was planning to blunder with:} Re3 $4 (31... exf4 $1 {I'm sure I would have noticed the mistake and hopefully I would have found this!}) 32. fxe5 Rxe4 33. Rxf7 {Something has clearly gone wrong for me.}) 31... c5 $1 $19 (31... Nb6 {Bringing my knight to a4 looks nice but won't do much once white plays Bd2.}) 32. Ba3 cxb4 33. Bxb4 {Now I really need to think about what I'm going to do against f4. At first I was thinking I will always meet f4-f5 with g5 to keep things closed, so I played slowly here. But in a couple moves I got scared about letting him claim that much space and about putting my pawns on the same color as his bishop. So here something more active was called for.} Nb8 $2 (33... Kb7 $1 34. f4 exf4 $1 35. Rxf4 Ne5 $19 {Just a much faster version of the game since my knight doesn't take the scenic route through b8.}) (33... f5 {another good way to go I didn't think about} 34. exf5 gxf5 $19 {and I'm able to meet g4 with f4 or f4 with e4}) 34. f4 $15 Nc6 35. Bc5 {Now I spent 9 of my remaining 13 minutes, entering a mild panic in the process as nothing really made sense to me!} exf4 $6 $11 (35... Kc7 {This seems to improve my king but really gets in the way of my own tactics:} 36. fxe5 Nxe5 37. Rf6 Nd7 {This move doesn't work now because my king is on c7.} 38. Rxf7 $18) (35... Kd7 36. fxe5 Nxe5 37. Rf6 {Very annoying, I just lose a6!}) (35... h5 $1 {Inhuman engine suggestion. But it does make sense since none of the seemingly "productive" moves actually accomplish anything!} 36. fxe5 Nxe5 37. Rf6 Rf3 38. Rxa6 Ng4 {Objectively white should hold though this looks very tricky!}) 36. gxf4 $4 {Played instantly for no reason. Bad time management (not that I'm one to talk)! Wasn't white's idea to activate the rook?} (36. Rxf4 Rd7 {I was planing this move, hoping to get my knight to e5.} 37. Rf6 Kb7 $11 {I think black can still try things, though it's simply 0.00 according to Stockfish. If I ever play ...Ne5 white will go Rb6+ to win my a6 pawn and get some counterplay.}) 36... Na5 $1 $19 {Now he thought for 20 minutes. I was happy to have some time to think and was able to appreciate that black is just completely winning.} 37. Rf2 {Grimly defending.} (37. f5 Nb3 38. fxg6 fxg6 39. Ba3 Rd2+ 40. Kb1 Rxh2 $19 {Like many lines it feels a bit "unlucky" for white here that ...Nd2+ is going to threaten so many pieces!} 41. Rf8+ Kd7 42. Rf7+ Kc6 43. Rf6+ Kb5 {I can run over here to avoid the checks.} 44. e5 Re2 45. e6 Nc5 $19 {I made it this far in my analysis during the game.}) (37. Ra1 {I think he was counting on activating his rook this way.} Nb3 38. Rxa6 (38. Ra4 {Looks tempting but this really highlights how white's pieces are suddenly on all the wrong squares:} Rd2+ 39. Kb1 Rxh2 {He can't take c4 and if he takes a6 I can pick up e4.}) 38... Rd2+ 39. Kb1 Rxh2 $19 {Once again very annoying for white that ...Nd2 will pick up the e4 pawn.}) 37... Nb3 38. Bf8 Re3 39. e5 Kd7 40. Bh6 {Great cheapo attempt, my life briefly flashed before my eyes when I saw Ke6 f5+ and for some reason felt like it had already occurred on the board!} Re1 41. Kb2 Ke6 42. Ka3 Nc5 $1 {Not letting his king do anything.} 43. Rd2 (43. Kb4 Nd3+) 43... Nd3 44. Ra2 Rb1 45. Ka4 {Now we're all working together to create a nice helpmate!} Nc5+ 0-1

[Event "Oregon Closed - Challengers Section"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2026.02.15"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Bimod, Karthik"]
[Black "Nobles, William"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Wilson Gibbins"]
[ECO "E44"]
[WhiteElo "1972"]
[BlackElo "1922"]
[WhiteFideId "-1"]
[BlackFideId "-1"]
[PlyCount "63"]
[GameId "2278359021641728"]
[EventDate "2026.??.??"]
[SourceVersionDate "2026.02.13"]

{[%evp 0,62,21,14,19,15,16,18,12,13,26,29,24,26,44,36,42,37,38,27,53,71,46,58,32767,32767,145,121,149,32767,111,89,85,90,137,53,186,212,205,230,204,32767,364,365,32767,32767,480,500,640,32767,689,676,668,32767,598,498,550,553,781,720,832,846,1228,1169,1196]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 {If the Rubinstein variation worked for Karthik in round 3, maybe it will work in round 5. Spoiler alert - it does.} 4. e3 b6 5. Nge2 Bb7 {Looks like a normal developing move, but Black often tries something tricky in this position.} (5... Ba6 6. a3 Be7 7. Nf4 d5 8. cxd5 Bxf1 9. dxe6 $5) (5... c5 6. a3 Ba5 $5 7. Rb1 Na6) (5... Ne4 $5) 6. a3 Bxc3+ 7. Nxc3 d5 8. cxd5 Nxd5 9. Bb5+ Nd7 10. Nxd5 exd5 11. Qg4 $1 {After using the Rubinstein variation to grind down Yogi Saptura in round 3, Karthik uses it for a direct attack against William Nobles in round 5. The Nimzo Indian rewards players who take an open-minded approach to chess.} Qe7 12. Bd2 (12. Qxg7 O-O-O 13. Qh6 {is playable too, but why defend a pawn up when you can attack?}) 12... O-O-O 13. Rc1 $16 Kb8 $1 {The best defense. Will never goes down without a fight.} 14. Qf4 Rc8 15. Bb4 Qe6 16. O-O g5 17. Qg3 h5 {The pawns are looking dangerous, but...} 18. Rxc7 $1 Rxc7 19. Bd6 $1 (19. Rc1 $2 Ne5 $1 $13) 19... Rhc8 20. Rc1 h4 21. Bxc7+ Ka8 22. Qxg5 {Black has pinned White's bishop on c7, but cannot attack it with another piece, so White can unwind and keep his two extra pawns.} a6 23. Bd3 f6 24. Bf5 Qd6 25. Qf4 Qe7 26. Rc3 Rg8 27. Bd6 Qg7 28. Bh3 Bc8 29. Rc7 Qg6 30. Qf5 Qf7 31. Qe6 Qxe6 32. Bxe6 1-0

[Event "Oregon Closed - Championship Section"]
[Site "Portland, Oregon"]
[Date "2026.02.16"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Tang, Austin"]
[Black "Russell, Corey"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[Annotator "Fritz 19 and Corey Russell"]
[ECO "B06"]
[WhiteElo "2197"]
[BlackElo "2200"]
[WhiteFideId "-1"]
[BlackFideId "-1"]
[PlyCount "96"]
[GameId "2280781142196255"]
[EventDate "2026.02.13"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "7"]
[EventCountry "USA"]
[SourceVersionDate "2026.02.13"]

{[%evp 9,96,73,120,123,133,115,124,103,165,117,132,147,150,133,163,154,127,148,202,173,158,213,260,163,171,170,167,148,265,272,280,144,200,170,191,167,227,235,228,171,156,168,172,155,160,150,155,157,156,136,136,107,160,141,189,171,200,211,370,384,350,353,317,120,123,45,675,1,1,-1,-1,-1,1,-1,-1,-1,1,1,42,-1,1,1,1,1,-1,1,1,1,1] All commentary including evaluations and variations for Fritz 19 unless denoted by - cjr which are my comments. - cjr} 1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 b6 4. Be3 Bb7 5. Qd2 e6 (5... d6 $142) 6. h4 $16 h5 7. Bg5 Ne7 8. O-O-O {White is better.} d6 (8... d5 $16) 9. f3 ({Better is} 9. d5 $18) 9... Nd7 10. g4 hxg4 11. fxg4 Nf6 12. Qf4 Nh7 13. Nf3 {During the game I was wondering why Austin just didn't do 13 Bh6 straight away, but in post-mortem he pointed out that 13. Bh6 Bxd4! wins me a pawn ( 14. Rxd4 e5 forks major pieces) - cjr} f6 (13... Qd7 $16) 14. Bh6 $18 Bxh6 15. Qxh6 {Threatens to win with d5.} Qd7 16. Bb5 {[%mdl 64] [#] Pin} c6 17. Bd3 {aiming for h5.} O-O-O {[%cal Oh7g5]} 18. Qe3 d5 {Even though Fritz says my ....d5 move is wrong what Fritz doesn't realize is that my opponent is a young player and probably doesn't have extensive experience with games with locked center pawns. This estimation seems spot on as Austin only started making inaccuracies once the position was closed. - cjr} (18... Kb8 $16 19. g5 Rdf8) 19. e5 f5 20. g5 (20. gxf5 $18 Nxf5 21. Bxf5 gxf5 22. Ne2) 20... Rdg8 (20... c5 $16 {is a better defense.} 21. Nb5 (21. dxc5 $2 d4 $19) 21... c4) 21. Ne2 {Black is weak on the dark squares} Nf8 22. Nf4 Qe8 (22... Kb8 {might work better.} 23. h5 c5) 23. Be2 Rg7 24. Nd2 Rgh7 25. Qf2 {White is much more active. The black rooks are passive.} Kb8 26. Rdg1 Qc8 27. Kb1 c5 {[%cal Bc6c5,Bc5c4][%mdl 32]} 28. c3 c4 29. Rh2 b5 30. Rgh1 Qc6 (30... a5 $142) 31. h5 $16 {And now hxg6 would win.} Bc8 (31... Qc7 $16 32. hxg6 Nexg6) 32. hxg6 $18 Rxh2 33. Rxh2 Rxh2 (33... Rg8 34. Rh6 b4) 34. Qxh2 Nfxg6 35. Nxg6 Nxg6 36. Qh7 $2 (36. Qh6 $18 {is more deadly.} Ne7 (36... Nf4 $2 37. g6 $18) 37. g6) 36... Nf4 $16 37. g6 Nxe2 $2 {[%mdl 8192]} (37... b4 $14) 38. g7 $2 {My opponent had a very confident demeanor during this move, and probably figured after queening he could force mate or trade queens in short order. The thing is nothing is stopping his g-pawn so he had time to stop my counterplay cold with Fritz's recommendation of Qe7. But young players want their extra queeens.... - cjr} ({White must play} 38. Qe7 $18) 38... b4 $1 $11 {Strongly threatening ...Qa4.} 39. g8=Q (39. g8=R $2 {loses.} bxc3 40. bxc3 Nxc3+ 41. Kc2 Nxa2 $19) 39... Qa4 $1 {It's worth noting that trying to sack back with Qxc8+ doesn't work, as black will keep moving his from b8 to b7 to prevent his e6 pawn being lost with check. Due to black's threats white has to trade queens with Qxb4+ to keep the game going, but that leads to a much worse endgame for white. - cjr} 40. Qh1 {Wards off Qd1+} ({Don't blunder} 40. Nb3 $2 cxb3 41. axb3 Qxb3 $19) 40... bxc3 41. bxc3 Nxc3+ 42. Kb2 Nxa2 {[#] (  ...c3+)} 43. Nxc4 Qb4+ (43... Qb5+ $11 44. Ka1 (44. Kxa2 Qxc4+ 45. Kb2 Qe2+ 46. Kc1 Qe3+ 47. Kc2 Qe2+ 48. Kc3 Qe3+ 49. Kc2 Qe2+ 50. Kc1 Qe3+ 51. Kc2 $11) 44... Qxc4) 44. Kxa2 (44. Ka1 $1 $14 Qxc4 45. Qb1+ Nb4 46. Qg5) 44... Qxc4+ {The position is equal.} 45. Kb2 Qe2+ {So white's only hope of connecting his king with his queens (note the Queen on h1 is the worst possible square for a queen) is to try run to the king side. But black will keep checking laterlly on 2nd and 3rd ranks which means only way is try to use the 1st rank. However that would lose as a skewer would pick up the white queen on h1 then black would be winning! - cjr} 46. Kc3 Qe3+ $1 47. Kc2 Qe2+ 48. Kc3 Qe3+ $1 {Black defended with fortune. Weighted Error Value: White=0.39/Black=0.30} 1/2-1/2

[Event "Oregon Closed - Championship Section"]
[Site "Portland, Oregon"]
[Date "2026.02.16"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Russell, Corey"]
[Black "Tabet, Roger"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Fritz 19 and Corey Russell"]
[ECO "E74"]
[WhiteElo "2200"]
[BlackElo "2144"]
[WhiteFideId "-1"]
[BlackFideId "-1"]
[PlyCount "63"]
[GameId "2280781142224928"]
[EventDate "2026.02.13"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "7"]
[EventCountry "USA"]
[SourceVersionDate "2026.02.13"]

{[%evp 14,63,38,15,4,-133,-1,-14,60,-71,-1,-116,-45,-118,-32,-9,-8,-73,-40,-169,-179,-272,-184,-466,-466,-479,-200,-491,-472,-486,-213,-496,-213,-466,-338,-379,213,243,243,232,180,229,907,884,1527,1218,29989,1885,29991,29992,29997,29998] All commentary, evalutations and variations are Frtiz 19 unless denoted by - cjr which are my comments - cjr} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 O-O 6. Bg5 {I figured Roger had extensive experience playing against the Classical, so thought maybe if I play a side-line maybe I can catch him off-balance. I could see my opponent's face was visibly disheartened after playing this, which seemed to confirm I took him out of his comfort zone. - cjr} c5 7. d5 Qa5 8. Qd2 a6 $1 {[%cal Ob7b5]} 9. Bh6 {This was the last round and I still hadn't garnered a win so I was out for blood. I had an interesting attacking idea behind Bh6. If black plays 9. ... Bxh6 10. Qxh6 Nxe4 11. h4! Nxc3 12. Qd2 and white gets his piece back. Note that in one feel swoop both defenders by the black king are now gong and lines are about to be opened with a h5. I also saw that if black tried to slow me down with ...h5 then Bxh5 gxh5 Qg5+ is a draw in hand, so I had little to lose. - cjr} (9. f3 $11 {remains equal.}) 9... b5 $1 {[%mdl 512]} 10. f3 (10. cxb5 $2 Bxh6 11. Qxh6 Nxe4 $19) 10... Nbd7 (10... bxc4 $11 11. Bxg7 Kxg7) 11. g4 {We have now reached a fairly typical Saemisch KID structure. My next few moves are thematic with this structure - cjr} (11. cxb5 Bxh6 12. Qxh6 axb5 $17) (11. Bxg7 $14 {stays ahead.} Kxg7 12. cxb5) 11... Ne5 {This was a very strong move and was a thorn in my side the whole game as it was preventing my breakthroughs on the king side - cjr} (11... Bxh6 $17 12. Qxh6 Ne5) 12. h4 {White is going for broke. I neither care about winning pawns or even keep my pawns which is why I do nothing about my c4 pawn. - cjr} (12. Bxg7 $11 Kxg7 13. cxb5) 12... bxc4 ({Black should try} 12... Bxh6 $17 13. Qxh6 bxc4 (13... Nxc4 14. Bxc4 bxc4 15. h5 $16)) 13. h5 {[#]} (13. Bxg7 $15 Kxg7 14. h5) 13... Rb8 (13... Bxh6 $1 $17 14. Qxh6 Rb8) 14. Bxg7 $15 Kxg7 15. hxg6 (15. Nh3 $11 {keeps the balance.}) 15... fxg6 $17 16. Qh6+ ({Better is} 16. Nh3 $1 $15) 16... Kg8 $19 {About here I realized the thematic breakthrough of 17. g5 Nh5 18. Rxh5 gxh5 19. g6 doesn't work as the black knight covers it. Which means I must cover b2. - cjr} 17. O-O-O (17. Qd2 $142) 17... Bd7 {After this move my internal alarm bells starting going off as I realized black's plan is not ...Qb4 which is easly defended by Rd2 his plan is ...Rxb2! Direct defense seemed ineffective as he can double rooks and the make his breakthrough. Even though it seemed very dangerous, it seemed like I could run to the king side for safety. The other thing, if I let him sacrifice, this means that even if he's technically winning, if he makes a mistake I can win with the material. So I figured might as well as develop a piece and maybe get my own attack going, if my king can run to safety. -cjr} 18. Nh3 $2 {[#]} (18. Qe3 {was forced.}) 18... Rxb2 $3 {[%mdl 576] Decoy} 19. Kxb2 {Rb1 is the strong threat.} Rb8+ 20. Kc2 {And now Rb1 would win.} Ba4+ 21. Nxa4 Qxa4+ 22. Kd2 Qa5+ (22... Qxa2+ 23. Ke1 $14) 23. Ke3 {[%cal Bd2e3,Be3f2,Bf2f1,Bf1g2][%mdl 32]} Qc3+ (23... Qxa2 24. Ng1 (24. Rd2 $2 Rb2 $19) 24... Rb2 25. Qh3 $19) 24. Kf2 {[#] aiming for Qe3.} Nexg4+ {[%mdl 8192]} 25. fxg4 $18 Nxe4+ 26. Kf1 Rf8+ 27. Nf4 Rf7 {Finally with my mate in one threat, my opponent has to defend and he didn't find the best defense! The best defense is the very computer like move ...Ng5! Qxg5 Qe3 with a likely continuation Rh2 Rxf4+ Qxf4 Qxf4+ Rf2 Qxe4 Bf3 and it does look like white can hold but despite two rooks and a bishop for a queen there's no way that can win with next to no cover for the white king. - cjr} (27... Ng5 28. Kg2 (28. Qxg5 Qg3 $11) 28... Qe3) 28. Rb1 {White wastes no time in initiating his counterattack, material be damned! Anyways white has a bit of material to spare.... -cjr} Nd2+ 29. Kg2 Nxb1 30. Rxb1 {Threatening mate with Rb8+.} Rf8 31. Ne6 {[%csl Ge6][%cal Rh6f8]} Rc8 32. Rf1 {Weighted Error Value: White=0.64/ Black=0.92 - Fritz This seemed to be a tough loss for Roger to stomach (assuming this as he put his head down on his arms right after the game). He probably figured there was a win in there somewhere and well he isn't wrong in that. The other thing is the only reason he lost was my extra material but the only reason I had the material is Roger intentionally gave it to me. All the same, I appreciated Roger's generousity as he had wins in the tourney but this was my last chance to get one. Till next time.... - cjr} 1-0

