Karen Birkedahl at the US Amateur Team Championship East

Karen Birkedahl created a sensation at the 1999 US Open Chess Championship in Reno, where she entered with a 1600 rating and scored wins against experts and masters.

However, she has rarely played since and her rating is still 1649.

On February 19, 2001, when I found myself paired against her in the last round of the US Amateur Team Championship East I knew I had to be prepared for a tough fight.

Karen Birkedahl at the US Amateur Team Championship East

In Reno, she had won a scholarship to attend the University of Texas at Dallas, so, at the US Amateur Team Championship East she was playing on the UT Dallas Orange team.

As we sat down at the board to play our game, I asked if I could take her photo, and she agreed. Here it is.

The game was a tough fight. I was fortunate to win, as she set a number of traps for me, which I was fortunarte not to fall into. Here is the game:

Note in the final position, how white's pieces hang together but just barely. If the black king tried to escape with 27. .... Kc7, then 28. Re2 leads to mate because the bishop on a6 protects the rook on e2. Also, on the previous move, the queen on d5 threatens the black knight on e5 and also protects the vital pawn on a2.

[Event "US Amateur Team East"]
[Site "Parsippany NJ USA"]
[Date "2001.02.19"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Sloan, Sam"]
[Black "Birkedahl, Karen"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "1921"]
[BlackElo "1649"]
[PlyCount "53"]

1. g4 e5 2. d3 d5 3. h3 Bc5 4. Nc3 c6 5. e4 Be6 6. Nf3 Nd7 7. Ng5 Qf6 8. Rh2 h6
9. Nxe6 Qxe6 10. f4 O-O-O 11. Qf3 Qf6 12. exd5 Qh4+ 13. Kd1 Ne7 14. dxc6 Nxc6
15. Ne4 Nd4 16. Qg2 Rhe8 17. fxe5 Nxe5 18. c3 Ndf3 19. Nxc5 Qe1+ 20. Kc2 b6 21.
Be2 bxc5 22. Bxf3 Rxd3 23. Bb7+ Kb8 24. Bf4 Rxc3+ 25. bxc3 Qxa1 26. Qd5 Qe1 27.
Ba6 1-0

Here are links:

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Contact address - please send e-mail to the following address: Sloan@ishipress.com