December 19, 2009 Featured Game

The 2004 Tri-States Match between Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, the first of this century, produced many fantastic games. There were 11 Boards officially counted in the match. Wyoming won the match with 26 points to Idaho's 17. Montana did not participate. This meant that each board played a 4-game match against their counter-part instead of the proposed 2-games.

This has always been one of my favorite games between two of my favorite chess players. Ron Matous, of Wyoming, is a very strong, energetic, imaginative, and resourceful player. And Daniel Pocol, who at that time was from Idaho, can always be counted on to play much stronger than his rating would indicate is possible. Daniel Pocol rarely makes mistakes and often seems to see "everything". Daniel Pocol frequently beats players rated higher than himself.

In this match, Ron Matous won Rounds 1 and 2, Daniel Pocol won Round 3, and they had a draw in Round 4.

This game is from Round 1 (Board 4). There is a very nice attack initiated by 24...Nxe3. The game is full of beautiful tactics and maneuvers. And after 4 hours of play, White made a mistake playing 50.Rd2, missing Mate on the move. Black was still applying "pressure". But was it enough to win?, draw?, or would White still have lost even if he had played 50.Rd1? If Black couldn't still win, then his 42nd move (42...g3+) would have to be called his mistake. This is just a really great game.