Four Lead in Foxwoods
By Jennifer Shahade   
March 21, 2008
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Robert Hess. Photo Michael Atkins
After three rounds of the Foxwoods Open (March 19-23) , four perfect scores have emerged: GMs Darmen Sadvakasov, GM Keith Arkell and IMs Alex Lenderman and Robert Hess all have 3/3. In round three, Hess upset GM Alexander Ivanov in a crazy game to join the leaders. In round four, Lenderman and Sadvakasov will face off on board one, and Hess and Arkell will play on board 2. Check out full round four pairings here.

In the following position, Robert must have had a burst of Tal-like inspiration. Or was it frustration over a purposeless knight? Either way, can you guess what he played?
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Position after 19...Qd8

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The game continued 20...dxe4 21.fxe4 Nh6 (If Nxd4 Qxd4 Bc5 Qc4 Bxg1 Rxg1, White has an overwhelming attack.) Nh6 however, was not much better for Ivanov after which, as you can see below, Robert's pawns and bishops quickly wreaked havoc.
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Darmen Sadvakasov of Kazakhstan also played thrilling chess to defeat Filipino GM Mark Paragua. Before checking out the entire game, can you guess what he played in the following two key positions, which seem unlikely to come from the same game.

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Position after 18...Ne8


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A dozen moves later, Darmen found a beautiful bone-cruncher in the following position:

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Position after 33...Qe8

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Here is the full game:

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IM Alex Lenderman found a nice combination against Nagendra Rentala to join the perfect score group:

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Position after 27.Rad1

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GM Keith Arkell. Photo Michael Atkins.


In another exciting game (I know, all this excitement is getting boring), Keith Arkell of England defeated the young Ray Kaufman when his queen invasion turned out to be far more powerful.

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Check out the official Foxwoods Open website , our Round 1 CLO report , Jonathan Hilton's blog and Monroi.com for live games.