Blitz sink Baltimore's playoff hopes

Apparently controlling your own destiny isn't all it's cracked up to be. Baltimore just needed not to lose to secure a place in the US Chess League post season tournament but couldn't find a way to do so against a GM-less Boston lineup. Carolina, on the other hand, needed a specific series of events as improbable as coming back from a 3-0 deficit against the New York Yankees in a seven game series in order to qualify. Guess who's playing next week.

The match turned out to be fairly meaningless for the Blitz. New York qualified for the playoffs by drawing with Philadelphia, so another encounter with Boston's Canadian nemesis may await. And San Francisco's draw gave the good guys no chance to secure color choice in a potential Championship match. Nevertheless, if one takes the time to sit down at the board they might as well try to win. To the Kingfisher's chagrin, that's just what the Blitz did.

On Board 1 GM Blehm won a pawn though IM Foygel managed to simplify to a 4 vs. 3 pawn rook ending with all the pawns on one side. One might have thought that the position offered reasonable drawing chances (considering the old "all rook endings are drawn" cliche) but the GM actually dispatched the IM quite easily.

At the other end of the virtual table NM Martirosov was also up a pawn in a rook ending with all pawns on the same side. However in his case it was 2 vs. 1 and winning chances were virtually nil. WGM Rohonyan showed some flair by ending the game with a rook sacrifice that led directly to stalemate.

Martirosov-Rohonyan after 53.Re7Katerina ends the discussion with 53...Rf4+!

The match was won on the middle boards. FM Kelleher has quietly put together a very nice season with the Blitz. This time he broke through on the Kingside against FM Enkhbat's Caro-Kann and won easily when his opponent overlooked a mate (to be fair, Bill's position was much better at the time). As for NM Riordan, he played a crazy game against IM Kaufman. When he had to give up the exchange on f4, many thought Charles was losing. But then in response to a knight check Larry moved his King towards the center and suddenly White's pieces starting falling everywhere.

Kaufman-Riordan after 31...Nd3+Although Black is down an exchange for a pawn, he is actually
much better. Charles went on to win after 32.Kc3 Re3.

The 2.5-1.5 win was a nice way to end a very successful regular season for the Blitz. Baltimore, on the other hand, is left to ponder their fall from last year's heights.

Next week New York and Carolina will face off to see who will get to take on Boston in the Eastern Division Finals. However, around here we'll be focusing on more important things, like the final round of the 2006 Boylston Chess Club Championship and possible lineups for Round 2 of the playoffs.

Two GMs or not two GMs, that is the question.

The worst chess club in the world

President Eric Holzer explains why his chess club, Club de Ajedrez San José located on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, is the worst chess club in the world:

The thing is we drink too much and are unable to analyse as a consequence.

Championship Standings after Round 8

2006 BCC Championship

It doesn't get any better than this!

Current Champion Charles Riordan is tied up with former Champion Chris Chase with just one round to go. Both face formidable competition in the final round (the Ruebens-Landey qualifier "fluff" having been previously dispatched, or not). Not only that, former Champion Alex Cherniack also has a path to a share of the title if he overcomes Chase and former Champion Paul MacIntyre proves to be Riordan's spoiler.

While we don't usually get a big crowd of spectators at the Championship, you might want to consider coming out on Monday for what could be one of the most exciting nights of chess in New England this year (at least until the Blitz face one of those West Coast "S" teams for the USCL Championship).

6.0 - NM Riordan, FM Chase
5.0 - NM Cherniack
4.5 - FM MacIntyre, NM Martirosov, Times
4.0 - NM Krasik
3.5 - Williams
1.0 - Salomon, Rihel

Key Final Round Matchups: MacIntyre-Riordan, Cherniack-Chase

Battle for the first pick in the draft: Salomon-Rihel

2006 Hauptturnier

All scores are out of seven games unless otherwise indicated.

5.5 - Glickman
5.0 - Lee
4.5 - Clayton, Driscoll
4.0 - Iglesias
3.0 - Frazier
2.5 - Gorczyca
2.0/6 - Oresick
0.0 - Hager

Key Final Round Matchups: Glickman-Driscoll, Lee-Gorczyca, Clayton-Hager

Check out the News section of the Boylston Chess Club website for the complete crosstables for both events.

BCC Champ Rd. 7: Times-Rihel 1-0

This game includes a couple of nice features worth noticing: 1) White's impressive connected passed pawns in the center after move 31 and 2) move 37 which takes advantage of a pin on the long diagonal to force a queen trade.

P.S. It seems that I may have found a bug in Chess Publisher. In the game below Black doesn't actually capture a pawn on move 46 with a Rook from off the board! The "extra" Rook on e8 should be ignored for the rest of the game.

Times,L (2139) - Rihel,J (1953) [E68]
BCC Championship (7), 2006.10.23

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.0-0 d6 6.c4 Nbd7 7.Nc3 e5 8.e4 a6 9.a4 exd4 10.Nxd4 Re8 11.h3 Ne5 12.b3 c5 13.Nc2 Nc6 14.Rb1 Be6 15.Bf4 Nh5 16.Bd2 Rb8 17.Kh2 Nf6 18.f4 Qc8 19.Be3 h5 20.Qd2 Nh7 21.Rf2 f5 22.Re1 Na5 23.Na1 b6 24.Qd3 Nf6 25.e5 dxe5 26.fxe5 Nh7 27.Bd2 Rd8 28.Qc2 Nc6 29.Nd5 Kh8 30.Bc3 Bxd5 31.cxd5 Nb4 32.Qd2 a5 33.Nc2 Qd7 34.Nxb4 axb4 35.Bb2 Nf8 36.e6 Qe7 37.Qh6+ Nh7 38.Qxg7+ Qxg7 39.Bxg7+ Kxg7 40.e7 Rdc8 41.d6 Nf6 42.Bf1 Ne4 43.Rxe4 fxe4 44.d7 Re8 45.dxe8Q Rxe8 46.Re2 Rxe7 47.Bg2 e3 48.Bd5 Kf6 49.Kg2 g5 50.Kf3 g4+ 51.hxg4 hxg4+ 52.Kxg4 Re5 53.Bc4 Rg5+ 54.Kf4 Rf5+ 55.Ke4 Re5+ 56.Kd3 Rg5 57.Rxe3 Kg7 58.Be6 Kf6 59.g4 c4+ 60.Kxc4 Kg7 61.Bf5 Kf8 62.Kxb4 Rg7 63.Kb5 Kf7 64.Kxb6 Kf6 65.Re6+ Kg5 66.Rg6+ 1-0

Spam Alert

Awhile back I asked, "What do you suppose James Wilson is going to blog about now that he has reached "Z"?"

Now we know. Instead of blogging, he has moved on to spamming other people's chess blogs. We received one here at BCC Weblog, though I edited out his links. I found another one at View from the Middle Age. Anyone else get this guy's trash?

Read his sales pitch if you must, if only because it is so ridiculous. But please, please, please don't even consider giving this lowlife a penny of your hard earned money!

Why some still call knights horses

From an article discussing CHESS BOARD's prospects at Fontwell on September 3rd (bold italics are mine):

Brendan Powell (IRISH WHISPERS) and Philip Hobbs (CHESS BOARD) have both won this race in the past, and the Vettori colt CHESS BOARD looked all set to make a winning debut at Newton Abbot first time up when jinking to his right when hitting the home straight, which left the pilot without a prayer in the saddle. If this is not a quirk with the beast, CHESS BOARD should certainly be there or thereabouts again turning for home.

Notice how this horse actually moves like a knight.

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

Coasting in to the finish

Wednesday night marks the end of the US Chess League regular season for the Eastern Division Champion Boston Blitz.

With no GM in this week's lineup, it looks like the Blitz have decided to take it easy and not be proactive about trying to spoil Baltimore's playoffs chances. Of course this doesn't mean that Boston can't win or draw the match, but they have ceded the Kingfishers an average rating advantage of 2407 vs. 2369.

Here are the match-ups; Boston has White on boards 2 & 4:

IM Igor Foygel - 2533 vs. GM Pawel Blehm - 2593
FM William Kelleher - 2402 vs. FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat - 2414
NM Charles Riordan - 2283 vs. IM Larry Kaufman - 2359
NM Vadim Martirosov - 2259 vs. WGM Katerina Rohonyan - 2260

Severine Speaks

The Lowell Sun has published a rather lengthy letter which Severine Wamala sent to Sun court reporter Lisa Redmond. Here are a couple of excerpts:

What happened to innocent until proven guilty? America was founded on the premise of innocent until proven guilty. Those who are criticizing Dr. (Karla Brooks) Baehr and Lowell High School for hiring me need to get facts straight.

Being arrested does not mean one committed a crime. One can be arrested for a number of reasons. False charges is one of them. Thirteen years ago as claimed in the newspapers I was arrested numerous times for false charges. During the period 1992 to 1994, my ex-girlfriend filed 36 false charges in nine different Massachusetts courts....

This is for those who don't know me. I have never assaulted anyone sexually or otherwise. My record at Lowell High School for four years stands clean. Also my record in New England for six years as a premier chess organizer in hotels where there are a lot girls stands clean. I believe that all the girls that stand for the truth will come in full force to my defense. I am an innocent man falsely accused....

Read Severine Wamala's entire letter.

Update (10/31): The entire letter is no longer available online. In its place is an article by Lisa Redmond based on the letter's contents.

Related Post: Wamala waives probable cause hearing

An idea to reduce truancy

There is no longer a need to skip classes and studying in order to play chess. Symbiosis University in Pune, India has launched a three-year diploma in the royal game. The course of study is being developed with the support of "Grandmaster Abhijeet Kunte, Mrunalinee Aurangabadkar, Chandrashekhar Gokhale and yoga experts Dr Nitin Unkule and Dr Bhaskar Shejwal..." As for the teaching staff, "...students [will] learn ... from reputed chess players..." Unfortunately, The article doesn't explain the hiring criteria for "reputed chess players."

If you still have more to say

ChessUp.net, the "official" chess diagram maker of BCC Weblog, announces the launch of ChessUp forums.

BCC Champ Rd. 6: Williams-Martirosov 1-0

Chris wins the exchange for a pawn and then plays well to score the point in the ending.

Williams,C (2186) - Martirosov,V (2270) [B33]
BCC Championship (6), 16.09.2006

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 h6 7.Nd5 Nxd5 8.exd5 a6 9.Nc3 Nb8 10.d6 Qb6 11.Bc4 Qxd6 12.Qf3 Qf6 13.Qxf6 gxf6 14.Nd5 b5 15.Nc7+ Kd8 16.Nxa8 bxc4 17.Nb6 Bb7 18.Nxc4 Bxg2 19.Rg1 Be4 20.Be3 Bxc2 21.Rc1 Bb4+ 22.Ke2 Bg6 23.Bb6+ Ke7 24.a3 d5 25.Ne3 Bd6 26.Nxd5+ Ke6 27.Nc3 Nd7 28.Be3 f5 29.f3 Rb8 30.Na4 f4 31.Rc6 Rb3 32.Bc5 Nxc5 33.Nxc5+ Kd5 34.Nxb3 Kxc6 35.Rd1 Bc7 36.Rc1+ Kd6 37.Nc5 a5 38.Ne4+ Kd7 39.Nf6+ Kd8 40.b4 axb4 41.axb4 Bb6 42.Rc6 Bg1 43.b5 Bf5 44.h4 Bd4 45.b6 Bc8 46.Ne4 Ba6+ 47.Ke1 Kd7 48.Rc7+ Kd8 49.Ra7 Bc8 50.Ra8 Bxb6 51.Nd6 Kc7 52.Nxc8 Bc5 53.Ke2 f5 54.Ra5 Kc6 55.Kd3 e4+ 56.fxe4 f3 57.exf5 h5 58.Rxc5+ 1-0

Championship Standings after Round 7

2006 BCC Championship

With Riordan's loss to Martirosov, the race has tightened up with two rounds to go. All scores are out of seven games unless otherwise indicated.

5.5 - NM Riordan
4.0/6 - FM Chase, NM Krasik
4.5 - Times
4.0 - FM MacIntyre, NM Cherniack
3.5 - NM Martirosov
3.0 - Williams
1.0 - Rihel
0.5 - Salomon

Key 8th Round Matchups: Riordan-Salomon, Cherniack-Krasik, Chase-Times

2006 Hauptturnier

All scores are out of six games unless otherwise indicated.

5.5 - Glickman
4.0 - Lee, Iglesias
4.5/7 - Driscoll
3.5 - Clayton
2.0 - Oresick
1.5 - Gorczyca
2.0/7 - Frazier
0.0 - Hager

Key 8th Round Matchups: Gorcyzca-Glickman, Iglesias-Clayton, Hager-Lee

Check out the News section of the Boylston Chess Club website for the complete crosstables for both events.

BCC Champ Rd. 6: Chase-Rihel 0-1

Jason demonstrates one way to beat a master: Step 1 - play so badly that you give your opponent an overwhelming Kingside attack; Step 2 - Give your opponent so many winning moves that he can't decide which one to choose; Step 3 - Encourage your opponent to sacrifice material to open up lines to your King; Step 4 - When your opponent makes an inaccurate move, consolidate your material advantage and win!

Chase,C (2292) - Rihel,J (1953) [B82]
BCC Championship (6), 16.09.2006

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f4 e6 7.Bd3 Be7 8.Nf3 Qc7 9.a4 Nc6 10.0-0 0-0 11.Qe2 Rd8 12.Kh1 b6 13.e5 Nd7 14.exd6 Bxd6 15.Ne4 Bf8 16.Neg5 g6 17.Nxf7 Re8 18.f5 gxf5 19.Bxf5 Nf6 20.Bd3 Qxf7 21.Ng5 Qe7 22.Bd2 Bg7 23.Bc3 e5 24.Bc4+ Kh8 25.Nf7+ Kg8 26.Ng5+ Kh8 27.Rxf6 Bxf6 28.Nf7+ Kg7 29.Qh5 Be6 30.Qh6+ Kxf7 31.Qxh7+ Kf8 0-1

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

Highbrow Tactics

Most everyone knows that there is a strong connection between the Knights Errant and Cervantes' Don Quixote. However, how many Knights actually integrate parts of the story into their posts?

Welcome to the fold the Literary Knight, Fierabras.

Boston preps for playoffs with "practice" draw

Surely it was Boston Manager Matt Phelps' plan all along. Having secured the top spot in the East and the draw odds in the second round of the playoffs which comes with it, Phelps wanted to see if the Blitz could achieve a draw under tough circumstances. So he had his lower boards throw their games and put all the pressure up top. Christiansen and Kelleher came through giving Boston confidence that the Finals are easily in reach.

Plausible? Maybe not. How about this? Boston's plan to throw the match to Carolina and make an even bigger mess of the Eastern Division playoff race went awry when someone forget to tell LarryC he wasn't supposed to win.

Don't buy that either? I guess we'll have to default to the parity excuse. 2-0 above and 0-2 below -- not that unusual when two relatively evenly rated teams in the US Chess League match up against each other. As has been the pattern this year, Boston's opponents got out to the early lead.

It was time trouble which caught up with NM Riordan. After several weeks of excellent play with just minutes left on his clock, Charles finally succumbed to the never-ending march of time. He and FM Zaikov were playing a very interesting game in which White had a couple of pawns for the exchange. However, with the last few minutes winding down Charles starting making inaccuracies. Small ones at first, like avoiding the Queen trade on c4, led to a big one at the end and suddenly it was 1-0 Carolina.

NM Riordan-NM Zaikov after 24...Rc8

An interesting struggle before time took its toll

Vadim's game against NM Jones offers the best evidence for one of the above conspiracies. Who plays the Benoni and realistically expects to win!? White's position just kept getting better and Martirosov's counterplay never really materialized. Two games down and no points for Boston.

NM Jones-NM Martirosov after 1...c5

Evidence of a conspiracy?

Boston's comeback began with FM Kelleher who just decimated FM Hoekstra's Exchange Slav. It's a line I'm definitely going to remember as Black; White's moves seemed pretty natural but then all of a sudden Matt was lost.

FM Hoekstra-FM Kelleher after 12...Nc5

The Knight is heading for d3 with a big advantage

With the score at 2-1, GM Christiansen needed to win to secure the drawn match. However, the prospects were uncertain with most of the gallery claiming that his endgame was a draw. Larry seemed to have a nice attack going earlier in the game. However, it petered out and the best he could find was a pawn up rook ending. Someone who knows more about these things can tell us whether it was a theoretical win or draw. In any case, Christiansen played as though it was a won position and it wasn't obvious to me what Milman could have done better. Larry's win closed out the match at 2-2.

GM Christiansen-IM Milman after 45.Rxb5
Theoretically, a win or a draw?

Next week the Blitz close out the regular season against Baltimore. The Kingfishers are fighting to secure a playoff berth and will undoubtedly come ready to fight. What about Boston? Well, they do have a couple sources of motivation. Since they could very well meet Baltimore in the playoffs, the Blitz may not want to give them any confidence going in. Then, there's always the matter of choosing colors in the Finals. I'm not sure how much of an advantage that really is, but I suppose it's better to have it than not.

Chess gets an update

Something had to be done to rekindle excitement in the game. Now it has:

The World Chess Federation today unveiled the new chess piece that they hope will revive flagging interest in the ancient board game....

After much controversy and anticipation, the new piece will be known as 'The Monk'....

"It is very exciting," said [Former Grand Master Uri] Yelanov, "the monk can move three spaces horizontally or diagonally and occupies the starting positions of the middle two pawns... Suddenly chess is [as] exciting as Playstation!"

Read "New chess piece introduced" from NewsBiscuit.

BCC Champ Rd. 6: Riordan-Times 1-0

Charles finishes it off with a nice tactic. In the final position 24...Qxg4 is met with 25.Qh6 and mate is unstoppable.

Riordan,C (2330) - Times,L (2139) [B04]
BCC Championship (6), 16.09.2006

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 dxe5 5.Nxe5 g6 6.c4 Nf6 7.Nc3 Bg7 8.Be2 0-0 9.0-0 Ne8 10.Be3 Nd6 11.Qb3 Nf5 12.Rad1 Nc6 13.Nxc6 bxc6 14.Bf3 Bd7 15.Ne4 Rb8 16.Qc3 Nxe3 17.fxe3 e5 18.dxe5 Qe7 19.Nf6+ Bxf6 20.exf6 Qe6 21.Qd4 Rfd8 22.b3 Be8 23.Qf4 Bd7 24.Bg4 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