In Round 2 of the traditional schedule, octogenarian and physicist Dan E. Mayers played a creative attacking game against 22-year-old GM Zviad Izoria. When he was 22, Mayers was working on the Manhattan project in Los Alamos. He was friendly with all the top scientists of his day, including Fermi and Oppenheimer.We expect to see Mayers in many U.S. Opens to come: "My physician assures me that I may live indefinitely if I avoid fast cars and the Mafia."

In spite of Mayers' valiant effort, Izoria defended succesfully. In May 2006, Izoria moved from Tbilisi, Georgia to New York City. In U.S. chess circles, he's best known for his clear victory in the 2005 HB Global tournament (taking home 50K!) Now that he lives in the U.S, we can expect more great results from this young star.



23. Bc6+ is an inspired shot. 23...Nxc6? doesn't allow the Black king any escape squares after 24. Qg7 when White has a perpetual check as a back-up plan. Instead, Izoria took with the b-pawn. Mayers' biggest mistake was in 30.Nd4?, which doesn't add fuel to the fire nor interfere with Black's defensive resources. Instead, he should have tried 30.Re1, bringing another White piece into the game OR 30.g3!, cutting off Black's key defensive piece. 30.g3! Bxg3 31.fg3 Rh1+ 32. Kg2 Rxa1 (IF 32...Qxb2+ 33.Kxh1 Qxa1+ 34.Kg2 and if White escapes from the checks his knight will rule over the entombed a8 rook.) 33.Qe8+ Kb7 Qe7+ etc. (if Ka6? Nc7 is winning) leads to a draw by perpetual check. Of course, Black could try to win rather than going for this forced draw line, but it looks very dangerous, because White now has time to improve his position with Re1 or d1 and Nd4 will soon pack a much bigger punch.

With this victory, Izoria became one of 50 players with perfect scores. Click here for complete standings as of Round 2.


GM Zviad Izoria from the Republic of Georgia is now living in New York.

Controversial writer and chessplayer Tim Taylor played a wild and instructive game. One of the marks of a strong player is the confidence to calculate variations in which a king, seemingly in danger, is safe from checks. The beauty of the final position is that visually the black king is terribly exposed, but tactically, there is no way to exploit it.




Tim Taylor

The Game of Zwichenzugs

Joel Benjamin's Round 2 game featured several key in-between moves (aka: Intermediate moves/ Zwichenzugs) such as 20...Bxe4, 21...Qc3 and 22...Bb2. (We don't play favorites for our columnists!) Without calculating these moves, Joel seemed to be in danger. In reality, Black was always on top.





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