For best results, avoid the brilliancy in chess

Warning: Brilliant play does not always guarantee brilliant results.

It’s a curious phenomenon that very often the player who captures the traditional brilliancy prize for the best-played game of the tournament doesn’t go on to win the tournament itself. Thirteen-year-old Bobby Fischer pulled off his “Game of the Century” against Donald Byrne while slogging through one of his worst results ever — a 4½-6½ tie for eighth place at the 1956 Third Rosenwald Tournament.

It’s nice to report, then, that the brilliancy prizes at last month’s 45th annual Eastern Open, the Washington area’s traditional year-end chess blowout, aligned nicely with the scoreboard The top two finishers, GM Alex Lenderman of New York and Virginia GM Sergey Erenburg, took home the brilliancy awards as well. (Thanks to tournament organizer Tom Beckman for passing along the game scores and some notes supplied by the winners.)

As we reported here, Lenderman won his fourth Eastern title last month, and his fine Round 2 victory over master Alex Jian also was awarded the second brilliancy prize. A few early Black inaccuracies — declining a queen trade on Move 8 and creating kingside targets with 13…fxg6?! and 16…g5? — are punished in exemplary fashion.

Thus: 17. h4 Ne8 (gxh4 18. Bxh4 Rf7 19. e5 Ne8 20. Bxe7 Rxe7 21. Bd3 g6 22. f4 also leaves White in charge) 18. exd5 exd5 19. Nxd5! cxd5 20. Qxd5+ and White nets three pawns for the piece and enjoys a raging attack.

White cashes in energetically on 21. hxg5 Qc6 (see diagram) 22. Rxh7+! Kxh7 23. g6+! Qxg6 (Lenderman notes that all three legal alternatives end in mate: 23…Kxg6 24. Qh5+ Kf6 25. Qf5 mate; 23…Kh8 24. Qh5+ Kg8 25. Qh7 mate; and 23…Kh6 Qh5 mate) 24. Bd3 and the Black queen is lost. Jian can never generate counterplay in the face of the material deficit and resigns 15 moves later.

Erenburg settled for second place in the tournament but took top honors in the brilliancy department with his own Round 3 win over expert Arthur Xu. Once again, minuscule positional oversights (10…Nc6?! instead of the d5-covering 10…Be6; 16…Ne7?! instead of the more active 16…Na5!) lead to drastic consequences.

White piles up on the backward Black d-pawn and then shifts the battle while Xu is otherwise occupied: 21 g3! h5?! (understandable impatience in a passive position, but this just helps White’s plans) 22. h4 g6 23. Ng5! (Erenburg says he originally planned to plunk the knight on d5, “but I realized that the pawn structure [after a trade] would change in my favor, making it impossible for Black to defend on the kingside”) Bxg5 (Rf8? 24. Ne6!) 24. hxg5 Nc6 25. Qf3 Na5 26. Bd5 Nc4 27. Qf6! (the attack is worth the lost material; White’s edge in negligible on the wishy-washy 27. Re2?! Nb6 28. Bb3 Nc4) Nxd2 28. Qxg6+.

It’s a rout after 28…Kf8 29. Qh6+ Ke7 30. Qf6+ Ke8 31. g6! (deadly precision) Nf3+ 32. Kg2! Re7 33. gxf7+ Kd7 34. Qf5+ Kc7 35. f8=Q Rxf8 36. Qxf8 Rh7 37. Qxf3, and White material edge is overwhelming. Black finally gave up 11 moves later.

Lenderman-Jian, 45th Eastern Open, Tysons Corner, Va., December 2018

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 Bf5 5. Nc3 e6 6. Nh4 Bg4 7. Qb3 Qb6 8. c5 Qc7 9. Bf4 Qc8 10. f3 Bh5 11. g4 Bg6 12. e4 Be7 13. Nxg6 fxg6 14. Bg3 0-0 15. 0-0-0 Nbd7 16. Kb1 g5 17. h4 Ne8 18. exd5 exd5 19. Nxd5 cxd5 20. Qxd5+ Kh8 21. hxg5 Qc6 22. Rxh7+ Kxh7 23. g6+ Qxg6+ 24. Bd3 Qxd3+ 25. Rxd3 Nef6 26. Qxb7 Bxc5 27. g5 Bb6 28. gxf6 Nxf6 29. Be5 Rad8 30. f4 Rd7 31. Qc6 Rdd8 32. Qe6 Rde8 33. Rh3+ Kg6 34. Rg3+ Kh7 35. Qh3+ Kg8 36. Qh6 Rf7 37. Bxf6 Re1+ 38. Kc2 Rc7+ 39. Kd3 Black resigns.

Erenburg-Xu, 45th Eastern Open, Tysons Corner, Va., December 2018

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nf3 Be7 8. Bc4 Qc7 9. Bb3 O-O 10. O-O Nc6 11. Bg5 Be6 12. Bxf6 Bxf6 13. Nd5 Bxd5 14. Bxd5 Rac8 15. c3 Rfd8 16. Qd3 Ne7 17. Bb3 Qa5 18. Rfd1 Rd7 19. Rd2 Qc5 20. Rad1 Rcd8 21. g3 h5 22. h4 g6 23. Ng5 Bxg5 24. hxg5 Nc6 25. Qf3 Na5 26. Bd5 Nc4 27. Qf6 Nxd2 28. Qxg6+ Kf8 29. Qh6+ Ke7 30. Qf6+ Ke8 31. g6 Nf3+ 32. Kg2 Re7 33. gxf7+ Kd7 34. Qf5+ Kc7 35. f8=Q Rxf8 36. Qxf8 Rh7 37. Qxf3 and White won.

• David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email dsands@washingtontimes.com.