Round Four of the Thursday Knighter III

Last night was another good night at the Castle. Rich DuRocher came up to play. The other seven signed up for the month showed, so Rich was added to the mix.

The top two players for the month were Carl and Steve. They drew two weeks ago, and each had a score of 2.5. Steve played Black against Phil, while Carl had the White pieces against Norm. Rich had Black against Roger, while Vinnie had White against Dennis. (I had an unrated game against John.)

I got to watch the beginning of all the games before I started my game. All the games looked interesting, with Phil v Steve and Roger v Rich the most active and complicated games.

When I got finished playing John to a draw, I walked over to Phil and Steve's table. The position had gotten more complicated, in Phil's favor. He had a checkmate threat on its way, so Steve resigned.

Norm was running very low on time against Carl. Norm won an exchange in what was a semi-closed position (a Knight for a Rook), but Carl used his remaining Knight in such an effective way that Norm was not able to hold off all the threats, and Carl won, making him this month's winner at 3.5. Congratulations again, Carl!

Roger has been getting into chess again late last year after a long break from playing. He was lamenting the fact that it was tough, but I encouraged him that it takes just a bit of patience. He didn't have to wait too long. He had a tactical game going with Rich. Rich opened up a weakness in his own position which created a forced mate in two.

I ended up leaving before the end of Vinnie and Dennis' game, which still had up to forty minutes to go. I was tired, but satisfied to have played and witnessed numerous good games.