Isaac Saidel-Goley wins New Hamsphire Amateur Championship

Stephen Brudno and Isaac Saidel-Goley tied for 1st with 3.5/4 yesterday at the 2007 New Hampshire Amateur Championships. Since Brudno is from Massachusetts, the title of NH Amateur Champion went to Isaac.

The tournament took place at the Comfort Inn in Manchester, NH. I stopped by to watch some of the action, since I live only 5 minutes away from the playing site. It can be frustrating to watch the games since I am always spotting missed opportunities.

The clear favorite going into the tournament was definitely the junior player Isaac Saidel-Goley(2053) of Bedford, NH. He is playing very strong chess as of late, and is very under rated. He has managed draw me a few times at the Newburyport Chess Club in very tough games. Sherif Khater(2056) of Nashua, NH, who finished with 3/4, was definitely the other player to watch out for. Unfortunately for Sherif, a first round loss took him out of contention early on.

I witnessed Isaac’s 3rd round game against my other good friend John Elmore. The opening was a Caro-Kann Main line with Nd7. The following position arose which was critical:

Here John played: 1… Nd7? and the game continued 2. Qxa7+ Kc8 3. Nxd7 Qxd7 4. Qc5+! Bc7 5. Qf8+ Qd8 6. Qxd8+ Kxd8 7. Bxg7 and John had a lost bishop ending that Issac had no trouble converting.

During the game I spotted the following continuation which seemed at the time to be better for black, but it turns out with deeper analysis is actually winning for black! 1… b6! 2. Nc6+ Kc7 3.Nxd8+ bxc5 4. Bxf6 gxf6 5. Nxf7 All of this is pretty much forced. Here I figured the knight could get out, so evaluated it at as only slightly better for black, but it turns out the knight can’t get out, for instance: h5 6. Nh8 (6. Nh6 Kd7 7. Ng8 Be5 8. f4 Bd4! +-)6… Kd7 7. Ng6 Ke8 +- and the knight in lost.

I commented to Hal Terrie, who was running the tournament, that the NH Amateur is a tournament I will never win! I moved up in rating too quickly, and only had one opportunity to win it, but finished 2nd to Bill Hallahan. It was amusing because I had Bill beat when we played in the 3rd round, but I was unable to mate with bishop+knight! I only had about 30 seconds on my clock with no time delay, and it wasn’t quite enough time. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to be content with the regular New Hampshire Championship Titles :).