This Thunder Quick event featured 21 players.
The turnout was lower than expected but this was probably due to the start of Spring Break.
The top players making their return were: Leon, Kevin, Farhan and Ashvid. There were no surprises the first round so we will start round 2 with the war between Aydan and Farhan.
Round 2: Aydan (w/ white) versus Farhan.
These two tend to play every event. I wish I knew the statistics between them, but I would predict Farhan as the favorite due to his higher rating. Farhan had the black pieces in this matchup and started the game punishing white with a sharp defense. Aydan mentioned that he preferred to play the Queen’s pawn opening because no one sees it much and it may come as a surprise.
The current position has black with an extra pawn. Each side has the same amount of pawn weaknesses, but those for white negatively impact his king safety. Farhan is better developed and used these advantages to checkmate Aydan in another 12 moves.
The key matchup in the 3rd round was Ashvid vs. Leon and Farhan vs. Kevin.
We will look at the Ashvid game, but Farhan was able to get the victory against Kevin. I was expecting Kevin to run through Farhan after sweeping the field in the previous event, but Farhan came to this event in good form and put an end to Kevin’s 7-game winning streak.
Round 3: Ashvid (w/ white) versus Leon.
Ashvid started off hot in this game going on the attack and picking up a pawn on the queenside in the process. Unfortunately, grabbing the pawn left the queen in a vulnerable position and Leon used this to pick up a huge development advantage. Leon alerted me to a combination that started with the knight checking the king on f2 and finished with a back rank checkmate.
Entering the 4th Round, the two undefeated players were Leon and Farhan. This matchup is balanced even when you include the club matches. The winner of this matchup should be whoever is having the better day.
Round 4: Leon (w/ white) versus Farhan.
Leon was coming off that nice tactic against Ashvid in the previous round, but Farhan had taken out Kevin in the same round. Maybe it would be whomever can start the attack first. Farhan would need to play careful this round, if Leon can devastate Ashvid with black, we can only imagine the amount of aggression he can deal with the white pieces.
Leon opened aggressively with the Scotch Game. The Scotch has the pawn advancing to d4 to attack the e-pawn in a King's Pawn Defense. This immediate attack rattled Farhan and had him playing passively to defend his f7-pawn. He tried for counter play but, like the previous round game, the queen was out of position and black is now responsible for defending this miserable position. White went on to get the victory in another 5 moves.
The FINAL ROUND had the a lot of people tied for the 2nd place with 3/4. Leon had clear first 4/4 but he was slated to play Kevin (my dream matchup). This would be a great way to end this event because Kevin had won the previous event but never had the opportunity to play Leon since he lost and withdrew after the 4th round.
This game was so Epic I had no choice but to include my own analysis of the game.
Nice Job for Leon sweeping the field (5.0/5.0).
Nice job to everyone participating. I will see you at our next event.
