Rob Keough Turns In A Fischeresque 5-0 To Win The
 1st Annual Robert Fischer Memorial
By Steve Farmer

Rob Keough plowed through the opposition with relative ease, his only tough game was against John Barthel, a 1600 player who also turned in a good result, scoring three points himself.

Fischer 30-30 Wrap-up
Fortunately, Rob didn't play on Friday night and I was able to take 1st Place in the Friday Night Fischer 30-30 three round event. Basically, we played this event as a quadrangular. I won two games but lost one to Cleon Whiteley in a bizarre time scramble. You can view all the games from the Friday Event Here. Cleon, and Ruben Henderson made the trip from Phoenix to play in both events. But on this Friday, it was the Tucsonians who had the better of things; Ted Day finished 2nd while Cleon and Ruben came in 3rd and 4th respectively.

All the games were hotly contested in this event, none of the games ended in a draw - NONE! Over 27 games with no drawn games. Another odd fact is that in the first couple of rounds, Black won the biggest majority of game. The caliber of play may not have been high, but the fighting spirit was in keeping with the namesake of this event.

In my first game I played Ruben and he threw a Trompowsky against me. I played for a line where I had an innovation prepared, but Ruben side-stepped my plans. The game was tense, as were all these games, and in the end I was able to pull off the win. Game number Two was against Cleon Whiteley and he played a Center-Counter to my 1.P-K4. I played an obscure line and soon had a slight edge when time pressure started to mount. I made a combination with precious little time left and failed to follow it up in the most effective way. About 4 or 5 moves from the first time control I noticed my opponent's flag was down and called the TD, Ed Yetman, over to the board. I didn't have enough move-pairs written down to claim the win. Not knowing that I was no longer in danger of losing on time myself, I rushed out my next four moves and left a rook en prise. With it went my game. In the final round I was paired with Ted Day. This was an interesting game where my kingside attack managed to win the Exchange, but Ted kept the pressure up, striving for as much compensation as possible. Everyone knows that you must be diligent to win a won game and this game was no exception... Finally, I found a really nice move that stopped Black's counterplay cold. Ted missed my idea and stepped into a very pretty mating pattern.

Here is a picture of Ted being awarded his prize money. Everyone seemed to go home with some prize winnings!

Cleon walked away with some cash as well, and Ruben won free entry to the upcoming Victoria Day Tournament.

Even I walked away with some decent money from these two events, enough to pay for USCF membership and pay for dinner and groceries - thanks you Mr. Yetman!

Special Thanks to Cleon and Ruben for driving down from Phoenix to attend the tournament - it was great to see you both again!

In closing, I would like to say that the 30-30 for the first time control and 40/1 hr for the other time controls was a little hard to get used to. I fell into the pitfalls of this fast paced game in the second round, but other than that it was acceptable. Now that I know the rules on time claim wins I will feel more at ease (though my second game with Ruben in the fourth round of the Fischer Memorial may speak otherwise!)

1st Fischer Memorial Wrap-Up

Making their way down from Phoenix were Dan and David Adleberg. David, a lad of about 10 or so, is rated in the 1900's and is a sharp player, but he had a poor showing this weekend and I think he was feeling a bit under the weather as the two did not return on Sunday. This was a shame, I was looking forward to playing David again. He held me to a draw in our game at the 2007 U.S. Amateur West and I was impressed with his defensive abilities. He suffered a crushing defeat in his third game of the day to John Barthel, who was playing extremely well this weekend. To Daniel and David, thank you for coming down and I hope to see you at more of our events in the future, please keep the Victoria Day and Queen's Birthday events in mind!

Another strong but rarely seen player was Jim Caid, now living in Oracle. I have had many wonderful games with Jim and this time was no exception. In a tough Petroff I played my new favorite line and got a decent opening. In a decision that may have been brought on by time pressure, Jim went for what looked like the win of a pawn, but precise calculation showed that he was not winning a pawn, but losing one in the long run. The ending was interesting in that, with pawns on both sides of the board, my knight was able to be the master of his bishop, which is usually the more dominant in such positions. It was good to see Jim again and I hope he comes to more of our events. Jim's play in this tournament seemed to be just a tad bit rusty, but strong nevertheless.

An Honorable Mention should be made of the attendance of Chan Yergin. I have played Chan many times and he is a real fighter, one of the toughest you will find, always looking for a win. I have learned that this event was the 119th tournament that he has played in - that is phenomenal! If you look up the definition of an 'Experienced Player' you will see Chan's photo there!

As mentioned at the top, Rob Keough put in an impressive showing. In only two games was there any question to his winning streak. In my game against Rob I missed a line that might have led to a draw and in his game against John Barthel, John resigned in a difficult but possibly survivable position (click here for the games of the Fischer Memorial). Other than these two games Rob had pretty smooth sailing throughout.

The final results were: 1st Rob Keough, 2nd John Barthel, Best "A" Steve Farmer, Best "B" Jim Caid, Best "C" Ted Day and Best "D & E" Cleon Whiteley.

Tournament Director, Ed Yetman, tallies up the scores to hand out the awards.

Ruben Henderson (foreground) looks over the many monographs available, produced by Ed Yetman.

Ted makes sure the award amount is correct...

Cleon Whiteley (left) just after resigning to Rob Keough, the tournament winner. Cleon played the most bizarre Center-Counter (a.k.a. Scandinavian Defense) against Rob, letting his queen get hit over and over again. Had I known that he would have played this line I would have never entered into the odd 3.Q-B3 line!

Ed Yetman - Tournament Director

Ed has been hosting tournaments in Tucson and Southern Arizona for many years and never seems to tire of the work involved in putting on these events.

Ed has asked me to remind you, once again, that we will be holding two more tournaments in the near future, the Victoria Day Open and the Queen's Birthday. I hope to see you there - enjoy the games!