Boston Blitz vs New York Knights
Wednesday, August 27, 7:00 pm

Woohoo! What a way to start the 2008 season than with a clash against arch rivals, the New York Knights. The Knights will surely still be steaming after the Blitz destroyed their USCL Championship hopes in the Semi-Finals last year.

This week’s match promises to be as compelling as all three of the games from last year with the Knights wetting their newbies early and the Blitz giving one of it’s new players an early taste of the rivalry.  However, the game may seem a little unusual for the typical Blitz-Knights matches as the absence of any Blitz GMs and the Knight’s own Blitz dominator of previous years, GM Pascal Charbonneau, unable to play since he is participating in the Montreal International.

GM Alex Shabalov, previously a judge for the USCL Game of the Year, makes his debut on board 1 for the Knights and the fireworks should start early as he is countered by our very own Jorge Sammour-Hasbun who was a USCL 1st team All-Star and Rookie of the Year last year.  Both players are known for their exciting, never say die, style of chess and already I’m predicting that there is no way this one is ending in a draw!  Shabalov will have the white pieces as this is considered a home game for the Knights.

On board 2 the Blitz will give an early chance to shine to IM Dave Vigorito. Vigorito is no stranger to the Boston-New York rivaly having been raised in Massachusetts as a die-hard Red Sox fan. Once he gets onto the playing site and feels the energy flowing throughout the Blitz team and fans I am sure he will soon feel well at home in the surroundings. The Knights will give board 2 to Gregory Braylovsky who served them well during his 2005 All-Star season. Braylovsky won both games against the Blitz and so Vigorito will be looking to set a new trend and take a leaf out of Sammour-Hasbun’s book from last year.

Board 3 is going to be a real love-hate kind of game! Denys Shmelov and IM Jay Bonin know each other well after facing each other in all 3 matches last year, each player scoring a win and a draw. That win for Bonin, in the Semi-Finals when the match was already sewn up by the Blitz, probably cost Shmelov 1st board All-Star honors and so a little bit of payback may be on the cards. However, I know that Bonin was not too happy with the Blitz’s celebration victory video from the same game and so he too will no doubt be gunning for some type of revenge. This game epitomizes the Blitz-Knights rivalry and blood may be spilled as neither player will want to give up in this one.

On board 4 Ilya Krasik will be making one of undoubtedly many appearances this year due to the make-up of the Blitz roster. Krasik only got to play three times for the Blitz last year, mainly thanks to Chris Williams’ efforts on board 4 and he will be looking to make up for lost time. His opponent, Evan Rosenberg, played for the Knights back in 2005 although he is rated nearly 100 points higher than back then. These two did meet in 2005 with Krasik winning the game.

Live coverage of all the Blitz games will be seen at http://www.boston-blitz.com/live.htm and you can follow the games via the Internet Chess Club (ICC). Local players are always welcome to come and experience the match first-hand at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge. A large projection screen of all the games along with contact with all the Blitz players and staff will keep everyone entertained, especially when it’s rivalry week!

Match Line-Ups