Renaissance Knights Events

Two beautiful games from Northside Prep-Whitney Young match at CPS Championship 1-28-12

{White: Charles Swan (Whitney Young)}

{Black: Christian Kavouras (Northside Prep)}

{Board 2}

1. e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.Bd2 Ne7 6.Nb5 Bxd2+ 7.Qxd2 O-O 8.Nf3 Nbc6 9.dxc5 f6 10.exf6 Rxf6 11.O-O-O e5

{White has an extra pawn, but Black has a strong pawn center.}

12.Nd6 b6 13.Nxc8 Rxc8 14.Ba6 Rb8 15.Bb5

{15.cxb6 Qxb6 would threaten Qxb2 checkmate and attack the bishop on a6.}

15...e4 16.Ng5 bxc5 17.Bxc6 Rxc6 18.Nxe4

{The knight looks safe because of the pin on the d-file. But...}

18...Qb6!!

{Probably the most important move of the entire CPS Championship! Kavouras moves his queen off of the d-file and out of the pin, and at the same time threatens Qxb2 checkmate! Swan cannot stop the checkmate and save his knight.}

19.Qc3 dxe4 20.Rd7 Rc7 21.Rhd1 Rxd7 22.Rxd7 Rb7

{For each White rook on the 7th rank, Black has a rook to counter it.}

23.Rxb7 Qxb7 24.Qxc5 Kf7 25.Qh5+ Ng6 26.Qxh7 Qb5!

{Now the Black queen will crash into White's position for a counter-attack, beginning with Qf1+ and Qxf2. Now White hangs his queen under pressure, but Black already has a winning position because he will start winning pawns back very quickly and win with his extra knight.}

27.Qh5 Qxh5 0-1.

{White: Edmond Jay (Northside Prep)}

{Black: Jimi Akintonde (Whitney Young)}

{Board 3}

1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 5.cxd4 Nc6 6.Nf3 d6 7.Bc4 Nb6 8.Bb3 e6 9.O-O dxe5 10.dxe5 Qxd1 11.Rxd1 a6 12.Nc3 Nd7 13.Bg5

{Now if Akintonde takes the pawn on e5, Jay will checkmate him with Rd8 protected by the Bg5.}

13...h6 14.Bh4 g5 15.Bg3 g4 16.Nd4 Ndxe5

{Akintonde finally wins the pawn, but Jay has more pieces developed, and he moves quickly to take advantage of this.}

17.Na4!

{Threatening Nb6 attacking the rook on a8 and the bishop on c8. If the rook moves to b8, it will be on the line of the bishop on g3. Jay devastatingly takes advantage of these threats.}

17...Nxd4 18.Bxe5 Nxb3 19.axb3 f6

{Black has to give back a pawn to deflect the bishop from attacking b8.}

20.Bxf6 Rg8 21.Nb6 Rb8 22.Rd8+ Kf7 23.Be5!

{The rook on b8 has nowhere to go.}

23...Bc5 24.Rxg8 Kxg8 25.Bxb8 Bxb6 26.Rd1 e5 27.Rd6 Ba5 28.b4! 1-0.

{After 28...Bxb4 29.Rd8+ and Rxc8, White will be up a whole rook. The bishop on a5 has no safe square on the a5-d8 diagonal.}