From: mginsbur@rnd.GBA.NYU.EDU (Mark Ginsburg)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Joel Benjamin on the 1992 Eastern Masters (_Chow_ upload)
Date: 12 Nov 92 18:11:56 GMT
Distribution: rec.games.chess
Organization: NYU Stern School of Business

"Lost Weekend"
by GM Joel Benjamin

[appeared in the Apr-May 1992 issue of _Chess Chow_]

[posted for the rec.games.chess community by IM Mark Ginsburg]

"And I know if we'd had just one more chance," he said

"I know-- we'd finally hit the big one at last," she said

Instead of another lost weekend

lost weekend

---Wall Of Voodoo



The best laid plans can so easily go awry when the fickle winds
of the weekend Swiss blow.  It seemed perfect at first, as I
pushed my way through the vagrants of the George Washington Bus
Terminal and slid into Ginsburg's 300Z.  One stop in Jersey, to
pick up assistant TD Sophia Rohde.  While Sophia filled us in on
the news of the chess world, Mark took his Nissan flat out on
the Autobahn, er, Mass. Turnpike.  By 6:15 we arrived at the
site of the Eastern Class Championships, the Sheraton Needham, a
pleasant hotel with a bizarre architectural style, reminiscent
of a radioactive train station.  We were in plenty of time for
the 7 p.m. starting time, so we signed up, checked in, dumped
some Chow with the bookseller and sat down to play.



Sometimes I have to make the same mistake several times before I
start to avoid it.  Playing a game minutes after long travel is
really asking for it.  In the Eastern Open (an ironically
similarly named tournament) in Washington one year, I rolled off
the train and lost to Norman Rogers.  Norman is a serious
brother, but still someone I don't normally lose to when I'm
fresh.



But here I blindly eschewed the option of playing my first round
in the morning, and sat down to play Ralph Zimmer.  While I'm
not up in New England very often, most of the local players are
familiar to me.  I was mildly curious about this guy, but asked
no questions.  Who cared who the guy was?  The way he played the
opening, he looked like a goner for sure.  Then I played a few
careless moves, and I lost my advantage.  He offered a draw.  Oh
brother, not another one of those guys.  I played on of course,
but found the going rough.  This guy wasn't half bad...



On my way back from the bathroom, Sophia informs me that this
guy spent a long time stationed with the U.S. Army in Germany. 
He has no USCF rating, but he's 2350 FIDE.  Scheisse!  This guy
has a FIDE rating!  My precious Elo is on the line in the first
round!  The shock was to much to bear.  Herr Zimmer kept up the
pressure, and after a  five hour+ ordeal, I had to resign.



At that moment the lovely Judy Shipman appeared and came over to
console me.  I made sure to act as depressed as possible to get
the maximum number of nuzzlies from Judy, but I still would have
rather won the game.



I went to the Director's table and approached the almighty
Goich.  "Bill, it's completely immoral, but I'm going to
re-enter,"  I said.  As I wrote out my check, Bill defended his
controversial re-entry with some convoluted football analogy.  I
walked away.  Bill's argument made about as much sense as
Mengarini's last Chess Life article.



Tomorrow Is Another Day  

Saturday brought a change in fortune.  I won my new first round
game against Brian McCarthy after I boldly declined a draw in a
clearly superior endgame.  In the second round I knocked off
David Griego, FM, Chowhound, and sports trivia maven.  I stood
back to observe the scene, and what a ludicrous tableau it was.



In my half of the tournament, Pat Wolff and Ilya Gurevich were
held to draws in the first round; nobody else made 2-0.  In my
former section, Yermolinsky ceded a draw to the strong young
player Mikhail Braude.  Ginsburg seemed to have a good position
one moment; the next he was a piece down with no time.



Mark's vanquisher, Larry Tapper, was my victim in round three. 
Charlie Hertan knocked off the other unexpected perfect score,
local master Nathan Resika.  I went to bed with sweet dreams: 
If I could knock off Mr. Donkey, I could conceivably enter the
last round with a full point lead-- most likely the first time
anybody ever did that in a five rounder, after losing the first
game.  I had to chuckle over the way evil re-entry had dumped
the tourament in my lap.

My partner in crime would be sitting out the last round.  Mark
had lost again in round three and decided to romp around
Cambridge with Judy, who washed out in her games as well.  It
sounded like much more fun than I was going to have, but
business is business.

Tomorrow Is Another Other Day

But Sunday never got off the ground.  The breakfast I ordered
for 8:30 still hadn't come by the time I had to go down for my
9:00 round.  Judy later brought my cranberry juice, but I was
still bitter.



Black against a solid citizen like Gene Mertan is no free ride. 
I missed one opportunity to maintain a complicated position. 
Inspired by the nonsensical refrain running through his mind,
"No Time Left For Tobor," Charlie hoovered into a drawn endgame.





FM Charles Hertan-Benjamin

Eastern Masters, Mar 1992 Bogo-Indian

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Qe7 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 Bxd2+
7.Nbxd2 O-O 8.O-O d6 9.e4 e5 10.d5 Nb8 11.Ne1 a5 12.Nd3 Na6
13.a3 c6 14.Rc1 Bg4 15.f3 Bd7 16.Re1 Rfc8 17.Nf1 cxd5 18.cxd5
Qd8 19.Qd2 Bb5 20.Bh3 Rxc1 21.Rxc1Bxd3 22.Qxd3 Qb6+ 23.Ne3  

[diagram]


23...Nc5 

23...Qxb2 would have been a much better winning try.  After
24.Rb1 Qa2 25.Rxb7 I only considered 25...Nc5 26.Qb1! forcing a
favorable queen exchange.  But 25...g6 causes tricky problems. 
If black can keep queens on, he maintains attacking chances on
white's exposed king.  White can neutralize the danger with
26.Qc3! Qe2 (26...Nc5 27.Qb2!) 27.Rb2 Qxf3 28.Bg2 Qh5 29.Qxa5,
but white would have had an opportunity to go wrong. 

24.Nc4! Nxd3+ 25.Nxb6 Nxc1 26.Nxa8 Nd3 27.b3 Ne1 28.Kf2 Nc2
29.a4 Nd4 30.Nb6 Nxb3 31.Nc4 Nc5 32.Nxa5

White plays it safe.  Neither side can make headway now.

32...Kf8 33.Nc4 Ke7 34.a5 Ne8 35.Ke3 Nc7 36.Nb6 

Nb5 37.Nc4 f6 38.Bf1 Nd4 39.Bh3 g6 40.Bc8 Nb5 41.Bh3 Nd4 1/2-1/2



  My situation was still pretty good, but I cursed the fact that
I would have to work in the last round.  I got Yermolinsky (who
drew with Wolff), and a loss would mean a substantial pay cut. 
The intelligent thing to do would be to r the game toward a
draw.  However, I rarely get a chance to play a meaningful game
against a strong player, and I was curious to see what would
happen.


Benjamin-IM Alex Yermolinsky

[r.g.c. note:  of course, Alex is now a GM]

Eastern Masters  round five Sicilian

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.f4 Be7 7.Bd3

What the heck, I figured I would try a slightly unorthodox
formation.

7...Nc6 8.Nf3 O-O 9.O-O Nd7 10.Be3 Nc5 11.Be2 

Otherwise he might take the bishop and go ...d6-d5.  We are headed into 
a main line Scheviningen with both sides losing time.

11...b6 12.Nd4 Bb7 13.Bf3 Qc7 14.Qe1 Nxd4 15.Bxd4 e5 16.fxe5 dxe5 
17.Qg3 Nd7 18.Rad1 Rad8 19.Kh1 Bc5 20.Bh5 g6 21.Be2

I've just come up with a good idea.  Unfortunately, it cost me a
tremendous amount of clock time. 

21...Bxd4 22.Rxd4 Nc5 23.Rxd8
Rxd8 24.Qe3 Ne6 25.b3! Qc5 26.Qf3 Qe7 27.Bc4

I thought about offering a draw at some point, but I never got
around to it.

27...Rd4 28.Bd5 Ba6 29.Rf2 Nf4 30.Bxf7+!

This move was played out of desperation with my time running
out, but it's actually pretty good for me.

30...Qxf7 31.g3

I expected 31...g5, but Yermolinsky felt (probably correctly)
that this would leave his king more exposed than mine.

31...Bb7 32.gxf4 Qxf4 33.Qxf4 exf4  

[diagram]

caption:  Don't panic!



34.Rxf4?? 

My harried mind could only suggest 34.Kg2? g5, and black will
maintain his dangerous kingside pawns.  I drew a blank on
34.Kg1!, threatening to frab f4 safely.  After 34...g5 35.h4 h6
36.hxg5 hxg5 37.Rg2 white breaks up the Yankees and draws.  Now
white is practically lost. 

34...Rd2 35.Rf3 Rxc2 36.Rd3 Bc6 37.b4 b5 38.Kg1 Kf7 39.a3 Ke6
40.h4 Ke5 

It was late, and Alex probably didn't see my next trick (I
didn't either).  40...a6 might be more airtight.

41.Nxb5!

Look what I found!  I was sure I'm still quite lost but there's
no choice here.

41...Kxe4 42.Rc3 Rxc3 43.Nxc3+ Kd3 44.b5!

44.Nd1 Kc2 45.Ne3+ Kb3 cleans me out in a hurry.

44...Bd7 45.b6! axb6 46.Nd5 b5 47.Kf2

As I played this move, I vaguely noticed that my opponent could
fall into a variety of knight forks, but I didn't take them too
seriously.

47...Bf5  

[diagram]

caption:  How are we all gonna fit in Mark's car?



48.Kg3?? 

This was one of those times when you say, "hey, did that move
come out of me?"  Attacking the kingside pawns is one
possibility, but white should not pass on centralizing his king.
 Much stronger is 48.Nc7!, with the idea of 48...Kc4 49.Ke3!  I
was pretty wiped out mentally and physically, and I couldn't
help but think about the long trip home.  A perfunctory search
concluded that my king had no other moves, but I didn't stop to
think about moving the knight and then the king.  Does black win
anyway?  I hope so, but it's too painful to look at it-- maybe
intepid readers can figure it out. 

48...Kc2 49.Nc7 Bd3 50.Na6

Other moves would just prolong the agony.  50.Kf4 Kb2 51. Kg5
Kxa3 52.Nxb5 Bxb5 53. Kh6 Be2 54.Kxh7 Bh5 is one move too slow.

50...Kb2 51.Nc5 Bc2  0-1



Postscript

I thought that the worst was surely over, but I had not
considered the ride home.  Judy made it a foursome, and
sportscars are not made for such numbers.  It wasn't as bad as a
ride in the infamous Sybenian Bubble, but we were sure happy to
get back to New York.  

[r.g.c. note:  Joel is referring to A-player Christine Syben from
Pennsylvania.]

That is, until Mark booted Judy and me
out of the car in Upper Manhattan and told us to find a taxi in
the freezing cold.  But we made it home alive, and before you
know it, we'll be making plans for another exercise in futility
on the weekend circuit.


THE END


*************************************************************************

[that's it, R.G.C. fans.

For more info about _Chow_, give Joel a call at 212 580 0343.  Thank you.]
  
*************************************************************************



 



Newsgroups: rec.games.chess