Saint Louis Summer Classic

[Mick Norris]

Xiong, Jeffery - Howell, David W L ½-½ 35 C42 Petroff's Defence
Jones, Gawain C B - Le, Quang Liem ½-½ 81 B31 Sicilian Rossolimo
Shankland, Sam - Swiercz, Dariusz 1-0 100 A13 Reti Opening

At halfway, Howell & Xiong are +1, Jones & Shankland =, Swiercz & Le -1

12 wins 3 draws (although 5 games have reached move 79, and 2 move 100)

B&C group both 5 wins 10 draws

[David Sedgwick]

... 12 wins 3 draws ...

3 wins 12 draws, surely?

[Carl Hibbard]

There is Youtube coverage of this one here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owapd6MobJ8

[Mick Norris]

... 12 wins 3 draws ...

3 wins 12 draws, surely?

Oops
Posting while tired not advisable!

[John McKenna]

Mick, to paraphrase Staunton, it's better to post in error sometimes than not to post at all.

Appreciate all the info.

I've been left short of moves at times from the games and you (& Roger) have set me straight.

I think the two back markers, Swiercz & Le, will be looking to score better in the 2nd half, so David & Gawain had better watch out. (Leonard, the venerable B, already pointed out they were both 'busted' in a previous round, but halved out.)

We can only dream of 12 wins and 3 draws in Part II of this event, but tiredness may play a part such that the 'home boys', Shankland, Xiong & Swiercz(?) do well and our boys, David & Gawain, and Le suffer some lag.

Hope not, but it can be tough for visitors in America, particularly these days.

PS Things are looking up, and to Carl's Youtube promo, above, can be added -

"As part of our ongoing efforts to improve transparency and communication, we’re updating our Terms of Service (“Terms”) in the European Economic Area and Switzerland and wanted to let you know about these changes...(Youtube)"

Enjoy watching - confident in the knowledge that some things are improving in cyberspace.

[John McKenna]

SNIP

... I think the two back markers, Swiercz & Le, will be looking to score better in the 2nd half...

SNIP

Well, yesterday, the only decisive game was: Le 1-0 Swiercz, and that left the scoreboard of the 6-player double round robin as follows -

Howell & Xiong 3.5/6

Jones, Le & Shankland 3/6

Swiercz 2/6

[Mick Norris]

Round 7 (June 25, 2019)
Le, Quang Liem - Xiong, Jeffery 1-0 27 B90 Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Shankland, Sam - Jones, Gawain C B ½-½ 86 D85 Gruenfeld Defence
Swiercz, Dariusz - Howell, David W L ½-½ 111 E06 Catalan

[Mick Norris]

Round 8 (June 26, 2019)
Howell, David W L - Le, Quang Liem ½-½ 31 A05 Various
Xiong, Jeffery - Shankland, Sam ½-½ 44 E10 Blumenfeld Counter Gambit
Jones, Gawain C B - Swiercz, Dariusz 0-1 37 B40 Sicilian Classical

+1 Howell, Le
= Xiong, Shankland
-1 Jones, Swiercz

[Mick Norris]

Not good

Round 9 (June 27, 2019)
Le, Quang Liem - Jones, Gawain C B 1-0 39 C78 Ruy Lopez Moeller Defence
Howell, David W L - Xiong, Jeffery 0-1 39 A07 Barcza System
Swiercz, Dariusz - Shankland, Sam ½-½ 50 D12 Slav Defence

[John McKenna]

Also not good was the way they lost.

Le 5.5/9

Xiong 5/9

Howell & Shankland 4.5/9

Swiercz 4/9

Jones 3.5/9

The leader Le it would appear is not as lagged as I thought he'd be - due to having won the Asian Ch. in Taiwan immediately prior to this event.

Neither is Le as alien to the US as I thought - he has spent quite a bit of time there in recent years apparently.

Probably Swiercz, too, to a lesser extent.

It's David and Gawain who are the tourists.

[Mick Norris]

Le was at Webster University for 4 (?) years until 2017

Swiercz switched federation to the US last year

[NickFaulks]

Also not good was the way they lost.

Perhaps, but credit to their opponents. Xiong in particular had a well prepared plan starting from move two and it worked perfectly.

After 6...Nh6, in a completely new position, Howell was already floundering somewhat. If your opening setup consists of Nf3, g3 and c4 you don't often get hit by big novelties.

[John McKenna]

I'll try to keep up...

After Howell's 1.Nf3 Xiong's 1... d5 is a standard move 2.g3 is not incisive, but will do, 2... Nd7 is the start of Xiong's cunning plan!?

3.c4 dc 4.Qa4 g6 5.Qc4 Bg7 has been played before, 6.d4 may be a novelty? 6... Nh6 certainly looks like a big one, 7.Nc3 Nb6 8.Qc5 and surely W cannot be worse?

8... Nf5 9.Bf4 Nd4!? 10.O-O-O Nd7, still seems OK for W, but
11.Qc7 may be the wrong idea, here, with Chessbase giving 11.Qa3!=

Anyway, I agree that Xiong and Le played well for their wins, yesterday.

Hope David and Gawain play, and do, better next round. It's still a tight race for first place.

[Roger de Coverly]

2... Nd7 is the start of Xiong's cunning plan!?

The idea does seem to be that c4 will be met by dxc4 when there's .. Nb6 either defending the c4 pawn or hitting anything that takes it back. There's also the point that 3. Bg2 can be met with 3. .. e5 with a Reverse Pirc setup. It could be somewhat like a reversed version of Luke's disaster in Israel a few days ago.

[NickFaulks]

3.c4 dc 4.Qa4 g6 5.Qc4 Bg7 has been played before

Yes and no. 5.Qc4 has only been played by a couple of lesser players and they transposed straight back to normal lines with 6.Bg2. Howell's approach of leaving the bishop on f1 for ages looks to have been made up at the board and did not convince. Xiong's insight that his knight should go from g8 to h6 to f5 was clearly reached at home.