Jim West On Chess: July Game/90, Round 1

Thursday, July 5, 2012

July Game/90, Round 1

On Wednesday evening, I won this game at Chess Mates in the game/90 Swiss.

Round One: Sicilian Defense, Najdorf Variation

Jim West (USCF 2200) - Louis Sturniolo (USCF 1612), Rahway NJ 7/4/2012

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 Be7 8.f4 Qc7 9.Qf3 Nc6 10.Be3 O-O 11.O-O Nxd4 12.Bxd4 e5 13.Be3 Bd7 14.f5 Bc6

15.g4 Bb5 16.g5 Bxf1 17.gxf6 Bxf6 18.Rxf1 Qd8 19.Qg4 g6 20.fxg6 hxg6 21.Qxg6+, Black resigns.

"My study of chess was accompanied by a strong attraction to music, and it was probably thanks to this that from childhood I became accustomed to thinking of chess as an art, and have never regarded it as anything else, for all the science and sport involved in it. And, moreover, an art which in some ways is closer to music than it is customary to think. Perhaps chess and music are drawn together by laws of harmony and beauty which are difficult to formulate and difficult to grasp, or perhaps by something else." - Vasily Smyslov