9905 Joel Johnson Simul at the MCC

Master Joel Johnson (2206) Simul at the MCC
05-18-99
(Pictures below )

On Tuesday May 18th, 1999, Master Joel Johnson who often plays at the club, took on all challengers in the form of a simul. He was very gracious and allowed up to three passes per player using the honor system. Of the Nineteen opponents, only three did not lose to Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson wrote some brief comments about each game, from memory, some four days later. His comments appear next to the players names below.

Mr. Johnson has kindly written some words for us describing what usually goes through his head he does simul and this event in particular.

On behalf of the MCC, we thank you Mr. Johnson for making this a fun evening for us and sharing your thoughts with us.

(Comments of Mr. Johnson)

The first 10-12 moves go really quickly for me. Generally, I am able to get winning positions in about 4-5 games during this stretch. Starting around move 13 for about 12-15 moves is the tough stretch for me. All the games are getting complicated at the same time, I find myself slowing down which only helps you guys out even more. During this interval, I achieve winning advantages in about 10 of the games, although, I am also now losing 6 or 7 games. My hope is to stretch out the losing games as long as possible so that I can comeback and win them in the end when the number of games decreases.

At this point, people have started to resign. With every person that goes down, I get stronger and stronger. My spirits pickup -- I am hanging tough in the games that I am losing and I am getting around much quicker, which in turn causes pressure on my opponents. My opponents are starting to use their passes. Each pass that gets used, tells me that I am causing them pressure and duress. And, because I don't have to make a move at this board, I show up at the other boards even sooner. All of this causes more of my opponents to crack which only increases the pressure on the remaining players.

At the end, there are two players left. Both have very, very good positions. Both fall apart because of the pressure of having to make moves quicker, even though the final two players are at opposite ends of the room.

You can find photos of our club players on our Club Photo Album Page or click on an underlined name to see a photo.

1	Al Ward	1834	Lost	Dropped an exchange in a relatively even position, after which he was lost.
2	Michael Burba	1681	Draw	We both just ran out of material in this Rook and Pawn ending. The game was pretty much equal all the way. Neither side could make much headway.
3	Mark Kaprielian	1628	Lost	Overlooked that the exchange of rooks on h8 would result in a King & Queen fork.
4	Mark McMahon	1536	Draw	A very interesting game where I had given up some Pawns for an attack which he was able to defend. When we got to the ending, he was up Pawns, but they were all doubled and isolated, at which point I suggested that he go out and buy the book - Pawn Structure Chess by GM Andrew Soltis (by the way a great book). Even though, I was able to get the material back, I couldn't get any extra material for the win.
5	John Valentine	1553	Lost 2nd board left	Played really well in the middle game and was on the verge of winning, but you guys couldn't keep me away from his board long enough so he would have the time to finish the job. He eventually cracked under the pressure.
6	Gatumba Abu	1528	Lost Last board left	Played very well in the middle game. Although he probably would have won during that phase of the game if he wasn't so willing to trade pieces. I felt as though I should have been mated at one point in the middle game. We would eventually get down to a Queen and Pawn ending with me down a passed a-Pawn (a sure loss), so I simply put up max resistance until the end when he cracked because he was just playing me one on one at the end.
7	Eric Decker	1524/16	Lost	My Sicilian kingside attack was too much for him to handle.
8	Ali Khater	1470	Lost	A very interesting Advanced French Defense game where the combination of my doubled rooks on the open f-file and my Queen infiltrating the queenside against his uncastled King, led to a nice finishing mate.
9	John Stengrevics	1416	Lost 3rd board left	This game went back and forth. I had achieved a winning position with a Rook for a Knight ending. In my haste to simplify, I sacked the exchange and let him outplay me in the King and Pawn ending. However, he allowed the Queens to get traded, thereby giving me another winning King and Pawn ending. Whew!!!!
10	Alan Schaefer	1400	Lost	(couldn't put name to face, commentary in near future)
11	Franklin Herman	1399	Lost 4th board left	A relatively even game most of the way, but he was unable to keep my Rooks off his seventh rank. Because of the pressure of the position and being one of the final boards, he cracked at the end dropping a Bishop.
12	Guenther Briem	1381	Lost	Got into trouble early, just too many tactics.
13	John McLaughlin	1363	Lost	After castling queenside, he proceeded to let me dictate the flow of the game by taking queenside Pawns and letting me attack both his Queen and King. He totally forgot about going after my King. The final combination leading to the win of his Queen (and shortly thereafter, mate) was nice.
14	Sherif Khater	1330	Won	He is too strong for this simul. I had a tough time beating him, one on one, in the last tournament. He simply repelled my attack and beat me on the f-file.
15	Sanjayan Manivannan	1295/10	Lost	Played very tough, but in the end, my queenside pressure with my Rooks and Queen proved to be to much for his exposed King to handle.
16	Travis Chui	1166	Lost	He got behind an exchange and Pawn early, but hung in tough the remainder of the game, despite finally losing in the end.
17	Frank Elms	Unr	Lost	Dropped material early in the middle game.
18	Justin Grimes	Unr	Lost	He lost his Queen early in the game.
19	John Conte Jr.	954/16	Lost	Problems along the d-file resulted in a quick win