UMBC Chess Club Simultaneous Exhibition 2007

By Ian Harris

On Friday, October 19, GM Sergey Erenburg and Greg Masters gave timed simultaneous exhibitions against teammates of the B and C Teams as well as some additional club members. Each squared off against 6 opponents and were allocated two hours to complete all of their moves. Each of their opponents were also given two hours in order to contemplate their moves. Four players playing against Erenburg from the B Team had an average rating of 2127! There were many exciting games and results.

Greg Master's simul began almost a half an hour after GM Erenburg's, as we waited for players to arrive. However, this did not prevent Greg from plowing through the field and having only one remaining game by the time GM Erenburg had finished two games. Despite losing his first game (and the first game of the night to finish) against Adithya Sundar, Greg was able to continue seemingly unaffected to win the remaining five games.

David Chapman was able to survive for the longest against Greg's wrath, however he eventually fell to a blistering attack on his king. Newcomer Peter Rengelo came very close in his game to miraculously mating him, being down a significant amount of material, however, Greg was able to return a piece, in a well calculated combination, in order to draw out the black king from safety and win the game. In his games against Brian Chan, Alisha Crowley and Corey Cossentino, Greg was able to convert slight material advantages into wins. In the end Greg's loss to Sundar marred his almost perfect, yet still quite impressive result. Greg scored 5 wins and 1 loss.

On the other side of Main Street, GM Erenburg continued to fight his way through heavy resistance. Club players Adeel Khan and Andrew Carts decided to test themselves against the strong GM playing for board one of the UMBC A Team. Although neither of them was able to beat or draw Erenburg, they put up long, hard fought games. I was next to be defeated by GM Erenburg. After loosing a pawn in some middle game complications, I proceeded to give stiff resistance to the GM and may have held a draw with some help from my opponent. However, in the final moments of the game I blundered a piece and had to resign the game.

Ryan Goldenberg finished next with a win. After having his earlier draw offer declined, he was able to take advantage of a blunder by GM Erenburg to win material. This was the GM's first loss of the night and perhaps it affected him in some way because the remaining two games were not looking good for him either. Andrew Hubbard managed to win a bishop for a very passed pawn. In a critical moment of the game, Hubbard worked his way through a very interesting and well-calculated tactical melee, filled with various beautiful mate threats. It is no wonder that Erenburg was forced to resign shortly thereafter.

The last game remaining from both simuls was that of. Sergey Erenburg vs. Zoltan Revesz. After "simplifying" from a middle game into the endgame it seemed as though the game could go either way. Erenburg pressed with his queen, bishop and two connected passed pawns to win while Revesz used his queen to create problems for his opponent. At one point Revesz had an opportunity for perpetual against Erenburg, but turned down this opportunity to try and win the game.

However, after trading down to a highly complex queen + three pawns versus queen + three pawns, GM Erenburg's brilliant endgame technique as well as Revesz's time pressure resulted in a win for the GM. The subsequent half-hour post game analysis failed to find a way for Revesz to hold after declining the draw opportunity. Erenburg finished with an also very impressive result of 4 wins and 2 losses.

All of the twelve games were decisive. The lack of draws demonstrates the fighting spirit of all of the players. Indeed, after the simul GM Erenburg told me "My goal was to not allow any draws". Congratulations Sergey for reaching your goal! Special thanks to Bruci Lopez for commentating on the games and for providing the pictures.