Rapid Game Recap: Cameron Park Classic Round 1

Over a recent weekend there was a new tournament effort in Cameron Park, CA and I wanted to participate and support it. It was a four-round Swiss tournament, with a time control of 15+10. This means it was USCF quick-rated. The turnout was a mixture of Sacramento Chess Club regulars and a few newcomers.

For round 1, I was paired against a young player. This was his first tournament OTB. Before the tournament began I noticed him practicing his openings over the board. He made multiple touch-move violations (I politely and quietly reminded him that once he touches a piece, he must move it, multiple times), and at one point I had to call the TD over after he touched his king (he claimed to be adjusting the piece, but never stated so).

Time Control: 15 minutes + 10 second increment

White: Me (1564 USCF)

Black: Unrated

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6 4.O-O Nf6?!

This was a new one. To me it seems rather poor since White can play e5 immediately and pile up on c6. This line doesn’t appear in the opening resources I own, except for a sample line in Gajewski’s Lifetime Repertoire for 1.e4, where he basically explains that this move makes no sense. In our post-mortem, my opponent explained he had never seen 3.Bb5 before, and was hoping to get an Accelerated Dragon. I then explained to him that that is one reason why I specifically do not play the Open Sicilian against 2…Nc6. So, he was simply out of book at this point.

5.e5!?

5.Re1 was another option, but e5 seemed like a golden opportunity.

5…dxe5 6.Nxe5 Qb6?!

6…Qc7 is what Gajewski anticipates. The line he gives is 7.Bxc6+ bxc6 8.Qe2 g6 (8…e6 makes less sense) 9.d3 Bg7 10.Nd2, threatening Nb3. In our post-mortem, both my opponent and I agreed that 6…Bd7 would improve over 6…Qb6.

7.Nc3

7.Bxc6 bxc6 is the more consistent Rossolimo idea. I went for active piece play instead.

7…e6 8.Qf3?!

Again, 8.Bxc6 bxc6 was a better plan.

8…Bd7 9.Nxd7 Kxd7?!

After 9…Nxd7 10.Bxc6 Qxc6 11.Qxc6 bxc6 12.d3, Black can probably hold this position, though he’s definitely worse.

10.d3 a6 11.Ba4 Rc8?!

I think 11…Be7 was better, since it connects the rooks and wakes up the sleeper on h8.

12.Ne4

The idea is to play Bf4, controlling the weak dark squares in Black’s position.

12…Nxe4??

A fatal mistake. I don’t think he expected the following intermezzo. 12…Be7 still made a lot of sense. Now White gains an irresistible attack.

13.Qxf7+! Be7

This was the moment where my opponent had “adjusted” his king and I called the TD over. Later he explained that he didn’t know you had to announce that you were adjusting a piece; and that he had seen Magnus Carlsen touch a piece without announcing j’adoube during the 2021 World Chess Championship and Ian was not present at the board.

14.dxe4 Rce8

If 14…Rhf8, 15.Rd1 Kc7 16.Bf4+ was my plan.

15.Bf4

The king is tied in knots.

15…Qd8??

Hanging mate in three in a tough position.

16.Rad1+ Kc8 17.Qxe6 Qd7

At this moment, my opponent paused, then slowly and defeatedly made this move but did not touch his clock, until I pointed it out to him. I debated inwardly whether I should just take the queen, but as he hadn’t touched the clock, it just seemed, though I’m sure he would have accepted the resulting position anyway, that I should point it out to him. Then the mercy-kill.

18.Qxd7#

Overall the game went without major incident, and afterward we had a decent post-mortem — a tradition he was not aware of, and hopefully I helped him to establish that as a habit in his future games. My opponent said he was rated about 1400 chess.com rapid online, and 1900 blitz (a claim which I find difficult to believe). He was very clearly interested in the game, and once we started looking at the position, he was starting to think of ideas of what could happen next time.

Full GIF of the game.