March 5, 2014 / Chess

Curaçao 2012 – Iguanas and Dragons

Two thirds of the way through the tournament, Robbie and I are locked in a two horse race for the title, and the pairings really are starting to become bizarre. (By the way, the tournament website is http://www.curacaochess.net/ ) The two of us have taken to a serious, no-nonsense schedule every day: lazy breakfasts, tourist snaps, a few hours of Caribbean beach time and some ice-cream to fend off the 30 degree sunshine comprises the chess preparation of champions.

A frequent lunchtime companion: a local iguana

The holiday chess festival lived up to its billing with a superb rest day at the beach. It’s not often the official organised rest day activities are well attended, but we had almost full participation for the barbeque and surf frivolities.

At the board, Robbie continues to impress. Check out his fine win against one of the young Aruban whippersnappers:

Play online chess

Meanwhile, young Marc Bueno (also from Aruba) has really impressed with his play, and has already picked up 24 rating points from his six games. It could have been even more if he had’ve found the right continuation in a tricky Sicilian Dragon against Curaçaoan Olympiad regular, Sherman Maduro:

: White to play

After 1. Rdf1 Sherman though he could wrap things up quickly with 1…Bxe2 2. Qxe2 Rxc3, and after Marco’s 3.bxc3? Qxg5, black quickly won. Things could have been quite different, however, after thezwischenzug:

3. Qf2! (to take the b6 square away from the black queen) …Rf8

(3… f6 4. Qh4 Kf7 5. Qxh7+ Bg7 6. Bh6 Rg8 7. bxc3 and after a bunch of clever intermediate moves, white wins.)

4. Bd2! Qb5 5. a4! Qb4 6. Rh3 Qxb2+! 7. Kxb2 Rf3+ 8. c3 Rxf2 9.Rxf2

…and white has the edge, although the four (!) pawns for the rook offer black chances in a typical Dragon endgame.

Three rounds to go!

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