TMC Cash League Round 4 Overview

Coming off a bye week along with a new member, our team was more than ready for this round.

Board 2: ProjectNaoki vs JuliusCaesarofchess

Naoki played the first game of the match against a rather interesting opponent. Although his rating might show 2200, his chess.com blitz rating is around 2600 and he is actually an FM.

Game 1:

Not a great start for Naoki. He got completely outplayed in the opening, and even though his opponent did blunder the advantage away, Naoki was still unable to find the line that holds. He ended up losing the game and if he wanted to win the next one he would need to really lock in.

Game 2:

First move Naoki plays a3. After getting completely destroyed out of the opening in the last game, this was probably not the right choice. He was unable to get an advantage out of the opening and was getting pressed in the endgame. At one point in the game, black even had mate in 8! After a series of blunders from black, it turned into an extremely complicated endgame. Naoki blundered in this endgame, but black was unable to find the win. Then, a miracle happened. Black blundered mate, causing Naoki to win the game. Not the best performance, but we'll take it.

Game score: 1-1
Match score 1-1

Board 3: BTRex2010 vs HalichoBivittatus

I was the favorite to win this match. I still had to take in consideration that my opponent, even though lower rated than me, could very much still take some points off me.

Game 1:

I got a really good position out of the opening, however I was unable to convert my advantage. We went into a drawn endgame, but I put a lot of pressure on his pieces, causing him to blunder and leading me to win the first game.

Game 2:

This game was a shaky one. Out of the opening, I had many chances to get an advantage but was unable to find the moves. He ended up having a crushing attack on the kingside, but did too much and blundered his knight. Although I was up a full piece, he still had some counterplay and along with this I was in immense time trouble. I ended up blundering it back, causing to go into a rook endgame and after a few mistakes from my opponent I won the game.

Game score: 2-0 BTRex2010
Match score: 3-1 D1 throwers

Board 5: RobertKM1 vs ShadowKnight27

If you didn't know, Robert is our new team member after our board 5 rage quit. Off the looks of his account, he seems like a very solid player but this match would really show if he can change our team for the better.

The match starts off in a bad way. Because Robert was new to the league, he didn't know if games were to be casual or rated. He thought it would be okay to play casual, but it was not. They ended up playing their match in casual, and although Robert won 2-0, it didn't count!

They had to replay the games, and you can understand what Robert was feeling in this moment. So here's how the real games went.

Game 1:

Robert starts off the match with a bang. He plays almost perfect chess, completely outplaying his opponent. If he continues this momentum into the next match, it will be an easy 2-0

Game 2:

He gets into a pretty good position out of the opening, but gets into king safety issues in the middlegame. Although the position was miserable, the game was very much still winnable. However, Robert ends up blundering his queen in 1 move, and loses the game.

Game score: 1-1
Match score: 4-2 D1 throwers

Board 1: Misterfox120 vs LiamCleryChess

Coming into the round, Misterfox knew that if he wins both games 2-0, we would secure a win for the match. This outcome is actually very possible, as Misterfox is very much the favorite for this match. However, Liam is a pretty solid blitz player standing at a peak of 2500, so it would still take lots of effort to get a 2-0

Game 1:

Misterfox easily outplays Liam, but at the cost of getting into time trouble. Although he was -3, with 6 seconds left it is extremely hard to convert. He couldn't find the win, which I won't blame him for, but he runs out of time in a drawn position and loses the game.

This was not the way he wanted to start the round.

Game 2:

He outplays Liam again with ease, but gets into time trouble once again. This time, the advantage is much more clear and he converts the position. Had there been 2 second increment, the match probably would've went into Misterfox's favor, but 1-1 is nothing to complain about.

Game score: 1-1
Match score: 5-3 D1 throwers

Board 4: PersonallyGabe vs Tadpol3Milk

All PersonallyGabe needed was a draw to secure a win for our team, and to make it even better he was playing someone slightly lower rated than him. Lets see if he can perform under pressure.

Game 1:

Really strong performance by Gabe. He had a good position out of the opening, and his opponent couldn't handle the attack on the kingside. He converted the endgame, making him win this game and securing our team a win overall.

Game 2:

The pressure is off Gabe now that he won. Once again he gets into a better position out of the opening, but hangs a fork in the middlegame. His opponent does not see this though and he ends up winning the game through another kingside attack.

Game score: 2-0
Final match score: 7-3

Conclusion

We won the match pretty convincingly, with a score of 7-3. After this round, we are the only team that is 4/4, making us the 1st ranked team out of 25.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next blogs to see if we can hold our position as the highest ranked team!