Anti Hunger Games IX

John Fernandez of the Executive Council stopped in last Thursday to join us for the 9th Annual Anti Hunger Games at Christ the King Church in Iowa City. I really enjoy running this event as you never know who is going to show up on a Thursday during the day inbetween Christmas and New Years.

On Thursday John Fernandez showed up, he regailed us with his stories of working at the Manhatten Chess Club before it went out of business. My Favorite was when he said he answered a call from the Great GM Bobby Fischer living in Iceland at the time, and thought it was a prank call and was not very helpful to the GM's request and not giving out the phone number of another GM. Later the other GM said that the call was indeed from GM Fischer and he was not pleased. We shared GM Gareyev stories, even comparing and contrasting Timur's mother and a young GM Gary Kasparov's mother. John was amazed when I told him of my experieces of GM WIlliam Lombardy and his escape from the Iowa Open at Midnight to board a train to California in the wee hours of the morning. But Back to Chess

John was thinking of taking a third round bye, but then seeing that his likely opponent was the up and coming FIDE world U9 Champion Irene Fei he could not resist staying for the chance to beat her while he still could. You know to have bragging rights that he had a winning recourd against her. Some players in Iowa have that distinction as they played a young Awonder Liang in the Iowa Open RBO a decade ago.

John recieved black in round 3 against Irene. I will let the chess speak for itself. Unfortunately my photos of the event were inadvertantly deleted.

1.d4 f5 2.Bf4 Nf6 3.e3 d6 4.Be2 g6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.h3 0–0 7.c4 Nc6 8.Nc3 e6 9.0–0 Qe7 10.Re1 h6 11.a3 Bd7 12.b4 Rae8 13.Qb3 Kh7 14.Rad1 g5 15.Bh2 g4

John is trying to tear up Irene's Kingside, but it seems he is also tearing up his own.]

16.hxg4 fxg4 17.Bd3+ Kg8 18.Nh4 Nh5 19.Ng6!

[Fork Spoon Spatula! John looks like dracula!]

19...Qf7 20.Nxf8 Rxf8 21.Qc2 Ne7 22.Ne4 Bc6 23.Ng3 Nf6 24.b5 Be8 25.a4 h5 26.Ne4 Nxe4 27.Bxe4 h4

Those pawns bearing down on Irene's king look Menacing. Perhaps I didn't give Johns poor exchange the credit it was due.]

28.Qe2 Qh5 29.a5 Qg5 30.Kh1 g3 31.Bg1

This looks dicey!]

31...Bh5 32.f3 h3 33.gxh3 Qh4 34.Qg2 Rxf3?? [.....d5! oh John your chance to beat Irene when she was still young has just slipped through your fingers!]

[34...d5 35.cxd5 exd5 36.Bxd5+ Nxd5 37.Rf1 Rxf3 38.Rxf3 Bxf3] below is a picture of how the game could have been.