It was Round 4 of the Bergen Chess Mates club championship held in Ridgewood, New Jersey. The club used to be known as the Dumont Chess Mates, but after it moved from Dumont to Ridgewood a name-change was necessary. The club met on Monday nights for forty years at the cafeteria of the Dumont High School, but it only took an unsympathetic school official to kick us out of there. We're quite happy at our new site, the United Methodist Church. The church offered their basement area for our purposes, and now we have a tournament room, a skittles room, a receiving room, and a living room that doubles as the local AA meeting room. We're just dandy!

Anyway, at this point of the game, I could either take the pawn at a5 and get my opponent's knight at the edge. That would cost him another tempo just to get his knight back into the frey. Or, I could advance my queenside pawns, and move up my king in support. The black knight would spend several tempi just to get at my pawn on a2 before black could make threats over in that area. So, I thought for a while and settled on a move my opponent didn't see coming... from the position above, 1. f5+ . Fritz9 advised to take the pawn on a5, like 1. ba Na5 2. g6 Nc4 3. Nd6... Anyway, I thought my move was good as well. Play continued 1...Kf5 ( making life easier for me )2.Nd6+ Kg5 3. Nc4 bc4 4.ab and black resigned.