XCell Chess Club Runner Up in USAT National 2017 Playoffs

We, XCell Chess Club, became runner up in the United States Amateur Team (USAT) 2017 Championship. We won the semi-final against North by 3-1. I lost in third board with White against Michael Auger rated 2268 (almost 300 more than mine) but all our other boards won. In the other semi-final game, East defeated South by 2.5-1.5 margin. South's first board couldn't play due to a personal emergency and hence they had to play up with 3 boards.

In the final we faced the current champion East. I won my game with Black against Warren Wang rated 2198 (again more than 200 points above mine). Arul and Ashrita lost in fourth and second board respectively. In first board Hayk had better position against Ethan Li but drew in time pressure as the game prolonged. Well, we were very close but couldn't make it. We will have to be happy with the runnner up. But this was a great experience and good team work. Kudos to team manager Tigran and XCell Chess Club owner Eshwaran for arranging everything for us. There is always a next time!




This playoff along with the original west zone team championship is the most significant team competition I have ever played!

Ashik vs Neil Regan, FNM, Round 4

Ashik vs James Cohee, 2nd Round, TNM, MIC

Ashik vs Jason Cruz, Friday Night Marathon at Norcal, Round 1 in July 2014

Ashik vs Hal Rives, Millionaire Chess Open, Round 7

Ashik vs John Salisbury, Millionaire Chess Open, Round 5

Ashik vs Raymond E Balack, Millionaire Chess Open, Las Vegas, Round 1

Ashik vs Andrw Zhang Hong, Best of the West, Santa Clara Marriott, Round 6

Ashik vs Keyven Riese, Friday Night Marathon, May 2014, Round 5

Ashik vs WFM Uyanga Byambaa, Friday Night Marathon, May 2014, Round 2

Ashik vs IM Ricardo De Guzman, Friday Night Marathon, Spring 2014, Round 2

Ashik vs Pranav Senthilkumar, Friday Night Marathon, NorCal House of Chess, Round 5

Ashik vs Pranav Senthilkumar, Ameteur Team West 2014, Round 4

After making move 23 my opponent forwarded his hand, a gesture that i took as if he resigned. So we stopped the clock and were talking about how i blundered a piece. After a while when he saw i wrote 1-0 in my scoresheet, he said he offerred me a draw! I said why would i take a draw when it is completely winning for me. So we setup the pieces again and continued from here. He eventually resigned not long after.

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 vs Mike Splane, Friday Night Marathon, NorCal House of Chess, Winter 2014, Round 2

I didn't play the first round and because Ahayn is playing and I have to drop him, so I started playing the marathon from second round.

Ashik vs Rohan Suryawanshi, Foxwoods Open, Round 2

Ashik vs Julian Lin, Golden State Open, Concord, Round 6

Ashik vs Edwardo Veluz, Golden State Open, Concord, Round 4

Ashik vs Michael J Wang, Golden State Open, Concord, Round 3

Ashik vs IM Elliott Charles Winslow, Tuesday Night Marathon, Winter 2014. Round 2

Today I got my first win in a serious chess tournament against an international master. I defeated International Master Elliott Charles Winslow in a long battle at second round of Tuesday Night Marathon, Winter 2014, Mechanics Chess Institute, San Francisco.

I lost to him in the last cycle of Tuesday Night Marathon (Fall 2013) by making an early sacrifice without proper preparation. This time also made a temporary sacrifice to expose his King early in the game. While the material ended up being equal, his one rook stuck in the corner making his position difficult to defend.

I see that IM John Donaldson gave 2 diagrams from this game in current issue of Mechanics Chess Newsletter.