The 9th Annual Kenai Chess Challenge was held July 23 to 25 at Christ Lutheran Church in Soldotna, Alaska.  5 time Colorado Chess Champion and Life Master Brian Wall played in the tournament.  The weekend started early for me as I needed to pick up Brian at the Anchorage airport late Wednesday night.  On Thursday I took him to Seward for a tour of Resurrection Bay and on Friday we went to Homer before heading back to Soldotna and the start of the tournament.  While we were waiting for the first round Brian played a game of blind fold blitz against KC Jones.  I called out KC's moves, made Brian's moves on the board and stopped his clock.  There were doubled pawns in the center of the board and Brian dropped his queen because he forgot about 1 of them.  KC eventually won on time but was on the verge of winning anyway after promoting a pawn.  I delayed the start of the first round because I knew that Fairbanks Master Artem Ruppert was on his way and wanted to give him a chance to make it.  At 8:00 PM we started the round without Artem and I was paired as black against Brian.  He had been telling me for 2 days that he wanted to play openings with an Alaska theme.

The Halibut Gambit
1 c4 b5

The Russian Defense
1 e4 d5
2 Nf3 Nf6

The Fishing Pole by LM Jack Young
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 4 0-0 Ng4!!

The King Crab
1 h4
2 a4

Since he and I had King Crab on the boat tour the previous day that's the opening I got.  I died from a bad case of crabs after 30 moves.  Artem eventually made it to Soldotna but in the end decided not to play in the tournament.  However, he did come by my house Saturday night to play speed chess with Chuck Sherwood and Brian Wall. 

Things went pretty much as expected through 2 rounds but in round 3 the fireworks started happening.  Brian lost on time to Matthew "Son of a Preacher Man" Parshall and in his chess blog mused, "Did you ever play a great game of Chess but forgot to win? I am rarely in such a good mood after a loss." 

Also in round 3 that sandbagging SOB KC Jones defeated Chuck Sherwood.  The tournament was won by Matthew Parshall with 3.5 points ($40) and Brian Wall was 2nd with 3 points($20).  For U1600 1st was myself, George Lombardi, ($25) and tied for 2nd were KC Jones and Randy Parshall ($7.50 each).  The upset prize of $10 went to KC Jones for his win over Chuck Sherwood. 

I would like to thank Randy Parshall for providing us with the playing site and thank KC Jones for the ice cream cake he brought to the tournament for after the final round.  Brian Wall is quite a character, full of stories and anecdotes.  I had a blast spending the last 4 days with him.  I was hoping for a bigger turnout but the nice thing about the small number was that it was very personal and everyone got a chance to play Brian either in a rated game or blitz or both.

George Lombardi

 

 

To be continued!!

Until next time ...