2011 Open Classic Round 3

The #29 seed hanzack is 2-0 through the first two rounds and he will face his toughest test yet against #2 ranked Karl Juhnke (Fritzlein). Antti Laine (Nevermind) also won an upset game in round 2 over John Herr (The_Jeh) and jumped into 7th place. This is a crucial round for the seventeen 1-1 players because it will be extremely difficult to qualify for the WC Finals after a 1-2 start.

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• Previous Round: 2011 Open Classic Round 2
• Next Round: 2011 Open Classic Round 4

Round 3 Standings

Rank	Participant	Name	WHR [Seed]	Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Wins	SoS
1	Fritzlein	Karl Juhnke	2550 [2]	S 22 W	G 9 W	G 5 W	3	0.2269
2	Adanac	Greg Magne	2437 [3]	G 17 W	S 11 W	G 8 W	3	0.2269
3	Tuks	Louis-Daniel Scott	2233 [5]	G 23 W	S 10 W	S 7 W	3	0.2269
4	rabbits	Gregory Clark	2140 [7]	S 24 W	G 21 W	S 6 W	3	0.1344
5	hanzack		1546 [29]	S 15 W	G 13 W	S 1 L	2	1.8936
6	chessandgo	Jean Daligault	2689 [1]	G 18 W	S 16 W	G 4 L	2	1.5000
7	99of9	Toby Hudson	2262 [4]	G 25 W	S 14 W	G 3 L	2	1.5000
8	Nevermind	Antti Laine	1927 [15]	S 33 W	G 12 W	S 2 L	2	1.5000
9	Hippo	Vladan Majerech	2037 [10]	G 27 W	S 1 L	G 24 W	2	1.1064
10	ocmiente	Thomas Foy	1942 [14]	S 28 W	G 3 L	S 20 W	2	1.1064
11	omar	Omar Syed	2025 [11]	S 31 W	G 2 L	S 19 W	2	1.0140
12	The_Jeh	John Herr	2170 [6]	G 19 W	S 8 L	S 21 W	2	0.7129
13	jdb	Jeff Bacher	2112 [8]	S 26 W	S 5 L	G 17 W	2	0.7129
14	woh	Hervé D'Hondt	1966 [12]	S 20 W	G 7 L	S 18 W	2	0.7129
15	Harren	Daniel Worm	1956 [13]	G 5 L	S 29 W	S 22 W	2	0.7129
16	Nombril	Eric Momsen	2057 [9]	G 30 W	G 6 L	S 25 W	2	0.6204
17	knarl	Neil Stephens	1851 [19]	S 2 L	G 27 W	S 13 L	1	2.3796
18	megamau	Maurizio De Leo	1904 [17]	S 6 L	G 26 W	G 14 L	1	2.2871
19	ginrunner	Chase Todd	1790 [22]	S 12 L	G 28 W	G 11 L	1	2.2871
20	722caasi	Isaac Grosof	1596 [28]	G 14 L	S 23 W	G 10 L	1	2.2871
21	Sconibulus	Trevor Page	1925 [16]	G 32 W	S 4 L	G 12 L	1	1.9860
22	ChrisB	Christopher Bovee	1898 [18]	G 1 L	S 30 W	G 15 L	1	1.9860
23	qswanger	Quinn Swanger	1797 [21]	S 3 L	G 20 L	G 29 W	1	1.9860
24	naveed	Naveed Siddiqui	1778 [23]	G 4 L	S 32 W	S 9 L	1	1.9860
25	Heyckie	Heikki Rantalaiho	1815 [20]	S 7 L	G 31 W	G 16 L	1	1.8936
26	ArifSyed	Arifuddin Syed	1772 [24]	G 13 L	S 18 L	G 31 W	1	1.5000
27	oali	Osman Ali	1626 [26]	S 9 L	S 17 L	G 32 W	1	1.5000
28	b599		1480 [30]	G 10 L	S 19 L	G 30 W	1	1.5000
29	Rad	Michele Nesci	1265 [33]	Bye W	G 15 L	S 23 L	1	1.5000
30	beancrisp	James Mabry	1690 [25]	S 16 L	G 22 L	S 28 L	0	2.7731
31	Belteshazzar	Charles Daniel Martin	1597 [27]	G 11 L	S 25 L	S 26 L	0	2.7731
32	ddyer	Dave Dyer	1387 [32]	S 21 L	G 24 L	S 27 L	0	2.6807
33	Labradorboy	Gannon Lawlor	1435 [31]	G 8 L	Wthdr	Wthdr	0	1.9860

qswanger (Quinn Swanger) 1797 vs. Rad (Michele Nesci) 1265 1-0

Both sides set up with the camels on the b-file. As the position developed, the gold camel took up a post on b3, but the silver camel stepped over to c7 with a dog on b6. Next the elephants headed east, and silver flipped out a gold horse. With the silver camel on the other side of the board, gold was more than happy to continue advancing that horse. After 6g, gold threatening to pull the silver g6 horse and occupy it with his gold horse. 6s was a strategic error, there was no time for the silver elephant to be pulling a rabbit with gold close to establishing an E+H attack at f6. Gold proceed with the E+H attack, and then the earlier camel placement came into play. Gold was able to pull the silver dog to distract the silver elephant away from f6. Silver was able to retreat the dog, but had left his horse vulnerable at g5. Silver had time to protect f6, but the horse was flipped to f4. At 13s silver decided to give up the horse and go after the gold camel. Gold had time to capture the horse and return to c6 to protect the camel from immediate capture. Rabbit advances up the a-file on 16g complicated the hostage taking situation, and silver timed out on 16s.

Fritzlein (Karl Juhnke) 2550 vs. hanzack 1546 1-0

This game was one of the highly anticipated games of round 3, especially since hanzack had managed to defeat Fritzlein in an earlier warmup game. Fritzlein opened with his signature setup, and spent the first moves advancing all of his non-rabbit pieces. hanzack opened with a dog and cat stacked in the 7th and 8th ranks behind each trap, and advanced rabbits on at least one step of each of the first series of moves. At 5g gold stopped advancing and went after the silver camel. After 8g, gold was threatening to frame the silver camel. Silver was undaunted by the threat and continued advancing. After the frame was put in place, silver crossed with a horse to f2 in an attempt to break the frame from behind. Gold was able to rotate his elephant out of the frame, and was ready to capture the silver horse. Silver decided to give up on the framed camel, and was able to capture the gold camel in exchange. After the exchange, gold began capturing the advanced rabbits, while the silver elephant went to f2 in an effort to sneak a rabbit down the h-file. Fritz had plenty of pieces to block progress, and on 26s hanzack decided to give up the goal attack and push a horse towards f6. Unable to find a way back from the original horse handicap, hanzack forced Fritz to capture all but 4 silver rabbits before reaching gold reached goal on 44g.

ChrisB (Christopher Bovee) 1898 vs. Harren (Daniel Worm) 1956 0-1

ChrisB started with his normal set up with a camel behind a trap. Harren responded with an unbalance setup, putting a camel and horse on the opposite side from gold's camel. This provoked gold into using time to move his camel to oppose the silver camel. After the camel left, silver took advantage of the weakened f3 trap to launch an E+H attack. After 5g, gold was in an awkward position. Silver was ready to push his horse to f2, but any piece placed on e2 to prevent the horse intrusion would be flipped out to e4. Gold allowed the E+H attack to proceed, and started pulling a central rabbit. The E+H attack proceed fast enough that gold quit the rabbit pulling to protect f3. Gold could have used his camel to fight the horse on f2, but instead successfully used it to protect the west wing. With a stalemate on both sides, ChrisB decided to advance a horse and rabbits on the east wing. This created a gold space advantage, and decreased the usefulness of the silver E+H attack. Silver did manage to get a rabbit past the gold attackers, and decided to put it in the f3 trap. An alternative approach would have been to resume the E+H attack now that the silver rabbit could actually be a "strong" piece on g3, with a move like 18s hh3w hg3w Df2s hf3s. As the game played out, silver was able to work the rabbit to g2, but the gold horse had time to retreat and help with the defense. At 26g gold was given a chance to flip the silver rabbit from g2 to g4, putting the brakes on the silver attack. With the silver goal attack finished, gold next had time to pull a rabbit on the west side. Harren followed up with a good strategy, looking to enforce shared control over f3 without his elephant, but 29s was tactically inaccurate. His plan might have worked with 29s ee3w de5s de6s de4s, using the second dog instead of the elephant to unfreeze the first dog. After cleaning up some rabbits (2 captures by both sides), both sides started on new plans after 36s (Diagram 1).

Diagram 1: ChrisB vs Harren

After 36s Gold to move

Silver proceeded with attacking f3 and gold decided to drag another silver piece towards c3. This strategic evaluation appears to favor silver. With a silver dog hiding on d1 and a horse stationed at g3, gold already had more than enough silver pieces at home to worry about without spending time dragging another one back. On 38s, the silver elephant was able to safely leave f3 behind, and the silver horse that was just dragged down became a huge advantage for Harren. Gold blundered a horse on 40g, and a silver rabbit reached goal on 47s.

Heyckie (Heikki Rantalaiho) 1815 vs. Nombril (Eric Momsen) 2057 0-1

Gold started the game with a 99of9 balanced setup, and silver started with EHH on one wing. Both sides worked to advance silver pieces in the opening, and silver set up to attack the gold horse on b3. Gold started pulling pieces around f6, and forced the silver elephant to switch wings. Without the elephant's help, the silver horse resorted to pulling a gold rabbit. 17s was probably a bit impatient: the gold rabbit was captured, but at the cost of gold flipping a silver dog offsides. Heyckie next looked to change wings with the elephant, eyeing the advanced silver horses. With 20s, Nombril started what appeared to be a horse exchange, but after Heyckie captured the silver horse, gold initiated a E+D attack and captured a dog. The gold horse was hostaged, but Heyckie was able to free it at the expense of a cat. The liberated horse was able to help frame the silver dog, but with plenty of advanced rabbits, the silver camel was ready to break the frame. Pushing the camel away allowed the silver dog out, but Nombril was left with many rabbits advanced at f3 and no strong pieces ahead of them to make an attack. On 33g, Heyckie framed the g4 rabbit, but this just opened the door to the silver camel to threaten the gold horse again. On 35g, Heyckie offered to trade horses, but again Nombril declined and started a E+D+R attack at F3. Gold was missing a cat and dog from f3 defense, and now the rabbit on g3 was the strongest piece. Faced with giving up his camel for a horse, gold changed courses and went back to f3. Silver was still able to threaten the gold horse, and Heyckie made a desperate attack at f6, capturing a cat. The move allowed Nombril to capture the gold camel on 38g. On 38s, silver missed a goal in 1, but with only a few rabbits in the way, silver pressed forward and reached goal on 41s.

jdb (Jeff Bacher) 2112 vs. knarl (Neil Stephens) 1851 1-0

This game featured live commentary by Eric Momsen (Nombril).

Knarl as silver started with a camel on b7, and jdb as gold moved quickly to b6 to attack it. With the camel sliding out of the way, jdb pulled rabbits with the elephant. Instead of abandoning the rabbits, knarl decided to advance the camel. Gold pushed the camel further towards c3, and ended up with the gold elephant on c2 and an awkward camel hostage on b2. Silver was slow in executing a swarm, he needed to more efficiently move pieces toward c3, and include a piece on the c3 trap to block in the elephant. As it was, gold had time to advance a camel and horse to take control of the f6 trap. Silver sent the elephant back to f6, and by 18g gold had lost a camel while silver had lost horse, dog, and cat. Gold had also managed to achieve a good camel hostage position, and with the missing pieces silver no longer had a chance for a good swarm. Silver gave up protecting the camel hostage, and managed to hostage both gold horses. But he was too far behind to take advantage of the hostages, and gold reached goal on 37g.

ginrunner (Chase Todd) 1790 vs. omar (Omar Syed) 2025 0-1

This game featured live commentary by Eric Momsen (Nombril) and Joel Thomas (megajester).

Gold started the opening attempting to pull a dog back towards c3, where he has setup both his horses. Silver complicated matters by pulling a gold rabbit up to b3 on move 6s, so gold abandoned the hostage attempt and turned to dragging a silver horse to the middle. With the silver horse out of position, gold advanced his own horse to b6. Omar attempted to get his camel to the west wing, but ginrunner was quick to put his elephant at d6 keeping the camel at bay. On 13g, ginrunner could have offered his horse in return for omar's camel, but he was intent on taking control over c6. With some more precise rabbit advances on 12 and 13g, ginrunner could have kept a larger space advantage by getting rabbits to a5 and a6. As it was, omar was able to transfer enough pieces behind the c6 trap to stop any further progress.

Diagram 2: ginrunner vs omar

After 36s Gold to move

The c6 square continued to be the center of the struggle, with all the heavy pieces getting involved in the action. Omar managed to get his camel past ginrunner's elephant, threatening to hostage the horse and take back control of c6. On 24g (Diagram 2), gold missed an opportunity to flip the silver camel away from the fight, and by 25s silver had hostaged the horse. Silver was running into time trouble looking for his next plan, but then gold overlooked a dog frame when he played move 29g. Gold was able to get a horse, but the position quickly unraveled for gold and silver reached goal on 45s.

Hippo (Vladan Majerech) 2037 vs. naveed (Naveed Siddiqui) 1778 1-0

Hippo started with his customary EHH setup, aiming to attack around f6. Naveed used a balanced setup, but then moved his camel to b6 to oppose the gold camel. When the silver elephant came to sit in the middle of the gold horses, the gold elephant changed gears and pulled a rabbit from the center. Silver tried to make a counter threat, but wasn't able to gain any traction as the silver rabbit was pulled further away from home. With move 9g, Hippo had started to set up a PMertens style blockade, using the silver rabbit to block in the silver elephant. Naveed decided to take no chances with getting blocked in, and captured his own rabbit. Silver was able to capture a gold rabbit, but at the expense of giving up a dog hostage. Silver next offered to give up the dog in exchange for a cat, but gold declined the trade and worked to save the cat. While the two elephants were tussling with the gold cat, gold was able to capture the hostaged dog while the silver camel darted out and brought back a gold dog. The hostage position was not complete, lacking supporting pieces on b7 and a5. Gold was able to freeze the silver camel, which forced it to give up the hostage. With the camel back on the west wing, gold brought a horse around to f7. The E+H attack was against the side that was already missing a dog and rabbit, and naveed ran out of time trying to find a plan.

oali (Osman Ali) 1626 vs. ddyer (Dave Dyer) 1387 1-0

The game began with oali (playing gold) employing a lone elephant attack to pull silver pieces. Ddyer (playing silver) spent his moves following the gold elephant to retreat any piece that was pulled. On 13s, silver lost patience with retreating and instead pulled a gold horse. The tactics didn't work out in his favor, as gold was able to retreat the horse with two steps and continue pushing a dog towards the gold side. On 14s, the dog could have still retreated, but silver pulled the horse again and attempted a E+D attack on c3. The dog was attacking at d3, and was vulnerable to getting captured in either c3 or f3. Down a dog, silver next tried an E+H attack on f3. This time the elephant's assistant avoided the center, but the elephant was in an awkward position at g3. Silver did manage to get the elephant back to the center, but gold framed a horse on both c3 and f3. After forcing silver to give up both horses, gold next framed the silver camel. Behind by 4 strong pieces, silver resigned on 29s.

b599 1480 vs. beancrisp (James Mabry) 1690 1-0

b599 vs beancrisp

After 16g Silver to move

It was a wild game between b599 and beancrisp. Both players gave away many opportunities for the other and also missed their opportunities. Gold started the game with 99of9 setup and silver responded with a similar setup but with a directly opposing elephant. After promptly attempting to blockade the elephant, gold turned his attention on the silver camel. In the ensuing chase on 5g, gold elephant found itself cornered on g6 along with gold horse on h5. It was the first chance for silver to blockade both the elephant and horse at the same time with his elephant. Silver saw the blockade only on the next move. That was too late, enough for gold elephant to escape, shuffling through the silver pieces while also initiating a rabbit pull.

In the following contest for trap control, silver was passive in his attack and left the pulled rabbit to be captured. In 15g, gold elephant went after the silver camel in west, completely leaving the horse in quandary with no way to escape from capture. But again silver missed the opportunity and got only an advanced rabbit that came for rescue. At this point, both players lost a rabbit, but gold had a slight upper hand because of a better position. In the next tight spot, silver made a blunder on 19s and lost its dog. When the dust settled silver lost another rabbit. Gold patiently worked on the advantage and claimed few other pieces. Silver gave as much resistance as it could, while trying to force a rabbit into the goal. That didn't succeed and gold eventually reached the goal on 42g.

ArifSyed (Arifuddin Syed) 1772 vs. Belteshazzar (Charles Daniel Martin) 1597 1-0

This game featured live commentary by John Herr (The_Jeh).

The game started with both players choosing an imbalanced setup, each placing his camel on the west wing. After some shuffling, silver gained a horse hostage on move 10s. However, gold advanced an a-file rabbit to allow the hostaged horse to take refuge in an alcove on a7, where it would be buried out of play but away from a 4-step flip into the c6 trap. On moves 14s and 15s, Belteshazzar decided to move his camel from the west side to a more offensive position in the east. This might have been a slight inaccuracy, as it gave the gold horse abiding on a7 more potential. After some maneuvering, gold managed to escort some silver rabbits closer to c3, and on 22g a silver rabbit was captured.

The gold horse that had been hostaged and then cloistered on a7 now was helping gold wrest away control of the c6 trap. Silver pushed a horse toward f6 on 25s, but ArifSyed responded by both capturing a silver cat and protecting f6 with the elephant. Gold was now up a cat and two rabbits in material. However, on move 27s Belteshazzar managed to frame a gold horse on the f6 trap. Gold advanced a camel to g5 in order to try to alleviate this situation, but silver delayed this attempt with prods near the c6 trap. On 30g gold finally relieved the horse frame. Silver captured a dog in response, but gold had a reply ready, pushing the silver camel where it could not escape capture. A couple of horses were also traded in the process.

Diagram 3: ArifSyed vs Belteshazzar

After 36s Gold with goal-in-four

Belteshazzar succeeded in framing a second gold horse on move 34s. The horse managed to escape, but at the expense of a camel hostage. An interesting position occurred after 36s. (Diagram 3) According to the analysis of two engines, gold had a goal-in-four on move 37g by capturing the dog on c7. While requiring the elephant to abandon the defense of f6, it would have won the game due to silver’s thin defenses in the northwest. However, gold missed this tactical shot, and so a tenacious defense by silver prolonged the game to move 55g, on which gold finally escorted a rabbit to the 8th rank.

megamau (Maurizio De Leo) 1904 vs. woh (Hervé D'Hondt) 1966 0-1

This game featured live commentary by Toby Hudson (99of9).

Both players played very fast, and very defensively. At the beginning Gold repeatedly menaced some major pieces (Camel and Horses) but silver parred all the attacks and in the meantime pulled some rabbits on the east side. The quick rate of play influenced the quality of the moves and both player blundered at move 9s and 10g, when Woh left a camel up for grabs, but Megamau did not notice and lost the occasion to capture it in one move. The first real sembiance of an attack was for gold on move 20, but quickly the rabbits that were advanced on the east to protect the gold camel advance became prey of the silver elephant and horse. With 2 rabbits advantage for silver, the shuffling back and forth continued for many more moves, until at 58g, Megamau, rushing to capture a rabbit in the west did not protect sufficently the dog threatened by silver elephant in the east (a single cat step north was required). In the ensuing difficulties, gold made a mistake at move 60g: believing to exchange his endagered cat at f6 for the silver cat at c6, Megamau did not realize that Woh could capture a dog at c3, menacing at the same time the gold camel. Being a dog down Gold fought bitterly and succeded in almost equalizing by slowing dragging a dog on the west and capturing it at move 83g, remaining only 2 rabbits behind. However this brough goal threats on the east side where silver horse and elephant dominated, eventually forcing goal to concede the capture of a cat in order to relocate his elephant and regroup. With few pieces on the board, the advantage of a cat and two rabbits increased in importance and Woh continued pulling rabbits to increase it. Megamau responded by framing a cat in the west and at move 97s silver sacrificed it, in exchange for goal threats. Those were parred, but in exchange for another gold cat and rabbit, captured at move 105s. With only 3 rabbits and 5 pieces Megamau fought bitterly trying to create goal threats, but eventualy Woh goaled at move 123s, setting one of the longest human-human games without total rabbits elimination.

Adanac (Greg Magne) 2437 vs. Nevermind (Antti Laine) 1927 1-0

This game featured live commentary by Karl Juhnke (Fritzlein). There is a post-game interview with Greg Magne.

Adanac launched the first attack in the opening phase, advancing his gold horse to h6 on 5g. However, Nevermind continuously protected his g6 square so that the invading horse could not occupy that key space. However, when the silver elephant pushed the gold camel to f6 on 12s it allowed the gold horse to claim the g6 square with the aid of the 3-move repetition rule on the following turns. The silver camel attempted to return to the east to challenge the gold horse but that piece bailed out by pushing a silver cat south to f4 on 19s. With pieces threatened in 3 traps on 20s, Silver decided to pursue the gold camel while leaving the cat unprotected at g4. The cat was captured on 21g and then an inaccuracy on 22s left the f5 gold rabbit untouched, and it fled to safety on 23g. This allowed Gold to extend his lead to a cat + rabbit on 24g.

Adanac briefly began a new attack against the c6 trap with his elephant, camel and horse. But after a poor 27g, Nevermind made a nice defensive move on 27s to get his horse back onto the b6 square while the gold camel and horse were tied up. However, 28s was a disastrous move that not only left the silver dog and camel in peril but one step was used to advanced a rabbit onto the c6 trap, allowing Gold a full move of counter-attacking without the risk of a piece capture in c6. The resulting exchange gave gold a greater material advantage of camel + dog + cat for just a horse. A protracted defensive battle ensued in which the gold army attempted to advance but, despite the depleted board, Nevermind repeatedly fought off the attackers. Not until 60g did a gold rabbit reach f6 (with no defenders behind it) to force a goal-in-one.

chessandgo (Jean Daligault) 2689 vs. rabbits (Gregory Clark) 2140 0-1

This game featured live commentary by Karl Juhnke (Fritzlein) and Trevor Page (Sconibulus). Unfortunately, the audio isn't clear throughout the broadcast. There are post-game interviews with both players.