My Chess Battle with Grandmaster Walter Browne

Game Info:
White: Mason, S - 2009 USCF Rating
Black: GM Browne, W - 2501 USCF Rating
Game played at the G/30 National Championship in Pleasanton,CA on 10-27-2012.
Opening: B33 - Sicilian Defense, Sveshnikov Variation
Result: 0-1

This was my first tournament game ever against a Grandmaster.  Of course I lost, but it was fun none the less and a great honor to get to play a legend such as Grandmaster Browne.  Enjoy!

If you have any games you would like analyzed or posted, please send them in!

National G/30 and G/60 Championships

It was a great weekend for chess!  Bay Area Chess hosted the National G/30 and G/60 Championships in Pleasanton over this last weekend.  It was a great turnout with two Grandmasters and numerous International Masters playing in the event.  It was a four way tie for first place in the G/30 Championship between GM Walter Browne, GM Enrico Sevillano, IM Cyrus Lakdawala and NM John Cline.  The G/60 Championship was won outright by GM Enrico Sevillano.

Personally, both events went decently for me (translation: I picked up rating points from both events but no money).  Below are two games of mine from the event.  The first is a long win over a 2318 rated National Master in the G/30 and the second is my last round win in the G/60 that includes a queen sacrifice for mate.  I did have the pleasure of playing against GM Walter Browne in the G/30 (I lost the game).  I will be making a video for that game and put it in a different post. Here are the games:

Funny...

For those that play chess in any of the Bay Area tournaments, you are probably familiar with Samuel Sevian (currently a FM with one IM norm).  This is a video I found on YouTube that was taken a few years back where he wins a speed game off IM Greg Shahade.  The video is mildly funny for the commentary (since you can't really follow the game).  Enjoy!

Game from French Championship

This last Saturday during our extra session, many of us had the chance to go look at this game from the French Championship. In the game, Black missed a little threat by White to trap his queen.  Mike was so unhappy with Black's error that he wants to invite him to our tournament to play in his section.  :)  Here is the game:

Nice Finish!

Here is a great game by one of our members.  It was played online and ends with a nice combination.

Thanks to John S. for sharing this with us.

Kings Gambit Analysis

A couple of the club members have been playing some games and doing some analysis in the Kings Gambit. No discussion is really complete without reading Bobby Fischer's famous article "A Bust to the King's Gambit" that he wrote in 1961 and was originally published in American Chess Quarterly.  For those that would like to read it, here is a link the the article:

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/bust.pdf

Thank you to Pete K. for tracking down this great article and providing the link.

A Short Cute Game

Typically I don't like to post "crushes" of lower rated players, but this one was kinda cute in my moderately biased opinion.  :)  It was played in an online tournament on chess.com.  It is difficult to know the age or real skill level of the Black player.  Enjoy!