2009 Open Classic Round 3

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Round 3 of the 2009 Open Classic

Other than a forfeit win by soldier over Bildstein, there were once again no upsets in Round 2. Bildstein will remain in the Open Classic for the final three rounds after his appeal to re-enter the tournament. The higher-seeded players are now 15-0 through the first two rounds, though the second round games were often very tense and there were a few near-upsets. The top 4 seeds are 2-0 and will duel in the third round, with the two winners guaranteed to meet next week. Camelback also has a 2-0 record and will seek his important third win against naveed (1-1). There are three matchups between players with 1-1 records while Tuks and Bildstein, both winless so far, face a must-win situation to maintain any hope of a top eight finish. LevB receives a bye and a victory point and can still qualify for the Finals with victories in each of his final two games. (GM)

• Previous Round: 2009 Open Classic Round 2
• Next Round: 2009 Open Classic Round 4

Contents 1 Adanac vs. Fritzlein 2 naveed vs. camelback 3 99of9 vs. chessandgo 4 Tuks vs. Bildstein 5 arimaa_master vs. Sana 6 omar vs. woh 7 The_Jeh vs. soldier

Adanac vs. Fritzlein

The four opening moves mimicked the ongoing game “One vs. The Mob”, except for two sets of inverted pieces in the setup phase. The game got wild soon thereafter as Adanac sacrificed a rabbit on move 8g and Fritzlein accepted the offer. The gold rabbit and cat could have been exchanged for a silver horse on the next two moves, but Fritzlein preferred to slowly build pressure in the southeast instead. The silver pieces continued to swarm into the southeast and the elephant rotated away from the e3 square, being replaced by the horse. In addition to the pressure around the f3 trap, a silver dog and horse also dragged a gold cat into the northeast quadrant on move 15s. The cat couldn’t be saved so Adanac switched his focus to a counter-attack in the northwest. The silver dog and horse fought to regain control of the c6 trap, and they re-captured the crucial b6 square. Gold’s 19th move was a serious blunder as he rotated his pieces in the southeast thus allowing a crushing rabbit advance by silver down the a-file. Though the gold camel was able to stop the silver rabbit at a2, it relinquished the c4 square thus setting off a chain reaction of moves in which 3 different silver rabbits posed goal threats. After another defensive error on 22g, the southeast rabbit marched to victory. (GM)

naveed vs. camelback

With an upset win over naveed, camelback became the second player to qualify for the finals. His three wins guarantee him a spot, although his seed will be determined by the next two rounds. Naveed, meanwhile, is on the brink of elimination with a 1-2 record, needing wins in both of his final games to advance. The victory must be especially sweet for camelback, because in the last round of the 2008 preliminaries it was naveed who qualified by eliminating camelback in a 91-move marathon.

The players' setups declared contrasting intentions as camelback opened with four forward rabbits while naveed kept all of his on the back row. Naveed opened with a lone-elephant attack up the middle, targeting camelback's forward rabbits. Camelback countered with an elephant-camel attack in the east, but when naveed brought his elephant back home camelback bailed out and both players reloaded. Naveed went back to his lone-elephant ways, again pushing one of camelback's rabbits to the third rank. Camelback again responded with an elephant-camel attack, this time in the west.

Camelback's second elephant-camel attack was more committal than the first, and soon turned into a full-fledged swarm. Naveed took camelback's camel hostage, but couldn't find anywhere to put it. Camelback added a horse into the attack, allowing his elephant to rotate out of the defense of naveed's home trap. Naveed tried to cross wings with his camel to threaten camelback's advanced horse (see diagram), but this maneuver merely allowed camelback's free-roaming elephant to take naveed's camel hostage. Naveed tried to retake control of his home trap with his elephant, but couldn't do so in time to avoid the loss of his camel.

Ahead by a camel, camelback tried to force an immediate goal in the west, which he was not quite able to do in the presence of naveed's elephant. So camelback shifted his elephant to win material in naveed's other home trap. This forced naveed's elephant to seek some activity rather than defending passively, yet when naveed's elephant left the defense camelback was able to force a goal in the west after all on move 43. The penultimate position was rather amusing as camelback had dislodged four of naveed's rabbits up the b-file to clear the b1 square for goal.

Kudos to naveed for waiting nineteen minutes for camelback to show up instead of taking a forfeit win after fifteen minutes. As a result of naveed's sportsmanship, we have a very intriguing game to study. Is pulling rabbits in the opening simply wrong because it invites a camel-led swarm? (KJ)

99of9 vs. chessandgo

With gold pieces, 99of9 decided to step forward with a Rabbit on move 4w. In the ensuing rabbit pulling contest, chessandgo made the first capture. 99of9 sent a Horse forward on the eastern wing for a rabbit pull while keeping a eye on silver's advanced rabbit on the east. On 15b chessandgo took the opportunity to launch an e+h attack on the depleted western wing while his camel was threatening on the east. In the following tangle, silver obtained a Horse capture for a horse hostage after 19b, and when the dust cleared on 24w, 99of9 had a precarious horse hostage for a DRR disadvantage. The advanced rabbit of silver's turned out to be a powerful asset, and although gold fought hard around the f3 trap, silver finally blocked gold's caMel on the edge on 31b. After more material trades chessandgo scored a goal on 42b, securing a seat for the finals.

Tuks vs. Bildstein

Holding gold pieces, Tuks treated liberally his center Rabbits in the opening, and Bildstein proceeded to pull a rabbit, framing it on f6 on move 10s. Tuks profited from this framed rabbit to advance freely with MHD on the same wing. Bildstein's elephant flipped pieces out of the way, and soon captured a dog. In exchange, Tuks obtained a frightening counterattack around f6, releasing the framed Rabbit with a caMel attack, threatening at the same time to capture on f6 and to drag back a silver horse towards f3. A precise defense might have given Bidlstein the advantage, but he let his camel be captured on move 16s. Tuks then unstoppably captured gold pieces, and eventually goaled on 38g, coming back in the race for qualification to the finals.

arimaa_master vs. Sana

[View game] Getting a bye in the previous round resulted in Sana getting a tough opponent while arimaa_master's loss to Fritzlein in the previous round resulted in getting an easier opponent. Thus the game was mismatched by about 800 points and could have only resulted in an upset due to forfeit or connection problems. Arimaa_master used the Fritzlein setup with cats in the center of the back row. Sana began with the dog, dog variation of the 99of9 setup. Sana quickly began using the elephant to go after arimaa_master's western horse. While arimaa_master's elephant protected the horse on the west, Sana advanced the camel on the east. However, arimaa_master's elephant was able to snatch the camel in exchange for a horse. Sana's elephant then began trying to drag out the opposing camel, but the camel kept slipping away. A few moves later Sana tried to offer a cat in exchange for the camel, but arimaa_master was able to capture the cat while saving the camel. Sana soon lost both horses and a rabbit without gaining anything in exchange while arimaa_master even developed an advanced rabbit threatening to goal. Though Sana tried to bring her elephant over to stop arimaa_master's advancing rabbit, it was not enough and the rabbit slipped through to goal. After the game Sana commented that arimaa_master was a lot tougher than any of the bots she had encountered and deserved to win. (OS)

omar vs. woh

[View game]

Omar used a setup with all rabbits in the back row while woh used a variation of the 99of9 setup with a dog and cat in the back row. Omar began with an offensive opening rushing his elephant to face the opposing camel. When woh's camel stepped aside behind the safety of the elephant, omar's continued the offense by pushing aside woh's dog and rushing his elephant to woh's western horse. The first five moves of this game were identical to a previous [Continuous Tournament game] which resulted in a win for omar. In this game woh chose to take a more offensive approach by advancing his elephant to omar's side and threatening multiple captures while using one step to mutually protect his horse and dog. The opening tussle continued with omar managing to drag out woh's western horse to his side and eventually framing it on his western trap. This frame was perhaps more favorable to woh as it tied up several of omar's pieces and did not provide much opportunity for replacing the stronger pieces with weaker ones. However, a few moves later omar's camel shifted to the west and managed to take woh's horse hostage. On move 12b woh encountered a connection problem and timed out. Unfortunately the game had just started to take shape and there was still much play left for both sides. A quick conference was held in the chat room where both players were present along with the tournament director, Ned Bent (RonWeasley) and several other spectators. Even though omar offered to replay the game, the tournament director ruled that the game may not be replayed as per the rule that once a game reaches beyond move 2b the game can only be continued if there is a problem with the server. woh confirmed that his connection had been reset and very sportingly accepted the tournament director's decision. (OS)

The_Jeh vs. soldier

While trying to protect his horse Soldier blundered a cat away on move 5. Then with The_Jeh threatening a camel hostage on move 8 Soldier resigned.