Eighth grader Julian Wellman won the top section of the Friday Knight Quads open chess tournament in Ann Arbor on January 4th. Other winners were Justin Sun Liang, Anthony Liao, Robby Riles, Jared Ge, and Zachary Bernard John Hooper. Both Wellman and Riles had attended the Winter Knights chess camp that week.
The tournament was directed by Jennifer Skidmore and took place at the Garden Market Café located at 2200 Fuller Court. The next Friday Knight Quads is scheduled to take place on January 25th. The following first-round game was won by the eventual tournament winner.
White: Julian Wellman
Black: Ayush Das
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5
Caro-Kann Defense: Exchange Variation.
4. Bd3 Nc6 5. c3 Nf6 6. Bf4
Rubinstein Variation.
e6 7. Nf3 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Nbd2 Re8
Qb6 was played in Judit Polgar-Hausrath (1988).
10. c4 Nb4 11. Be2 Bd7 12. a3 Nc6 13. c5 b6 14. b4 Nh5 15. Bg3
White could have avoided the loss of the bishop pair by playing Be3.
15 … Nxg3 16. hxg3 Bf6 17. Nb3 Qc7 18. b5 Ne7?
Nxd4 followed by bxc5 would have given black two passed pawns for the sacrificed knight. Now white gets a strong passed pawn on c6.
19. c6 Bc8 20. Qd3 e5 21. dxe5 Bxe5 22. Nxe5 Qxe5 23. f4 Qd6 24. Bf3 Bf5 25. Qd2 Qd8 26. Rfe1 Rc8?
After this move, black must lose a pawn to avoid getting his bishop trapped by f5.
27. g4 Be4
The end of the game was played under time pressure.
28. Bxe4 dxe4 29. Qxd8 Rexd8 30. Rxe4 Nd5 31. Nd4? Nf6 32. Rae1 Nxe4 33. Rxe4
… 1-0.
The passed c-pawn gave white significant compensation for the exchange and he ultimately won a knight versus rook endgame.
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