30th Space Coast Open Games
- Evan Dyson
- May 29
- 3 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
We are pleased to present 42 games from the 30th Space Coast Open. The games are hosted in the ChessBase cloud at this link:
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All of the games are annotated. Most annotations were created using ChessBase Tactical Analysis running Stockfish 15. A few of the games have additional annotations by the players, comments from our brilliancy prize judge, and/or Lichess annotations. These are noted with credit to the source.
The games are organized as follows:
The first 3 games are our Brilliancy Prize Winners!
Next, we have 3 games receiving Honorable Mention in the Brilliancy Prize judging.
There follow the remaining games from the Master Section top 6 boards, including some annotated by the winners. Three of our first-place finishers (Amburgy, Ludwig and Rodriguez) provided annotations to their favorite game.
Lastly, we present a few games by some of the top finishers in the Class Sections.
Wojtkiewicz Brilliancy Prizes!!
GM Alex Wojtkiewicz (affectionately called "Wojo") played many times in the SCO and was a regular part of our lecture series. Our brilliancy prizes are named in his memory. This year we offered three cash prizes totaling $350. IM Javad Maharramzade served as the Brilliancy Prize judge, his 18th consecutive year in this role. In addition to the cash prize winners IM Maharramzade awarded three honorable mentions.
Below are his introductory game summaries.
First Brilliancy Prize $200 to Brejesh Chakrabarti (black vs. Oscar Zhang). A brilliant attacking display by the co-winner of the SCO 2025 Masters, featuring two Queen sacrifices. White rejects the first offer (after 27... axb2) due to 28. Bxd6 Ra1#. However, White is forced to accept the second offer, 33... Qxd3!, with the key idea remaining behind the scenes: 35. Kc2 Rba1! 36. Kxb2 R8a2#. Instead, White sets up a trap with 35. Ra7 Rd1 36. Ke3, where the naive 36... b1=Q would lead to a forced mate against the Black King: 37.Rxa8 Bf8 38.Rxf8 Kg7 39.Rg8!. Black, however, solves the puzzle by finding 36... Re8! 37. Re7 Re1!, after which he can safely promote. White resigns.
Second Brilliancy Prize $100 to Jean Marco Cruz (white vs Truman Hoang). In the opening, White offers a typical long-term pawn sacrifice on b2 with 10. 0-0!. Black dutifully accepts with 10... Qxb2, leading to a highly complex game. The key moment arises when White opts for an unconventional capture, 15. hxg5!, followed by another pawn sacrifice, 16. g6!, shattering Black's kingside cover. The final attack begins with 21. Qf5!, ignoring the
recapture of Black's Bishop and focusing directly on the King. The last move, 26. Rb1!, is poetic-delivering punishment to the Black Queen, still stranded on b2. Could White have foreseen this when sacrificing the b2 pawn on move 10? 😊
Third Brilliancy Prize $50 to Otis Wilson (black vs. Dylan Todfield). Inventive play by Black with stunning moves 17... Nxe3!? and 20... e4!?. Objectively, there may have been better (and more prosaic) alternatives, but the game still merits recognition for its daring creativity. Facing serious practical challenges, White chooses the incorrect 21. dxe4 (instead of 21. Nxe4, which would have led to unclear play). As a result, Black gains an advantage and eventually converts it into a full point.
Honorable Mentions:
Leandro Blanco - Aviva Smith: 11.Bh7!
Sophie Li - Nick Moore: 29.Qe6!
Felix Medina - Vicentiu Iorga: 30... Rxh3!
Special thanks to IM Maharramzade for once again serving as our Brilliancy
Prize Judge.
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