Staying at 2000 (3) or Getting to 2200

With a three wins, one loss, and a half-point bye at the UW Winter Open in Madison, I managed to increase my expert rating by four points to 2014. In the first two rounds, I met the father-son tag team of Stephen and Chris Holm. I managed to beat both of them, but I did not feel like I was in command for much of either game despite their 1417 and 1685 ratings. After a third round bye for dinner with my son, I met my old friend Chris Baumgartner and I managed to confuse him into missing a knight fork that cost him his queen. When I played here in September, the highest rated nine year old in the country, Brian Luo, and I both went into the last round with 3 1/2 points and he got the honor of playing master Alex Betanelli. This time, Brian was fortunate to escape with a draw in the fourth round against Ivan (Getting to 2000) Wijetunge. This left me as the highest rated player with 3 1/2 points, giving me the honor of being thumped by the master in the last round.

Alex was very gracious in the post-mortem, and his comments helped me see how far I have to go to get to the next level. After Alex's 11th move, we reached the following "Hedgehog" position.



I was pretty sure that I would have a very solid position if I could get ...a6 in, but I could not figure out how to do it because White is threatening e5. I saw 11...a6 12.e5 dxe5 13.fxe5 Nxe5 14.Qxe5 Bc5 15. Be3? Nf4, but I did not see anything I could do against 15. Nce2. After the game, Alex showed me the zwischenzug, 14...Bd6!, when the White queen lacks a good square. After 15.Qe3 Bc5 16.Nce2 e5 17.Qxe5 Re8, White is not going to be able to maintain the extra material. If I ever hope to make master, I am going to have to learn how to find moves like that ...Bd6. I played 11...Nc5 and went on to lose Betanelli v. Hart.