The Berkeley Chess School's annual Middle School Tournament in Berkeley in Sept 2010 was a rousing success, with a strong group of young adult chess players rated up to the mid-1400s coming from all over the greater Bay Area to play a grueling schedule of 5 games in 5 hours. Many of our participants were Berkeley Chess School Summer Campers!
View our slideshow of the tournament from the playing hall and the skittles room here:
Winner of the Best Game Award, annotated below by David Petty:
Michael J,Wang -
Campos-Seligman,Sophia
BCS Middle School 2010, 11.09.2010
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nc6 4.d3 h6 (This "prophylactic" move is aimed at stopping the annoying Bg5 pin which frequently bothers Black in this position.)
5.Nc3 Bb4 6.0-0 Bxc3 7.bxc3 d5 (7...d5 is a big mistake by Black. First castle your King to safety, and only then open the center! If Black isn't careful, her King will be caught in the open.)
8.exd5 Nxd5 9.Re1 (Lining the Rook up with the unfortunate Black King. Uh-oh! 9. Ba3 is also possible, stopping Black from castling kingside)
9...Nxc3 10.Qd2 (White misses a shot here with 10. Nxe5!, leaving the Queen hanging. After 10...Nxd1 Nxc6+ white will win back the Queen he sacrificed, and also be ahead a whole piece!)
10...Qf6 (whoops, don't forget about your Knight!)
11.Qxc3 Bd7 12.Nxe5 0-0-0 13.Bb2 Nxe5 14.Qxe5 Qxe5 15.Bxe5 (Black should avoid trading off so many pieces when down material.)
15...f6 16.Bd4 Kb8 17.Rab1 Ba4 18.c3 Bc2 (while at first this move looks good, it's only chasing white where he wants to go: to b2! Bc2 loses time while helping White more quickly double Rooks on the b-file against the lone Black monarch.)
19.Rb2 Rde8 20.Be3 Ba4 21.Ba6 Bc6 22.Reb1 b6 (how can white break through this wall of black Pawns?)
23.c4 (with his own pawns! Charge!!! Notice how every single piece in white's army is aiming at the poorly defended Black king. That's called cooperation, folks.)
23...g5 24.c5 Bd7 25.cxb6 cxb6 26.a4 Bxa4 27.Ra2 Bc6 28.h3 (an important move. White makes sure that his King has a place to run from back-rank checkmate before proceeding with the attack.)
28...f5 29.Bxb6 Bd5 30.Bxa7+ (Bam! An angry, but well thought out move which drives the Black king out into the open.)
30...Kc7 (If instead Black tries 30...Kxa7 then 31. Bc4 is checkmate!)
31.Rc2+ Kd6 32.Bc5+ Ke6 33.Rb6+ Ke5 34.d4+ Kf4 35.g3+ Kf3 36.Rc3+ Ke4 37.Re3# (and we reach a picture perfect final position. Good job to both Michael and Sophia for playing a great game!) 1-0
