Okie Chess Festival

The 2006 Okie Master Invitational

After three days of chess in Tulsa at the Okie Chess Festival, I am home and ready for another week of chess at The Chess Club.

Luther playing e4 against Movsisyan in round five.

Ron Luther was finally allowed to play in the Invitational Section if he promised to annotate two games for the Oklahoma Chess Foundation's bulletin. After only scoring 1.5 in 2005, Ron had a much better tournament, scoring 3.5 with keys wins over Thomas Gossell, Movses Movsisyan, and Trevor Jackson. Here is one of Ron's impressive wins.

Luther,Ron (2150) - Movsisyan,Movses (2287) [C18]
2006 Okie Masters Tulsa, OK (5), 03.09.2006

1.e4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Nc6 7.a4 Qa5 8.Bd2 Nge7 9.f4 Bd7 10.Nf3 f6 11.Be2 c4 12.0-0 0-0-0 13.Qc1 Be8 14.Qb2 Bg6 15.Rfb1 Qc7 16.a5 Be4 17.Bc1 h6 18.Nd2 f5 19.Ra4 Kd7 20.Nxe4 fxe4 21.Bg4 Rb8 22.Qa2 b5 23.axb6 Rxb6 24.Ra1 a5 25.Ba3 Rb5 26.Rf1 g6 27.Bd6 Qb6 28.h3 Nf5 29.Bxf5 gxf5 30.Qa3 Rb1 31.Rxb1 Qxb1+ 32.Kh2 Qb5 33.Be7 Rc8 34.Qd6+ Ke8 35.Bh4 Ra8 36.Qxe6+ Kf8 37.Qxf5+ Kg8 38.Qg6+ Kf8 39.Qxh6+ Kg8 40.e6 Qb7 41.Qg5+ Qg7 42.Qxd5 Rc8

Bob Holliman also know as chessmasterbob.com did well finishing tied for 1st in the challenger section with 4.5 points.

I finished in 8th place with 4.5 points. The tournament was uneventful except for one issue. In round six, I had 4 points and was paired down with a player who had 3 points even though there were 6-7 players with 4 points and a few even with 3.5.

Tim Steiner had told me the night before that the tournament director, Alex Relyea was in an argument with the Berry's who finance the event. Evidently, the Berry brothers wanted the pairings to be fixed in order to create FIDE norms while Alex did not.

Consequently, I was not happy with my pairings and thought it was unfair to fix the pairings late in the tournament. I wanted a chance to play against one of the tournament leaders and was denied that opportunity.

Anyway, who has the gold makes the rules! And the Berry brothers are doing some wonderful work for Oklahoma chess!

I would like to thank the Berry brothers, Alex and his wife, and Tom Braunlich for running a great event. The playing area was well lit, and the prize fund was beyond expectation for a tournament of this size.

Maybe we can take a van to next year's event and bring more players from the club.

Ken Fee