In the first round of the Foxwoods Open (March 19-23), teenager Chris Williams
of Boston Blitz and "Chris is Awesome" fame, defeated top-seed and U.S. Champion Alexander Shabalov in a thrilling game. This makes for a 440 point upset, and raises hopes for a very exciting Foxwoods. Can you guess what Williams played in the following positions?
I.
Position after 24.Ng3
In light of the above variation, Alex avoided the queen trade, and they reached the following position after 33 moves.
II.
Position after 33.Nh5
Here is the full game:
1711
Participating GMs include Yury Shulman, Julio Becerra, Alexander Stripunsky, Alexander Ivanov, Darmen Sadvakasov, Eugene Perlshteyn, Keith Arkell, Pascal Charbonneau, Ildar Ibragimov (who drew in round 1 to Alisa Melkehina), and Mark Paragua. Check out the round two pairings here. Beginning with round three, live games will be available on Monroi.com.
Read Jonathan Hilton's blog after the first round, and watch for more by Hilton from Foxwoods and from Michael Aigner from the Far West Open in Reno.