Meet the 2017 Seattle Sluggers

GM Gabriel Sargissian 2667

GM Tigran Petrosian 2592

GM Giorgi Margvelashvili 2530

GM Victor Mikhalevski 2508

IM Georgi Orlov 2475

FM Roland Feng 2340

FM Bryce Tiglon 2313

NM Kyle Haining 2216

NM Bob Ferguson 2232

NM Daniel He 2208

NM Anthony He 2140

Midnight Rider

“I’ll do it!” Truly the decision was not momentous, but also not easy. My word has to be worth something. Still, times that your team makes an initial appearance in the finals are extremely sporadic. Usually, only once per team does that happen. So, it is now or never. Please dear readers forgive me for my transgression.
As I spied the scores my mind went blank. Not that blankness that writers use in literature to suggest a loss of moral compass, nor that painful blankness that comes when you can’t remember your ATM pin. Not hardly. This was the blankness of easy acceptance that something so totally improbable had happened. Yup, seeing the score of Seattle’s victory over Arizona seemed to defy the past and at the same time define that matters had worked themselves out. I was not able to watch the Arizona match, a night time job can do that to you, so I didn’t find the excitement of going to the final that should naturally accompany this result. Yet, it is because they are in the final that I am once again in your company.

I want to say that the “easy acceptance” part of that was the result of the previous weeks match with Dallas. I feel compelled to start out by saying that I don’t understand why this match didn’t get more recognition. To start with, Dallas is a star studed (pardon the pun) lineup with plenty of history. Remember though, part of that history was a tied match in the wildcard round of the Sluggers first season of 2006 that sent the Sluggers to the conference finals. You may remember that the match was at 2-1 for Dallas when Seattle’s Slava Mikhailuk was able to create a path to victory which tied the match. Dallas won the USCL the 2 seasons following that, so maybe this preempted a three peat? Anyway, events in the 2012 match could only be matched by a batch of Hollywood script writers, that is if they had the propensity to see the beauty and greatness of team chess. Seattle’s star first board had fallen dramatically and cast immediate doubt on the Slugger’s chances. This was certainly not a new scenario for Slugger’s fans to witness. This was offset by a fourth board effort from the Slugger’s Lessler which would even the match. Matters would be decided in the middle. There was a sort of weird relationship between the games. As Orlov slowly found a bit to play with on second board, Sinanan was sliding into passivity on third board. With draw odds it looked as if Dallas had matters well in hand with advantage on third board. Seemingly Dallas went into a holding pattern to see if events on second board could be swung around. I have no clue what was going on in the Dallas player’s heads… winning on third board was enough to advance. Yet, events on second board did seem to evolve towards Dallas and at the same time the third board flipped almost completely. Now, with Seattle having a winning position on third board we all considered how to get a positive result on second. Literally, the result of either game and consequently the match changed with every move. On second board the Holt went into “last ditch” mode and fell into a lost position. As if the fog totally was gone Josh drew on third board and Seattle had pulled one out. These kinds of things are produced in major sports and offer a glimpse of how exciting team chess can be. I do not know how all of this excitement was able to escape more attention, but it did. Note to Eddie and Dean Wormer: find some more excitement in this thing.

So, to the final. My initial feeling is that these teams are very similar. Neither rely on under rated kids or college students. Traditionally both rely on grit over flash. In the current season though, Philadelphia has defined themselves as a power team that looks to roll over opponents. Seattle surprised by making the playoffs in what looked to be a heavily stacked western division. We have in the final what could be the start of a dynasty in Philadelphia and a “Rocky” like underdog in the Sluggers. Yeah, I wanted to get that one in to annoy our Philly friends! Each of the 4 matchups presents a unique perspective on team chess. Here’s what I see.


First board will be a matchup of superstars. Both are around the 2700 mark and have plenty on their resumes to talk about. Neither of them is an easy out and will come well prepared. Such is the world of professional chess. I guess giving White an advantage is about as good a marker as any, but I doubt it is enough to expect either to win.

Fourth board is the “classic” in the group. Philadelphia has IM Richard Costigan, one of the few in the league who can remember first hand the “Telephone League”. Seattle brings Roland Feng who was still in knee pants when the USCL started. This is one of those “fast or slow” things. The longer the game goes, the more likely it is for Costigan to have an advantage. What we always have to think about is how much of a surprise will the kid be for the IM?

Each team finds its “non-star” star player on third board. I don’t know much of anything about Dov Gormon, but he seems to have pulled plenty of weight for the Inventors this season. Josh Sinanan has done more than what could be expected of him this season and did so last season as well. I think that this could be decided stylistically. With Black Josh is going to play pretty solidly, well he plays solidly with any color, and will have to be careful not to go too passive. My intuition is that Gorman has an advantage here, but Sinanan has been beating the odds all season.

Second board might be the most interesting. At first glance it appears critical for Phily as NM Miller has a lower rating than IM Orlov as well as much less experience. The thing is that Miller has been holding draws with Black against higher rated opponents this season. His solid play has been a real bonus for the Inventors and could be a key to the final. This will be very interesting, to me at least, because Orlov is well trained and extremely crafty. It is very possible that he will arrive with something unexpected in his pocket and will get a small opening advantage with a large time and psychological advantage. Both sides fans will be well advised to use this game as an initial barometer for what result might be at hand.

Ok, lets just suppose that everybody plays way beyond what we expect and all 4 games end in draws, what to expect then? All them boys on the East Coast think they are really great blitz players and some of them are right. What they might not expect is that we have chess clocks up here in the northwest and we have been practicing. My suspicion is that if it comes to that Seattle has a tiny edge. Not anything against you boys on the other coast, its just that these kinds of things tend to work out for the underdog. At least I hope so.

That’s it for me. The next time you see me will be… don’t know. After this the Sluggers won't have any "firsts" to look forward to, so my motiviation is gone. Oh well.

Good Luck to all the players and lets hope for a fun match. Out

Sluggers advance to Championship!

The Sluggers have advanced to the Championship match after clinching an important victory the Arizona Scorpions! As with so many other matches this season the result was anything but clear for the whole duration of the match.

On board one, the Sluggers unleashed GM Varuzhan Akobian(2697) on IM Mackenzie Molner (2511). GM Akobian’s 4.Bg5 reply to the Grunfeld and IM Molner’s replies quickly gave the game an improvisational tone. At move 12 White appeared to have the initiative as Black’s king had been forced to move to f8 in awkward fashion and the c4- and c5- pawns gave a loose impression. But as play continued it became clear that White’s own army was not sufficiently coordinated to exploit these factors.

Play continued in an unfavorable direction for the GM Akobian when IM Molner struck with 17…Nb6 18.Qb3 c4! Forcing White to continue 19.Bxb6 (19.Bxc4? Nxc4 20.Qxc4 Ba6 -/+) 19…axb6 20.Bxc4 when after 20…Bd7! Black had acquired the bishop pair tremendous pressure on the weakened queenside pawns at the cost of a pawn. Yielding him more than enough compensation.

Around this moment, the situation on board one was not favoring the Slugger’s and it appeared that Black could be holding the initiative. But the Sluggers were to receive excellent news as NM Josh Sinanan (2263) had just won yet another game this season on board three where he was paired significantly up against IM Shahin Mohandesi (2399). In this game, Josh succeeded at building a substantial advantage on the clock and acquired a somewhat easier to play position in the middlegame thanks to his queenside pawn majority. After a  maneuvering phase, no side had succeeded at gaining anything substantial but a couple of errant King move’s by Black (25…Ke8?!, 26…Kd8?) gave White the time he needed to reposition successfully and advance the queenside pawns.

An important improvement would have been 26…Nc3! Forcing White to react to the threat to the b-pawn with 27.b6 (27.Na3? Nxe2+ 28.Kg2 Nc3 =+) 27…axb6 with the idea of  28.Qxb6 Qb5 = or 28.Qa8 Qa7! 29.Qc6 Qd7 30.Qxb6 Qb5 … here too however, White could have gained an advantage after 28.axb6! Nxe2+ 29.Kf1 Nc3 30.Qa8 Qd8 31.Qb7 += Instead, Black blundered with 26…Kd8 overlooking a strong reply by White. Josh correctly played 27.b6! axb6 28.Qa8! when Black clearly had to concede material. Soon after, Black resigned. A marvelous upset!

On board two, IM Georgi Orlov’s (2523) game seemed predictably headed towards a draw as IM Levon Altounian (2493), handling the White pieces, had not managed to create anything serious with the c3-Sicilian. Early on, IM Orlov improvised with 9…Nb6!? After a long think, IM Altounian replied 10.Bd3?!(perhaps 10.Bb3 +=) allowing Black to play enterprisingly with 10…Nb4! harassing the bishop and eventually capturing it. Though White tried hard to encircle around the e6-pawn, his own d4-pawn was far too weak. Finally, several moves later, Black crashed through on d4 only long enough for White to simultaneously crash through on e6 keeping the material balance, and further reducing material. Soon a draw was agreed and the Sluggers were ahead 1.5-0.5.

A win on either board one (GM Akobian – IM Molner) or board four would secure the match as would draws on both boards. But by now, GM Akobian’s position had further deteriorated. After 30…f4! by IM Molner, Black was dangerously close to cashing in on his opportunity to play …Bf5 and roll the b-pawn forward winning material. Attempts to capture the pawn on b3, such as 31.Rxb3, were doomed to failure. Example: 31.Rxb3 Rxb3 32.Bxb3 Ra1 + 33.Kg2 Qe7! -+ (with the idea of 34…Qe1). However, with the clocks dwindling down and Akobian having a small but significant clock advantage (7 minutes to 2) it was still possible to cross one’s fingers and hope for the best while on board four, events were also unfolding in an unexpected manner.

On board four the young Peter Lessler (2177) was valiantly holding on with the Black pieces against Arizona’s NM Dipro Chakraborty (2306). Right away, Peter was able to deploy his pieces sensibly in the face of a King’s Indian Attack setup. But with White slowly creeping up the kingside and Black facing the usual issues of how to achieve an active plan, it seemed that Peter was in real danger of being eventually outclassed. Throughout a protracted maneuvering face, the game at times seemed to favor White (NM Chakraborty) and other times appeared to be balanced. Despite sorties such as 22.Nf6!? and a spirited effort on White’s part, Peter always seemed to be holding on just enough to begin generating queenside play and not suffer any real damage to his position. After an important knight exchange and the move 27…Rb2! it was clear Peter was standing up to the master after all and any result still seemed possible.

Nevertheless, the situation still looked quite dangerous for the Sluggers - hoping for two draws or a victory on some board still seemed like a miracle. On board one, it still seemed that if GM Akobian would somehow avoid losing material his winning chances may not be significant. But then, a reversal of fortune took place! After GM Akobian’s 33.Rc6, IM Molner, who had less than two minutes on the clock, played 33…Qe7? Overlooking that after 34.Qxf4 b2? (as played in the game) White simply had 35.Qxb8! capturing the rook for free! All of this occurred in the game. Amazingly, Akobian was now up a full rook and wasted no time whatsoever in giving back some of the material in order to acquire an easily won position. Instead Black was very close to winning the game with 33…Qb4 intending …b2, when White cannot complicate the game for long. IM Molner’s mistake was no doubt prompted partially by GM Akobian’s tenacity and the pressure of the unusual opening and match circumstances. The complicated position had paid off and suddenly the Sluggers had qualified for the Championship!

And what of board 4? Did Peter Lessler pull it off? After a missed win by White at 54.Qf4? (54.Bxg6! fxg6 55.Qxg6+ Kh8 56.Qf7! +-) Peter’s infiltration broke through and within a short handful of moves Black was up a pawn (after 58…Nxc4) with a winning position. Peter had nearly finished off his game in victory when he made an important mistake 76…Nxa5? Grabbing a second pawn, but giving White enough time to organize a defense with 77.Ba4! Instead Black could have won with 76…Nd4+ 77.Kd1 Kb7! White cannot play 78.Bxf7 due to 78…Nf5, with the idea of 79…Ne3+ (and there is no Ba4) He is therefore helpless to find a useful move. The game could continue 78.Ba4 Ka6 79.Be8 kxa5 80.Bd7 Nf5 and there is no Ba4. Instead after 76…Nxa5? 77.Ba4! Black lost his two pawn advantage. Still the game should have been easily drawn but a last-minute oversight by Peter (83…Ke7? Instead of 83…Nxg5 =) gave White an opportunity to transpose to a winning king and pawn ending. As soon as the point was revealed (87.Kh5! gaining opposition), sadly Peter’s magnificent efforts were revealed to be not enough and he had to resign.

The Sluggers’ play, as a whole, left a strong impression during this match. All boards refused to be budged. Helped by a bit of good luck, the players pounced on opportunities and never gave Arizona an opportunity to think they had it in the bag. This continuous pressure, no doubt, contributed very nicely to the Slugger’s victory. Congratulations Sluggers and good luck in the Finals!

Sluggers Lose Round 10 Match

Monday night’s match ended in defeat for the Sluggers: 2.5 – 1.5. Despite a substantial deficit in ELO Average (almost 80 points) the Sluggers appeared to be teetering close to a drawn or even won match at various points during the match.

The most important game of the match turned out to be on board two where the Slugger’s FM Marcel Milat had White against IM Keaton Kiewra. Marcel was able to establish quite a nice position in the King’s Indian using the older  continuation of 10.g3 in the Bayonet Attack. This choice paid off nicely since by move 15 (15.Bxe4!) White already had the initiative and a pleasant light-squared bind. For a long time, Marcel possessed the bishop pair and a potentially devastating dominance on the light-squares while IM Kiewra appeared to only be looking for some counterplay. But with very resourceful and accurate play (27….Rxb7! 28.Qxb7 e4!) the game once again looked very unclear and dangerous for both sides.  The players continued to trade accurate moves back and forth (29.Rg3!, 30…Be5!) when finally Marcel made a decisive misstep in the form of 33.Kh3 whereupon 33…e3! Was lights out as would have been 33…Rf5!.

Instead, had Marcel played 33.Kh1!, analysis shows that it is Black who must play accurately to compensate for his material deficit. Note that the bishop on e5 can not capture on g3 because of Qg7 mate. The move 33…e3 could, in this case, be dealt with effectively via 34.Rg2 Qf3 35.Qc6 as 34…Qf3 is not check. Instead Black would carefully need to play 33…Qb2! Followed by 34.Rd1 Bxg3 35.hxg3 Rf2 36.Qg7+ Qxg7 37.hxg7+ Kxg7 with an equalized ending.

With this slight misstep, a game which appeared to even having winning chances for the Sluggers ended in defeat and the remaining boards were under pressure to produce a +1 result in order to tie the match, or +2 result (of 3 games) to win the match. But this did not seem like too terribly unlikely. On board one, IM Slava Mikhailuk was defending the Black side of a dangerous looking attack on his kingside arising from the Sicilian. IM Zhanibek Amanov wielded the White pieces and was proceeding down the board, but Slava was remaining alert and gradually finding decent activity for his pieces.

After some back-and-forth mistakes (18…Bb7? Was mistaken and should have been met with 19.Qf2! rather than 19.Rf2? for example) Black had just about equalized when he made a critical oversight and played 26…Bxg7? 27.Rxf7 Qe2? Aiming to tie the queen down to e3 so she could not capture on g6. But Amanov quickly revealed a combination which Slava had overlooked: 28.Rxg7+! Kxg7 29.Qe5+ Kg8 30.Bd4 and the mate threats on g7 and h8 were far too much to cope with.  Instead, Slava could have played 26…Bd6! Whereupon 27.Qh3 (or 27.Qh4) can be met with 27…f5! amazingly solving Black’s defensive problems. Thus here too, equality was close at hand just before a tactical mistake spelled defeat for the Sluggers.

This game wrapped up not too long after Marcel’s and thus the Sluggers had scored 0/2 where 1/2 or even 1.5/2 had moments ago seemed feasible. But the Sluggers were not to be counted out! NM Josh Sinanan played quite smoothly and cashed in on a couple of inaccuracies (20…c5? in particular) by FM Eugene Yanayt to gain a healthy extra pawn with big winning chances. Still after some back and forth inaccuracies for both sides, FM Yanayt missed an opportunity to nearly equalize the ending with 35…Nh5+ when the check buys just enough tiem to coordinate the Black forces and avoid conceding any extra material. Instead after 35…Nf5 36.Rd7 White was back on a healthy path to victory and before long had regained his extra pawn, thereby obtaining a pair of protected passed pawns on the queenside. The game ended in checkmate and the Sluggers still had a chance to equalize the match.

It looked like this just might happen as on board three the Slugger’s FM Curt Collyer had gained an extra pawn against FM Konstantin Kavutskiy and appeared to have winning chances though it never quite looked like he would be able to break White’s resistance. Curt Collyer again sprung his 1…b6 defense and managed to, again, acquire quite a decent position! By move 15 (15…Nb4) it was already clear that White had not managed to gain much of anything out of the opening. The long maneuvering struggle which ensued remained mostly balanced though for a while it appeared that White had modestly better chances. At one point in the game, both players faltered severely, and Black should have ended up down a piece. This occurred after 30…Bb3? When White missed the opportunity to play 31.Qd3! threatening Qb5 and simply planning to meet 31…Bxa4 with 32.Qc4 b5 33.Qxc6. There is no adequate solution to this move and Black could have lost the game. Instead, FM Kavutskiy played the more meek 31.Bc2? and Black had attained full equality. A further serious mistake by Kavutskiy (36.f4?) simply blundered away a pawn and gave Black substantial winning chances. Tragically, Curt missed his chance when he played the quite natural recapture 63…Nxb5 instead of cleverly using the king to capture the pawn with 63…Kb6! 64.Kf2 a3! 65.Nc1 Kxb5 66.Ke3 Kc4 67.Kd2 Nf5 68.Kc2 Nxd4 69.Kb1 Kc3! -+ With the idea of 70.Ka2 Kc2 -+. Instead after 63…Nxb5, the slight loss of time for the king’s penetration was enough to allow White to hold the draw. Though he fought to the very last, Curt was unable to finally make anything of his extra pawn and the game was finally drawn.

A disappointing loss for the Sluggers but as the playoff seat had already been secured – the Sluggers will play on next week! Best of luck Sluggers!

Sluggers defeated 1-3

A tough loss for the Sluggers against St. Louis this week! Sadly, Seattle never managed to get into a groove and had clearly lost positions before the 20^th move had been reached on both of the boards where Seattle wielded the Black pieces. The first of these was board one.

I’ve heard it said that the result of board one is disproportionately a good predictor of the entire result of the match, possibly because of its effect on team morale. If this is true, then players in St. Louis must have doubled their resolve when GM Ben Finegold accumulated a nice advantage in the opening and then profited from an early but quite understandable mistake by FM Costin Cozianu (16…Ne8?) to immediately gain a winning advantage on the queenside in the form of an extra pawn which was passed and already threatening to march down the board.

Instead Black’s best chance may have been able to keep the balance through grabbing the pawn 16…Qxb4!? While it would seem that White would be able to gain much from attacking the queen, in fact after 17.Rab1 Qa3! Black is able to get away with capturing on a2, and aiming to trade heavy pieces as quickly as possible. The alternative 17.Rcb1 Rac8! Forces 18.Qxc8 Qxb1+ 19.Rxb1 Rxc8 20.Rxb7 and Black can achieve a holding ending after 20…Rc1+ 21.Bf1 Bxf3 22.Nxf3 Nb6! With adequate counterplay threatened in the form of …Nc4, …Ne4, and then a knight coming to d2. But all of these lines look extremely difficult to see at the board, and it’s understandable that Costin tried to hold the 7^th rank and harass White’s queen instead beginning with 16…Ne8 – but White was able to capture two pawns and was able to consolidate one of the extra pawns too easily. A rapid loss for the team Seattle.

On board three, FM Curt Collyer also suffered very early on against IM Levan Bregadze. Curt used his system of an early ....b6, provoking the opponent to take space in the center. White fully ouccpied the center with e4, d4, and c4 pawns, but with the strong play 7…Bxc3+ 8.bxc3 d6 Curt managed to keep White’s strategic plus down to its bare minimum. Strangely, White gave up most of his space advantage when he played 12.dxe6?! which is probably just an anti-positional mistake. No doubt, White was counting on generating sufficient active play with his bishop pair but had Curt simply replied 12…fxe6 13.Ng5 (this was the move Curt feared) 13…Qd7 – it’s not too clear what White will have and left to his own devices Black will play …e5 with a fine position. Perhaps White would have tried 14.f4 but Black has many ways to hold the balance. An attractive one is 14…h6 15.Nf3 Rae8, with the intent of playing a sharp thrust …e5 on the next move.

Instead, Curt, fearing Ng5, played  12…f6? Intending to recover the pawn on e6 at a later time. But White accurately burst through the position before Black had time to bring about a reasonable turn of events and by move 15 it was clear that White would be pressing home a winning kingside attack. The game was abandoned on move 22 when Black had the unhappy choice of surrendering his queen or being checkmated.

These two early losses could not be fully atoned for on the boards where Seattle had White. NM Josh Sinanan’s game against Matthew Larson was well-played by White who coped with a barrage of rapid moves fired off by a well-prepared opponent. Larson (rated around 1918) fired off the first 22 moves of the game (!) a full eight moves after Josh appeared to be aware of the “theoretical” moves. Josh remained calm and found one good move after another until finally Larson began to slow down around move 23. The fruits of Black’s preparation were a significant advantage on the clock and an opponent who had already expended much more nervous energy on the game, but finally the difference in playing strength made itself known and just four short moves after the storm of preparation had ended White had already achieved a winning position (27.Rd3 +-). It also appears that White had a chance to gain a decisive advantage a couple moves earlier with 25.e5! Qf8 (only move) 26.Bf1! and Black is losing by force - all variations end in winning attacks or in material losses for Black which lead straight into easily winnable endgames.

FM Slava Mikhailuk’s game on board three with White against 19 year-old IM Priyadharshan Kannappan did not go as well. Rating’s wise this was the closet game of the match with Slava holding slightly fewer ELO points. Here too, Black appeared to be very well prepared and a striking feature of this game is how intimidatingly fast IM Kannappan was moving. By the end of the game, Black’s clock appeared to almost never have been utilized, meaning that the 30-second increment was enough for Black to make all of his moves. Slava’s English fell into some troubles, but with accurate play Slava had just about managed to stabilize the situation. But, uncharacteristically, Slava lashed out with a risky pawn jump 19.d4? which I believe must have contained a miscalculating on Slava’s part. If I had to take a guess I would say that after 19…cxd3 20.Bb2 Nec4 21.Bd4 Nd2 (all of which occurred in the game) White may have believed he had 22.Rfc1+ Kb8 23.Bxd3 but later discovered that Black would have 23…Nb3 in the final position. Instead 19.Nf3 !?, for example, would have been enough for White to eventually exchange pieces and complete his development (Ra2-c2, Bb2). Ultimately 19.d4? ended up being a mistake so grave that it cost Slava an exchange. Slava fought hard to salvage the position but a lost exchange was just too much.

The match ended 1-3 for the Sluggers. A tough match indeed!

Sluggers Defeat New Jersey!

The Sluggers win! This was an exceptionally close match in which the advantage ebbed and flowed – from looking about equal, to sharply worse for the Sluggers, to nearly winning for the Sluggers, to sharply worse for the Sluggers, to suddenly winning and won for the Sluggers. See for yourself!

Boards one and two were looking shaky right from the start. On board one we had FM Costin Cozianu (2508) handling the White pieces against GM Joel Benjamin (2646). Clearly, a draw here would be an excellent result but Cozianu’s opening play left something to be desired right from the get-go. Costin used the Worrall Attack, a setup against the Ruy Lopez featuring Qe2 and Rd1. Strangely, he then followed up with 11.d3 when the placement of the rook seemed to call for 11.d4 – but the real enigma is why both players seemed to feel that 14.Nxe5 led to an acceptable compensation for Black. When I raised this question (including to Cozianu!) I mostly heard groans related to the Marshall Gambit – but this is most certainly not a Marshall Gambit position!

There are several factors in White’s favor. He will not find it necessary to play g2-g3. After the suggested 15…Bd6 (Cozianu) White can play 16.Qh5! (on 16…g6 17.Qf3!)  – notice that unlike the Marshall Gambit White has activated his queen very early (whereas in the Marshall White must play Rxe5 and then Re1 in reply to …Bd6 – he then struggles to include his queen into the affairs on the kingside). There is no question of Black achieving …Qh4 and this means that White does not to weaken his king’s front with g2-g3. What’s more in the Marshall Gambit White’s knight lives in b1 for quite some time, but here it is just a move away from hoping to e4. All-in-all Black is forced to prove that his piece play can be turned to account on the kingside and I just don’t see how this is going to take place. And if you’re still not convinced, just look at the alternatives! … White instead played 14.d4 after which he was saddled with an isolated pawn and Black’s space and majority on the queenside was impressive. A pawn in exchange for some pressure may have been a better compromise for White (and quite possibly- advantageous for White).

Fast forward a few moves and Black had achieved an outstanding position. NM Josh Sinanan, observing the game, immediately recognized 20…Ba3! as a very strong move which would have exploited the  unpleasant arrangement of White’s pieces on the queenside and creating the simple threat of …Bb2, White would have probably found this position highly unpleasant and needs to find 21.Be4 and hope for the best.

Instead 20…Bd6?! was played by GM Benjamin followed by a spirited attack – from here both players played excellently. Black built his attack and at the same time set all kinds of dangerous traps for Cozianu, but Cozianu was able to hold his ground and draw the game. This was an unexpected delight to all of us who had been following the game (and rooting for Seattle) since the opening and the strength of the opponent seemed to indicate that this game was headed toward disaster! Not so!

Board two was an even more hopeless cause from the outset but miraculously ended in a draw. FM Slava Mikhailuk (2415) was paired way up with the Black pieces against GM Boris Gulko (2590). White coasted straight to an overwhelming advantage somewhere by move 18 or so and was playing his moves fairly rapidly adding to the fright which we all experienced while watching the game and which must have ruffled Slava as well.

White went ahead a pawn at move 21 with 21.fxe5 giving him a 3-0 central pawn majority (!!) Black also had weaknesses on the queenside and a knight out of play. This is the Grunfeld at its worst! By move 35, White had a full two pawns advantage, every one of the remaining Black pawns was seriously weakened, and the Black pieces were barely holding onto their blockade. White also held four minutes on the clock to Black’s two (30 seconds are added every move).

Black faced overwhelming odds but continued to play the most precise moves which did not immediately lead to disaster. Everything was in excellent shape for White and it was just about time for Slava to resign before a very innocent mistake meant that White had to part with the fruits of all of his efforts. That mistake was the seemingly inconsequential 43.Rff2 when after 43…Qd3! White suddenly found that he could not prevent perpetual check no matter how he tried. Had White tried 47.Be5+ Kh6 48.Rxh2+ Kg5 49.Rxh7 Black would draw with 49…Qxe4+ 50.Kg1 Qe1+ … a miracle!! White was forced to accept a draw and this drastically altered the situation in the match. Instead, White could have put the game away with 43.Rb8+ Kg7 44.Rfb1 with an overwhelming position. For example 44…Kf6 (trying to prevent e7) meets 45.e7! … 1-0!  A great game by GM Gulko which was spoiled by very bad luck and a spirited resistance by Slava. Congratulations Slava!

And a good thing that Slava pulled through, because the situation on boards three and four where we were looking for at least that one win couldn’t have gotten more disturbing.  Board three was an interesting game full of little Catalan motifs. White was the Slugger's FM Marcel Milat's game against FM Carsten Hansen. This game was also the closest in terms of ELO points (Marcel having a 59-ELO point advantage). Black always looked close to equality but never managed to dispell the pressure on the queenside pawns. Little by little, Marcel seemed to be guiding the Sluggers to an important victory - a victory which seemed necessary to at least equalize the match given the dire situation on board four. But just as it seemed that Marcell would go a comfortable pawn up and wrap up the effort  neatly, Marcel decided to sacrifice a piece! (39.Rh1?). Instead, 39.Nb7 Nxa4 40.Rh1 is very strong. Marcel's piece sacrifice led to three pawns for a piece with still very dangerous pressure on the Black position. The maneuver 41...Nc8! followed by 42...Nd6 would have been enough to careen the game towards a simple draw for Black, but in time pressure we all quite liked Hansen's quick-thinking defense 41...Nxa4!?  immediately returning the piece for two pawns and holding a rook ending down a pawn. Very quick thinking! The last touch was 52...f5+! when White had to accept that the two pawns were useless in bringing about victory. Marcel continued to do his very best but luckily it became unimportant for him to win the game because of the dramatic events on board four....

The decisive game proved to be board four, where Black (the Slugger's FM Curt Collyer, 2294) magically found himself in a perfect King’s Indian position after opening the game with … 1…b6! With the colossal gap in ratings (White was Vince Klemm, 2073) and Black stretching out in the center and on the kingside, this game had been chalked up by the gang as 0-1 almost as quickly as it had begun. But things did not at all proceed smoothly, and unable to land a serious strategic blow, Black found himself being ripped apart by the exact same chronic weaknesses which tend to characterize the King’s Indian in its saddest moments – and with nothing serious in the form of a compensating attack. White was just a move or two away from forcing resignation but instead veered off track at the last moment giving Black’s pseudo-attack the right to exist. What amazing fortune, because the unexpected draw on Marcel’s board meant that Collyer’s game held the entire result of the match. Who could have guessed that he would emerge from this position unscathed! Congratulations must be paid because Collyer’s position was by no means easy. Rather than fold or launch a hail-mary, Collyer was able to get his attack close enough to success to profit from White’s inaccuracies. Suddenly, Collyer had won the game, and with it the match was secured in Seattle’s favor. Go Sluggers!!

Random Thoughts

So I looked at Bioniclime's simulations, and wow, STL and NJ have 0% of making it to the post-season. Shucks.

But then, I looked at Seattle's chances of making the post-season, and then I didn't really feel so good.

0.339%. Uh-mazing. Which means it would be hilariously funny if we did end up making the post-season. Like, what would Seattle do. Hm. Sweep STL. Sweep the Vibe. And then knock currently #4 Dallas out of the post-season. Hm. What if Dallas goes 0-4 against SF Mechanics and Miami Sharks. Oh, that would put Seattle into the post-season.

I like where this is going. We just need to sweep STL and the Vibe.

1. GM Hikaru Nakamura - FM Cozianu

HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAA. Oh shnaps. what the ****. $#!@. Actually, not all hope is lost. Apparently, Hikaru is performing like a 2163. Heck. What the crap is that? Even lil' big gun Roland Feng has a higher performance rating than that. Oh, and as a matter of fact, now that I think about it, a kid who JUST graduated from elementary school has a higher performance rating. AND, he's from Seattle!

Holy cow. I just glanced at Roland's performance rating. It's 2326. That's actually pretty good. Shnaps. Future star material right there.

Haha. But this is only Nakamura's second game of the season. As if he's been saving 'it' for Seattle. haha, maybe not...though I'm interested in knowing why he hasn't played any more games.

As for the rest of the boards, I guess the popular opinion would be that SEA loses on board 2 and wins 3+4. But if we just get a draw on either 1+2, we got the match.

And then there was that time when Seattle still made the playoffs with a 4.5-5.5 record. Maybe the chips will fall our way again. Who knows. It's called Luck.

Some more Random Thoughts

So now that I'm blogging during a not-as-fantastic season for Seattle...

I guess I've got to admit, it's not as fun blogging when not everybody's winning all the time. Actually, it sure shucks as hell when a score like 0.5-3.5 appears more than once in the season. Cuz a score like that means that nobody won a game. Nobody. Like, what are the odds of that. Oh wait, with Seattle, that's 25%. Shucks.

It gets hard, cuz then, it's like, crap, what are you supposed to talk about.

Another thing hard about blogging for Seattle, especially when you're 969 miles away, is that it's really hard to know what's going on in the team atmosphere. It's hard to write in a mood that resonates with everybody else's natural frequency. Cuz you just don't know.

The unsaid screaming emotions emanating from body language and facial expressions aren't there. A blog post isn't the same when you don't know that Akobian's head was throbbing with seizurous activity when he was crushing Friedel, even though that detail may not ultimately pop up in the post. These little things--they matter.

I guess the problem with long-distance is that everything sensed but not said just isn't there anymore, so really, you're only looking at a chess screen, a blue-highlighted digital clock, and just plain old text. Said another way, you're only looking at a one-dimensional integer array of shifting ARGB values. Can't get very far with just text.

But add the smile, the friendly voices, and perhaps a bit of funky body odor, and it's something different. Perhaps even magical.

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lololol ok time to exit sappy-writing-mode.

I know I haven't been posting as much as I would like, and part of that has been that college is actually really tough. Way more work than I expected. And though I might not have realized it at the time, I guess the inability to generate content based on what I knew what people were feeling was part of the difficulty. But I also want to make it clear that I certainly haven't stopped blogging because there weren't prizes. It's actually probably a really good thing for the USCL that those blog prizes have stopped. Discussion, not competition, please.

Which reminds me...maybe the USCL should have a discussion board.

(SEA) Roland Feng - Ben (DAL)

OK, this year's season has not been brilliant for the Sluggers, and I guess, neither was this match. But hey, then again, there's this kid who's half my height and is already playing chess at an unusually high level.

I know that there are some small writing errors, but they just highlight the fact that Roland's young and is still a kid, which is, in my opinion, a higher honor than being called an adult. So here're Roland's annotations, presented as is, as the writing of a young gun who's still got a couple good years of chess ahead of him :).

Golub - Sevian

Here are Golub's annotations to a very nice win over Sevian. Check it out!

Annotation: Orlov - Bercys

It has been suggested that I should post some more serious content...so here's an annotation that Orlov sent in about a game which won him second place in the Game of the Week contest!

Here it is: http://seattlesluggers.net/games/orlovbercys.htm

Review of the Seattle Roster

eh, it's been a while since I posted something, so I thought I'd post something that'd keep me entertained.

1. GM Varuzhan Akobian

Fun Fact: His head will throb furiously in concentration if he sees mate in 50

Hmm, part of this is actually true. It's kinda freaky when I saw his head do that, but I guess you just gotta do whatcha gotta do.

2. FM Costin Cozianu

Fun Fact: "What's the first thing that comes to your mind when I say, 'Costin Cozianu'?" "A girl."

HAHHAHAHAHA I love asking my floormates :).

3. IM Georgi Orlov

Fun Fact: "He is a cool cucumber"~Michael Lee

About time the Sluggers got some vegetables on the team.

4. FM Slava Mikhailuk

Fun Fact: He lives a double-life as a vampire

Slava's profile picture still scares the decomposed waste material outta me.

5. FM Marcel Milat

Fun Fact: He owns a private jet, a Jacuzzi, 10 cars comprising of Porsches, Mercedes, as well as other OK collectibles, and a mansion next to Bill Gates.

I like calling him M&M.

6. WGM Katerina Rohonyan

Fun Fact: "The first thing that comes to mind is the Lord of the Rings. You know, like, Rohonyan, sounds like...Rohan, from the Lord of the Rings? Right?"

Um. Yah. Idk. You should ask my roommate why he said that when I asked, "What first comes to your mind when I say, 'Katerina Rohonyan'?"

7. NM Joshua Sinanan

Fun Fact: He used to have hair down all the way to his shoulders

He actually did. It was kinda cool, but then he had to get a haircut :(

8. NM Dereque Kelley

Fun Fact: he plays better with one minute than with 90 minutes.

I remember getting roasted given 1 minute to 5 minute time odds. Maybe Kelley should be given just 5 minutes in every match he's going to play in.

9. NM David Golub

Fun Fact: when he checks your king, he will yell "LLAMA!"

And this, my friends, is why we need to get Skype in on these matches. So that we can yell LLAMAAAAA.

10. Roland Feng

Fun Fact: this kid is in fifth or sixth grade, but he looks like he's 6 years old

I'm short, but this kid is half my height. Which kinda makes me wanna punch him. But it's ok. Great to see you on the team Roland!

Preview of the 9/12 match: Sluggers vs. Sharks

After upsetting the Arizona Scorpions, the Seattle Sluggers are looking to win another match this week. Let's take a look at the Sluggers/Sharks matchup.

1. Cozianu (SEA) - Roman

Cozianu outrates Roman by roughly 200 points and furthermore, I am liking Roman's 2200 performance rating. Adding on to that, Cozianu loves the white pieces. Though I'm not going to predict an outright win for Cozianu, I'm liking Cozianu's chances on this board.

2. Rodriguez - Mikhailuk (SEA)

Both have been on All-Star teams but last season both have had relatively lackluster seasons. I don't think Rodriguez is going to keep his 2000 performance rating from last year, so the match up will be closer than one might think. Evenly matched, this board is a toss-up.

3. Rohonyan (SEA) - Hernandez

Hernandez is as yet untested under USCL team conditions and time controls. However, I don't think he'd be on the Miami Sharks for no reason. Having no knowledge of Hernandez's history and since the ratings look evenly matched, I'll just call this board a toss-up.

Oh and by the way, in his profile picture Hernandez kinda looks stoned, though I'm sure he's just being very very serious.

4. Alvarez - Kelley (SEA)

Both players have one game on their record, and thus their performance ratings are both sub-1900 (lol). But obviously, both players are obviously stronger players than simply 1900s.

Kelley had a tough first week, but I think he'll bounce back this week. And sorry to be bagging so much on profile pictures, but right now I'm kinda laughing a little because Alvarez looks like he's sleeping. Pleasant dreams, my friend.

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Be sure to watch the match today on ICC! Later,

Alex Guo

Potentially free cookies, kids

Wednesday Night, 8/31

by Michael Lee and Alex Guo

Board 1: GM Varuzhan Akobian (Seattle) vs. GM Dmitry Gurevich

Board 1 features GM Varuzhan Akobian against GM Dmitry Gurevich. Gurevich held down board 1 for Chicago last year, playing a full 10 games. However, Akobian is dangerous, especially with the white pieces. Both players are fresh off the recent 1st Metropolitan International in L.A., so should be in good form. This looks to be a game to watch.

Board 2: IM Florin Felecan vs. FM Costin Cozianu (Seattle)

Wow, I like the alliteration on these names here. I wonder whether the team managers planned it that way. Felecan rhymes with Pelican which almost sounds kinda scary while Cozianu brings me warm feelings of coziness. Additionally, I kinda like Cozianu's profile picture better than Felecan's. It's like comparing a fierce competitor with ... with someone who almost looks dazed that his picture is being taken. Aside from that, they're both strong players. Felecan is a strong tactical player while Cozianu is solid. Should be an interesting matchup.

Board 3: NM Dereque Kelley (Seattle) vs. IM Angelo Young

Kelley's got gutsss to go up against Young. Young's got a pretty dang good track record, but I wouldn't count Kelley out here. Kelley's got some pretty nice victories in his last few tournaments. And Kelley's actually smiling in his profile picture while Angelo Young's standing next to...idk, some random move center. What is up with that. You should switch profile picture.

Board 4: NM Eric Rosen vs. NM David Golub (Seattle)

On Board 4, we have two rising juniors Eric Rosen and David Golub facing off. Both have improved greatly over the last few years, Golub recently breaking National Master and Rosen almost gaining an IM norm in his last few tournaments. Interestingly enough, this will be the 3rd Seattle Board 4 player Rosen has faced with White in the last 3 years.

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Hm, and the twitter account SeattleSluggers will be tweeting during the match. Go follow us!

The Final Match

Tough match, tough match.

There's not much for me to add on to what has already been said. Kostya and the Farmer pretty much said all there is to say. Altounian held on to a tough draw against Akobian (first result). Wang got into a bad position pretty darn early through surprisingly passive play that only got worse as the game continued (second result). The dreaded must-win situation dawned on Cozianu and Slava. Cozianu slugged a tricky win against Rogellio. The only comment I have on that game is that Cozianu probably didn't 'see' the win, but what Cozianu probably did feel that there was a win, but being in a bit of time pressure, could not work out the concrete variations. Once it had come to calculate the variations, though, Cozianu took a couple of minutes and found the win.

So it was all up to Slava. Kostya and Farmer have already spotted most of the winning possibilities, just check out their annotations for details. Lots of possibilities...so many chances...time trouble...missing the first easy win (Rexd4) probably came as a psychological blow to Slava--I'm guessing he saw it just after he played Rxe5 (probably the worst possible feeling, that you see the win...just after....you play another move)--leading to some more missed opportunities. Oh well...

I've always thought that these matches and games were as much a matter of luck as they were a matter of skillage. Once again, Arizona has gotten pretty DARN lucky that their mistakes and missed opportunities didn't cost them. just look at that match against St. Louis, and they're darn lucky again in this match. The last thing I've got to say here before I sign out for the season:

the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

~Ecclesiasties 9:11

Till next season, I remain

Alex Guo

formspring.me

Anything related to the Seattle Sluggers or the US Chess League! http://formspring.me/SeattleSluggers

Week 10 Recap against STL

Before the lineups were posted, we were pretty scared of a Naka/Shulman/double-Finegold lineup, against which we were going to go with Var/Mikhailuk/Lee/Guo anyways. A win could be expected on fourth board, but the other three...? Not too sure. Shulman was probably going to win his game, and whether Var could pull off a win, and whether Lee could hold his own against Finegold, was a little speculative.

But instead, we had the Shulman/Finegold/Brooks/Finegold lineup, which is substantially weaker. We would expect a win on fourth board; Var's chances of a win on first board greatly increased because Shulman's USCL play so far has not been too stellar. We'd hope for the best on second board, and FM Lee now had good chances for a win on third board (Brooks USCL record has also not been too great)

Which is what happened.

Board 4: Spencer Finegold - Guo, 0-1

(after 42...Qc2)

Given the firepower of Nakamura and Shulman on the top boards, I wouldn't have been surprised to know that Spencer prepped some crazy line against me, which might actually be credible. So the best thing to do was to play some wacko sideline to steer Spencer into unknown territory (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 b6!?), and ended up getting into a dubious position with the black pieces. Interestingly, the resulting position was rather easy to play and did not present many difficulties for Spencer, and thus he was able to exchange down into the endgame position shown above.

At this moment, Spencer blundered with 43.Nd7??. My only guess as to why this happened is simply that the move was played too fast. At this moment, I had around 16 minutes to Spencer's 56 minutes. This was probably 30 seconds...

Board 2: GM Finegold - FM Slava Mikhailuk, 1-0

Slava's been playing tough opposition all season, and this match was no exception. Slava got the Black side of a IQP position:

(after 21.Nc3)

White is threatening Nd5. which will get him out of the unfavorable pawn structure. Black needed to play 21...Nxe3, giving up the IQP pawn structure but getting the two bishops. After 21...Nxe3, the position is about equal. Black played 21...Qb8, and after 22.Nxd5, pressure on the IQP is lessened and a target is borne on d5. White now has the much better position, and White played well to achieve a great position. Even before Black gave the exchange in a bid for counterplay on move 27, White already had a domineering position (my computer gives White a 1.19 edge...). White converted the point convincingly.

(after 27.Bb1)

In the above position, Black is under very strong pressure from White. The knight cannot move because of Bc7, Be8 and Rd8 are stalemated...all of White's pieces are just really active. My computer engine gives White a 1.19 score +/-...it's a pretty tough position and I wouldn't blame Slava for playing 27...Ne7, which gives up the exchange to Bc7.

Board 3: GM Akobian - GM Shulman

Varuzhan played a fantastic game against Shulman, almost garnering him GOTW honors! Varuzhan went into a gambit line, and gained tremendous positional pressure,

(after 20...Nc7)

Varuzhan has an ideal position! All of Var's pieces couldn't be better placed.

Varuzhan let all heck break loose with 21.Nxf6!, Qxf6 22.Bxe5 Qf7 23.Bxc6. Unsurprisingly, Akobian soon won the exchange, leveling the material balance. Akobian then ran his extra c-pawn down the board to get a winning position

(after 38...Bxb7)

In the process of running the c-pawn down to the 7th rank, the queens were exchanged, but simply 39.Rxf8 Kxf8 40.Rd8+. The pawn promotes, and it's all over. Wow.

Board 3: FM Lee - IM Brooks, 1-0

So at this point, Seattle was up 2-1, but we needed more than 2 to get past draw odds. It was on this game that Seattle fans were most scared on. Michael had been gobbling piece....after piece....

First, Brooks dropped a pawn in the opening on the fifth move (a little rusty, maybe?)...

(after 15.Rc1)

Then Brooks gave up a pawn, another pawn, and the exchange! 15...Na5!? 16.Qxc7 Ba6!? (another pawn? ok!) 17.Bxd6 Rxd6!? (I think I'll take that too...if you don't mind :D), 18.Qxd6. At this point, Michael was already up three pawns, so perhaps a little caution is called for, and instead 18.Qxa5?. Taking the knight instead of the rook eliminates any danger from that piece, but I guess a rook....is a rook.

At this point, the players in the skittles room knew that Michael Lee had the better position (he's only up...three pawns and an exchange), but that the path to the win would be tricky. Brooks definitely had some counterplay - definitely not enough to win, but certainly not ignorable. The trouble started in the following position:

(after 26.Bg2)

So the files are wide open for attack! All the obstacles that are left on the middle files are now...Michael Lee's pawns (by the way, Michael Lee took yet another pawn on e4). Brooks knocked them out of the way with 26...Nxe3! 27.Qxe3 Re8, gaining back...some material. Then Michael Lee almost lost his marbles when Brooks had a chance to come back

(after 30.Rc5)

Michael Lee had played 30.Rc5, which is dubious, but it's tough to find a consolidating move in this position. Brooks had a chance to play 30...Qh4+! 31.Kf1 (Kd loses to Qf2), Qf6+ and if 31.Ke1/Qh4, with a draw (Kf1 Qg3 32.Bb7!!) Unfortunately, that wasn't enough for STL, who were down 2-1 at this point, so unfortunately, Brooks had to do something else to try for a win (note that if Finegold had drawn his game with me, Brooks would simply force a draw at this point, and STL would go to playoffs because of draw odds. Wow, we got lucky in this match...).

But the bad thing is that....Brooks doesn't have anything else besides Qh4+. 30...Ne4 31.Bxe4 Qxe4 32.Rf1 and to be frank....there's not much you can do with two pieces! Michael found his way out of the complications and out of time trouble, to clinch the match for Seattle!

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To be honest, the Sluggers got a little lucky this match. First, we had to be grateful for Nakamura's absence during this critical match, and second, the Sluggers got a win on fourth board, where Spencer had every right to expect a draw. If the Sluggers got a draw on 4th board instead, Brooks could've easily forced perpetual at some point, and it'd be all over.

But that's not to say that the Sluggers were always lucky. As I pointed out in my earlier posts, we were actually pretty unlucky during the season. I can point out at least a couple...Friedel-Akobian...Sinanan-Gupta...Slava-Becerra (a draw would've clinched the match against Miami). Nevertheless, the effort to make the playoffs was made possible only by everybody's effort, as the Sluggers needed every. single. point. While it is true that GM Akobian, FM Lee, and myself are the only ones with + scores, and have collectively scored more than half of the team's points, just look at the standings! Seattle got in only because of tiebreaks, by 3.5 game points. Every draw mattered. And let's not forget the fans who came in on the week 10 match (and on every other week, for that matter) - you guys make the matches worth playing.

Next week, the Sluggers are playing the Arizona Scorpions, fighting against draw odds. Interestingly enough, Arizona picked the white colors, hoping for better chances on board 1 with the white pieces, and possibly looking at my 0% record with the white pieces. Though, draw odds definitely aren't something to be too afraid of. There're plenty of teams in the past who've made it to the Championship match despite fighting draw odds (Miami comes to mind...). In fact, the Sluggers may have a weird psychological advantage because Arizona might be content in playing for draws on all boards, while the Sluggers will slug it out no matter what happens.

Should be an exciting match this week! By the way, sorry for the late post. College applications are extremely annoying. And speaking of college apps, I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't apply to Berkeley cuz of the weirdest arts requirement ever, but that's for another discussion. But before I sign out...St. Louis, you might want to know that I'm applying to the UW in St. Louis....just saying :D

Week 10 Match vs St Louis

One word. Yay!

Season Recap and preview of the the "1st" playoff round.

So, the playoffs are here. Sort of. This is technically the last round of the regular season, but in reality is just an extra round of playoffs. Unfortunately, St Louis has draw odds. Since we are looking at next weeks game as a playoff game, I will do our season recap now.

Its been a difficult year for us, losing Nakamura to St Louis. Luckily, we had Var step up and fill the void. Going into the season, we were very excited with our revamped lineup and knew people would be shocked to see Var on our lineup. Then GM Anka was unable to participate due to work load, and we had our State Champion Costin Cozianu step up in a big way. Then due to an unfortunate situation, we lost our rock, GM Serper for the season. However, after its all said and done, we are now looking a shot at the playoffs and looking for a championship.

We started off the season using a balanced lineup in week one and debuting Costin in week two, but things didn't go our way. Then, in week 3, GM Varuzhan Akobian came in and put a very impressive performance against GM Becerra to help lead the Sluggers to our first victory of the season. Var's enthusiasm was infectious, and I see why John Donaldson wanted Var on the Olympiad team so badly. Who needs cheerleaders when we have Var?

Unfortunately, in week 4, we suffered a close loss against our long time rivals, the Mechanics and we needed to stage a comeback to make the playoffs. From there on, we went undefeated, beating New Jersey and then drawing two more. Last week, we experienced our second ever win against San Francisco.

Despite going into the last week with only 4-5, we have actually scored the 2nd most points in the Western division, only short of Division champs Arizona.

Looking into our "1st" Playoff match, we are lucky that GM Nakamura is away cleaning up at the Cap D'Agde tournament and we won't have to face the deadly Triple GM lineup. On one hand, I feel that it helps our chances of scoring a victory, but on the other, I would like to face the best, only then we can see how good we are.

On Board 1, we see the matchup between long time friends, Yury Shulman and Varuzhan Akobian. They have been teammates, representing the US in various competitions, have played matches against each other, and also have had numerous training sessions together. Yury is the higher rated player, but Var has white, so its a toss up as to who will prevail.

On Board 2, we have Slava facing a big challenge in Ben Finegold. On this board, St Louis has the edge, as we have seen in the USCL, anything can happen.

On Board 3, young star Michael Lee faces IM Brooks. Brooks has been struggling this season, and Michael has looked better every match. I think Seattle has the edge here.

On Board 4, we have two underrated kids playing, Alex Guo and Spencer Finegold. It looks like Spencer will be looking to steer the game into tactical waters, where he's at his best, but in the end Alex has been remarkable this season, and he should be able to win this game too.

Given what we see, I feel like we have great chances to "advance" to the playoffs this year, but in the USCL, you never know what will happen.