A Night of Firsts

That went well. The Knights began their title defense with their first ever 4-0 match victory, stunning their fiercest rivals, the Boston Blitz.

Three new Knights scored their first wins for New York and Pascal strengthened his already absurd record against Boston.

GM Alex Lenderman got things going on board 1, with a smooth victory over GM Larry Christiansen.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 0-0 6. Be2 e5 7. 0-0 Nbd7 8. Re1 a5 9. Bf1 c6

This line has a decent pedigree for black, with super-GMs Peter Svidler and Vasily Ivanchuk championing it as recently as December 2009.

10. d5 Nc5 11. Bg5 h6 12. Bh4 g5 13. Bg3 cd 14. cd Bg4 15. Rc1 Rc8 16. h3 Bh5 17. Bh2 g4!?

A committal choice from Christiansen.

18. hg Bg4 19. Qd2?!

19. ..Nh7?

19. ..Bd7! takes advantage of white's inability to properly overprotect the e4 pawn, making b7-b5 possible.

20. Qe3! Kh8 21. Nd2 f5 22. ef Bf5 23. Nc4 Nf6 24. f3!

Alex restricts black's Nf6 and his pieces quickly take up optimal squares.

24. ..Bh7 25. Nb5! Nd5 26. Qd2 Nf4 27. Bf4 ef 28. Ncd6 b6 29. Rcd1!

White's knights and heavy pieces control the center.

29. ..Bg8 30. Nc8 Qc8 31. Nd6 Qb8 32. Bc4! Bc4 33. Nc4 b5 34. Nd6 Na4 35. Re7! Qb6 36. Qf2 Qc6 37. Nf7 Kg8 38. Nd8!

What a career!

38. ..Qg6 39. Ne6 Bb2 40. Nf8 Kf8 41. Rb7 1:0

On board 2, Pascal, playing on minimal sleep dispatched SM Denys Shmelov

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. f3 0-0 5. e4 d5 6. cd ed 7. e5 Nfd7 8. a3 Bc3 9. bc f6 10. ef Qf6 11. Ne2 Nb6 12. Nf4 c5

13. dc?

13. a4!? (Aleksandrov-Kravtsiv 2010) appears to be superior, with the idea a4-a5, driving away d5's defense.

13. ..Qc3! 14. Kf2 Qc5 15. Be3 Qd6 16. Rc1 N8d7 17. g3 g5 18. Nd3 h6 19. Kg2 Nc4 20. Bd4 Nf6 21. Nf2 b5

22. Qd3?

The natural 22. Bd3 seems to give white a decent position.

22. ..Nh5 23. Qb3 a6 24. Bd3 Ng7 25. Rhe1 Nf5 26. Bf5 Bf5 27. Rcd1 Rf7 28. Ba1? Qa3! 29. Qa3 Na3 30. g4 Bd7 31. Re5 Nc4 32. Re2 Raf8 33. Rd3 b4 34. Ra2 a5 35. Rd5?

Following the game, Pascal said that his initial reaction "..was Bd7-c6, but then I saw something better"

35. ..Ne3 0:1

On board 3, Alec won a very nice positional game against NM Vadim Martirosov

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 Bb4 5. Bd2 Be7 6. Bg2 0-0 7. 0-0 c6 8. Qc2 b6 9. Rd1 Bb7 10. Nc3 Na6 11. a3 Rc8 12. Bf4 dc 13. Ne5 Nd5 14. Nc4 Nf4 15. gf Nc7 16. e3 Nd5 17. Rac1 Rc7 18. Ne5 Bd6 19. Ne4 f6 20. Nd6 Qd6 21. Nc4 Qe7 22. b4 Rfc8 23. f5 Kh8 24. fe Qe6 25. Qe4 Qd7 26. Qh4 Rd8 27. e4 Ne7 28. Qg3 Nc8 29. e5 Ba6 30. Ne3 Ne7 31. d5! Nf5 32. Nf5 Qf5 33. ef Rf7 34. dc Rd1?

34. ..Rdf8 put up more resistance. Now white finishes in style!

35. Rd1 Qf6 36. Qb8 Rf8 37. Qf8!! Qf8 38. c7 1:0

Alex Ostrovskiy capped the night by defeating Ilya Krasik with the black pieces on board 4.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cd cd 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Bf4 Nc6 6. e3 a6 7. Bd3 Bg4 8. f3 Bh5 9. g4 Bg6 10. h4 Bd3 11. Qd3 e6 12. Nge2 Nd7 13. Bg3 b5 14. Rc1 Rc8 15. Kf2 Nb6 16. a4 Nc4 17. Qb1 b4 18. Ne4 N6a5! 19. Ng5 h6

20. b3?

20. Ne6!? fe 21. Nf4 Qf6 22. b3 recovers the piece for white and keeps him in the game.

20. ..hg 21. bc gh 22. Be5 Nc4 23. Qd3 a5 24. Nf4 Rh6 25. g5

Supposedly a "smart-move" slip, but likely the best anyway.

25. ..Qg5 26. Rcg1 Qe7 27. Bg7 Bg7 28. Rg7

28. ..Kd7?

Giving away the win! 28. ..h3! is much more direct, preventing white from easily coordinating his pieces.

29. Rcg1?

Krasik sees the right idea...one move too late.

29. Nd5!! ed 30. Qf5 Qe6 31. Rf7 Kd6 32. Qf4 Kc6 33. Rc4!! dc 34. d5!! Qd5 35. Qh6 Kc5 36. Ra7! Qd2 (only) 37. Kf1 Qd1 38. Kf2 and black can either immediately force a perpetual, or try to play for a win with 38. ..b3 but white has the saving 39. Rb7! and black must go for the draw.

29. ..h3 30. Nd5 ed 31. Qf5 Qe6 32. Rf7 Kd6??

Giving white another chance to draw. Much better was 32. ..Kc6! preventing white from repositioning his Q to the optimal f4 square with tempo.

33. Qf4 Kc6 34. e4??

Krasik's last chance was 34. Rg8!! Qe3 35. Qe3 Ne3 36. Rc8, though white must take the perpetual due to the strength of black's h-pawn.

34. ..Qd6?

34. ..Kb6 would have made life a lot easier

35. ed?

Looks dangerous, but 34. e5! forced black to give back the piece with Ne5. If black was greedy with 34. ..Qe6 35. Re7!! Qe7 36. Qh6 Kb7 37. Rg7 leads to a crazy position where black's passed pawns should be enough to hold off the white queen.

35. ..Kb6 36. Rgg7 Rb8 37. Qc1 Qh2 38. Kf1 Nd2 39. Ke1 Re8 40. Kd1 Qe2 41. Kc2 Nc4 42. Kb1 Qd3 43. Ka1 Qd4 44. Kb1 Na3!

The queen will guard a7 after the king moves to a6.

45. Qa3 0:1