The Under 1800 Tournament held at the Tacoma Chess Club (TCC) February 11-12, 2006, was concurrent with the Washington State Championship held at the Tacoma Campus for the University of Washington. Twelve players showed up for the TCC tournament. Stephen Buck was seeded 1st with a rating of 1769. His opponent is active TCC member John Hornickle. White has a slight positional advantage through most of the middlegame which eventually changes to an advantage for Black after exchanging on c5 on move 38. Then both players move back and forth a few times. White, apparently content with a draw, misses a tactical opportunity to win a key pawn on move 34.Nxe6! Black then eliminates this on his turn. On move 45...Rd5 Black errors and gives White a decisive advantage as he has no way to protect h6 after 46.Qf4. Mr. Buck only lost two games: this upset loss to John and then in round 5 to the evenual winner of the tournament, second-seed Eric Woro, rated 1754. This upset win for John was his claim to fame for this tournament as he would not win another game in the tournament, finishing with 1.5/5.0 points.
1.e4
c5
2.Nc3
Nc6
3.g3
g6
4.Bg2
Bg7
5.d3
d6
6.Be3
Nf6
7.Nge2
0-0
8.0-0
a6
9.f4
e6
10.h3
Qc7
11.Qd2
Rb8
12.e5
Nd7
13.exd6
Qxd6
14.Ne4
Qe7
15.c3
f5
16.Ng5
h6
17.Nf3
Nf6
18.Ne5
Nxe5
19.fxe5
Nd7
20.d4
Kh7
21.Kh2
b5
22.Nf4
Bb7
23.Nd3
cxd4
24.cxd4
Bxg2
25.Qxg2
Rfc8
26.Rac1
Nb6
27.Nc5
Nd5
28.Bg1
a5
29.Qf3
b4
30.Qd3
Rc6
31.Qf3
Rbc8
32.Qd3
Qg5
33.Qf3
[33.Nxe6
Qxc1
34.Rxc1
Rxc1
35.Kh1
R8c4
36.g4+/-
]
33...Qd8
34.h4
[34.Nxe6
Qe8
(34...Rxe6
35.Rxc8
Qxc8
36.Qxd5
Qa6
37.Rf2+-
) 35.Rxc6
Qxc6
36.Nf4+/-
]
34...Qe8
35.Bf2
Bf8
36.Kg2
Bxc5
37.Rxc5
Rxc5
38.dxc5
Qc6
39.Rc1
Qc7
40.Bd4
Rf8
41.Re1
Qc6
42.Kh2
Rd8
43.Qf2
Nc7
44.b3
Nb5
45.Be3
Rd5
46.Qf4
Qe8
47.Qxh6+
Kg8
48.Bg5
Nc3?
[48...Qf7
49.c6
Nc3
50.Bf6
Qh7
51.Qe3
Qc7+-
]
49.Bf6
Diagram 1-0