USCL ranks 2006 Games of the Week

At the US Chess League website, they have started a series ranking the 2006 Games of the Week from 1 through 13. The rankings are a group effort reflecting the opinions of League Commissioner IM Greg Shahade, NM Arun Sharma, NM Dennis Monokroussos and GM Alex Shabalov+WFM Elizabeth Vicary (working as a duo).

Number 12 on the list is Privman-Krasik from the Blitz's week 3 win over the New York Knights. The game featured Krasik's exciting Rook sacrifice 17...Rxe4!?

JG of JG's Master Quest fame takes exception to the ranking and argues that Ilya deserved better:

...I really think this really deserved some more credit in the voting. Imagine the match situation: Boston only won this match 3-1 so a loss for Krasik would have meant only a tie for the Blitz and Krasik still has the confidence to play the fantastic move Rxe4 when the consequences of a miscalculation would completely change the outcome of the match. I think it's a little strange not to take the situation in the match into serious consideration.

Strangely, in the USCL piece, the comments on this game from Shabalov/Vicary were censored by the league. While we'll probably never know why, JG speculates on a couple of possible explanations. My favorite is:

[Seattle Slugger's team manager] Clint Ballard pa[i]d off the judges to make sure Krasik would not finish near the top, but unfortunately this was included in the comment.

His sensitive side

Searching for BCC Weblog

Sorry, but this post does not star Ben Kingsley as Bruce Pandolfini....

November 13th marked the two year anniversary of this blog. As a result, I now have access to quite a bit of data on visitors, referrers, and search terms. Today, I thought I might share the search related information.

As the blog's content has continued to grow and its page rank increased, more and more visitors have arrived through search engine queries. During the first year or so search engines accounted for less than 15% of visitors; more recently, the number is definitely above 25%. For the full two years, searches account for 23.3% of visitors with known referrals.

The top 5 or so search terms that lead surfers to BCC Weblog bring few surprises, but as you continue down the list interesting insights emerge as to what attracts visitors here. Here are the top 25 search terms for this blog over the past two years:

1. chess (19.0%) - I bet this came as a shock!


2. club (3.5%) - No surprise.


3. boylston (3.0%) - ditto


4. blog (2.7%) - ditto


5. and (2.5%)


6. the (2.3%)


7. beauty (1.3%) - Finally things get more interesting. Beauty and the Geek first made these pages when the show's production company called the club looking for "chess geeks" to try out for the show. Then, as you may recall, one of the show's contestants -- Joe Block -- was introduced as a chess champion and chess was included in several episodes. Well it turns out that a mediocre FOX reality series has much broader appeal than chess to the point where it can become a major driver of visitors to a chess blog.


8. geek (1.3%) - See "beauty"


9. bcc (1.0%) - Surprised this wasn't higher?


10. erikson (0.9%) - I have one post which includes a picture of a statue of Leif Erikson. I never realized he was so popular.


11. tricks (0.8%) - The blog gets a lot of searches for "chess tricks." They must be disappointed when they click on the link in this post.


12. pastrami (0.8%) - Maybe Philadelphia should have renamed their team the Pastrami. Masterminds is nowhere to be found in the list.


13. wamala (0.7%) - Given that this story broke only a couple of months ago, it is amazing how quickly it has shot up the list.


14. leif (0.7%) - See "erikson"


15. boston (0.7%) - People searching for "chess club boston" often find their way here.


16. severine (0.6%) - See "wamala"


17. blogs (0.6%) - Not much to say here.


18. rules (0.6%) - Many people search for "rules and regulations of chess." I'm sure they are not particularly happy when they get this.


19. weblog (0.5%) - Just goes to prove that "blog" is more popular than "weblog."


20. knights (0.4%) - Mostly "Knights Errant", but the chess piece itself generates some traffic.


21. regulations (0.4%) - See "rules"


22. krasik (0.4%) - Either he's the most popular member of the Boston Blitz or this is how he usually linked to the blog during the 2005 season. You decide.


23. dedijer (0.4%) - Everyone likes to look at a pretty face.


24. lief (0.4%) - A lot of people have trouble spelling the Viking explorer's first name.


25. sanja (0.4%) - See "dedijer"
    

BCC Champ Rd. 9: Krasik-Williams 1/2

Another NM draw...

Krasik,I (2202) - Williams,C (2186) [D17]
BCC Championship (9), 11.6.2006

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 e6 7.f3 Bb4 8.e4 Bxe4 9.fxe4 Nxe4 10.Bd2 Qxd4 11.Nxe4 Qxe4+ 12.Qe2 Bxd2+ 13.Kxd2 Qd5+ 14.Kc2 Na6 15.Nxc4 0-0 ½-½

BCC Champ Rd. 7: Krasik-Chase 0-1

One more game from Round 7...

By popular demand, Ilya's "gem against Mr. Chase." I hope I have the correct moves this time.

Krasik,I (2202) - Chase,C (2292) [A67]
BCC Championship (7), 2006

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.f4 Bg7 8.Bb5+ Nfd7 9.Nf3 0-0 10.0-0 a6 11.Bd3 b5 12.a3 Nb6 13.f5 N8d7 14.Bg5 f6 15.Be3 Re8 16.Qd2 Nc4 17.Bxc4 bxc4 18.Rae1 Rb8 19.Rf2 gxf5 20.exf5 Rb7 21.g4 Ne5 22.Nxe5 Rxe5 23.Rfe2 h5 24.h3 hxg4 25.hxg4 Bf8 26.Kf2 Rg7 27.Rg1 Qe7 28.Ke1 Kf7 29.Kd1 Rh7 30.Bf4 Rxe2 31.Qxe2 Qxe2+ 32.Kxe2 Rh3 33.Bg3 Bb7 34.Kf2 Be7 35.Rd1 Rh8 36.Ne2 Rg8 37.Kf3 Rb8 38.Nc3 Ba8 39.Rd2 Rb3 40.Rh2 Bxd5+ 41.Kf4 Bc6 [...and Black went on to win] 0-1

BCC Champ Rd. 8: Cherniack-Krasik 1-0

Alex had the advantage early but gave it away by move 25 or so. However, Ilya missed a couple of winning combinations (28...Qc5+ 29.Kh1 Bf4 and 48...Rf1+ 49.Kxf1 Qxe3) and then went on to lose a Rook and Bishop ending.

Cherniack,A (2264) - Krasik,I (2202) [E80]
BCC Championship (8), 10.30.2006

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 a6 6.Be3 c6 7.c5 0-0 8.cxd6 exd6 9.Nge2 Nbd7 10.Ng3 b5 11.Qd2 Re8 12.Be2 Bb7 13.0-0 Qe7 14.Rfe1 Rad8 15.Bf1 Qf8 16.a4 b4 17.Na2 c5 18.Nc1 h5 19.Nb3 h4 20.Nh1 cxd4 21.Bxd4 d5 22.Na5 Ba8 23.e5 Nh5 24.Bxa6 Nxe5 25.Nf2 Re6 26.Bxe5 Bxe5 27.Bf1 Qd6 28.Ng4 Bxh2+ 29.Nxh2 Rxe1 30.Qxe1 Qc5+ 31.Qf2 Qxa5 32.Qxh4 Qa7+ 33.Qf2 d4 34.Ng4 Nf4 35.Ne5 Re8 36.Nd3 Nxd3 37.Bxd3 Re3 38.Bc4 Qc5 39.Bf1 Qg5 40.Rd1 Rxf3 41.Qxd4 Kh7 42.Rd2 Rf4 43.Qd6 Qg3 44.Qd3 Qe1 45.Qe2 Qg3 46.Rd3 Qg5 47.Rh3+ Kg7 48.Qb5 Bd5 49.Rd3 Rf5 50.Qxb4 Qc1 51.Qc3+ Qxc3 52.Rxc3 Rf4 53.Rc5 Bb3 54.a5 Ra4 55.Rb5 Be6 56.b4 Ra1 57.Rc5 Kf6 58.a6 Ke7 59.Kf2 Kd6 60.Rc2 f5 [...and White went on to win in a time scramble] 1-0

BCC Champ Rd. 4: Krasik-Martirosov 1/2

Here's the remaining game from Round 4. Since neither player is a GM, I guess we'll call this an "NM draw."

Krasik,I (2202) - Martirosov,V (2270) [B36]
BCC Championship (4), 2006.10.15

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 d6 7.Be2 Nxd4 8.Qxd4 Bg7 9.Be3 0-0 10.Qd2 Be6 11.f3 Qa5 12.Rc1 Rfc8 13.b3 a6 14.Nd5 Qxd2+ 15.Kxd2 Nxd5 16.cxd5 Bd7 ½-½

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

USCL Fracas Redux

I thought it was over, but today Clint decided to fire another shell.

Update (10/25): ...and another one on his own site. Read "Boston's Ilya Krasik accuses Slugger manager of being insane" at Slugfest7.com.

Related Post: USCL Fracas

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.)