NEW YORK CITY–
Game two and game seven of the first round of the President’s Cup tournament have ended. Webster Grandmaster Aleksandr Shimanov, from game two, tied his opponent. Shimanov played Sergey Matsenko from Texas Tech University.
Shimanov said he thought he played a solid game. Both head coach Susan Polgar and assistant coach Paul Truong told him not to take any risky moves. He played with black chess pieces during the first round. Starting as black leaves the player with a disadvantage in chess.
“I was told not to gamble too much, as I was [playing] black,” Shimanov said. “I can’t say I’m too happy about it, but it’s decent.”
Shimanov thought he was more prepared than his opponent going into the round. He said his opponent was not known as being very aggressive. Shimanov said he took the draw because he did not think he would have a good chance of winning against his defensive opponent.
“I’m totally fine,” Shimanove said. “The next round is in four or five hours and I will get more rest before my opponent, so that was also part of the plan.”
Game seven featured Yaroslav Zherebukh from Saint Louis University and Andrey Stukopin from University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Share this post
