#363 STC Championship - Round 6

My 6th round STC World Championship game was an uphill battle but it ended in a draw.

Playing the Black side of an Exchange French, I unwisely grabbed a pawn at move 12...

McKnights-Moldovan
after 12.Bg5

... and missed a White tactic at turn 15 that left me a piece down for roughly 80-85% compensation. Things got much worse at move 18 when I chose a far-too-slow plan.

However, my 1843-rated opponent, who had used just 6:53 through 19 near-perfect moves, missed a win at move 20 by going after more material (are you catching my drift?!)...

McKnights-Moldovan
after 20.Nb6??

...and errored again at move 22 to allow a repetition. In the final position, I was better but too nervous to continue.

McKnights-Moldovan
before 28...Qg4+
1/2-1/2

Here are the replays & PGN of all my games from the event.

As it turns out, only the section winners and the ICC runner-up will advance to the finals; not 16.

#362 KST 2008 - Round 12

I kept a slim one point lead with a pair of wins against Bert Shiffman. Ian Mangion kept pace by beating Greg Tomkovich twice. NM Mark Kernighan clinched 3rd place with a victory over Don Carrelli. Wayne Burmett & Joe Renna also won.

Here are the standings with 1 round to go plus 5 of the above games (2 annotated) in Java-replay and PGN.

Sorry for the lateness of this report but I had an STC game to play Friday night & spent most of yesterday analyzing it. You'll see why in the next post.

#361 KST 2008 - Round 11

2008 Kenilworth Summer Tournament
Results from week #11 :

• Burmett 0-1 Moldovan
  
• Mangion 1-0 Shiffman
  
• Renna 0-1 Kernighan
  
• Mazzillo 1-0 Carrelli
• Carrelli 1-0 Mazzillo
  

Here are the standings with 2 rounds to go plus all of the above games (4 annotated) in Java-replay and PGN.

#360 STC Championship - Round 5

My 5th game of the 2008 STC World Championship is tonight (Wed. 8/13) at 8:15 p.m. EDT.

Server	Game	White	Scheduled	Black
WCL	4446	jpmoldovan (1900) 2.0	Wed. 8/13 @ 20:15	artbertini (1345) 2.0

Afterwards, I'll post the score & a recap.

UPDATE 8/13 @ 11:24 p.m. :

I played a strong game against my opponent's Slav and won in 26 moves.

Moldovan-Bertini
after 18...Na6

White to win

Java-replay and PGN of all my games in the event; including light notes to tonight's victory.

#359 STC Update

I gave my 4th round opponent a 2nd chance to play and lost. So, with 5 rounds to go, I'm tied for 8th, 2 points off the pace :

1. hahahaum 4.0
2. mace 3.5
3. ChristopherP 3.0
3. Cli2 3.0
3. jivepar 3.0
6. jps7 2.5
6. McKnights 2.5

... & practically out of Finals-qualifying contention. 4.5-0.5 the rest of the way probably won't do the job.

Here are the replays and PGN of all my games thus far.

#358 KST 2008 - Round 10

KCCC U1800 Champ Dr. Ian Mangion remained undefeated (7-0-5) and moved to within a point of 1st place with a 1.5-0.5 match-victory over me. He won the opener to snap my unbeaten streak at 16 tournament games and drew the nightcap.

The latter was a hard-fought Queen's Gambit where both sides missed a win in time-pressure :

[Event "Summer Tournament"]
[Site "Kenilworth, N.J."]
[Date "2008.08.07"]
[Round "10.2"]
[White "Moldovan, John"]
[Black "Mangion, Ian"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "D36"]
[WhiteElo "1800"]
[BlackElo "1764"]
[PlyCount "109"]
[EventDate "2008.06.05"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "USA"]
[SourceDate "2008.08.08"]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. d4 Bd6 6. Bg5 c6 7. Qc2 Nbd7 8.
e3 O-O 9. Bd3 h6 10. Bh4 Re8 11. O-O-O b5 (11... Qa5 $145 12. Nd2 b5 13. Nb3
$146 Qb6 $11 {Moldovan - knightchaser : FICS G/15 Championship, semi-final #1,
02/27/2005}) 12. Kb1 Qb6 $146 13. Rdg1 Ba6 14. g4 b4 15. Na4 Bxd3 16. Qxd3 Qb5
17. Qxb5 cxb5 18. Nc5 Nxc5 19. dxc5 Bxc5 20. g5 hxg5 21. Rxg5 Be7 22. Rhg1 g6
23. Re5 Kf8 24. Bxf6 Bxf6 25. Rxd5 a6 26. h4 Red8 27. Rgd1 Rxd5 28. Rxd5 Rd8
29. Rxd8+ Bxd8 30. Kc2 Bf6 31. b3 Ke7 32. Kd3 Kd6 33. Ke4 a5 34. Ng5 Ke7 35.
Kd5 a4 36. Kc5 axb3 37. axb3 Bc3 38. Kxb5 f5 39. Nf3 Kd6 40. Kc4 Ke7 41. Kd5
Kf6 42. Kd6 Kg7 43. Ke6 Kh6 44. Kf7 Kh5 45. Ng5 Be1 46. e4 Bxf2 47. e5 Bxh4 48.
Nf3 f4 49. e6 Bd8 50. Kg7 $4 Kg4 $19 51. Nd4 f3 52. Kxg6 f2 53. Nc2 f1=Q $4 54.
Ne3+ Kf3 55. Nxf1 $16 {&, some 11 moves later, with both sides in severe
time-pressure (less than 25 seconds left) and the following position :
White - Pb3, Nd7, Pe6 Kg6 Black - pb4, kc3, bh4 Moldovan played Nc5 and
claimed a draw by 3-fold repetition. Nf6 (Selling) would've won.} 1/2-1/2

In other games, Greg Tomkovich beat Bert Shiffman, Mark Kernighan won vs. Max Sherer and Wayne Burmett took 1.5 points against Pat Mazzillo.

Replays, more scores, notes & the full standings will follow.

Update 8/8 at 11:00 p.m. - Annotated Java-replay page, zipped PGN file & table uploaded.

#357 STC Championship - Round 4

My 4th game of the 2008 STC World Championship, where I'm currently = 5th-11th, is scheduled for tomorrow (Wed. 8/6) at 10:15 p.m. EDT. The task will be difficult; as my opponent, the highest-rated player in the event, has lost just 14 times (149-14-13) in 176 standard games!!

Server	Game	White	Scheduled	Black
WCL	4234	ChristopherP (2158) 2.0	Wed. 8/6 @ 20:15	jpmoldovan (1906) 2.0

In case the STC/WCL bot fails to collect the PGN & generate the replay, I'll post the score & a recap ASAP.

Update Wed. 8/6 @ 8:55 p.m. - White didn't show up, so I claimed a forfeit.

#356 KST 2008 - Round 9

2008 Kenilworth Summer Tournament
Results from week #9 :

• Moldovan 1-0 Shiffman
• Mazzillo 1/2 Moldovan
  
• Sherer 1/2 Mangion
• Tomkovich 0-1 Kernighan
  
• Burmette 1-0 Carrelli
• Sokolosky 0-1 Renna
  

I extended my lead to 2 full points by playing a simul but should've lost to Pat Mazzillo.

Here are the standings entering the final month of the event plus 5 of the above games (3 annotated) in Java-replay and PGN.

#355 Correspondence Database Errors

ChessBase's Corr Database 2009, MegaCorr4 and the 15th USCCC Preliminaries file have errors in two of my games :

• Moldovan-Kremen is given without result but my foe resigned at move 21 (on November 6th, 2000) before withdrawing due to illness.

Before 20...Nxb4??

• In Pitter-Moldovan, White did not play 40.g3. He sent 40.f4 (on June 5th, 2001). Thus, 43...Qxd6 and 44.Qc8 weren't blunders.

After 13.Nc4?

Black to play

For your perusal & download, here are the corrected contests (my best of the event), sans notes, in Java-replay and PGN.

#354 STC Championship - Round 3

Time Change

My 3rd game of the 2008 STC World Championship, where I'm currently = 9th-16th, is now scheduled for tomorrow (Wed. 7/30) at 10:00 p.m. EDT.

Server	Game	White	Scheduled	Black
WCL	4120	RayseanWhitney (1465) 1.0	Wed. 7/30 @ 22:00	jpmoldovan (1902) 1.0

WCL standings after 2 rounds

Update - Wed. 7/30 @ 10:37 p.m. : My opponent forfeited. He didn't show up within 30 minutes of our agreed starting time.

#353 STCWC - Notes to Game 2

I have uploaded the annotated PGN & Java-replay of my 2nd round game from the STC World Championship.

#352 KST 2008 - Round 8

As in week 7, there were just 4 games played in the Kenilworth Summer Tourney this Thursday :

• Shiffman 0-1 Moldovan
• Renna 1-0 Tomkovich
• Tomkovich 1-0 Renna
  
• Carrelli 1/2 Mangion

With 5 rounds to go, I lead Ian Mangion by 1 point.

Here are the full, up-to-date standings plus 3 of the night's games (2 annotated) in Java-replay and PGN. I'll try to get the other for you.

corrected notes uploaded 7/27 @2:52 p.m.

Carrelli-Mangion score added 8/2 @ 12:45 p.m. Thanks Don.