How would you proceed?

Here is a position from the 5th round of the BCC Championship with White to move.

FM MacIntyre-NM Times

After 21...Bf5

After wrestling with the position for awhile, highlight the space between the brackets for the game continuation.

[Paul played 22.Rc7! and the game proceeded 22...Bxc2 23.Rgxg7+ Kh8 24.Bc3 Rae8 25.Rh7+ 1-0]

GMs lead the way at the New England Masters

After 5 of 9 rounds at the New England Masters, GMs Shabalov and Kritz share the lead with 4 points. The early rounds seem to be following a fairly consistent pattern: 1) When facing each other, the GMs draw; 2) When facing non-GMs (let's call them "pretenders to the crown"), the GMs put their lower-titled competitors back in their place. The only exception is GM Nigel Davies, who seems content to draw with just about everyone.

Heading into Round 6, the current group of pretenders includes IM Sarker, IM Milman, IM Ippolito, and FM Critelli, all with 3.5 points. Each is set to face off against a GM.

BCF President FM Paul MacIntyre is holding his own with 2.5 points.

Alexandra returns to the airwaves

After a nine month break, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk is back with a new podcast. In it, she explains that her hiatus was "due to her pregnancy and to the birth of her daughter, Francesca."

Let's see, a nine month break due to pregnancy ... seems totally plausible to me.

**********

Speaking of Alexandra, I discovered something interesting. If you search Google Images for "Alexandra Kosteniuk chess", on the sixth page of results* (2nd row, all the way to the right) you'll find a picture of none other than BCF President FM Paul MacIntyre. Hmmm, what to make of that?

* Page placement on Google changes all the time, so check it out soon.

Penultimate

FM Paul MacIntyre reports that his team, representing the Boylston Chess Club, took second place in last weekend's US Amateur Team Championship (East) in New Jersey -- not quite as impressive as last year's team, but not too shabby.

He didn't mention the names of the other team members, but if you know them leave a comment.

BCC Champ Rd. 9: MacIntyre-Riordan 0-1

Paul's sacrifices didn't work out and as a result Charles captured his piece of the Championship.

MacIntyre,P (2334) - Riordan,C (2330) [B87]
BCC Championship (9), 11.6.2006

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Be3 b5 8.Bb3 Bb7 9.0-0 Nbd7 10.f4 b4 11.Na4 Be7 12.f5 e5 13.Ne6 fxe6 14.fxe6 Nf8 15.Nc5 Bc6 16.Rxf6 Bxf6 17.Ba4 Qc7 18.Qd5 Rc8 19.Nxa6 Qb7 20.Nxb4 Qxb4 21.Bxc6+ Ke7 22.a3 Qxb2 23.Rd1 Qxa3 24.Rd3 Qb4 25.c3 Qb8 26.c4 Nxe6 27.c5 Rxc6 28.Qxc6 Qb1+ 29.Kf2 Qxd3 30.Qb7+ Ke8 0-1

BCC Champ Rd. 8: Williams-MacIntyre 1/2

Black equalizes easily in an Open Ruy Lopez and the players agree to a quick truce.

Williams,C (2186) - MacIntyre,P (2334) [C80]
BCC Championship (8), 10.30.2006

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.Nbd2 Be7 10.c3 Qd7 11.Nxe4 dxe4 12.Bxe6 Qxe6 13.Nd4 Qd5 14.Nxc6 Qxc6 15.Qg4 0-0 16.Re1 Rad8 17.Be3 f5 18.exf6 ½-½

BCC Champ Rd. 7: MacIntyre-Cherniack 1-0

Alex essays another obscure line in the French, 5...b6 vs. the Winawer. However, Paul is able to build up overwhelming force on the Kingside and then break through with 27.e6.

MacIntyre,P (2334) - Cherniack,A (2264) [C16]
BCC Championship (7), 2006.10.23

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 b6 5.a3 Bf8 6.g3 Ne7 7.Bh3 Ba6 8.Nce2 c5 9.c3 Qd7 10.Nf3 Nbc6 11.0-0 Ng6 12.Be3 Be7 13.Nd2 Na5 14.b4 Nc4 15.Nxc4 Bxc4 16.f4 cxd4 17.cxd4 0-0 18.f5 exf5 19.Bxf5 Qb5 20.Rf2 a5 21.bxa5 bxa5 22.h4 a4 23.h5 Nh8 24.Nf4 Bg5 25.Qg4 Bxf4 26.Bxf4 Ra6 27.e6 fxe6 28.Bxe6+ Rxe6 29.Qxe6+ Nf7 30.Re1 Qb7 31.Bd6 1-0

BCC Champ Rd. 6: Krasik-MacIntyre 1-0

Beats me what the idea behind 28...Rxc3 was, but Ilya convincingly refuted it.

Krasik,I (2202) - MacIntyre,P (2334) [E70]
BCC Championship (6), 16.09.2006

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 0-0 5.f3 c5 6.d5 e6 7.Nh3 a6 8.a4 d6 9.Nf2 exd5 10.cxd5 Nbd7 11.Be2 Rb8 12.0-0 Ne8 13.Be3 Nc7 14.Qd2 Re8 15.Rab1 b5 16.axb5 Nxb5 17.Nxb5 axb5 18.b4 c4 19.Ng4 Ra8 20.Bd4 Bxd4+ 21.Qxd4 h5 22.Nf2 Qb6 23.Qd2 Bb7 24.Kh1 Ra3 25.Nd1 Ne5 26.Nc3 Bc8 27.f4 Nd7 28.f5 Rxc3 29.Qxc3 Rxe4 30.fxg6 fxg6 31.Qc2 1-0

Boylston invades New Jersey...

... and emerges victorious.

This year's Amateur Team East tournament was won by the team of Boylston players Charles Riordan, Alex Cherniack, Lawyer Times, and Charlie Mays. Moreover, Boylston's fearless leader Paul MacIntyre held U.S. Champ Hikaru Nakamura to a draw with black in an impressive game. Other notable results included Cherniack's prize for the best overall score on board 2 (5.5 from 6) and Ilya Krasik's perfect 6-0 score playing as his team's third board.

The victorious Boylston Chess Club Team (on right)

Photo: Globular

(The Amateur Team East is an annual event held in Parsippany, New Jersey. Teams of four players are formed with a mean rating cutoff of 2200. This year's event featured 276 teams.)