2004 Col. Paul Webb Arizona State Championship

Danny's Corner
The 2004 Arizona State Chess Championship was a tournament filled with fighting chess and consisted of the strongest field of any Arizona tournament this year. The event was hosted by American Chess Events and Steven Kamp, and directed by International Arbiter Myron Lieberman.

The tournament was played in a Round Robin format, which is a tournament system where each player is paired with all the other participants and randomly assigned a color.

In the first round I was paired with Bob Rowley. This would be our first ever meeting over the board. The game was extremely complicated. Bob might have had me at one point, but I was able to defend and achieve a slightly better ending. Unfortunately, after a small mistake, I lost all my winning chances and the game ended in a draw.

On the second day of the event I was to face the two highest rated players in the tournament - IM Mark Ginsburg and WGM Anjelina Belakovskaia. I felt that I was decently prepared against Belakovskaia and decided to play an opening that I knew she knew well. After playing a new idea in that line, it was clear that I had caught her off guard. However, I missed some winning chances, and the game ended in a draw.

Heading into round three Saturday evening, IM Ginsburg held the lead in the tournament with 1 and 1/2 out of 2, while Pieta, Anjelina, and I followed with 1 point. My third round against Ginsburg I tried to play a line that I had prepared against him, but he surprised me with a different move order and I found myself in a very tactical position. He offered me a draw on move fifteen, but I declined in hopes that the combinations would work out in my favor. And thankfully they did! After an interesting piece sacrifice I was able to pull off a nice victory as early as move thirty.

After two days of play the tournament leaders were Belakovskaia, Garrett, and I with 2 points. Ginsburg followed closely with 1 and 1/2 out of 3, Rowley had 1 point, and Lower had 1/2 point.

In the early round of Sunday neither Pieta nor I were able to turn our advantages over against each other, and we drew. Heading into the last round the top four players (Ginsburg, Belakovskaia, Garrett, and myself) were tied at 2 and 1/2 out of 4.

The final round match-ups were Lower vs. Rensch, Ginsburg vs. Rowley, and Belakovskaia vs. Garrett. Belakovskaia beat Garrett and Ginsburg beat Rowley. It was up to me to beat to Spencer. Finding myself under time presseure Lower was able to slip away from my clear grip on the position and I blundered. The game was quickly over with a loss for me.

FM Pieta Garrett - 2264	FM Daniel Rensch - 2388	WGM Anjelina Belakovskaia - 2376
IM Mark Ginsburg - 2425	FM Robert Rowley - 2247	NM Spencer Lower - 2246
Ginsburg vs. Garrett 1-0	Lower vs. Garrett 0-1	Rowley vs. Rensch 1/2-1/2
Garrett vs. Rensch 1/2-1/2	Rensch vs. Belakovskaia 1/2-1/2	Belakovskaia vs. Garrett 1-0
Garrett vs. Rowley 1-0	Lower vs. Rensch 1-0	Rensch vs. Ginsburg 1-0
Congratulations to Arizona's new chess co-champions IM Mark Ginsburg and WGM Anjelina Belakovskaia.