Cevdet KIZIL; Champion of Southern New Hampshire University (U.S.A.) Spring Chess Tournament ’04
The SNHU (Southern New Hampshire University) Spring Chess Tournament ’04 was organized on 1st of May by the SNHU Chess Club. It was a lovely spring day with a very nice weather and the students of the university were enjoying the beautiful day. On the other hand, SNHU Chess Club members were not aware how lovely May 1st was, because they were so concentrated, impatient and excited for the tournament.
The organization started with the single elimination system and twenty minutes per game, just as it was announced before. The tough games between the players which were full of struggle made the tournament much more interesting and colorful.
For example in the first round, two very strong players, M. Turker Firik of Turkey and Le T. My Hanh (Kitty) of Vietnam were matched. Turker made a minor mistake in the early stages of the game and Kitty took advantage of that, dominating the game till the final stages. However, although she had only one move to mate Turker, she couldn’t win. Because Turker had the time advantage while Kitty was in zeitnot (short of time), so Turker played for time by implementing perpetual checks. As a result, Kitty’s flag was down (her time was up). But because she had only one move to mate, the game was reported as a draw by the referees. Then, Turker and Kitty played for a second time, which was another exciting and long game. Both of the players tested their limits and used their maximum performances, but it was Turker’s victory. This game showed everyone that the tournament was open to surprises. Additionally, as predicted before, the winner of these two tough players was able to promote till the final, by achieving success in other rounds.
M. Turker Firik’s opponent in the final series was Cevdet Kizil who was considered to be the tournament’s favorite player. Cevdet was able to promote to the finals smoothly by winning all of his games in the previous rounds.
While the final series were waiting to be played, another very important match was in order. The game for the third place would be played between M. Sinan Pirimoglu of Turkey and Ferdinand Faustino (Fred) of Philippines. Before the game, M. Sinan Pirimoglu was shown as the favorite player of this match. On the opposite side, Fred won the game surprisingly, without forgiving Sinan’s opening mistake and continuing his advantage till the end of the game. As a result, Ferdinand Faustion (Philippines) ranked 3rd in Southern New Hampshire University Spring Chess Tournament ’04 and earned the plaque for his degree.
At last, the finals were ready to be played between two Turkish players - M. Turker Firik and Cevdet Kizil, who would play two games against each other, once with white and once with the black pieces. Evaluating the players, M. Turker Firik was good at solving complicated positions, playing the middle-game and calculating probabilities while Cevdet Kizil had deep chess openings knowledge, endgame mastership and a great experience (awards in 17 tournaments including national, international, internet, official and unofficial tournaments).
In the first game, Cevdet had the white pieces and he used his advantage pretty well, implementing a high pressure in the early stages of the match – one of his usual tactics. First of all, in the opening stage, he moved his pawns to the most critical squares and controlled the center of the board, thus limited the mobility of Turker’s pieces. After that, in the 14th move he forked Turker’s king and rook with his knight, so capturing the rook in the 15th move. Next, his Queen on c7 square was also a very strong move which later helped him to win the game. On the other hand, Turker’s 28th move (the Queen move) was incorrect since he pinned his bishop which caused him many problems in the following stages of the game. As a result, Cevdet won the first game.
M. Turker Firik would start the second game with the white pieces, so he had an advantage at this point. Unfortunately, the result of the first game had a negative psychological effect on him. That factor showed its signal in 11th move where Cevdet moved his knight to the c2 square and Turker’s rook had no place to move. So, Turker was without a rook in the 12th move, a serious disadvantage against a very experienced player. In the following moves, Turker had a big opportunity to capture Cevdet’s immortal knight; however Cevdet implemented some incredible defense arts. But Turker was going on for his fight with a never-ending hope. His strong bishop move on e6 square in the 23rd move was telling that the game was not over yet. Cevdet’s rook sacrifice on the 25th move to avoid several threats and probabilities was proving that Turker’s attacks were now very dangerous. Despite Cevdet’s sacrifice, Turker still had two pawns on c6 and e6 squares as potential threats of Queen promotion. Thus, Cevdet had to sacrifice his Knight this time to stop the pawns. Now it was really a close game, Turker had equalized the match at that point by his middle-game mastership, overcoming his mistakes in the opening. Furthermore, his morale was at maximum. Nevertheless, Cevdet’s rook move to a8 square in order to protect his pawn, a potential Queen, was shining experience again. Turker was unable to stop that pawn, his resistance was down and the pawn promoted to a Queen. Naturally, Cevdet won the game without any difficulty afterwards; his endgame mastership had saved him.
In conclusion, both of the final games were full of impressive strategies and tactics, and one could learn a lot of lessons from these two matches.
Cevdet Kizil (Turkey) earned the “Honor Plaque” for his Champion title in Southern New Hampshire University Spring Chess Tournament ’04 and M. Turker Firik (Turkey) gained the plaque for his 2nd place in the competition.
Final Series 1st Match Notation (Moves List)
Cevdet Kizil (white) - M. Turker Firik (black)
1.e4 g6 2.Nf3 Bg7 3.d4 b6 4.Nc3 Bb7 5.Bd3 c5 6.d5 e6 7.d6 Nc6 8.O-O Nb4 9.e5 Nxd3 10.Qxd3 b5 11.Re1 c4 12.Qd1 a5 13.Nxb5 Ba6 14.Nc7+ Kf8 15.Nxa8 Qxa8 16.b3 c3 17.Qd4 Bb7 18.Qxc3 a4 19.Re3 f6 20.Qc7 Ke8 21.Bb2 h5 22.Nh4 Rh6 23.Rg3 g5 24.c4 g4 25.f4 fxe5 26.Bxe5 Bxe5 27.fxe5 axb3 28.Rxb3 Qa7+ 29.Rb6 Qa5 30.Rxb7 Qxe5 31.Qxd7+ Kf8 32.Qf7# (1-0)
Final Series 2nd Match Notation (Moves List)
M. Turker Firik (white) – Cevdet Kizil (black)
1.g3 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qe3+ Qe7 5.Qxe7+ Bxe7 6.Nf3 d5 7.c3 Bg4 8.Bg2 Bxf3 9.Bxf3 0-0-0 10.c4 Nd4 11.0-0 Nc2 12.cxd5 Nxa1 13.Bf4 Nc2 14.Rc1 g5 15.Be5 f6 16.Bc3 Nb4 17.Nd2 Nxa2 18.Ra1 Nxc3 19.bxc3 a6 20.Rb1 Bd6 21.Ne4 b5 22.Bg4+ Kb7 23.Be6 Re8 24.c4 b4 25.c5 Rxe6 26.c6+ Kc8 27.dxe6 Kd8 28.Nxd6 cxd6 29.Rxb4 Kc7 30.Rb7+ Kxc6 31.e7 Nxe7 32.Rxe7 Ra8 33.Rxh7 Kd5 34.h4 gxh4 35.gxh4 a5 36.Rb7 a4 37.Rb2 a3 38.Ra2 Kc4 39.h5 Kb3 40.Ra1 Kb2 41.Rd1 a2 42.Rxd6 a1=Q+ 43.Kg2 Rg8+ 44.Kf3 Qa3+ 45.e3 Qxd6 46.e4 Rh8 47.e5 Qd3+ 48.Kg2 Rg8+ 49.Kh2 Qf1 50.exf6 Qg2# (0-1)
Final Series 1st Match – Critical Moments
9.e5… : Cevdet Kizil (white) controls the center of the board and limits the mobility of M. Turker Firik (black) by moving his pawns to d6 and e5 squares.
14. Nc7+… : Cevdet Kizil’s (white) knight threatens M. Turker Firik’s (black) king and rook at the same time. Since Turker’s king on e8 is in check, he is forced to move it and loses his rook on a8 in the next move.
29. Rb6… : In the 29th move, Cevdet Kizil (white) moves his rook to the b6 square. This move is very strong because it blocks M. Turker Firik’s (black) check and threatens the bishop on b7 simultaneously. Note that Cevdet Kizil’s queen on the c7 square is also very well located since it threatens the bishop on b7 like his rook and remains as a potential nightmare for Turker’s king.
32. Qf7#... : Cevdet Kizil ends the game by moving his queen to the f7 square. Checkmate! As mentioned before, a queen on the 7th rank is always a nightmare. Add this one a rook which is also on the 7th rank, and the nightmare turns into a real tragedy.
Final Series 2nd Match – Critical Moments
11. … Nc2 : Cevdet Kizil (black) moves his knight to the c2 square in the 11th move. M. Turker Firik’s (white) rook on a1 has no place to hide and it is captured in the 12th move. Cevdet starts the game with his aggressive style as usual.
23. Be6 … : M. Turker Firik (white) moves his bishop to the e6 square in 23rd move. This one is really a very strong move! Because Turker’s bishop which is safely protected by his pawn on d5 now controls the c8-h3 and e6-g8 diagonals, and Cevdet Kizil’s (black) pieces seriously lose their mobility. Stressful moments will wait for Cevdet in the next moves.
25. … Rxe6 : Cevdet Kizil (black) moves his rook to e6 and captures M. Turker Firik’s (white) bishop. This is a sacrifice since Cevdet’s rook will be captured in the next move by Turker’s pawn on d5. Cevdet trades a rook for a bishop and loses some material advantage. However, this is usually the best thing to do if you can calculate several moves ahead which are extremely dangerous. Additionally, Cevdet’s purpose here is to lower Turker’s positional advantage.
27. dxe6 … : M. Turker Firik (white) captures Cevdet Kizil’s (black) rook and has two pawns on very important squares, c6 and e6. Both of these pawns are potential opportunities for queen promotion. Cevdet must find a way to eliminate them if he wants to win this game.
31. … Nxe7 : Cevdet succeeds to eliminate one of the pawns with his king. But to eliminate the other one, he has to sacrifice his knight. Cevdet moves his knight to e7 and captures Turker’s other pawn, but his knight will be captured in the next move by Turker’s rook on the b7 square.
32. …Ra8 : Cevdet Kizil (black) moves his rook to the a8 square. Smart move! Because it’s now very hard for M. Turker Firik (white) to stop Cevdet Kizil’s pawn (on a6). In the following moves Turker tries to catch this pawn with his rook, but Cevdet this time uses his king to support his pawn. On the other hand, Turker’s king is more away from the a1 square (where Cevdet’s pawn will promote to a queen) compared to Cevdet’s king, another serious disadvantage. A beautiful transition to the endgame by Cevdet Kizil...
50. … Qd2# : Cevdet Kizil (black) mates M. Turker Firik (white) in the 50th move. This move announces a 2-0 score in aggregate for the favor of Cevdet. In other words, experience beats hope.
Top 3 Players of the SNHU Spring Chess Tournament ‘04
Cevdet Kizil (Turkey) – Champion
M. Turker Firik (Turkey) – 2nd Place
Ferdinand Faustino (Philippines) – 3rd Place