2007 State Championship Coverage

By John Cope

 

The OSCO State Championship was a bustling event this year at Claremore High School with a great turn out. The chess itself was quite good as well! Our new Denker representative and high school state champion is Jacob Berger, who had a perfect score of 4/4 but still had to go through a blitz playoff to secure the title. This is Jacob’s second straight year to go 4/4 at state, but last year he lost in the blitz playoff. Rachel Farell was the runner-up, also scoring 4/4 but losing to Berger 2-0 in the blitz playoff. Rachel will be the Polgar representative for Oklahoma for the 2nd year in a row. Rachel also shed her recent troubles against David Luscomb by defeating him in the 2nd round. The blitz playoff between Jacob and Rachel is provided below. 

 

The Jr. High section was won by Ryan Farell with a very strong performance. Ryan went 5/5 and never really seemed in much danger. Alec Wilson also had a breakout performance in this tournament scoring 4/5 including two upsets.

 

The K-6 title was won by Kenny Lin in a three way blitz playoff with Zak Maggard and Ryan Liang. This blitz playoff was actually the more fast and furious of the two. Pieces were flying all over the place, and one game even featured the infamous ‘king-chop’! Meanwhile, Becky Huang put on an absolutely dominating performance in steamrolling to the K-4 title. Becky decimated all opposition in her path playing extremely solid chess. Unfortunately, the three-way blitz playoff in the K-6 open is not provided in this article.

 

Please note that the games in this section are more for entertainment value because of their importance to the result of the tournament, and since there will not be a heavy focus on instructive themes the games are presented in a slightly different format. The focus in this section is more on looking at these games due to entertainment value or tournament importance rather than extensively analyzing them as in the instructive games section.

 

Now for some of the critical games of the tournament: What could be more critical than a couple of playoff games?

 

Denker Blitz Playoff Gm 1

Ra. Farell-J Berger               3.31.07

 

The first playoff game was a relatively slow game with each player trying to slowly feel things out. It was actually similar in many ways to the first game of last year’s playoff, but this time Jacob takes advantage of his opportunities to win.

 

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. 0-0 0-0 5. d4 d6 6. c4 c5 7. d5 Bg4 8. Nc3 Nbd7

9. Qb3 Rb8 10. Bg5 h6 11. Bxf6 Bxf6 12. Rac1 Nb6 13. h3 Bd7 14. a3 Qc8

15. Rfd1 Bxh3 16. Bxh3 Qxh3 17. Rd2 Nd7 18. Qa4 Rfd8 19. Qxa7 Bg7 20. Nb5 h5 21. Qa4 Bh6 22. e3 Nf6 23. Qd1 Ng4 24. Qf1 Qxf1+ 25. Kxf1 Bg7 26. Kg2 Ne5

27. Nxe5 Bxe5 28. f4 Bg7 29. e4 b6 30. Re1 Rd7 31. b4 cxb4 32. axb4 Rc8 33. Rc2 Kh7 34. e5? Now … dxe5 followed by …Rxd5! wins. 34 … dxe5 35. dxe5 f6? 36. e6 Rdd8 37. Kf3 f5 38. Na7 Rc7 39. Nc6 Rdc8 40. c5 bxc5 41. bxc5 Bf6 42. Rec1 Ra8 43. Nb4 Ra3+ 44. Kf2 Ra5? Better is 44 … Be5! 45. Nd3 Missing 45 d6! +/- 45 … Kg7 46. Re2 Bd4+ 47. Kf3 Ra3 and the score was lost here. Jacob won the c-pawn and had a winning position when Rachel’s flag fell. 0-1

 

Denker Blitz Playoff Gm 2

J Berger-Ra. Farell

 

This was an incredibly interesting game and was very entertaining. Rachel was in a must-win situation, and she certainly went all out in this game. She eventually lost her initiative and the game, but she overlooked some excellent possibilities due to the time limit. The time limit really plays a factor in these games, as Jacob knows very well from last year.

 

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 0-0 8. Qd2 d5

9. Nxc6 bxc6 10. 0-0-0 Bb7 11. Bh6 d4? This is definitely a mistake. After 12. Bxg7 following by taking on d4 White will simply win a pawn. 12. Ne2? Bxh6 13. Qxh6 c5 14. g4 Qa5 15. Kb1 Rab8 16. h4 Bc6 17. b3 c4!? (D) Rachel is going all-out for the attack. She is in a must win situation and doesn’t intend to mail it in! 18. Nxd4 cxb3 19. axb3 Ba4? After this White is winning, but things are still interesting, especially at this time control. 20. Bc4 Rfc8 21. Kc1?? Jacob thought for a while on this move before making this move due to the ticking clock. However, this move gives Black a chance to play a winning combination… 21 … Bxb3? ...but Rachel misses the win due to that same ticking clock. The difficult 21 … Rxc4! is the winner after 22. bxc4 Qc3! (D) 22. Bxb3 Rxb3? The wrong time to sac the exchange. Here Black can still claim a large advantage after 22 … Qa1+!, forcing Kd2, after which the d4-knight falls with check and the White king is on the chopping block as well. 23. Nxb3 Now White is solidified and he can claim a winning material advantage. 23 … Qc3 24. Rh2 Qxf3 25. Rhd2 Rf8 26. Rd8 Ne8 27. Nc5? Qa3+ 28. Kd2 Qxc5 29. h5 Qa5+ 30. Ke2 Qb5+ 31. Kf2 Qc5+ 32. Qe3 Qxe3+ 33. Kxe3 Nf6 34. Rxf8+ Kxf8 35. h6 e6 36. g5 Nd7?? 37. Rxd7 and White won on move 49 1-0

 

Jacob’s 1-0 lead allowed him to play this game without risk, which can be a huge psychological advantage. Even if he lost, he would still have another chance to take the title. Last year the draw in the first game made for an even more tense 2nd game since the chance for the title could be lost by both players on that game alone.

 

It was an excellent playoff this year and congratulations to Jacob for winning the right to represent Oklahoma at the Denker Tournament of High School Champions in Cherry Hill this summer!