This is my weekly dilemma. Drive to my own chess club and make personal contact with members OR stay online and play against FIDE titled players for free?

​Deflection is a common theme in chess. Here it wins for black by forcing queen promotion. Black has just played 28....Ba3! and the c-pawn will promote 0-1.

​IM David Strauss-NCM Vas Sladek, ICC 3 2 blitz, September 23, 2017.

​

The Tri-Cities chess team faced a strong round 1 opponent in the Vancouver Rapid chess league. We faced the Chigorin Chess Club which is full of expert level players and led by FM Morozov.

​David, Sherry and Ulvi played hard but went down 3-6. Well done.

​Round 2 goes in October.

​We are still looking for new team members. Please contact Vas.

League news:

​Since Vancouver Chess School added a third team and UBC also entered a team the league format was changed to Swiss-type event.

​

​Black to play.

​FM enfatico53 vs. Vas Sladek, ICC blitz September 20, 2017




​Solution: 34. ....Qf3+ 35. Qxf3 exf3+ 36. Kxf3 Rxh1 and Black wins a rook 0-1

This story involves Canadian GM Kovalyov. Follow this link to read more. 
​

​Black to move

​Guido Wirth-Vas Sladek,
​2005 New Westminster Chess Club Championship



30. Be4 ?? (30. Qe2 and white is slightly better) 
30. Qxe4 !! 31. dxe4 Nf3+ 32. Kg2 (32. Kf1 Nxd2+ 33. Ke2 Nxc4 34. Ba1)
32... Nxd2 0-1

Black to move. (Difficulty level: easy)

Black to move

​

P. Harris-John Doknjas, Langley Open 2017
​27. ...Bxg3+!
​This was easy. 28. fxg3 Qxg3+ 29. Kh1 Qxh4+ and it's mate on h2 next.

.​[Event "Tbilisi FIDE World Cup"]
[Site "chess24.com"]
[Date "2017.09.09"]
[Round "18.1"]
[White "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Black "Bu, Xiangzhi"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C55"]
[WhiteElo "2827"]
[BlackElo "2714"]
[Annotator "Vas Sladek"]
[PlyCount "72"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[WhiteTeam "Norway"]
[BlackTeam "China"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "NOR"]
[BlackTeamCountry "CHN"]
1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. d3 Nc6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. O-O O-O 6. Bb3 d6 7. c3 Be6 8. Re1
Qd7 9. Nbd2 Rab8 10. Bc2 d5 11. h3 h6 12. exd5 Nxd5 13. Nxe5 Nxe5 14. Rxe5 Bd6
15. Re1 Bxh3! {A beautiful piece sacrifice against the best player on the
planet!} 16. gxh3 Qxh3 17. Nf1 {Of course, there was no direct mate. But
consider Black's compensation: the White King has no cover, black advances his
king side pawns, White's rook on a1 never gets out and White has to return the
extra piece. Best of all, Black has all the fun and play!} Rbe8 18. d4 f5 19.
Bb3 c6 20. f4 Kh7 21. Bxd5 cxd5 22. Re3 Rxe3 23. Bxe3 g5 24. Kf2 gxf4 25. Qf3 {
White has to return the piece. If he plays something like 25.Bd2?! then Rg8-+ and
it will get ugly for White.}
25... fxe3+ 26. Nxe3 Qh2+ 27.
Kf1 Rg8 28. Qxf5+ Rg6 29. Ke1 h5 30. Kd1 Kh6 31. Nc2 h4 32. Ne1 h3 33. Nf3 Qg2
34. Ne1 Qg4+ 35. Qxg4 Rxg4 36. Nf3 Rg1+ (36... Rg1+ 37. Nxg1 h2 38. Kc2 h1=Q
-+) 0-1

The Tri-cities chess team is still looking for new players to play in the Vancouver Rapid Chess League. The good news is that we have a team all set-up for round one to be played on September 23, 2017.

​1. NCM Vas Sladek (Captain and manager)
​2. David Bissell
​3. Ali Dehghan

​If you would like to join us for this season, please contact Vas.

​

FM John Doknjas vs Paul Leblanc, Langley Open 2017

White to play.

19. Rxd7! {Masters don't miss this stuff. This is a
beautiful positional move. Watch now as White dominates the board and attacks
the King.} Rxd7 20. Nxe5 Rdd8 21. Nc4 Ra7 22. Nd6 Qe7 23. Qe4 Ba8 24. Bf1 Qc7
25. Bd3 g6 26. Qe5 {Threatening 27. Bh6 and 28.Qg7mate.} 1-0

Congratulations to John Doknjas for winning the Langley Open with 5.5/6, good for $600!

​One exercise from the Langley Open. Examine the position. The players agreed to a draw. Is it really a draw? Post comments. No cheating with chess engines.

Black to play

​