Pick up the Pieces

Hey, good day to be chessplayer. Feeling a bit out of the norm, usually I just post pre and post match. Well, I was riding the ferry across the Puget Sound, sun was shining and I thought that it would be a good time to post. And you know, in this league there is more than enough going on to keep eveybody writing. Anyway...

Couple of thoughts about the Monday night matches (Sep. 14). I want to thank Mssrs. Charbonneau and Schneider for delving into the pond of chess where Fritz wasn't mechanical. I suspect that there might have been some kind of secret analysis cooked up years ago between these two that encouraged a wager and such is how the opening occured. In any case, Bravo! Next, of course is the Boston debacle, made worse by the prediction of Mr. Phelps. Well, I think this was an ingenious ploy! Consider the consequences. If Boston had won then all is well as they puff out their chests and proclaim there dominance of the defending champions. If they lose, then it is simply a matter of luck and best of all when they lose by an overwhelming score as happened then it is obvious that the rest of the league is against the Blitz, so they need to band together to keep from weathering the storm of adversity. Very clever, I would not be surprised if they lost 0-4 at the request of their manager(s)! Very sneaky, very clever. Be warned rest of the league, Boston is now more powerful than ever!

Different not, the upcoming epic between your Sluggers of Seattle and the accursed Scorpions of Arizona. GM Ramirez of Arizona has posted a prediction and I would like to thank him for his efforts. Very enlightening. I have already posted my view of the match, so I have no further comment on the outcome. I would, however, appreciate a review of the academic credentials of GM Ramirez. Looking at the numbers and explanations of them leads me to suspect that GM Ramirez either missed a couple of classes or accidentally read his Shakespeare in prep for a psych exam. Or possibly the standards for education at GM Ramirez' alma mater (UTD) are a wee bit askew. I mean no harm what so ever, just checking so that I get the correct wager in at Las Veg... er I mean I can comment appropriately on the blog. All in all, I think an tie is just the right result. Actually, when you consider the actions of a certain GM transplanted to Holland perhaps a tie is indicated. Kharma and stuff like that.

Now, for the important part. I have decided that the titles of these "blog" bits is too boring, so I am going with rock titles. Hope it helps.

ttyl

Rd. 3 Seattle vs. Arizona

Week 3 and a matchup of two undefeated teams. The odd part is, Seattle hasn't won any matches yet! Each team has reason to feel that an undefeated streak through the 3rd week of the season is likely.

Seattle can feel confident that Nakamura on board one is not an underdog even with the black pieces. This limits the match to a 3 board affair with Seattle having white on 2 of those boards. It is just the way that the rating system and GM's work I guess.

Board 2 is the most intriguing, only because of the history from the end of last season between Mikhailuk and Ginsburg. A couple of different moves in that last round and Arizona would have gone to the playoffs. Ginsburg will likely be looking for a bit of payback and is unlikely to give anything away. If there is any place where Arizona might expect kharma to work for them it is right here.

Rensch on board 3 has the only rating advantage listed ( to be honest, the USCL rules on ratings doesn't seem to reflect the numbers posted on the pairing sheet ). Lee is improving, but hasn't shown his best in the USCL. This is definitely the board where Arizona can look to make hay.

Leo Martinez is going hoping to use some of the expertise he has in match predictions to work some magic on board 4. On the Seattle side Josh Sinanan has yet to bust out, much like Lee, and is looking for any opportunity.

The match looks like a real landslide for Seattle, but don't be fooled. The Scorpions have a lot to play for, an undefeated string this season as well as some bad luck from last season. Arizona can win this match on the bottom 3 boards, it is very possible. For Seattle the season so far has been a 50/50 proposition... that is get 50 percent on the top 2 boards and 50 percent on the bottom two. To me this is not a surprise, I has a brief conversation with some of the Sluggers about a month before the season and suggested that it didn't matter how well they did on the top boards, that they needed better play on the lower boards. Doesn't seem to have rung through to them yet. I am going to predict a tie, that way everybody stays undefeated and can wait for next week.

Message to Sluggers fans everywhere, especially my friend Mulfish. I have set up a Twitter account HA81chess where I am going to try to keep up on the match. Not sure how it will work, I don't type very fast any more, but at least it will keep the news fresh and the Commish won't have problems linking to it. Just go out to www.twitter.com and look for HA81chess, that is wher I should be. I will have a post match wrap on this blog right here.

Ok, see you all later

Rd. 2 update

I kind of posted without meaning to.. Oh well.

7:35 update

kind of a surprise on board 3. Bonin exchanged c5 x b4 and then plopped in Nd4. Lee captured on d4 once, then instead of playing Nc3-e2 followed by d3-d4 with a big plus he just played Qb3. It is possible that he didn't like lines after Ne2 and d4 where Black pushed d5 and just accepts less space.

I gotta tell you folks, the only thing worse than haveing your opponent play a move you never expected is blogging about others (likely better players) making moves you don't expect!

Oh, looks like a big whoops on board 1. Kachieshvilli was winning e3, Naka set a small snag, Kachi then played Bc3 and it looks like it is just losing a piece for Black as Naka captured on e3 and then c3, Black Queen on e3 was defending Be3 and Re8 from White Qa4. Ugghhhh!

Another big change, on board 2. Just as I said the armies could only barely see each other, Charbonneau played e5 and then f5. Ok, we have made contact. I wonder of Pascal is going to sac the Knight on d4? something like 14...d6xe5 15.f5xe6 e5xd4 16.e6xf7+?

Board 4 has changed also. White arranged doubled rooks on the a-file and then moved Bg2 to d3. Black played a6, Kc7 and Rb8 as a defensive redoubt while advancing all the k-side pawns f5 / g5 and h5.


Well, this is about what I expected. Nakamura won, Lee wasn't able to exploit a positional advantage, Serper is 2 pawns down in a double rook ending after fighting through an attack by Charbonneau and Chen is either blocking or blocked, either way neither side has a chance to break through. This looks like a tie to me. Good night!

live update from Sluggers - Knights USCL Rd. 2

6:50 PST

Got home, move stuff around and finally got to the match. Here is how it looks right now...

Bd. 1 Nakamura played 1.b3, Kachieshvilli played d5 and c5 to which Naka went for the Nimzovich attack (instead of a Bird), Kachi played Nf6 and g6 to get a reversed Queens Indian and Naka played Bb2xf6 doubling the f pawns. From that point, the position officially became.. a mess. Naka plays for activity, takes an isolated e-pawn and advances q-side majority. Maybe a little better for White.

Bd. 2 is still in the opening, a Kan Sicilian (Serper fav) with 4.Bd3. Charbonneau has set up a Maroczy. There are good a bad to this for Serper, good that he isn't already way behind on time, bad that his past results in the USCL from this formation aren't the greatest. little better for White

Bd. 3 Another still in the opening. Symmetrical English, Lee opted for the Botvinnik formation and Bonin countered with an interesting sequence of b6 and Bb7, then fianchetto the other side. This is about the sort of thing I had expected and will tell how mature Michael has become, or possibly how mature Bonin already is!

Bd. 4 QP game with 3.g3. Chen opted for a London setup, exchanged Q's on b3 and Bf5 x Nb1. On the face of it this appears equal, but either side has trumps to play with and could turn matters.

Back in a bit

7:10 update

Bd. 1 has changed. White squared B's got exchanged on e6 and Black recaptured with a Rook, then doubled on the e-file aiming at the e3 pawn. Naka is getting the Q-side pawns revved up to go further and kind of defending e3 by observing a Re8 with his Qa4, so if Rxe3 the Qxe8+ will pick up 2 Rooks for the lady. I don't think it will go that way though.

On Bd. 2 the players are still marking out their fighting zone. In other words, no real contact between armies. This is fairly normal in the hedgehog.

Down to board 3 we find that Lee has advanced b2-b4. I think this is good for White because Bonin threw the move a6 in and so an exchange b4xc5 will present an issue for Black... if d6xc5 then b6 is being observed by Rb1 and has no pawn support on a7, while b6xc5 loses the Bb7.

Board 4 has changed a bunch. Chen castled long, Sturt arranged f3, e4 and then e5. This is good for White as Black's counterplay is far off. I feel kind of odd saying that, but here is the point. Black can create some play by g7-g5 , Bf8-h6 and Rg8, but that all takes a bunch of time and at the end White might just take the g-file and be happy. It is because of the White space advantage.

Back soon

Rd. 2 vs. New York Knights

Crossing division lines in week 2 of the USCL seems a bit odd, but that is the schedule for Seattle and New York. These teams have a bit of a rivalry as they have played each of the past 3 seasons ( all 3 of Seattle's seasons in the league ). New York won the first 2 and Seattle won last year. This is surely a critical match for each team as the Knights lost in the first round and Seattle failed to win in round 1. Let's have a look...

Nakamura plays for the first time this year for Seattle and faces veteran GM Kacheishvilli. Nakamura is establishing his place in world chess and will no doubt look to further that in this match. Still, Kacheishvilli is no pushover.

Board 2 harkens back to the first time these teams met as GM Charbonneau had white against GM Serper in that match also. Having white favors Charbonneau, while Serper just broke a similar stretch last week as Black against Freidel.

Rising star Michael Lee will have white against veteran Bonin on third board. On paper this would favor Seattle, but Bonin is very cagey and will certainly have something in mind to misdirect the Seattle wunderkind.

A double indoctrination is the setup on board 4 as Raven Sturt for New York and Howard CHen for Seattle will face off. This is a board where the help of other team members could decide the affair. Last year Seattle won when first timer Andy May came better prepared in an obscure line of the Caro, likely the result of work with a team mate. That might favor the Knights a bit.

This looks like a case of White being the favorite on each board, so a tie would be a likely result. If I was betting on this I would break it down to 2 matches. Seattle should win on board 1 and has good chances of holding on 2. Board 3 has the best chances of ending peacefully while 4 is a complete guess. Also, I would suspect that Serper is in much better form this season than last and will likely produce some quite good results.

Actually, I wouldn't go through all that. I would simply say that the middle 2 boards are likely to offset, Seattle on 1 and NY on 4. I think a 2 - 2 tie is likely.

The other 2 Tuesday night matches will do quite a lot to determine the pecking order in the East. Queens lost last week to Boston and this week face a Baltimore team that was victorious in round 1. If the Pioneers lose another they will be in trouble, like 2 par secs into Borg space kind of trouble. New Jersey beat their nemesis New York last week and now will face a Philadelphia team that was predicted to do a lot, but lost in the first round. If the Knockouts win again this week they will be off to a fast start with some groing confidence. Philadelphia is probably the favorite, but not winning this week wil raise a lot of questions. So, all in all it should be quite an interesting evening.

Looking Around...

Hey, people ask me why am I a Sluggers fan? Well, what can I say? I live in the area, know some of the players, get paid lots of do-ra-mi (just kidding). So, I am a fan. Also, it kind of relates. The Sluggers don't get a lot of airtime on the USCL kind of like I don't get much response to my posts, kindred spirits sort of. Now, looking at the current batch of blogs all I can say is... at least I have one monotone voice. Might not be pretty, but at least you know where I am coming from. Here is what I mean...

End of the first round of the USCL and here is what we know from the different teams blogs. Queens lost their match with Boston due to a dumb rule, the Queens bottom board didn't understand 3.d3 and they play in a really red room. Boston won the match despite having really droopy faces only an hour before hand (what was that Sox score again?). NJKO won basically on simple puns while the "official" New York team lost because nobody was blogging (what was that Yanks score?). Tennessee won but don't have a blog, so we can start to wonder about UFO's (lot of them in that part of the country). Miami doesn't have a blog and they won also, maybe there is something to not blogging? Dallas has the most boring blog, of course being captain/ first board and blogger you gotta think Bartholomew would have some time to keep things lively. Arizona predicted they would win and the did win and their blog was simply an illustration of what the game list looks like on ICC. Very creative! Your third board makes it to the cover of Chess Life and you put directions to "Joe's Chllie Bar" in the blog. Another thing about the Scorpions, whoever is taking their pictures should backup just a couple more feet because some of those pictures looks like they were from the cutting room floor of a 50's sci fi film. Ok, that wasn't fair, the most boring blog is in Baltimore... Season roster, week 1 lineup, week 1 scores, games from week 1, week 2 coming soon. Geeeezz!! Our friends the Mechanics show you how to blog. First they get Josh Friedel to expose his obvious paranoia by blaming poor Arun Sharma for making one bad move while he, Friedel, attempted to tarnish Arun's reputation. Good try Josh, coulda picked a better target though, Arun rep... squatch! Then the Mechanics get John Boy to annotate his game in John's age old monotone (yes kids, John sounded EXACTLY like that 30 years ago). Very schizophrenic indeed. What next? Do we get a team in Toronto called the "Toronto Eh files" and their blog is all in half French half Canadian? Un- freaking- real! I am just up here telling you what I saw and how I interpreted it, while all these other blogs are scanning the gamut fron the Enquirer to the Little Nickel want ads! Wow, what a racket.

At this point I put in my disclaimer. All of the ideas or thoughts written here are mine, mine alone and do not represent the attitudes or feelings of any Slugger player, coach or sponser. If anyonw reading this is offended, too bad. That is just how it is.

Have a nice day

Round 1 wrap

There is no other way to say it, that was not what I expected. The Sluggers came through for us and.... didn't lose! That old saying about a tie is "like kissing your sister" sorta rings true here. Let's talk...

Serper did a great job pulling a little opening surprise on Friedel. Avid Mechanics fan f-pawn had pointed out that these 2 have faced each other 5 times with White winning every one. That came to an end, and a lucky thing it did. Serper does like that structure with an open d-file and semi open c-file to work with.

Second board looked about the way I had thought, a QGD Exchange variation. I don't know if Eric prep'd for it or not, but they followed some previous games up to 10. Bg3 by White. I am not sure why 10.e3 wouldn't be ok for White, but I know that Eric has his reasons. Anyway, I think that Preuss was able to combine his more recent practice with some youth to outplay Eric in the endgame.

Donaldson - Lee on board 3 was quite interesting. John gambitted a pawn, not normal for the English, the older player or John, but that is what happened. White got a nice bind for a pawn, but not much more and Lee defended. If anything I would suppose that this could be a lesson for Michael in terms of preparation.

Board 4 is where things were oh so close. The game left standard practice quite early on as Sinanan plunked the h-pawn up the board. The structural advantage this offered Josh had a price as winning the f5 pawn was going to involve some tactics. In the end White had 2 pawns for the exchange with the 2 Bishops and Rook against 2Rooks and Bishop situation. My feeling is that as soon as this became clarified Josh went into prevent mode. Instead of 22. b3 which gave Black a hook to try to work with Josh can play Rd1 or 000 as Black playing Bxc4 allows Rd7+ which is like near death for Black. Even so the real culprit came later when the black square bishop was relocated to c3. I think this is a total misread of the position. If White keeps the B on the h4-d8 diagonal, plays Rd1 and works the f-pawn forward to f5 Black is lost. Frankly, I don't see any design for a good defense for Black. In the end of the actual game every aimed to have a B on a different color and a draw was agreed.

So, I forecast that the Sluggers would lose based on history, they pulled out a tie based on some tough play and could have won based on better calculation. I won't complain, mostly because I predicted incorrectly. Oh well.

Ok, the Sluggers next opps play Wed. as New York faces New Jersey.

See you later when board assignments are up!