September 1st, 2008 
Chris Bird Boston Blitz vs Carolina Cobras
Wednesday, September 3, 7:30 pm
Both teams head into this week 2 match-up having won in week 1, albeit under different circumstances. Boston beat arch rivals New York when hardly anyone expected them to do so and Carolina beat Tennessee just like everyone expected they would. This week both teams will find the shoe on the other foot (not that snakes have feet of course) as the Blitz will undoubtedly be listed as favorites, especially with the return to board one of their superstar GM Larry Christiansen.
Christiansen, an All-Star for the Blitz last year, will be up against IM Lev Milman on board 1. As Jorge Sammour-Hasbun says “he’s a good customer” as Christiansen has beaten Milman all three times he has faced him in the USCL, two of those games garnering the coveted Game of the Week awards, week 3 in 2005 and week 5 in 2006. Milman, an ever present for the Cobras on board 1, is used to being an underdog although he does regularly put up good fights and it is not unusual for him to draw with his higher titled opponents or even win one every now and again.
Denys Shmelov gets the nod this week up on board 2, the highest position he has played for the Blitz. His higher rating this year obviously means he could get to see some of his time up there although last week he was in a more familiar role on board 3. Shmelov will get his second black pieces in a row, this time against FM Oleg Zaikov. Zaikov is a dangerous player and has a good record in the USCL, gaining All-Star honors in 2006. He made a winning start to his campaign last week at the hands of FM Todd Andrews.
On board 3 the Blitz welcome back Charles Riordan to their line-up. Riordan had a good season for the Blitz in 2006 and was a surprise exclusion from the team last year. (Obviously the Manager knows best as he was replaced to have the Denys Shmelov/Chris Williams combination.) Riordan’s first opponent will be FM Ron Simpson who is in his debut season for the Cobras. Simpson drew in his first game last week, having to concede a draw after he couldn’t break down his opponent’s tough defending. The last time Riordan played against the Cobras he lost his game against Zaikov, his only loss in 2006.
Board 4 welcomes the final roster addition to the Blitz this year with Marc Esserman making his USCL and Blitz debut. Being able to play Esserman on board 4 is a huge bonus for the Blitz although he finds himself outrated by a few points in this game as the Cobras are able to field a balanced team since they don’t have the strength at the top of their line-up. His opponent, Craig Jones, was a board 4 All-Star back in 2006 although he struggled last year after moving up a board. This year he is apparently back to his favorite hunting ground and this should be an intriguing match-up since high expectations have been placed on Esserman’s shoulders, especially considering last year’s board 4 heroics he will have to try to match.
Live coverage of all the Blitz games can be followed at http://www.boston-blitz.com/live.htm or you can tune into the Internet Chess Club (ICC). Local fans 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.
Match Line-Up
| Board | White | Result | Black |
| 1. | GM Larry Christiansen (2670) | - | IM Lev Milman (2502) |
| 2. | FM Oleg Zaikov (2376) | - | Denys Shmelov (2446) |
| 3. | Charles Riordan (2326) | - | FM Ron Simpson (2346) |
| 4. | Craig Jones (2320) | - | Marc Esserman (2307) |
| Boston Blitz | - | Carolina Cobras |
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Chris, Current ratings, sept 2008: Riordan: 2354, Esserman 2350!
So Esserman actually outrated Jones by a few pts.
And one more slight correction; Esserman has one USCL game under his belt; an ’07 draw vs. GM Kudrin on board one for Miami in week one.
-Matt
Wow, good job I ain’t getting paid to write these things!
Btw, have you seen Marc’s league page? http://www.uschessleague.com/MarcEsserman.html It still has him playing for the Sharks and there is NO WAY that is a picture of him!
He got a haircut yesterday, so now he kind of looks similar to that picture.
I’m pretty sure that Craig Jones remained on Board 4 for the most part last season.
Can’t we just get rid of board 4? At least that way I might be able to keep my job! Or maybe I just decided to check that people were actually reading…
Chris and Greg gotta change the ratings, I believe we have a rating edge on every board?!
We will be using August 2008 ratings on our site for the entire season. Sorry Ilya!
Hmm, I was sure you are trying to use current rating, August seems like a bad month
use cause we USCL season begins almost in September.
If you want to be truly accurate about it, the best way to do it would be to use ratings of the current month for each player depending on when the match is (essentially forcing Greg or myself to change the ratings for all players three times during the season, Aug-Sep, Sep-Oct, and Oct-Nov). That seems like a rather silly thing to waste time on so I think sticking to one fixed month is the best option. August makes the most sense to me as it’s reasonably up to date, some teams use it for their league ratings (which they can’t do for September ratings of that year), and it is technically when the season begins.
Out first double digit comment post… and all because I screwed up.
As for the ratings, I think it would be more accurate to post people’s current ratings, even if it involves changing them every month, and maybe show what their “USCL” rating is based on the list being used by the team. That way people can see at a glance just how much someone has improved and what advantage a team is getting by using “under-rated” players.
Arun, nice interview btw yesterday, very smooth. Now get off your butt and start changing them ratings, will ya, do I detect a bit of laziness in your tone? And don’t listen to Greg, it wont do you any good!
I suppose I asked for that huh? I mean by telling everyone the truth yesterday in that interview about the ratio of work I do vs what Greg does, now whenever there’s something to be done people will be yelling at me to do it instead of him? How unfortunate for me. I do somewhat like Chris’s idea of somehow displaying both current and league ratings so people familiar with the league can understand exactly what is going on. Unfortunately, it’s likely to make people who aren’t as familiar with the league even more confused when you display two ratings so I’m not sure if that would really be better on the whole.
As for listening to Greg, when did I ever do that anyway? I mean, I might on rare occasions agree with him, but that sure doesn’t mean it’s because I’m listening to him!
We have enough work to do as it is, we aren’t changing to the current ratings each month, sorry!