Round 3: Glickman-Riordan 1-0

Glickman scores the first big upset of the tournament. Black makes an imprecise move in the opening – which allows White to disrupt his development – and is never able to recover.

[Event "BCC Championship"]
[Site "Somerville, MA USA"]
[Date "2004.09.22"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Glickman, David"]
[Black "Riordan, Charles"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteUSCF "1937"]
[BlackUSCF "2258"]
[ECO "B22"]
[Opening "Sicilian"]
[Variation "2.c3"]

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bc4 Nb6 6.Bb3 g6 7.0-0 Bg7 8.Re1 0-0 9.Na3 d5 10.exd6 exd6!?

[A move not found in the ChessBase on-line database. The two games which reached this position continued 10...Qxd6 11.d4 cxd4 12.Nb5]

11.d4 cxd4?

[Quite possibly the losing move. 11...Bg4 (Riordan) 12.dxc5 dxc5 13.h3 Qxd1 14.Bxd1 +/= Fritz]

12.Bg5

12...Qd7 13.Nxd4 d5 14.Qd2 Nxd4 15.cxd4 Nc4

[Charles considered 15...Qg4 but was concerned about 16.Nb5 e.g., 16...Nc4 (16...Bd7?? allows White to trap the queen with 17.h3 Qh5 18.Bd1) 17.Bxc4 dxc4 18.Be7 +/-. With the text move, he offered a draw]

16.Nxc4

[At this point psychology came into play. In our most recent encounter, I offered Charles a draw in a dead even rook ending; he refused and subsequently outplayed me to win. From this I concluded that he was highly unlikely to offer me a draw if he thought the position was simply equal. Therefore, I surmised that he must have believed that he was losing. After a long think, I finally summoned the courage to play on]

16...dxc4

[During the post-mortem, Charles confirmed my suspicions. "I tell my friends never to accept my draw offers, since I make them only when I'm losing," he said]

17.Bxc4 Qxd4 18.Qxd4 Bxd4 19.Be7 Bxb2 20.Bxf8 Kxf8 21.Rab1 Bf6 22.Rb3 b5

[22...Rb8!? (Fritz) and 22...Bd8!? (Riordan) are alternative tries in search of drawing chances]

23.Rxb5 Ba6 24.Rc5 Bxc4 25.Rxc4 Rb8 26.Rec1 Rb2 27.R4c2 Rb5 28.g3 Bd4 29.Rd1 Bb6 30.Re2 h5 31.h4 Rf5 32.Kg2 Kg7 33.Rd7 Kf8 34.a4 Rf6 35.f3 Bc5 36.Rc7 Bb6 37.Rb7 Bc5 38.Rc2 Bb6 39.Re2

[Repeating moves to reach time control and adjournment. 39.Rd2 on the way to d5 and/or d7 is the quickest way forward]

39...Bc5 40.Rc2 Bb6 41.Rc8+

[sealed move]

41...Kg7 42.Re8 Rf5 43.Ree7 Rf6 44.Red7 Rf5 45.g4 hxg4 46.fxg4 Rf6 47.g5 Rf5 48.Kg3 Rf1 49.Rd3 Rg1+ 50.Kh3 Rh1+ 51.Kg4 Bf2 52.Rdd7 1-0