An Interesting Benko Gambit at the Womens World Championship

Taken with analysis from Chessbase.com
http://en.chessbase.com/post/wwch-rd4-tiebreaks-the-mighty-fall

[Event "WCh Women 2015"]
[Site "Sochi RUS"]
[Date "2015.03.28"]
[Round "4.2"]
[White "Zhao, Xue"]
[Black "Pogonina, Natalija"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A58"]
[WhiteElo "2527"]
[BlackElo "2456"]
[PlyCount "98"]
[EventDate "2015.03.17"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. bxa6 g6 6. Nc3 Bg7 7. g3 O-O 8. Bg2 d6 9. Nf3 Nxa6 10. O-O Qb6 11. Nd2 Nc7 12. Nc4 Qb4 13. Ne3 Ba6 14. Rb1 Nb5 15. Bd2 Nd4 16. Re1 Rfb8 17. b3 Nd7 18. Qc1 Qb7 19. Nc4 Ne5 20. Nxe5 Bxe5 21. e3 Nb5 22. Nd1 Bg7 23. a4 Nc7 24. Bc3 Bxc3 25. Nxc3 Bd3 26. Rb2 Qb4 27. Rd1 Ba6 28. Rdd2 Ra7 29. Na2 Qa3 30. Qc2 Rab7 31. Nc1 Qb4 32. Ra2 Qa5 33. Qd1 Rb4 34. h4 h5 35. Kh2 {After lengthy maneuvering, Black has placed her pieces nearly ideally, except for one.} Ne8 $1 {Time to bring that knight to some place where it can contribute to the struggle.} 36. e4 Nf6 37. f3 {[#]} c4 $1 {A vital break that cracks open the position in favor of Black. After careful preparation in order to get the most benefit from the position, Black is ready. } 38. bxc4 Bxc4 39. Ra1 Rb2 ({It is perhaps counterintuitive for a human to consider repositioning the knight after having done just that, but the engine has no such qualms and recommends} 39... Nd7 $1 {with the idea of Ne5 or Nc5}) 40. Rxb2 Rxb2 41. Qd4 Rc2 $1 {Black is now winning. The complete domination and imminent invasion of White's position is her doom.} 42. Qe3 Qb4 43. Nd3 Bxd3 44. Qxd3 Rxg2+ 45. Kxg2 Qb2+ 46. Kh3 Qxa1 47. Kg2 Qxa4 48. Qc3 Qa2+ 49. Kh3 Qf2 0-1

Chess at The Grindstone, Lyndonville

Met another chess playing denizen of The Grindstone. We plan to play a game or three tomorrow. Hope this starts a trend of chess playing there.

USCF Online Tournaments At Chess.com

Live, rated tournament play has begun on Chess.com for USCF members. If you play on Chess.com, join the USCF group. You'll need to enter your USCF membership number, PIN and membership expiration date. The playing/tournament interface is excellent and very intuitive when compared to the interface over at ICC.

Emergency Lock-down at the Work Camp

No word on what occurred. There was a St. Johnsbury fire department rescue vehicle on scene when I arrive for chess club at about 5:15pm. No word yet on what happened. Hopefully nobody was hurt. Chess will be back next week. Check the local news and newspapers tomorrow.

Quality of Inmate Chess Players

It's actually quite high.  There's a lot of chess being played on a daily basis at the facility I volunteer in. At least that's my experience with the inmates at the St. Johnsbury Work Camp. I would estimate that the best players there are at the 1300 to 1400 Elo level. I hope to run a four week Swiss tournament starting in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned for games and analysis.

Burlington Open

Check out the Burlington Open scheduled for April 11th and 12th, 2015 at the Holiday Inn Burlington
http://www.relyeachess.com/subpages/tournaments.html

Welcom To Vermont Chess News

I'm a transplant to Vermont for my retirement (semi) years. From NYC originally.  I love chess, chess sets, playing chess (win or lose).  I live in Lyndonville and have just restarted a prison chess program at the Northeast Correction Facility Work Camp in St. Jouhsbury.

Do let me hear from you about all matters chess related in Vermont. I'll do my best to blog them and give you and Vermont chess some publicity.