Week 2: Back from Holiday!

The New York Knights defeated the Manhattan Applesauce 3.5-0.5, behind FM Michael Bodek's crushing victory on board 3 over NM Rico Salimbagat and GM Pascal Charbonneau's crafty defeat of GM Robert Hungaski on board 1.  FM Aravind Kumar, making his Knights' debut, capitalized on NM Ryan Goldenberg's blunder to win on board 4.  The GOTY rematch between IM Eli Vovsha and SM Matt Herman ended in an exciting draw.

Move of the Week:

(Charbonneau-Hungaski, Diagram after 30. ..ab)

Pascal's slow maneuvering paid off with 31. Ng5! and Hungaski's position collapsed.

GM Pascal Charbonneau

Good Decision of the Week:

(Bodek-Salimbagat, Diagram after 7. ..d5)

 

Playing at the Marshall Chess Club, Bodek improved on Kvicala-Marshall/Prague 1908 with 7. Bc4! d5 8. Bb3!N (taking the bait allows black close to full compensation after 8. Bf6 Qf6 9. Bd5 Ne5 10. de Qe5 11. 0-0 c6 12. Be4 0-0 13. Qd3 Bd6!) and went on to overwhelm Salimbagat.

NM Michael Bodek

Trap of the Week:

(Vovsha-Herman, Diagram after 27. ..Bd2)

 

In mutual time trouble, Vovsha avoided a nasty trap by playing 28. Rg2! Bh6 29. Bc5 Rd8 30. Bd3 Nc6 31. Ba3 Ne5 32. Be2.  If he had gone for the piece with 28. Rd2 Rd8 29. Re2 (preventing ..Rd4 with the back-rank mate threat), black wins with 29. ..g1Q 30. Bg1 Rd1#!


Blunder of the Week:

(Goldenberg-Kumar, position after 21. ..Be6)

 

Goldenberg had a very favorable position and sought to prevent black from castling queenside with 22. Nf4?? (if 22. ..0-0-0 23. Rae1 Qd4 24. Rf2 and white is much better), but forgot about 22. ..Rg8-h8! trapping his queen.  Kumar converted 25 moves later.

Aravind Kumar

 

The Knights play the New England Nor'Easters on Wednesday, September 11th.

Thanks, as always, to our generous sponsors, CHESSNYC!!

--Matt Herman