Playing in the 2024 US Open – Part 2
(by Peter Gilruth, Vice Chairman of the Nairobi Chess Club)
I covered the part of the 2024 US Open in an earlier article which can be found here.
In this article I will go through some of my games from the event.
Lim, Hayul (1812) – Gilruth, Peter [A11]
US Open 2024 (2), 28.07.2024
Quiz: White to move – should he go after the a6 pawn?
Answer: Black is a pawn up and is winning, but he must time his pawn breakthrough correctly to counter the threat to the a6 pawn. The game proceeded: 35.Kb4 [if 35.Ka4 d4 36.exd4 Kd5–+] 35…Bd6 [Once the Bishops come off the board, White is also lost since he can never go after the a6 pawn.
Anyway, White is lost even if he does not attack the a3 pawn, since Black can engineer a breakthrough on the K-side to make a new Queen.] 36.g3 g5 37.a3 h5 38.a4 Kd7 39.Bxd6 Kxd6 40.Ka5 d4 41.exd4 f4 42.gxf4 gxf4 43.Kb4 e3 44.fxe3 f3! 0–1. Knowing when to execute such pawn breakthroughs is one key to success in endgame play.
Here is the full game
You lose some, you win some
Getting into a losing position is part of chess. Trying to keep your spirits up when facing a loss is tough, but you must keep fighting. In Round 5, this happened. We pick up the game after Black’s 24th move. I have managed to lose a piece with only a pawn as compensation, so I was quite lost.
When losing, the first piece of advice is to avoid exchange of pieces and to force your opponent to think about different options by complicating the position. So ensued, 25.Rc1 Qc7 26.Bf1 [Unfortunately 26.Qxc5 Qxc5 27.Rxc5 loses to Rd1+ 28.Bf1 Bh3–+] 26…Nd7 27.Rd1 Bb7 28.f3 Qb6 29.Bc4 Bc6 30.Qb2 Bb5 31.Bd5 c4+? 32.Kg2
Nf6?? [My opponent must have been intoxicated by a tactic that wasn’t there.
His Bb5 is now lost.] 33.bxc4 Nxd5 34.Rxd5 Rxd5 35.exd5 [not 35.cxd5?? Bf1+ which my opponent must have calculated.] 35…Kf8? [35…Qe3 36.cxb5 e4 gives Black some practical chances to save the game.] 36.Qb4+! Ke8 37.Qxb5+ Qxb5 38.cxb5 Kd7 39.b6 [My opponent correctly stated that he completely blew it.] 1–0
Here is the full game.
Round 8
Going into Round 8, I felt I needed to win after 2 draws in Rounds 6 and 7 and I was at 5/7 pts. My goal was to have a +4 result. The following ensued.
Final Round
With a score of 6-2 going into the last round, I now have a chance to have a good US Open result. The last round is always the most important because there is a chance to win a prize or at least have a respectable result.
Well, that didn’t happen. I was paired up against a 2341 player which added to the challenge.
Who owns your chess game?
As my Round 3 game with Paul Royal was about to begin, the tournament organizers came to the table to tell me that they needed to talk to my opponent and that our start would be delayed.
After the game, I found out what the problem was. My opponent objected to our game being broadcast live (I was playing on the higher boards where games were broadcast live), and the organizers wanted to set him straight. Here is the story:
Chess has been around for centuries, and no element of the game itself is subject to copyright protection in spite of various efforts by chess players to own the game scores. For example, Dr Emmanuel Lasker’s proposal for a match with Capablanca back in 1911. Item 4 of Dr Lasker’s demand was,
“(4) The games of the match are the property of Dr. Lasker, who is at liberty to charge for the viewing of them and their publication in any form he may deem to his advantage.”
Capablanca rejected Lasker’s demand, stating:
“A chess game, from its very nature and the manner of its production, must be the joint property of the two persons producing it …. You can charge what you like for the publication of the games in any form you may deem to your advantage. But, unfortunately, that is a common privilege of which anyone may take advantage.”
Even Capablanca’s claim of joint ownership has been rejected by courts since the games are seen to be in the public domain.
There have also been more recent attempts to claim ownership of the broadcast of chess games.
In 2016, the organizer of the World Chess Championships and the website WorldChess.com brought a lawsuit in Russia against the website Chess24 for posting the chess moves of live events. The Commercial Court of the City of Moscow ultimately rejected the plaintiff’s attempts to claim trade secret protection in tournament moves, finding that this information was in the public domain (again).
However, according to my Round 3 opponent, Paul Royal, who owns the game score, is different from who has broadcasting rights. After the game, he shared the following text with me to answer the question, “Can my chess games be broadcast without my permission?”
I do not know the source of this text, but it seems that the broadcast rights question is still being debated, at least in the USA. If interested, check out Chess & Copyright.
As for the actual game with Paul Royal, the following ensued:
Links
Playing in the 2024 US Open – Part 1.
Khanin Wins 124th Annual U.S. Open.
US Chess as seen through the eyes of a Kenyan chess player.
Chess Book Shop
Article by Kenya Chess Masala.
