The PNWCC Masters-World Online Open ended on July 6 on the chess.com server with American GMs Jeffery Xiong and Samuel Sevian emerging tied for first in the 9-round Swiss event with a classical chess format.
PNWCC stands for the Washington State-based Pacific Northwest Chess Center.
The online tournament, although offering only a modest prize fund, drew 130 players all over the planet, including several strong 2700+ and 2600+ grandmasters.
The PNWCC tournament reports are rather sketchy. Only the games from the first six rounds of the competition were published.
The chess.com server also has no news or reports about the event; and besides the official PNWCC and Mark Crowther’s TWIC sites, there appears no available reports yet of the tournament on our usual sources as we write this.
At any rate, PNWCC website reports the top 24 standings as: 1-2. Xiong, Sevian, 7; 3-9. GMs Nikita Vitiugov, Maxim Matlakov, Dariusz Swiercz, Vladimir Fedoseev, Parham Maghsoodloo, Jose Eduar M Alcantara, Aleksandar Indjic, 6½; 10-24. Gms Liem Quang Le, Andrey Esipenko, Evgeny Postny, Borki Predojevic, Anton Demchenko, Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, Awonder Liang, Aram Hakobyan, Baadur Jobava, Eltaj Safarli, Maksim Chigaev, Victor Mikhalevski, Alexander Shabalov, Marin Bosiocic, and IM Volodar Murzin, 6.
Maghsoodloo, P (2676)-Xiong, J (2709) [E11]
chess.com (5.1) 2020
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Be7 5.g3 d5 6.Bg2 0-0 7.0-0 Nbd7 8.Qc2 c6 9.Rc1 Ne4 10.Be3 f5 11.Ne1 Bf6 12.f3 Nd6 13.Nd2 f4 14.Bf2 Nf5 15.Qd3 Bg5 16.Bh3 Qf6 17.cxd5 exd5 18.Ng2 fxg3 19.hxg3 Nb6 20.f4 Nd6 21.Bxc8 Raxc8 22.Rf1 Bh6 23.g4 g5 24.f5 Bg7 25.Rae1 h5 26.e4 hxg4 27.e5 Qxf5 28.Qe2 Nb5 29.Be3 Qe6 30.Nb3 g3 31.Bxg5 Rxf1+ 32.Rxf1 Rf8 33.Nf4 Qf5 34.Bf6 Bh6 35.Nxd5 Qh3 36.Ne7+ Kf7 37.Nf5 Ke8 38.Nc5 Nd5 39.Nd6+ Nxd6 40.exd6+ Be3+ 0-1
Sevian, S (2660)-Indjic, A (2618) [C95]
chess.com (6.7) 2020
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Nb8 10.d4 Nbd7 11.c4 c6 12.Qc2 a5 13.a3 Ba6 14.c5 Qc7 15.cxd6 Bxd6 16.Bg5 Rfe8 17.dxe5 Nxe5 18.Nbd2 a4 19.Ba2 b4 20.axb4 Nd3 21.Re3 Nxb4 22.Qc3 Nd7 23.Bc4 h6 24.Bh4 Bc5 25.Bg3 Qb6 26.Ree1 Bb5 27.e5 Nd5 28.Qc2 Bb4 29.Re4 Bxd2 30.Nxd2 Nc5 31.Rg4 Nb3 32.e6 Qb7 33.Re1 h5 34.Rh4 Bxc4 35.Nxc4 Rxe6 36.Rxe6 fxe6 37.Be5 Nf6 38.Bxf6 gxf6 39.Rxh5 Qg7 40.Qe4 Rd8 41.Qxe6+ Kf8 42.Nd6 1-0
Safarli, E (2598)-Vitiugov, N (2722) [B23]
chess.com (5.6) 2020
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nd7 4.d4 cxd4 5.Qxd4 a6 6.Bxd7+ Bxd7 7.Nge2 Rc8 8.0-0 Nf6 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bxf6 gxf6 11.f4 Qa5 12.b4 Qc7 13.Nd5 Qc4 14.Qe3 f5 15.Ng3 Be6 16.Nxe7 Bxe7 17.exf5 Qc3 18.Qxc3 Rxc3 19.fxe6 fxe6 20.f5 e5 21.f6 Bf8 22.Rad1 Rxc2 23.Ne4 Rc6 24.a4 Kd7 25.f7 Bg7 26.b5 axb5 27.axb5 Rb6 28.Rd5 Ke6 29.Rfd1 Kxf7 30.Rxd6 Rxd6 31.Rxd6 Ra8 32.Kf2 Bf8 33.Rb6 Ra7 34.Kf3 h5 35.Ng5+ Ke8 36.Ke4 Bc5 37.Re6+ Kd7 38.Kd5 Be7 39.Nf7 Ra5 40.Nxe5+ Kd8 41.Rb6 Kc7 42.Nc4 Ra2 43.Rg6 h4 44.b6+ Kd7 45.Rg8 Bd8 46.Rg7+ Ke8 47.Rxb7 Bxb6 48.Rxb6 Rxg2 49.Rb2 h3 50.Ke4 Rg4+ 51.Kd3 Rg2 52.Re2+ Kf8 53.Ne3 Rg1 54.Rf2+ Kg7 55.Rf3 1-0
Tabatabaei, M. (2629)-Matlakov, M (2685) [E00]
chess.com (6.6) 2020
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 a5 5.Bg2 d5 6.Qc2 0-0 7.Nf3 c5 8.Bxb4 axb4 9.dxc5 d4 10.0-0 Nc6 11.Nbd2 e5 12.Ne4 Bf5 13.Nfd2 Nd7 14.Qc1 Bxe4 15.Nxe4 Qe7 16.a3 bxa3 17.Rxa3 Rxa3 18.bxa3 f5 19.Qb1 fxe4 20.Qxb7 Nd8 21.Qb4 Nf6 0-1
Jobava, B (2603)-Fedoseev, V (2678) [E15]
chess.com (4.7) 2020
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qb3 d5 6.cxd5 Qxd5 7.Qxd5 exd5 8.Bg2 Nc6 9.Nc3 Bb4 10.Bd2 0-0-0 11.Rc1 Rhe8 12.e3 Kb7 13.a3 Bxc3 14.Bxc3 Ne4 15.Nd2 f5 16.h4 g6 17.h5 g5 18.h6 Nxc3 19.bxc3 f4 20.gxf4 gxf4 21.e4 Re6 22.Bh3 Re7 23.f3 Bd3 24.Bf5 Rf8 25.Rh5 Rf6 26.Kf2 Ref7 27.Bh3 Ne7 28.exd5 Bg6 29.Re5 Bf5 30.Ne4 Rxh6 31.Rxe7 Rxe7 32.Bxf5 Rh2+ 33.Kg1 Ra2 34.Kf1 Rg7 35.c4 Rgg2 36.Ra1 Rxa1+ 37.Kxg2 Rxa3 38.c5 Ra4 39.c6+ Kb8 40.d6 cxd6 41.d5 Rd4 42.Nf6 a5 43.Ne8 Rc4 44.Nxd6 Rc5 45.Ne8 a4 46.d6 Rxf5 47.d7 1-0
*******
PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE,
MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Qxg7! Black’s futile options are 1…Bxg7 2.Bc5#; 1…dxe6 2.Sxe6#; 1…dxc6 2.Sxc6#; 1…d6 2.Qxa7#; 1…d5 2.Sf3#; 1…Sxd3/e2 2.S(x)e2#./PN
