Tournaments Update

The third round of the Chess.com Italian Game Tournament is approaching its conclusion, with one game remaining to be completed. mikerj, with 7.5 points, is playing LVercotti, with 7 points, battling for the top spot in round three, the final round.

Curiously, their positions are reversed in the overall standings, with LVercotti having 26 points and mikerj having 25.5. That might mean that while a draw would be sufficient for mikerj to win round three, but he would need a win to finish up on the top of the tournament.

I am facing a similar, if diluted, situation: I am clearly going to finish third in round three, ahead of Diogenes_of_Sinope, but he is going to leap over me by .5 points in the final standings. I guess 4th place out of 27 contestants isn't too bad.

The upcoming (players started signing up a couple of months ago) Jerome Gambit Tournament at RedHotPawn that I mentioned a month and a half ago now has 14 of its needed 16 participants. I'd love to help them complete the field, but each time I check on it I receive the reasonable message "Sorry, you are not eligible to enter this tournament. This tournament is only available to subscribers." Oh, well. I will keep you updated.

The new 5-player Chess.com "Italian Game: Guioco Piano" tournament has just started, and I expect to play 4 Jerome Gambits - in fact, I just sacced the Bishop in game 1 (I have black in the other games, but will eventually have my chance at 4.Bxf7ch!?). You will see them as they are completed. 

Through - Whew!

As updated in "Shelter in Place", I raced to the top of my first round group (without playing a Jerome Gambit) in an Italian Game tournament at Chess.com, completing my games - only to have to wait until others in my group finished theirs.

Lvercotti surged ahead of me, eventually taking first place in the group with a score of 10-0-2. Next came mikerj, galloping by with 8-2-2. I managed a draw off of each of them.

At 7-2-3 I could only wait for the outcome of the last-to-finish game in our group, FedorMarkov - Lvercotti, to see if  White won, also reaching 8.5 points, possibly knocking me out of third place - and a chance to advance to the second round of the tournament - on tiebreaks.

Curiously, in a R + 5Ps vs R + N + 2Ps, where the  position was balanced, but White seemed to have all the winning chances - the first player lost on time. Given that the time limit was 3 days per move, something must have gone wrong for him...

Group 2 has yet to finish, although it is already clear that will_thrash, 7thSon and Diogenes_of_Sinope will all advance to the second round, in some kind of order, as the trio has broken away from the rest of the pack.

With luck, Round 2 will see some Jerome Gambits.

Shelter In Place

All of my games in the first round of the ongoing Chess.com Italian Game tournament (see  "Anybody Want A Couple of Pieces?") have been completed (without a Jerome Gambit in sight), and with 7 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses, I have to wait to see how many of my erstwhile opponents - I am thinking of LVercotti (currently 8 wins and 1 draw), mikerj (currently 6 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses) and FedorMarkov (currently 6 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses ) in particular - catch or pass me. I think three players advance to the next round, so I have my chances...

In the meantime, in the third round of the earlier Chess.com Italian Game tournament, (see "Anybody want a (couple of) piece(s) of me?") I managed a successful Jerome Gambit (see "Do I Share Everything? No.") but I do not think that I will be advancing to the next round, as that may be my only win. Que sera sera.