The Lauttasaari team made the journey to Joensuu for a weekend long double header against KSY on Saturday and JoeSK on Sunday. There were some ruffles along the way to Joensuu, but fortunately the opposing team KSY was gracious enough to allow a delayed start for one of the players (myself). Sportsmanship like that is much appreciated and worthy of mention.
KSY vs LauttSSK 1–4
- Hartikainen, Jarmo (2045) – M Lehti Juhani (2231) 0–1
- Olin, Janne (1957) – Heikkinen Jyrki (2064) 1–0
- Kinnunen, Marku (1890) – M Kauppala Pekka (2061) 0–1
- Ollikainen, Akseli (1826) – Kumar Ashwin (1970) 0–1
- Mylläri, Mikko (1724) – Kivinen Jyrki (1906) ½–½
- Virta, Oskari (1733) – Kuzin, Dmytro (1761) ½–½
- Ollikainen, Esko (1623) – Piippo, Mikko (1705) 0–1
- Mutanen, Elias (1460) – Zhukov, Matvei (1615) ½–½
On Board 1, Juhani mastered an even position with mild positional edge to convert a full point. Jyrki's game on board 2 took the longest, and ended in a close opposite colored bishops loss. On Board 3, Pekka made a ruthless entry with his pawn into the opponent's fianchettoed g7 square, and converted the advantage. On Board 4, Ashwin had an interesting piece vs 3 pawns game structure which was drawish, but needed endgame accuracy. Fortunately I was able to convert. I didn't get a good look at the other games, as those boards were not in my walking path to the coffee, snacks, and bathroom.
JoeSK vs LauttSSK 2–2
- Blinkov, Pavel (2276) – M Lehti Juhani (2231) ½–½
- Sieviläinen, Tuomo (1919) – Heikkinen Jyrki (2064) ½–½
- Salmela, Nuutti (1963) – M Kauppala Pekka (2061) 1–0
- Dannenberg, Alia (1910) – Kumar Ashwin (1970) 0–1
- Yusuphanova, Sadi-Carolin (1889) – Kivinen Jyrki (1906) 0–1
- Kärki, Miska (1790) – Kuzin, Dmytro (1761) ½–½
- Mustonen, Tapani (1736) – Piippo, Mikko (1705) 1–0
- Ivanaynen, Natalia (1754) – Zhukov, Matvei (1615) ½–½
On Board 1, Juhani had a quick draw with Pavel. On Board 2, Jyrki played against his opponent's unusual 'pet line' and it became a double edged game that ended in a draw. On Board 3, Pekka played a masterclass positional game to seek out a solid 1-pawn winning advantage, but made an uncharacteristic misstep that resulted in defeat. On Board 4, Ashwin had a passive defensive position which his opponent was not able to take full tactical advantage of, thereby allowing him a simplification and turnaround resulting in a win.
On Board 5, Jyrki had a tense, but solid protected connected passed pawns advantage, and was able to keep his king safe while walking the pawns forward. On Board 6, Dmytro had a quick draw. On Board 7, Mikko had a wild game that ended with him having a Queen+Bishop vs 2 Rooks+Bishop, and the position was too difficult to defend accurately. On Board 8, Matvei played an epic game with Natalia who held her nerve to salvage the draw in a tricky zugzwangy knight and pawn ending while she was a pawn down. Their draw resulted in the entire match being a draw as well. Great entertainment indeed. Here is some of the footage from the day.
Well that was basically it. We had a good long train ride back, and then back to the usual.