Blitz heavily favored against Masterminds

It's often much easier to be the underdog with nothing to lose, but the US Chess League's Boston Blitz won't have that luxury in tonight's matchup with the Philadelphia Masterminds. Even without either of their Grandmasters playing, the Blitz will outrate their opponents by an average of 120 points per board (2380 vs. 2260). On the top three boards they have 2400 and 2500 players facing off against 2200's. As a result, the folks at Pinnacle Sports have made the Blitz the most prohibitive favorite on this week's USCL board (-350, i.e., bet $350 on the Blitz to win $100). Now before you put your rent money down on the Blitz, you might want to review Philadelphia's 2005 record. Often as not, the Masterminds never let their rating disadvantage get in the way of strong performances at the board.

Here are tonight's matchups (the Blitz have White on Boards 2 & 4):

1. IM Foygel (2533) vs. IM Costigan (2287)


2. FM Winer (2422) vs. FM Rogers (2270)


3. FM Kelleher (2402) vs. FM M. Shahade (2242)


4. NM Krasik (2162) vs. NM Wilson (2240)

A win will allow Boston to keep pace with the winner of the New York - Baltimore match atop the Eastern Division (or take sole possession of first in the event of a New York - Baltimore draw).
*****
In other news:

• Globular has posted pictures of the Blitz from last week's match against Miami.


• OnlineChess.ca has resumed their Charbonneau-centric coverage of the league.


• Jen Shahade's New York Knights coverage is posted on her "blog" at the USCF website.


• Clint Ballard's commentary on the inaugural Seattle Sluggers match utilized the "live blogging" technique pioneered for chess reporting here at BCC Weblog (as did Brian Chan's report on the Carolina-Baltimore match).


• Finally, I think Mig took a shot at the league for its sponsorship by an on-line poker site, but I can't tell for sure.