Ashik vs Andrew Ardito, Millionaire Chess Open, Las Vegas, Round 2

Ashik vs NM Romulo Fuentes, Tuesday Night Marathon, June 2014, Round 3

I defeated my first strong opponent in this cycle of Tuesday Night Marathon that started last month in Mechanics Chess Institute, San Francisco. National Master Romulo Fuentes was white against me in 3rd round and so naturally I replied with Sicillian Dragon. Interestingly, we played exactly the same opening a year and half back until my 17th move where I made an improvement. That game I lost despite being a pawn up initially as Romulo is an aggressive player will sacrifice a pawn for initiative without thinking twice. It happened in this game also, but this time I defended preciously.

As a result of this game I and Natalya are jointly leading the tournament with 3 out of 3. So I know ahead of time she is going to be my next opponent!

Ashik vs Hayk Manvelyan, Tuesday Night Marathon Winter 2014, Round 5

Following last week's tough save, today I defended another apparently lost game against Hayk Manvelyan who routinely becomes champion when he participates in Mechanics Chess Tournaments. His this month's rating is 2344 while mine is 2022 - a huge 322 rating points difference. He didn't play the last cycle of Tuesday Night marathon and hence I got a chance to be runner up. I was trying to prepare against him last night but I saw that he doesn't play any particular opening and simply thinks out something sharp, out of normal book lines instantly over the board. This is why I like following his games. So I gave up preparing against him and thought I will simply play the position that arises on the board. Remembering my recent 26 move defeat to him, I was not hopeful though.


He replied my e4 with Sicillian and I went to Grand Prix Attack. I made an unnecessary aggressive move of knight in the opening followed by an oversight to loose a pawn very quickly. But I kept the initiative as in this line White is ready to sacrifice several pawns to continue the attack. Slowly he became 3 pawns up although I could recover a pawn any time and I had some compensation for the other 2 pawns but not enough. However, slowly I first regained one pawn and then out of the 2 pawns, Hayk gave me back one pawn to neutralize my initiative. This way he ended up being one solid pawn up. However, I found a tactics with my knight that wiped out all the pieces off the board leaving only the queen and a knight each side with Hayk still being one passed pawn up. However, as it happens in such positions, you can't queen your passed pawn because your opponent will get a perpetual check to your King. This is exactly what happened. Hayk waited until he had 14 seconds left in his clock before forcing draw by repetition.

When I submitted the scoresheet, Mechanics Chess Institute Director IM John Donaldson said that - Ashik, considering your recent outstanding performances, FIDE wants me to do a Drug Test on you to make sure you are within fair play boundary! We all laughed at it loudly.

Ashik Elchonon Daichmann, Foxwoods Open, Round 3

My opponent didn't touch the chess clock in this game. He had a friend who did it on his behalf. I asked why and his friend its some Jewish thing. So I had no issue with that. But its quite interseting!

Ashik vs Hans Niemann, Tuesday Night Marathon, Winter 2014, Round 3

I faced Hans for the first time although we have been playing in many chess tournaments in including in Mechanics Chess Institute for more than a year. I had a very tough position to defend once I grabbed a pawn in the Sicillian Alapin. Hans is well versed in the variation where I made an early inaccuracy as I dont know the variation very well. But I am happy that I gave a tenecous defence which resulted in Hans' attack dry out. And once an attack fails, the attackers own defence become very vulnerable. This is exactly what happened and I counter attacked and check mated him. There are few inaccuracies in the game but overall I played well. A very important open game to analyze.

With this win I am leading the Tuesday Night Marathon in Mechanics Institute, San Francisco with 4 or 5 other people scoring 3 out of 3!

Ashik vs Russell Wong, Tuesday Night Marathon, Fall 2013, Round 8

Ashik vs Nicholas G Weiss, Tuesday Night Marathon, Fall 2013, Round 6

Ashik vs IM Recardo De Guzman, Friday Night Marathon, NorCal House of Chess, Round 3

Ashik vs Tom Allen, Tuesday Night Marathon, Summer 2013, Round 3

Ashik vs Silverman, Georgia State Chmp 2005, Round 5

Joe vs Ashik, Round 7, North American Open 2012