USCL Rd. 3 Versus New Jersey

You gotta have a good strong stomach to be a Sluggers fan, the ups and downs can really get to you. The only game that didn't seem to go up and down a couple of times was Eric's game on board two. I don't know enough about the Bogo Indian to make any claims, but Black seemed to have a position missing a leg out of the opening. Still, Eric hung in there. Gulko is a veteran GM who just wore him down. The board one game started out very tamely, Nakamura paying some tribute to past NW greats by lunging forward with 1.g3. It turned into something from a 1950's B movie when the Black minor pieces and queen started draping themselves on the d-file. White worked his way out and then with just a minute bit of ooomph got a jump start to win some pawns on the K-side. That turned out to be enough. Readey was outrated by 100 points, but you wouldn't have known it. Black adopted a passive stance in the opening, zipped out to snag a pawn, labored the way back to being only passive. Then in a fit of frenzy Black made a rush to try to get active, with the Q side still at home, and ran into a solid beam in the center of the board. Time was a bit of a factor here as it seemed to be in all the games. Black looked to be grovelling when a perpetual appeared. Fourth board was typical of the Modern Benoni where it seems people just play crazy. Pawn down, pawn up. There were certainly some moves I didn't expect. In the end the player who was material ahead took the repetition. Very strange.

Most of the predictions were for a NJ victory, so the Sluggers should look at this in a positive light. Still, no victories after 3 rounds is not where they expected to be. They will have a short week, next Monday they are scheduled to face the expansion Chicago Blaze who are at 1.5 / 1.5 coming off a 3-0 (?) win over the Tennessee Tempo. Round 5 will see the Sluggers up against the defending champs Dallas. Could be an interesting couple of weeks!