Boston Blitz take on Philly this Wednesday

Here is the matchup for the Boston Blitz this week.

Boston Blitz ------------------- Philadelphia Inventors
GM Larry Christiansen: 2665------------- GM Magesh Panchanathan: 2535
GM Eugene Perelshteyn: 2568------------- IM Bryan Smith: 2572
SM Denys Shmelov: 2471 ------------- FM Tom Bartell: 2429
Grant Xu: 2061 ------------- Kavinayan Sivakumar: 2108
Avg Rating: 2441 ------------- Avg Rating: 2411

Given my prognostication power is now stretched to covering two area teams, I'm afraid that this week I've had to take some other people's predictions from the past, mash them all up, and hope for the best. Given that plagiarism from the Internet is rampant these days, I figure I'm part of a fast growing tradition of student cheats. At least I am citing my cheating, and I note any changes I make.

Board 1

From the Chess Drum:


Panchanathan, who is a student at the University of Texas-Dallas [on the Inventors], got a lot of encouragement from the Indian players who traveled 24 hours to compete in the tournament [watch]. The 21-year old IM becomes the 12th Grandmaster in the history of India .

The 20-year old Miton defeated GMs Leonid Yudasin, Gennadi Zaitshik, Joel Benjamin, Ildar Ibragimov and Julio Becerra and scored six wins for an undefeated score. Panchanathan loss only to GM Larry Christiansen while also scoring a tournament high of seven wins!


Board 2

From the New York Times, 2007-- "On Wednesday, the Blitz beat the Philadelphia Inventors. A critical game was the victory of Jorge Sammour-Hasbun [Eugene Perelshteyn] of the Blitz over Bryan Smith, an international master.

The opening was a Sicilian Dragon, which is double-edged because players usually castle on opposite sides of the board and attack each other’s kings. After 12 Bh6, it would have risky for Black to castle, so he did not."

Board 3
From the Boston Globe, 2009
"The prestigious Blitz team of Larry Christiansen, Jorge Sammour-Hasbun [Denys Shmelov], Vadim Martirosov, and Ilya Krasik got blanked by a 4-0 score. The Dallas [New York] team achieved this result with all [some] of its players 21 years or under. This is the Destiny’s [Knight's] only win this year."

"Dazed by its loss, the Blitz nevertheless recovered the following week with a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Inventors. This match was highlighted by an outstanding game by Marc Esserman [Denys Shmelov] vs. Tom Bartell, which won the prize for USCL’s Game of the Week."

Board 4
From the Telegram and Gazette, 2009:

"Brothers Grant Xu, 11, and Albert Yiming Xu [Kavinayan Sivakumar], took their seats at their respective chess tables and set their clocks. Their opponents did the same. Several minutes passed. Grant and Albert [Kavinayan] sat in deep concentration before finally moving: Checkmate. Grant Wins The River War: 1863. "

If the Google search-history is any guide, the Blitz are in for a 4-0 sweep of the Inventors. Amazing. (Even I'm a little freaked out by the blunt accuracy of the Board 3 quote).

And now a gratutious photo of the Xu brothers to seal up the blogging award: