It was a night that seemed to be working against us. First, the DGT board refused to relay Black’s moves… White’s were fine, but not Black’s. Since we were using this electronic monster on first board (GM Sergey Kudrin vs. GM Eugene Perelshteyn), this meant that their GM could make moves but not ours. Chris Bird and Matt Phelps worked hard on it right up to game time, but no luck. Back to the old relay method… not allowing Eugene to make moves was just too big a handicap.

Then there was second board, SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun vs IM Bryan Smith…. Philip Nutzman, rated expert and technical genius, was busily working with three laptops to somehow get Jorge connected to start his game. When he finally did, Jorge had 5 minutes deducted off his clock as the league rules regarding starting games on time were enforced.

After some deep thought, Jorge played 1.d4 on the board in front of him. Philip quickly turned from his other computer and made the move 1.e4 on the ICC board. A mouse slip on the first move! “No problem” said Philip, a little embarrassed… he could fix it quickly… but, Jorge, always the gentlemen, insisted “No… I’ll play that move. It’s a sign.”

At this point, most of us watching the game were laughing hysterically. My only comment was “I wish I were that good.” Jorge walked over to me and calmly explained that David Harris and he had prepared furiously for 3 hours the night before against the King’s Indian. But, Jorge refused to allow Philip to fix the mistake… After all, signs are signs… and Jorge is not one to fight the fates.

So, Jorge had gone from playing a d-pawn opening to what turned out to be a Yugoslav vs. Black’s Sicilian Dragon, then transposing to some type of odd Najdorf setup. Now that’s a versatile chess player.

Finally, there was our third board… or was there? NM Denys Shmelov was scheduled to play Black against Philly’s NM Daniel Yeager. But, Denys was no where to be found… first 10 minutes, then 15, then 20 minutes, gone on his clock. I was a bit nervous thinking something serious had happened. Finally, Denys arrived… just a little flustered from a very speedy drive… nothing serious. Oddly, his game started last and finished first. He played, in my humble opinion, the best opening (Benoni) of the night posting a beautiful win. My favorite position from his game… the final one.

position after 27…Qb7

White’s queen is trapped in the middle of the board and he resigns. Once again, an early win gave the other team members draw odds. Everyone could relax and not press. (Boston 1-0)

Everyone except the always exciting NM Chris Williams. Playing Philly’s NM Elvin Wilson, he has just played a sound piece sac against his opponent’s French to reach my favorite position…

position after 16.Bxa6

If 16… bxa6 17.Qxa6+…

Analysis by Fritz 9:
1. +- (4.85): 17…Kc7 18.Qa7+ Kc8 19.b5 Qd5 20.Nxe6 Qxe6 21.Rfe1 Bc5
2. +- (#9): 17…Kb8 18.Qb6+ Ka8 19.Nc6 etc.

Now, Black played a good move… 16…Bd6 maintaining a playable and probably equal game, though White has the pressure. White continued 17.g3 stopping the mate on h2. And then Black faltered with 17…Bc7?!, allowing 18.Qe4 Qd5 (to stop mate on b7) 19.Qxd5 with the better, probably winning, endgame for White. Chris played very well from here on out to garner another full point. (Boston 2-0)

Now, back to Jorge’s game. First, there was a bit of tactics in which he won a pawn.  My favorite position…

position after 19.Bxa6

Analysis by Fritz 9:
+- (1.45): 19…Bxa6 20.g5 Ng8 21.Nd5+ Kd7 22.Nxc7 Nxh6 23.Nxa6 Ng8 24.Nb4 White has won a pawn.

At the end, he was under a bit of time pressure, under 2 minutes. But, this is nothing to the winner of “Ciudad de Dos Hermanas” the top Internet Chess Speed tournament. Players like Kamsky, Nakamura, Mamedyarov… could not keep up with him. Great game Jorge! It should be mentioned that he gives all the credit to Philip Nutzman for playing that ingenious first move for him… way to go Philip. (Boston 3-0)

When it comes to GM games, I can only sit and admire their unbounded positional skill.  I had the privilege to be the relay for much of the time in the board one game. (Check out the photo gallery from week 3 to see the reason why!) It was certainly fascinating… and hard to pick a favorite position… so, I picked two. In this very difficult Giuoco Piano or Pianissimo (I know I misspelled something there), Eugene has just played the equalizing move 11…d5.

position after 11…d5

Watching the game, I thought… boy, this leads to a very tough ending for Black. I forgot that if you take the queens off the board (and later the rooks) GMs just don’t make many mistakes in simplified positions. This brings us to the position below.

position after 15…Bd6

Black has just coolly played 15…Bd6 protecting his e-pawn and effectively saying… “Go ahead, make my day… give me the two bishops… do you feel lucky… do ya, Sergey?”

Sergey never did play Bxc6… and that move sat there for quite some time. Some wonderful endgame play from Eugene… definitely worth taking a look. I was impressed.  From here on out it fizzled to a draw… Boston winning 3.5-0.5. Great match.

We have a good team here in Boston… no, let me say great… and it doesn’t matter what first move we play either…