Week 7 Recap

This week I was a little bit more busy than other weeks, due to SAT testing (every high schooler needs to boycott this test). Consequently, my annotations are going to be rather anemic (SAT word!).

On Wednesday, the Sluggers went into the match with every reason to win. Akobian heavily outrated his opponent, while the other three boards were evenly balanced.

As expected, Akobian cruised his way to victory rather surprisingly easy, due to a couple of major mistakes from his opponents, and accordingly, it seems rather presumptuous (another SAT word!) for Muscleman to be falling all over this game.

However, Akobian's quick victory was equally matched in terms of decisiveness in Rohonyan's match. Soon after the opening, Rohonyan fell for an opening cheapo , and ended up in a losing position.

That left Sinanan and Slava. FM Mikhailuk pulled through and brought home his FIRST WIN of the season, after having a tough start. It seemed that Banawa miscalculated the variations or his chances when he sacced his queen for two rooks and knight, but Slava ended up winning the piece back, and in a tricky position, infiltrated Black's position while Banawa was unable to coordinate his two rooks.

With the match at 2-1, Seattle only needed a draw from Sinanan to clinch the match. A draw seemed likely for a while, as Sinanan traded down into a drawish rook ending. In a weird psychological twist, having to play only for a draw seemed to have a detrimental effect on Sinanan's ensuing play, and missed a few of Gupta's tricks in the endgame. But no worries, my friend. I still think Seattle's got a good shot at playoffs. Maybe Championship.

P.S. more detailed annotations will be available soon.