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Game of the Week
With Analysis by IM Greg Shahade
 

April 8th, 2003

Participant List for 51st NY Masters:

Can anyone dethrone king Ehlvest? With 4 consecutive first place victories, he just needs a victory this week to tie Stripunsky’s record of being NY Masters champion for 5 consecutive weeks.

Stripunsky wouldn’t be in attendance to stop Ehlvest, as due to heavy traffic he was unable to make it to the tournament until midway through the 2^nd round! Stripunsky was not the only victim of traffic, as Pascal Charbonneau tried to drive from Maryland, but faced a similar traffic jam. Perhaps they were in the same traffic jam and could have played each other during that time?

Wojtkiewicz moved to 3-0 after knocking off Jay Bonin and now it was up to Ehlvest and Yudasin to see who would join Wojo at the top. I know that Yudasin REALLY wanted to beat Ehlvest, as Ehlvest has been UNSTOPPABLE thus far in the NY Masters, as he has won the first 4 times he has played. In head to head NY Masters matchups thus far, Ehlvest is up 3-0 against Yudasin. Yudasin is NOT an easy player to have a 3-0 score against, that much I assure you. A fourth consecutive victory over Yudasin should be enough to give him his 5^th consecutive title.

(3) Ehlvest,J (2705) - Yudasin,L (2666) [E20]
51st New York Masters New York (3), 08.04.2003

[Click here for an interactive JavaScript board]
 

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 d5 5.a3 Be7 6.e4 c5 7.cxd5 exd5 8.dxc5 d4

Yudasin is going for a risky pawn sacrifice on just move 8! He’s hoping that Ehlvest’s offsides knight and weakened king position (because of the move f3) will give him sufficient compensation…

9.Na4 0-0 10.Ne2 Nc6 11.b4 b5 12.cxb6 axb6 13.Nf4 Bb7 14.Bb5 Na7 15.Bd3 Bc6 16.0-0 Nb5 17.Qc2 Rc8 18.Qe2 Nc3 19.Nxc3 dxc3 20.Be3 Bd6 21.Ba6 Rb8 22.Nd3 Qc7
 

It seems like Yudasin is getting very good compensation! The h2 pawn is under attack, the passed c-pawn is a real thorn in Ehlvest’s side, and the bishop on a6 may be cut off at any moment with the move ….b5. Ehlvest decides to forget about his h-pawn for now, and worry about eliminating this c3-pawn.

23.Rfc1 Bxh2+ 24.Kf1 Nh5!
 

Look at white’s weak dark squares! Ehlvest is no longer even up material, and thus will have to fight very hard to pull this one out, with his king’s perilous situation.

25.Bf2 Ba4 26.b5 Rfd8 27.Nb4 Rd2!
 

All of Yudasin’s pieces are storming in! Ehlvest has no choice but to bail out into an endgame down the exchange, because if the queen moves, black has the fatal …Qc4 check.

28.Qxd2 cxd2 29.Rxc7 Bxc7 30.Ke2 d1Q+

Now Yudasin has an extra exchange and it looks like Ehlvest won’t get nearly enough compensation. Before rushing to grab the rook, Yudasin takes another pawn with some in between move knight checks.

31.Rxd1 Nf4+ 32.Ke1 Nxg2+ 33.Kd2 Rd8+ 34.Nd5 Bxd1 35.Kxd1 Nf4
 

0-1

Finally Ehlvest has been dethroned! Black’s position is totally won. Black has an extra exchange and the passed h-pawn should eventually decide matters. Congratulations to Yudasin for being the first player to beat Ehlvest!

Yudasin and Wojtkiewicz became joint winners after agreeing to a quick draw in the final round.  Congratulations to Yudasin and Wojtkiewicz again, and congratulations to Stripunsky as your streak of 5 consecutive titles remains the longest streak in NY Masters history!

Special congratulations go out to NY Masters participants Peter Aravena and newly crowned national High School Champion, Samson Benen. Peter and Samson tied for first in the first ever NY Masters invitational Round Robin with 6/9. James Lewis still has a chance to tie for the prize if he can win his final game, which was postponed because of the snow.

Also there is only one week remaining in this season of the NY Masters. This means that if you plan to donate money to the event, please let me know before April 22^nd so that I can add your donation to the prize fund! Thanks to everyone thus far for your support and it looks like the NY Masters will be going on strong throughout the summertime and the next 20 weeks!
 

Return to the New York Masters Index

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