World East Amateur Team Recap

Last week, Team #Pawn# debut at World East Amateur Team in NJ.

From Left to Right, Ryan Wang, Suraj Ramanathan, Evan Park, and Qibiao Wang

We finished 4.5 out of 6.0, ranked 34 out of 326 teams. Good job, everyone!

Then I want to show you some interesting positions we played during the match.

The first game I was black, playing against FM Kapil Chandran (FIDE 2398) from Princeton University A. We started from Catalan Stonewall variation, and reached this position on move 26.

Kapil Chandran vs Qibiao Wang

26…f4! 27. g4 Qh4 28. Bf3 Qh3! 29. Rc3 Rh7 30. Qd4 Rh4 31. Qa7!?

A very tricky move played by Kapil. I was scared about 32. Rxc6 and therefore played 31… Qh2+ 32. Kf1 Rxg4 A little bit better position for black but we got a peaceful draw at the end. Probably 31… Re8! would be more accurate and I don’t see any good defense for white.

Evan Park is one of my favorite students. He is currently ranked #1 in the age of 10 in US. He had a fascinating positon in round 2, and a queen sacrifice would have been a nice finish of the game.

Let’s take one minute to think. How can black win by tactics?

22…Nxe4!! Bang! Queen sacrifice and it’s almost game over! For example, 23. Bxe7 h2+ 24. Kh1 Ng3# would be a nice combination!

What does our team name #Pawn# mean? It’s pawn checkmate! Our team didn’t have a chance to win by pawn mate, but we did have a lot of fun!

See you next year.

Regards,

Coach Qibiao Wang