Can a game that didn't count be Game of the Year?

In a rather surprising decision, New York Knights IM Jay Bonin's win over NM Denys Shmelov of the Boston Blitz in the US Chess League Eastern Division Finals was selected as the 4th Wildcard entry into the Game of the Year selection process. The choice was made by Jonathan Hilton whose Game of the Week selections were often met with confusion during the regular season.

While I don't wish to diminish Bonin's effort, it is worth recalling that much of the game transpired after the Blitz had already clinched the match victory and Shmelov was forced to play out the ending with the rest of team and its fans celebrating around him. In addition, the original Rook and 3 pawns vs. Knight and Bishop ending was probably better for Denys. Kudos to Jay for outplaying his opponent, but hardly Game of the Year material in this observer's opinion.

Boston Blitz All-Stars

Unlike 2006, the Blitz were well represented in this year's US Chess League All-Star Team selections. Obviously playing well is important, but this year's difference seems to be the fact that most of their games were concentrated among four players.

Board 1: Larry Christiansen - 3rd Team

Board 2: Jorge Sammour-Hasbun - 1st Team

Board 3: Denys Shmelov - 2nd Team

Board 4: Chris Williams - 2nd Team

In addition, Sammour-Hasbun received Rookie of the Year honors.

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Due to the Boston Globe's standard chess article publishing delay, Harold Dondis' recap of the USCL finals finally came out today.

Chess Notes
By Harold Dondis and Patrick Wolff
Globe Correspondents

The US Chess League came to a climax in one event-filled evening that lasted until 2:30 in the morning. Dallas Destiny defeated the Boston Blitz in what must be called a most surprising finish. The two teams were matched in the first play-off as follows:

First board (Blitz v. Destiny): Larry Christiansen v. Drasko Boskovic; second board: Jorge Sammour-Hasbun v. Davorin Kuljasevic; third board: Denys Shmelov v. Jacek Stopa; fourth board: Chris Williams v. Bayaraa Zorigt. Christiansen, as Black, drew early when his opponent elected to play a repetition of moves. Sammour-Hasbun came up with a victory and Denys Shmelov drew against Stopa. Williams had the better position against Zorigt, but she gained material during time pressure, and the match was tied.

So the two teams went into the accelerated play-offs. The rules were that these would start with Board 4 and move to the top by elimination. A draw eliminated both players until only one player was left on a team. Boston Blitz seemed impregnable, with ICC champion Sammour-Hasbun and former US champion Christiansen on first board. Williams started off by avenging his defeat by Zorigt, but was eliminated by Stopa, who turned out to be a spoiler in the match. Stopa defeated Shmelov and then drew with Sammour-Hasbun, thus striking three Blitz players off the list. Christiansen was left alone to face Dallas' first two boards. Christiansen drew with Kuljasevic and then defeated him. He then moved on to Boskovic, but erred in the end game and Boskovic won. Thus did Dallas end Boston's long list of victories and became US Chess League champion. A remarkable win....

Blitz almost lose, almost win, and finally lose

Cancel the plans for the rolling rally. Don't bother waiting for another Chris Williams Riverdance. And forget about a celebratory Championship video (which probably isn't a bad thing, since several Championship spectators expressed their displeasure with the Eastern Division Championship version). They're holding the parties at UTD, while Bostonians are left to contemplate the reality that a single blitz game shattered their US Chess League Championship dreams.

The storyline is fairly well known by now. The Blitz appeared well on their way to defeat after GM Christiansen could achieve no more than a draw by repetition against Boskovic on Board 1 and things looked dire for the good guys on all three remaining boards. Sammour-Hasbun was fighting an uphill battle after Kuljasevic sacrificed a piece in a French Tarrasch; Shmelov's promising position had given away to a strong attack by Stopa against his King; and William's opponent, Zorigt, had secured an advanced passed pawn and nice piece outposts for the exchange.

However, it wasn't that long before the tables had turned completely. First, Shmelov managed to find a nifty resource to secure a drawn position. Next, Jorge finally coordinated his pieces, broke through and traded off to a won two pieces vs. a rook ending. Suddenly, the Blitz were just a draw away from the title and fortuitously, Williams' game had suddenly become eminently drawable. Yet it was not to be, as Chris blundered away his chances and allowed the Destiny to the tie match.

So, off they went to blitz tiebreaks. While there are certainly many paragraphs that could be written about the tiebreak games, in my view the USCL tiebreak system makes only the top board matchup relevant, by design....

I suppose an aside to explain this view is warranted, since I'm sure some will disagree with my supposition. While it is theoretically possible that a team's 1st board might be defeated by the 2nd or 3rd board of the other team, I suspect the actually probability of this is fairly low. Therefore, more often than not, it doesn't really matter what happens in the preliminary blitz games because eventually the 1st boards will face each other for the title. So far, this is how things have played out the two times tiebreaks have been used. It's only a guess on my part, but I'd bet that over the next several decades, this will be the case more than 9 out of ten times (we should only be lucky enough that the USCL shows enough longevity to generate such a large sample).

....In the game that mattered, GM Christiansen eschewed a draw and played on seeking winning chances. Instead, it was Larry who made the critical blunder and a minute later Boston's season was over. Some might claim that Christiansen's loss was attributable to the fact that he had to play three blitz games as opposed to his opponent's one. I find this highly unlikely. Larry may very well have been tired, but only because it was 2:00 am, not because he had to play an extra 30 minutes of chess.

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You can find analysis of key positions from the match at Braden's blog and Arun offers his overall impressions. I thought I might try to get inside the heads the combatants themselves. While everything that follows is conjecture and speculation, there are two key moments which I'd like to explore.

First, why did Williams throw away his rook with 50.Rxf7? It doesn't take a master to see that there was no winning follow up to this sacrifice and Chris is more than strong enough to have realized this. Instead, I think he thought he had found a quick way to draw the game, only to realize after the sacrifice that his key move wasn't possible.

NM Williams - WFM Zorigt

After 49.Qd3

When he played 49.Qd3, not only was he offering to trade queens, but he also had setup the variation 50.Rxf7 Rxf7 51.f6+ Kg8 52.Qd8+ Kh7 (if Rf8 then 53. f7+) 53.Qd3+ with perpetual check. However, only after he sacrificed the rook did he realize that Black's 49th move, Qxa5, covered the d8 square. There was no check and no perpetual. Time pressure certainly played a role, but I think impatience was a factor also. Chris was looking for a quick way to bring the game to a close since the alternative was likely returning the exchange for the pawn on d2 and playing on for awhile to draw a slightly inferior but eminently drawable endgame.

Second, I've been pondering why Larry decided to risk it all in a totally equal position in the last blitz game when he could have simply taken a draw and tried for more in the next one. There are certainly plausible explanations like it was late and he just wanted to get things over with, or he thought he could outplay Boskovic in the ending, or he didn't think his chances of winning with Black in the next game were particularly high. While one or more of these may very well have been a factor, I think an off-board occurrence may well have influenced the final outcome the match.

GM Christiansen-IM Boskovic
after 31...Rd7

Larry certainly could have
considered taking a draw here

You may recall that there was an extra long delay before the last blitz game commenced. My understanding is that this was due to the fact that the UTD Student Center, where Dallas was playing, was being shut down for the night and the team needed to move to another location. While there had been no internet connection problems throughout the long match, there was one after Dallas moved to the new location, right in the middle of the final blitz game. Why did this matter? Because early on in the game, Larry had been using much more time than his opponent. At the time of the disconnection, he had only about two minutes left to his opponent's three and a half or so. I contend that if that deficit had remained the same, Larry would likely have acquiesced to a draw later on and played another game. Instead, because of the disconnection, he was given an extra 2 minutes. As a result, at the key moment (when he had to decide whether to take a draw or risk going for a win) he had a time advantage and this may very well have influenced his decision to play on. Maybe UTD Security should be given an assist for their role in securing Dallas' victory?

All speculation as I said before, but perhaps the players in question will shed some light on what was actually going through their minds.

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I suppose my comments above on the tiebreak system might be viewed as a critique. While I actually don't mind the current system and found watching the tiebreaks to be very exciting, I do think there is at least one viable alternative which, among other things, would probably take less time. What about just switching colors and having the same players play each other again (1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, etc.) at a time control of G/10? If the match draws again, switch colors again and repeat at G/5. Keep going until one team wins. I think this makes sense and would likely take far fewer rounds.

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So that's it for the 2007 season, except for post season awards and the USCL hot stove season. Dallas and Boston both had great seasons and played an exciting Championship match. The league itself also continued to make major strides forward and the USCL blogosphere had some significant growth as well. Where's it all going to be years from now? Beats me, but it's a good bet that things will be bigger and better in 2008.

BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

From the Boston Blitz bulletin board

Elizabeth Vicary has done a nice job this week getting members of the Dallas Destiny to talk unguardedly about their opponents in tonight's US Chess League Championship match.

Dallas 3rd board IM Jacek Stopa on Ilya Krasik:

I have never heard of that guy. Frankly, I don’t really care about random people expressing their ridiculous opinions. I’m ok with whatever leaves that gentleman’s mouth.

Dallas 1st board IM Draks Boskovic on Ilya Krasik:

Well, I don’t really know who this person is (Ilya Krasik).... If four players like Ilya Krasik played against Dallas, they wouldn’t score more than ½ point. hahaha.

After slights like these, we can expect to see an extra special effort from Boston's head cheerleader tonight. No doubt he's warming up the Championship pom-poms as we speak.

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I'd also like to thank Elizabeth for eliciting some positive press for BCC Weblog with her question about "top five chess-related websites."

Boston Blitz 1st board GM Larry Christiansen:

TWIC, Chesslab. Chessgames.com, ICC, Chessbase and BoylstonCC I get recent games, news, and local color. Chesslab is easy to use, TWIC has great timely info, Chessbase has it all and the Boylston blog keeps me informed on local issues. ICC is simply the best site out there.

USCL Commissioner IM Greg Shahade:

Hmmm, uschessleague.com, uschess.org (at least before they did the terrible makeover), lizzyknowsall.blogspot.com, boston-blitz.com, boylstonblog.blogspot.com (probably got the url wrong, but you know what I mean)

Let's hope Greg has us bookmarked since that url isn't going to help him find his way here.

BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

USCL Finals Set

We now have answers to some of our questions about the US Chess League Championship match:

Who will the Blitz be playing? The Dallas Destiny

When will it be? Wednesday, November 28th at 8:00 pm EST

How much will Blitz management be charging for those Harvard Astrophysics Center luxury box seats? We still haven't heard, but I bet there will be tickets available "for sale" at the door.

**********

With seven of the eight players the same as in their team's previous playoff round, it's difficult to find any intrigue in the line-up decisions. Nevertheless, those stretching for a story might note that Boston could have put GM Perelshteyn on Board 2 without changing the rest of the lineup. While this would have increased the Blitz's rating advantage, I doubt anyone seriously contemplated sitting Jorge and his 2800+ USCL performance rating.

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Here are the matchups (Boston has White on Boards 2 & 4):

GM Larry Christiansen: 2663 vs. IM Drasko Boskovic: 2532
SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun: 2558 vs. IM Davorin Kuljasevic: 2489
NM Denys Shmelov: 2251 vs. IM Jacek Stopa: 2414
NM Chris Williams: 2175 vs. WFM Bayaraa Zorigt: 2196

Although the average ratings of the two teams are close (Boston - 2412, Dallas - 2408), the Blitz probably have an edge on the top two boards, and possibly on Board 4 as well. In addition, with a GM up top, you have to like Boston's chances if the match goes to tiebreaks.

BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

Ding! Dong!

Once the winds stopped swirling, all could see that Jorge's house had come crashing down upon the Canadian menace. Pascal was dead. Pascal was dead! After three years of tyranny, his reign of terror upon Blitzville had ended and Blitzkins everywhere piled into the streets and celebrated long into the night.

**********

The game was a classic example of what Blitz fans had been seeing from Sammour-Hasbun all throughout the US Chess League regular season -- time pressure, complications, and an ability to outplay his opponent from a potentially inferior position when everything was on the line. Sixteen moves in, Jorge was already under ten minutes. Each time Pascal closed the gap by contemplating his move for an extended period, Jorge expanded his time disadvantage on the next several moves. It was as if Jorge was luring Pascal into a time scramble. "Come play my kind chess," he must have been thinking. And once both reached single digits on the clock, it was Jorge who found the necessary moves and Pascal who made the catastrophic blunder.

Others have pointed out Charbonneau's error and an improvement that he didn't find until the game was long over (check out posts by Adamson, Bournival and Hoffman). Instead, I'd like to look at something different -- the position after Pascal's 15th move.

SM Sammour-Hasbun - GM Charbonneau

After 15...f5

I don't know how many club players, like myself, would have looked past 16.Qxg7. It restores the material balance and looks potentially threatening in conjunction with a bishop check on h5. Yet, it turns out to be inferior to Jorge's move 16.c4. After 16.Qxg7 Qf6 17.Qxf6 Rxf6 18.c4 bxc3 19.bxc3 Black's superior minor pieces must confer him some advantage. Instead, Jorge realized that he had better long-term prospects on the Queenside by eschewing the g7-pawn. It is critical moments like these that highlight the chasm in understanding between the likes of Jorge and the rest of us.

**********

Question: When is having a 2700 player on your team, not like having a 2700 player on your team?

Answer: When he doesn't take the team or the league seriously.

What other conclusion can be drawn from these remarkable comments that GM Nakamura made on the ICC after he drew his game with GM Christiansen:

"This isn't a real tournament"
"I'm not going to waste any of my d4 prep on this"

Now to be fair to Hikaru, even if he is being paid to play in the USCL (and I don't know that he is), it is a small pittance at best. As a world class player, it pales in comparison to the potential rewards of winning a critical game at a major international tournament or a big money swiss. Therefore, from a perspective of self interest, you can't really blame him for his attitude.

However, this raises serious concerns for the growth and development of the league. Surely the popularity of the USCL depends on recruiting the best players to play. Yet, how can fans and, more importantly, sponsors be expected to take the league seriously if the top players don't?

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The Board 4 encounter between Williams and Zenyuk did turn out to be critical to the outcome of the match. However, it is not a game that will be enshrined in the USCL Hall of Fame. Even though I don't know a heck of a lot about the King's Indian, I immediately recognized that 7.Bd2 was, to be kind, somewhat unusual. And 14.Kf1 was, shall we say, not exactly classical. On the other hand, perhaps this was Chris' strategy all along since Iryna responded with two inferior moves in row (14...Bf5 and 15...Qd7) which left her with a lost position.

Braden Bournival rightly points out that William's technique in closing out the game was less than precise. While watching on the ICC, I don't know how many times I asked myself, "Why doesn't he just take the pawn on d6?" or ...

NM Williams - WFM Zenyuk

After 37...h6

... "what's wrong with 38.Ne6?"

Of course, Chris never put the full point at risk and did eventually close out the game and the match for Boston.

**********

There's not much point in spending a lot of time on a game which didn't play a role in the final result, though I suppose it's worth noting that NM Shmelov suffered his first loss of season. I'm sure he'll be studying up on how not to lose better endgames prior to the Championship match.

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Did I forget to mention that the Blitz defeated the New York Knights 2.5-1.5 to advance to the US Chess League finals? Ah yes, the USCL Championship match...

Who will they be playing? We're not sure yet.

When will it be? According to a note on the USCL homepage, there seems to be some uncertainty about that too.

Most importantly, how much will Blitz management be charging for those Harvard Astrophysics Center luxury box seats?

BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

Charbonneau goes down!

Blitz are through to the US Chess League finals ... more later.

Consistency is...

I always get nervous about group think. Nevertheless, here is a round up of the USCL prognosticators' predictions for tonight's Boston Blitz-New York Knights playoff match.

• JG: 2-2 (Boston advances)
  
  
• Ron Young: 2-2 (Boston advances)
  
  
• Arun Sharma: 2-2 (Boston advances)
  

More Globe coverage of the Boston Blitz

The Boston Blitz were again a topic of the Boston Globe's Chess Notes column (on Monday, November 12th). BCC Weblog received a mention as well. The article covers the regular season and was obviously submitted prior to the first round of the playoffs.

Chess Notes
By Harold Dondis and Patrick Wolff
Globe Correspondents

Chess has its heroes but they cannot parade through the streets of Boston to the acclaim of thousands. The Boston Blitz chess team does not claim to be a nation, like the Red Sox, but it has clinched the Eastern Division of the US Chess League. The Blitz does not have a Jonathan Papelbon to whiff ninth-inning batters and do a folk dance before a full stadium of fans. It doesn't have a Jacoby Gazellesbury to steal a base and win free Tacos for every person in the nation. However, it has its heroes who toil at the chessboard and come up with victories in live games on the Internet in front of a worldwide audience. Larry Christiansen and [Jorge] Sammour-Hasbun have nearly always held Board 1, facing the likes of Hikaru Nakamura and Alex Stripunsky, with no losses and with plus scores. Eugene Perelshteyn and Bill Kelleher have generally bulwarked second place, Denys Shmelov is Boston's third-place guy with no losses and a plus score. Fourth Board has been defended by Ilya Krasik and Chris Williams (who has a plus score).

Recall that the Boston Blitz won its Division last year but succumbed to New York in the playoffs. This year, New York has again qualified as a wild card. Jay Bonin came through with a critical win against the New Jersey Knockouts in the last round.

The schedule appears to be that the Philadelphia Inventors will play the New York Knights in Round 1. The winner will then face the Boston Blitz. In the West, the San Francisco Mechanics will play the Miami Sharks for the right to play the Dallas Destiny team. The winners of the two divisions will then face each other for the finals. [DG] in his Boylston Chess Blog has used a computer calculation to predict the winners, and he has [the] Boston Blitz on top, but like the computer printouts for global warming, we must wait and see actual results....

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Board 4 matchup between the Knight's Iryna Zenyuk and the Blitz's Chris Williams could be the critical one tomorrow night. At USCL news & gossip, Liz Vicary got the two combatants to comment about each other.

Zenyuk on Williams:

I think Chris is very dangerous opponent. Looking at his games I see great determination from his side, he is an aggressive player, calculates very well, he is not afraid to go into sharp, double-edged play where the price of tempo can cost you a point. The first game we played was very sharp, at some point I thought I lost the thread of a game, after 21.Nd6 I thought I was just worse, my attack didn’t work and my king was bad. Then, after 21…Nb6 I found nice rook maneuver, of course giving up his bishop was a mistake but we were both in time pressure, so it was hard to find the best moves. I hope for a hard fought game on Wednesday! And btw the song about Chris is great!

Williams on Zenyuk:

Well in our last game I really just messed up at the end, I didn’t play my fav move of all time quite possibly, I had my mouse about to release it instead I like just gave her a bishop and was lost the move was Qe6 sacking the queen for 2 pieces some pawns and tremendous dirty potential specially with her time situation. Iryna is a very strong player shes original, solid, and methodical, my game with her will be a hard one im sure I just hope I will be able to keep a consistent mind set throught the entire game.

Apparently, punctuation is a lost art.

BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

It's the Knights!

New York made it look easy, crushing Philadelphia 3.5-0.5 in Round 1 of the US Chess League playoffs. As a result, Boston will get to face their biggest rival in a match to determine who will represent the Eastern Division in the Championship finals.

In case you missed last year's playoffs, the Knights defeated the heavily favored Blitz in the same round and dashed Boston's Championship hopes. In case you missed the last three years, New York's probable Board 2 is a Blitz killer, no matter who from Boston he faces across the board. One has to imagine that Blitz fans were looking forward to any opponent other than the Knights.

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Last year, a bit of controversy was created when then Knights' Manager Jen Shahade used a post here at BCC Weblog as bulletin board material to motivate her team for the playoff match with Boston. Well, that's not going to happen again this year. Why? Because...

The New York Knights are the best team in the US Chess League! The Knights are going to obliterate Boston! Start making plans for the Championship parade now!

Let's start at the top -- GM Nakamura, for the last month, he has only been the best chess player on the planet. Then on Board 2, it's the unbeatable Charbonnator. Boston could have both their GMs consult during the game and still they wouldn't be able to find a way to defeat him. We probably won't even see Irina Krush at the boards on Wednesday; but, if we do, remember that she was the key to last year's victory.

Down below, there's IM Bonin. Jay is an absolute legend. No, I take that back. He's a legend's legend. We don't know of such things up here in New England.* Finally, there's Iryna Zenyuk -- she's on fire (stay with me folks, we're talking chess playing here).

So New York fans, bask in the glory and await the inevitable destruction of the Blitz. Stop reading now and go pack your bags for a trip to the finals.

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Alright, now that they've all left, let's get serious...

Unlike last year's playoff match, there isn't a whole lot of intrigue about what lineups the teams are going to use. It's hard to imagine that Krush will put herself in and have to exclude either Nakamura or Charbonneau. And while Arnold could substitute for Bonin and Herman for Zenyuk, I just don't see it happening. Therefore, unless there are availability issues, the New York lineup will likely be:

Board 1 - GM Nakamura
Board 2 - GM Charbonneau
Board 3 - IM Bonin
Board 4 - WFM Zenyuk

For Boston, the only possible question is Board 2 -- go with the two GMs or use Sammour-Hasbun instead. I think the numbers make this an easy decision. Jorge has arguably been the best relative performer on the team all season, while Eugene has been the worst. Jorge hasn't lost a game, while Eugene hasn't won one. GM Perelshteyn has had two shots at Charbonneau over the past two years and he is 0-2. SM Sammour-Hasbun did face one GM this season (Nakamura!) and came away with half a point.

As for the other boards, I see no reasonable argument for going away from the ones that got you this far. Therefore, barring availability constraints, I expect Boston to lineup like this:

Board 1 - GM Christiansen
Board 2 - SM Sammour-Hasbun
Board 3 - NM Shmelov
Board 4 - NM Williams

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Let's take a look at the individual matchups.

Board 1 - It's hard not to give an edge to Nakamura, but LarryC has been unbeatable this season against a constant stream of GM competition, including Hikaru. I think Christiansen has a reasonable chance to hold the balance with Black.

Board 2 - Pascal gets the edge against any Blitz player until one of them beats him. However, don't be completely surprised if Jorge ends up being the hero of the night for Boston.

Board 3 - Shmelov has a psychological advantage going into this game. He and Bonin have faced each other twice this season, and Denys came away with a draw and a win.

Board 4 - Zenyuk defeated Williams with White earlier in the season, but in this game she'll have Black. This time you can expect Chris to play a move like 24...Qe6!?. Call me a homer if you wish, but I consider this game to be a push. However, a draw seems the least likely result. One of the two will probably score a (potentially decisive) full point.

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How do the Blitz advance to the Championship match?

In my view, this match revolves around Board 4. If Williams can score a full point, then the Blitz have several reasonably straightforward paths to 2 points even if Jorge fails to breakthrough against Charbonneau. Shmelov could defeat Bonin or he and Larry could both draw. However, if Zenyuk wins then Jorge is going to have to do something on Board 2. The most likely winning scenario for Boston in that case would be two draws up top and a win for Denys on Board 3 -- certainly a trickier proposition overall.

Of course, I suppose Iryna and Chris could have the last laugh by agreeing to a draw on move 10. Otherwise, fans should focus on Board 4 Wednesday night as it is likely to be the pivotal game of the match.

By the way, if you run into any Knights players or fans before then, don't tell them this ... I'm looking for the Blitz to advance 2-2. Shhhhh!!

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*Well, actually we do -- think John Curdo, for instance. There's no need to tell the New Yorkers, though.

BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

Rather than twiddling your thumbs

Here is some Boston Blitz performance data for the 2007 US Chess League regular season that you can review while waiting around to find out who the Blitz's opponent will be in the second round of the playoffs. Players are listed by the difference between their performance rating and actual rating (descending order). Actual ratings as listed in the USCL game files were used (not USCL lineup ratings listed in the rosters).

1. SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (2576)
   
   Wins-Losses-Draws: 4-0-1
   Average Opponent Rating: 2481
   Avg Opp Rating - Player's Rating: -95
   Performance Rating: 2801
   Perf Rating - Player's Rating: 225
   
   
2. NM Chris Williams (2241)
   
   Wins-Losses-Draws: 5-2-0
   Average Opponent Rating: 2216
   Avg Opp Rating - Player's Rating: -25
   Performance Rating: 2387
   Perf Rating - Player's Rating: 146
   
   
3. NM Denys Shmelov (2391)
   
   Wins-Losses-Draws: 4-0-5
   Average Opponent Rating: 2354
   Avg Opp Rating - Player's Rating: -37
   Performance Rating: 2532
   Perf Rating - Player's Rating: 141
   
   
4. GM Larry Christiansen (2669)
   
   Wins-Losses-Draws: 2-0-6
   Average Opponent Rating: 2642
   Avg Opp Rating - Player's Rating: -28
   Performance Rating: 2742
   Perf Rating - Player's Rating: 73
   
   
5. NM Vadim Martirosov (2264)
   
   Wins-Losses-Draws: 0-0-1
   Average Opponent Rating: 2291
   Avg Opp Rating - Player's Rating: 27
   Performance Rating: 2291
   Perf Rating - Player's Rating: 27
   
   
6. FM William Kelleher (2392)
   
   Wins-Losses-Draws: 0-2-1
   Average Opponent Rating: 2478
   Avg Opp Rating - Player's Rating: 86
   Performance Rating: 2211
   Perf Rating - Player's Rating: -181
   
   
7. Ilya Krasik (2137)
   
   Wins-Losses-Draws: 0-2-1
   Average Opponent Rating: 2214
   Avg Opp Rating - Player's Rating: 77
   Performance Rating: 1948
   Perf Rating - Player's Rating: -189
   
   
8. GM Eugene Perelshteyn (2615)
   
   Wins-Losses-Draws: 0-2-2
   Average Opponent Rating: 2520
   Avg Opp Rating - Player's Rating: -95
   Performance Rating: 2320
   Perf Rating - Player's Rating: -295
   

Here are a few interesting facts to ponder:

• Sammour-Hasbun, Shmelov and Christiansen didn't lose a game all season.
  
  
• Martirosov, Kelleher, Krasik and Perelshteyn didn't win one.
  
  
• Only Williams had both wins and losses, yet he had no draws.
  
  
• All eight Blitz losses came on Boards 2 and 4 (four each).

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In other Blitz news:

• Boston topped the final version of the second most famous USCL quantitative power rankings.
  
  
• Larry Christiansen took second in OrangeKing's MOP awards. Shmelov and Williams took the top two spots for Best NM.
  
  
• Arun Sharma gives the Blitz a 34% chance of winning the 2007 USCL Championship.

BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

Blitz finish season atop the USCL QPRs

The final Original US Chess League Quantitative Power Rankings for the 2007 regular season are out and there are a couple of surprises.

First, while 5 of the six playoff teams comprise the top 5 teams in rankings, the remaining playoff team -- Miami -- is ranked only 8th. Quite simply, the computer doesn't think much of the Sharks remarkable comeback over the past two weeks. Why? Well for one thing, Miami scored only 19 game points all season. This is less than Seattle and New Jersey and the same as Queens and Carolina, all teams that won't be playing in the post-season tournament. Next, the Sharks performance rating for the season (2364) is fourth worst in the league, ahead of only Carolina, Baltimore and Tennessee. Finally, Miami played the second weakest schedule of any team, based on opponent's cumulative record.

The other surprise is San Francisco edging Dallas for the number two spot despite coming in behind the Destiny in the Western Division standings. This is explained by several factors. First, while Dallas has one more match win, the two teams share the same number of game points. Next, the momentum indicator points towards the Mechanics who finished the season with two wins in a row. Last, while the Mechanics schedule strength was in the middle of the pack, the Destiny faced the weakest schedule of any team in the league.

It is interesting to compare the Dallas and San Francisco schedules. Excluding the two matches they played against each other, the teams shared the following opponents in common: 2 matches against Seattle, Tennessee, Carolina and Miami. Their unique matches were as follows:

• Dallas - Philadelphia, Queens, Tennessee
• San Francisco - Boston, New York, Carolina

It's not hard to see that the Destiny had an easier road in 2007.

If the playoffs follow the QPRs (which is very unlikely), then the East will follow form - Philadelphia will defeat New York in Round 1 and Boston will prevail in Round 2. In the West, after defeating Miami in Round 1, San Francisco will upset Dallas in Round 2. Finally, in a close match Boston will take the 2007 Championship.

Of course, no one is really interested in computer analysis, so let's have them play the matches instead.

Original US Chess League Quantitative Power Rankings v.2
After Week 10
Format - (Match Record, Scaled Score, Last Week's Rank)

1. Boston (7.0, .928, 2nd)
   
   
2. San Francisco (6.0, .870, 4th)
   
   
3. Dallas (7.0, .822, 1st)
   
   
4. Philadelphia (6.0, .729, 3rd)
   
   
5. New York (5.0, .622, 7th)
   
   
6. Queens (4.5, .611, 9th)
   
   
7. Seattle (4.5, .576, 5th)
   
   
8. Miami (5.0, .543, 10th)
   
   
9. New Jersey (4.5, .479, 6th)
   
   
10. Carolina (4.5, .445, 11th)
    
    
11. Baltimore (4.0, .413, 8th)
    
    
12. Tennessee (2.0, .074, 12th)

BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

Drawing up plans for the playoffs

It really has been a tale of two seasons for the Boston Blitz. After storming out of the gates with three straight wins, Boston has become the master of the drawn match ever since. Excluding a single win against San Francisco and their only loss of the season to New York (while using a lineup without GM Christiansen or Perelshteyn), the team has been stuck on 2-2 match scores.

Last week against the Queens Pioneers was no different, with the added symmetry of all four games ending in draws. The Blitz only had winning chances on Board 4 and it should have been enough. Ilya Krasik built up a winning position against Michael Thaler but missed several opportunities to cash in. Blitz beat reporter Mark LaRocca mentions a couple of missed wins by Krasik; here's another:

Krasik-Thaler

After 39...Kf6

Ilya chose to trade rooks with 40.Rxf7. While this wasn't a bad move, taking the bishop with 40.Rxc6+ would have been just devastating. After 40...Kxf5 41.Rd5+ Ke4 42.Rxb5, Black has no reasonable moves to stay in the game. Here are a few variations (with some help from Fritz):

42...Bc5 43.Rcxc5 Nxc5 44.Rxc5 +-

42...Nd4 43.Rxc4 +-

42...Bd2 43.f3+ Kd3 44.Rd5+ Ke2 45.Re6+ Kd1 46.Bxd2 Nxd2 47.Red6 +-

42...Be1 43.Re6+ Kd3 44.Rxe1 +-

The draw left Boston tied for first in the Eastern Division with the Philadelphia Inventors, making this week's matchup between the two teams a very meaningful one. However, in an interesting twist of fate, the team that has mastered the drawn match this season, finds itself in a position where it can "draw" itself all the way to the US Chess League Championship match. How so? Since Boston defeated is ahead of Philadelphia in game points earlier in the season, they need only a draw to secure 1st place in the Division and the first round playoff bye which comes with it. Then in the second round, they will have draw odds against their opponent, so two points will be enough to secure themselves a spot in the finals.

I suppose if this comes to pass, it will be safe to assume that the Blitz will draw the Championship match with the Western Division representative and go to tie breaks. Of course, the tie break games will be drawn, so eventually the league will use an Armageddon game to decide a winner (actually it doesn't really work with this way I'm not sure how the league plans to break a tie if last year's tie break model doesn't decide it, but bear with me for the sake of thematic continuity). Here the critical moment will be reached. One way or another, Boston must somehow get the Black pieces and then take home the crown by holding on for a draw!

**********

Looking at the lineups for this week, it seems quite likely that the Blitz will be able to secure at least a draw. In fact, I can't see one Board where the Inventors have a clear edge. The only real question seems to be whether Williams is ready to rebound from his back-to-back defeats in Weeks 7 and 8.

GM Larry Christiansen: 2663 vs. GM Sergey Kudrin: 2599
GM Eugene Perelshteyn: 2601 vs. IM Bryan Smith: 2446
NM Denys Shmelov: 2251 vs. IM Richard Costigan: 2287
NM Chris Williams: 2175 vs. NM Daniel Yeager: 2247

Boston gets the White pieces on Boards 1 & 3.

**********

Braden Bournival has a piece on why Shmelov should be considered the MVP of the Blitz. In it, he explores the "3-GM" lineup concept we mentioned back before the season started and makes what might be considered a roster strategy recommendation for the 2008 season (assuming Blitz manager Phelps can find next year's edition of Bennet Pellows).

BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

Decisions, Decisions

Let's see...

Live Blog the Blitz-Pioneers match
or
Watch Game 1 of the World Series

Watch Game 1 of the World Series
or
Live Blog the Blitz-Pioneers match

If I were you, I wouldn't bother stopping by here tonight for updates on the chess.

However, for those of you who root for Cleveland, New York, Los Angeles of Anaheim, Arizona, Chicago or Philadelphia, here are a few story lines to watch for on the ICC tonight:

1. Can the Blitz wrap up a playoff spot? - OrangeKing can take you through the specific details, but suffice it to say that this is almost certainly going to be the week that Boston punches its ticket. In fact, there are scenarios where the Blitz lose tonight and still clinch a playoff berth.
   
   
2. Where does the Division race stand? - Only a Boston win and a Philadelphia loss will wrap up the Eastern Division race. Therefore, it is very likely that next week's Blitz-Inventors match will be meaningful.
   
   
3. Welcome back, Mr. Perelshteyn - We haven't seen much of Eugene this season, but Manager Matt Phelps likes to trot out the two GM lineup when he really wants (needs?) to win. While SM Sammour-Hasbun has certainly established himself as a formidable Board 2 this season, it will be interesting to see what kind of form GM Perelshteyn is in as the post-season approaches.
   
   
4. Possible Board 4 controversy - Has Phelps lost faith in the bear or is he just giving NM Williams a week off after two straight losses? The usual "availability" excuse won't fly this time, since we know for a fact that Chris is available. In any case, it gives us another chance to see Ilya Krasik on Board 4, which is almost never boring.

BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

A Crumbling Foundation?

As goes the lower boards, so goes the Boston Blitz. At least, that's the way it seems these past couple of weeks. Earlier in the season when Boston was tearing through the league it most often seemed that excellent performances from Shmelov and Williams were the keys to victory. In fact, both were mentioned as 1st Team All Stars at the halfway point in the season. Against the New Jersey Knockouts last Wednesday night, just a half point on Boards 3 and 4 combined was not enough to push Boston over the top. Instead, the Blitz had to settle for a draw and must wait at least one more week to clinch a US Chess League playoff spot.

While one would hardly be justified in calling out Denys for his recent performances -- he's 1.5-0.5 over the past two weeks including a win over the New York Knights' IM Jay Bonin -- he did nonetheless have the best of it for awhile against NM Evan Ju before having to settle for a draw. So perhaps the bee just needs to sharpen up his stinger a bit.

On the other hand, the bear has clearly gone into hibernation. The previously awesome one, NM Williams, is now 0-2 in the last two weeks after losing with White to NM Victor Shen. Did you just ask, "Where's Ilya?"

According to Robby Adamson, "Chris Williams went berserk on board 4 and lost a position where it appeared he had all the chances." The Kenilworthian's Michael Goeller instead chose to focus on Shen's accomplishment:

The loss for New Jersey on Board 2 was fortunately balanced by a win on Board 4 by the young Victor Shen in a wild game where both sides created second Queens. Shen has struggled against his usually more mature opponents, but this game showed him at his best.

Speaking of Goeller, one of the good things about playing New Jersey is that Michael annotates all the Knockouts' games. Check out his notes on the match with the Blitz.

Enough dwelling on the negative... Boston maintains a half point lead over second place Philadelphia and are still odds on favorites to take the Eastern Division regular season crown. So, rather than looking at where Chris might have gone wrong, let's instead take a look at a couple of positions from Jorge's impressive win on Board 2. His game is a great case in point for why you shouldn't spend all your time studying openings. Although Jorge played a line that didn't offer much compensation for his sacrificed pawn, he subsequently outplayed his opponent once they were both on their own.

I particularly like this position with White's knights standing side by side and dominating the board. Nevertheless, I'm not sure I would have found Jorge's next move, 20.g4.

Sammour-Hasbun-IppolitoAfter 19...Kh7

This next position contains a nice, straightforward tactic which allowed White to win the exchange and eventually the game.

Sammour-Hasbun-IppolitoAfter 29...Rh7

Solution: 30.Qxh7+ Kxh7 31.Nf6+ forking the king and queen.

**********

With Boston only achieving a draw, Dallas' revenge win over Seattle has vaulted them into the top spot in the QPRs for the first time this season. As I anticipated last week, rankings in the middle of the pack remain quite volatile.

Original US Chess League Quantitative Power Rankings v.2
After Week 8
Format - (Match Record, Scaled Score, Last Week's Rank)

1. Dallas (6.0, .824, 2nd)
   
   
2. Boston (5.5, .817, 1st)
   
   
3. Seattle (4.5, .714, 3rd) - Despite losing to the Destiny, the Sluggers edge in game score, performance rating and strength of schedule kept them percentage points ahead of the Inventors.
   
   
4. Philadelphia (5.0, .700, 4th)
   
   
5. San Francisco (4.0, .622, 7th) - The Mechanics lead the other 4.0 teams based on a much higher game score.
   
   
6. New York (4.0, .612, 5th)
   
   
7. New Jersey (4.0, .455, 10th)
   
   
8. Queens (3.0, .437, 9th) - Surprisingly, the Pioneers rank ahead of both 3.5 teams due to strength of schedule and a higher momentum indicator.
   
   
9. Baltimore (3.5, .409, 6th)
   
   
10. Carolina (3.5, .393, 8th)
    
    
11. Miami (3.0, .300, 11th)
    
    
12. Tennessee (2.0, .083, 12th)

BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

Rewriting History

The Blitz received a paragraph in this morning's Chess Notes column in The Boston Globe:

On the "grown-up" front, New England also has a leading combination in the Boston Blitz team in the US Chess League. As of late last week, Boston Blitz was leading the Eastern division by one match, warding off the Baltimore Kingfishers by one point. The game of the week was that of two ex-US champions: Larry Christiansen against our own Patrick Wolff, who is playing first board for the San Francisco Internet team. Christiansen won. San Francisco nevertheless won the match. Boston Blitz draws on a reservoir of strong players, especially Christiansen, Grandmaster Eugene Perlshtyn [sic], and Jorge Samour-Hasbun [sic], the Internet Chess Club blitz champion. The team is rounded out by Bill Kelleher, Denys Shmelov, Vadim Martirosov, Chris Williams, and Ilya Krasik. There are four more weeks to go and then hopefully the playoffs.

The Chess Notes column goes under the by-line of Harold Dondis and Patrick Wolff, though it is generally understood that Harold writes the articles and Patrick annotates the games. In this case, we can only assume that Wolff's wishful thinking led to the error regarding the outcome the Blitz-Mechanics match.

**********

After a one week hiatus, the Blitz have again brought out a big guns lineup for this week's match with New Jersey. Of course the Knockouts have a competitive lineup as well.

GM Larry Christiansen: 2663 vs. GM Joel Benjamin: 2653
SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun: 2558 vs. IM Dean Ippolito: 2447
NM Denys Shmelov: 2251 vs. NM Evan Ju: 2268
NM Chris Williams: 2175 vs. NM Victor Shen: 2218

Boston has a slight average rating advantage (2412 to 2397) and gets White on Boards 2 and 4. While Arun Sharma is going to predict a relatively easy 3-1 win for the Blitz (unless he changes his mind before he publishes his draft post), I wouldn't be surprised if New Jersey puts up a tough fight since their playoff hopes are on the line.

BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

Surprising Match, Unsurprising Result

Despite Boston Blitz Manager Matt Phelps claims to the contrary, it's hard to believe that he was comfortable sending out a GM-less team with a 100-point average rating deficit to face Eastern Division rival New York in last Wednesday's US Chess League action. Of course, if it is true that neither GM Christiansen nor Perelshteyn were available (and there is no reason to think otherwise), then he didn't really have much choice. Yet, the match almost broke in a way which would have left Phelps lauded as a lineup genius, prophet, or just a really lucky guy.

If you knew upfront that Nakamura would do no better than a draw on Board 1 and that Shmelov would defeat Bonin on Board 3, wouldn't you have to conclude that the Blitz ran little risk of losing the match? After all, Williams is a 2300+ player disguised behind an expert's rating and he's been tearing up 4th Board opponents all season. Surely, he wasn't going to maintain a perfect record forever, but there was no reason to think that he would lose this game against the Knights.

Alas, Chris simply wasn't quite as awesome as usual (see Braden Bournival's possible explanations why). Let's take a look at where he fell down.

Zenyuk-Williams

After 20.Nf5

Here Chris opted to kick the knight and blunt White's g-file pressure with 20...g6. However, Fritz thinks he might have done better to start attacking on the queenside immediately with 20...b5. After 21.Bb3 Ra7(!) 22.Qd3 Rc7+ 23.Kb1 b4, Black looks to be making some headway against White's King.

Zenyuk-Williams

After 24.Rg5

In this critical position Black blundered with 24...Bxb2+? 25.Kxb2 Bf5, missing 24...Bf5! immediately (as pointed out by Greg Shahade in the Game of the Week post). After 24...Bf5, the computer suggests the following continuation -- 25.Rxf5 Qe7 26.Kb1 Rfc8 27.Qd1 Nc4 -/+.

I have just a few comments on the other games:

• Jorge's performance on Board 1 has to be comforting for Blitz fans. It seems easy to conclude that whether he or Perelshteyn sits down at Board 2 during the playoffs, Boston will be playing with a two GM lineup.
  
  As for Nakamura, the highest rated player in the league remains winless in league play. I can't imagine that when he was recruited to play for New York, Knight's management was looking for someone who would get more press for his prognostication skills (not that guaranteeing a win when your team has a 100-point rating advantage takes all that much skill) than for his results at the board.
  
  
• I don't think Kelleher should even be credited with the loss against Charbonneau. After what Pascal has done to Boston's GMs, how was it even fair to throw Bill into the ring with him? Instead, I'd give the zero to Phelps; in baseball, they'd call it an intentional walk.
  
  
• I'd appreciate a master's perspective on the Shmelov-Bonin game. It seemed to me that after the Queens came off, Denys had a nice initiative in the double Rook ending. But I'd be interested to learn whether the win ultimately flowed from the the successful prosecution of that advantage or whether Bonin subsequently blundered away a drawn position.

**********

Either very few people read FM Ron Young's USCL Predictions or the political correctness police have gone on vacation.

I always thought I was playing it close to the edge when I referred to one of the 2400 average rating exceptions as "10 points for girls." But if that's true, then Ron went right over the cliff with his description of the same in his Week 7 predictions post (see Seattle vs. Dallas).

**********

Boston and Dallas continue to hold the top spots in the QPRs despite losing their matches last week. However, Seattle finds itself in a virtual dead heat for 2nd. The Blitz retain the number 1 position with the highest game score and performance rating in the league.

The teams ranked 5 through 10 seem fairly interchangeable and are all fighting for the last playoff positions. It wouldn't be surprising to see significant variability in the rankings of these teams over the next couple of weeks. For now, New York holds the highest spot in this group due to momentum (they are 2-0 in the last two weeks) and strength of schedule (to date they have faced the toughest schedule in the league). On the other hand, New Jersey finds itself in 10th largely because it has faced the easiest schedule so far.

Original US Chess League Quantitative Power Rankings v.2
After Week 7
Format - (Match Record, Scaled Score, Last Week's Rank)

1. Boston (5.0, .882, 1st)
   
   
2. Dallas (5.0, .797, 2nd)
   
   
3. Seattle (4.5, .794, 3rd)
   
   
4. Philadelphia (4.0, .610, 8th)
   
   
5. New York (3.0, .571, 9th)
   
   
6. Baltimore (3.5, .537, 5th)
   
   
7. San Francisco (3.0, .527, 4th)
   
   
8. Carolina (3.5, .524, 7th)
   
   
9. Queens (3.0, .520, 10th)
   
   
10. New Jersey (3.5, .507, 6th)
    
    
11. Miami (2.5, .371, 11th)
    
    
12. Tennessee (1.5, .109, 12th)

BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

Kill 'em with a smile

One week I compliment the team for their heightened sense of competitive professionalism, and the next they choose to eschew a lineup advantage in order to compete for the US Chess League's 2007 Miss Congeniality Award.

Boston Blitz webmaster Chris Bird explains:

The [Blitz-Mechanics match] this week was originally scheduled for Monday but was moved to Wednesday at the request of the San Francisco team, primarily due to various of their team members playing in the Miami Open Tournament this past weekend. To show sportsmanship (something that some teams in the league feel the Blitz don't do), and in the interest of fair play, the Boston Blitz agreed to this request, despite two of their top players, GM Eugene Perelshteyn and Jorge Sammour-Hasbun [being] unavailable on the rearranged day.

Fair play? This gesture went well beyond fair play. The Blitz agreed to diminish the strength of their lineup in order to enable their opponent to strengthen theirs. Just imagine what fans would be saying if Boston had lost the match.

But, of course, they didn't lose. Instead, the Blitz defeated last year's Champions 2.5-1.5 and will now be known around the league as the friendly, caring team that still beats you to a pulp. Are they lucky, or are they really this good? I'd just as soon play it safe. So, if during the playoffs, one of their opponents asks for a similar favor, I'd suggest that Manager Matt Phelps ask himself one simple question, "What would Bill Belichick do under similar circumstances?"

Given the disadvantage on Board 2, which they accepted in agreeing to make the schedule change, Boston won the match the way they had to -- at the corners. On Board 4, San Francisco learned the age old lesson that you can't send out a boy to take on a bear. If you are interested, IM Bhat will explain how Gregory had the better of it out of the opening and how he would have had an advantage if only this and if only that ... "If only NM Chris Williams hadn't mated him!", seems the appropriate retort. This position belongs in the next version of CT-Art:

Young-Williams after 17.Nxe6

17...Ng3+!! is a winner

What can I say about GM Christiansen's performance on Board 1? Every week he just keeps playing these startling moves that aren't anywhere close to my candidate list while I'm watching the game. In past matches it has been those pesky pawn moves -- f5 and e3 come to mind. Against GM Wolff, Larry snapped the leg irons shut with Nd5:

Christiansen-Wolff after 27.Nd5!

Even after the move was on the board, it still took me awhile to see the underlying idea (of course, this says more about my lack of tactical vision than anything else). After this shot, things went rapidly downhill for Patrick, though it was still quite instructive watching how efficiently Larry put the game away.

IM Bhat got the best of FM Kelleher on Board 2, but rather than comment on the game, I'll direct you instead to Braden Bournival's excellent annotations. The final nail in the Mechanics' coffin came on Board 3 where, try as he might, IM Donaldson couldn't breakthrough against NM Shmelov and eventually had to acquiesce to a draw.

By the way, I understand that the Blitz will be sending lovely bouquets to each of their opponents prior to this week's match. Maybe you've heard -- they're known to be friendly and caring like that.

**********

It seems as though everyone is talking about the Boston Blitz...

• Unsurprisingly, GM Christiansen's win over GM Wolff was awarded Game of the Week honors, while NM Williams' game placed 5th.
  
  
• OrangeKing's latest MOP standings have Christiansen in 2nd place and Sammour-Hasbun in 7th. Meanwhile, the league's MVP rankings have four Blitz players in the top 10.
  
  
• NM Sharma has the Bee and the Bear (Shmelov and Williams) on the 1st team of his Mid-Season All Stars, and Christiansen and Sammour-Hasbun on the 2nd.

...which might go a long way to explaining the angst that BlueEyedRook is currently feeling. Of course, Boston doesn't really need any help from Hades; they have Ilya Krasik, after all.

**********

In another sign of remarkable kindness, Boston Manager Matt Phelps has pretty much handed this week's match to New York with a particularly weak lineup. Of course, Phelps will blame it on availability, but if former Sluggers' Manager Clint Ballard were still around I'm sure he'd be wondering what the commissioner used as leverage to force more parity into the Eastern Division playoff race.

Here are the lineups (the Blitz have White on Boards 1 & 3):

SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun: 2558 vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura: 2709
FM William Kelleher: 2383 vs. GM Pascal Charbonneau: 2532
NM Denys Shmelov: 2251 vs. IM Jay Bonin: 2340
NM Chris Williams: 2175 vs. WFM Irina Zenyuk: 2173

The Knights take an almost 100-point average rating advantage into the match, though I don't necessarily see a rout. Williams should be just fine on Board 4 and Shmelov did manage to draw Bonin from an inferior position earlier in the season. Nobody from the Blitz defeats Charbonneau, so expectations for Kelleher will be extremely low. For Boston, it will come down to whether Jorge can replicate his GM killing ways from the On-Line Chess Championships. If not, it's likely to be an unsatisfying night for Boston fans.

For New York, however, the pressure is on. If they can't win a match with this kind of advantage, then their season must really be over.

BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.