Boston Blitz vs Dallas Destiny
Monday, September 8, 8:00 pm

The Boston Blitz plays the Dallas Destiny in a special Monday night rematch of last year’s USCL Championship game.  I’m sure the Blitz fans don’t need reminding about that match which was eventually conceeded on the final blitz play-off game at around two o’clock in the morning.  Revenge will certainly be on the minds of the Blitz team when they get to play the current USCL Champs.

This is one of two inter-divisional matches the Blitz will play this year, the other being against San Francisco in a couple of weeks from now.  The Blitz have stormed out to the lead in the Eastern Division and they will be looking to keep ahead of their rivals and maintain their unbeaten start to the year.

The Destiny come into this game having won last week against the Arizona Scorpions, one of the new teams in the league.  Most people actually predicted the Scorpions to win that match, although how they could have been favorites against last year’s champs is beyond me, despite the fact that they won their first game of the year against Chicago, the other new team in the league, while the Destiny lost to San Francisco, probably one of the top teams in the entire USCL.

As if the excitement about the potential for a bit of pay back wasn’t enough, the board 1 match-up pits Jorge Sammour-Hasbun against IM Davorin Kuljasevic.  Sammour-Hasbun’s win against Kuljasevic on board 2 in the Championship game ended up winning him the Game of the Year, along with $1,000 for his efforts.  The game itself was highly tactical and Kuljasevic could well have been kicking himself after the game since his piece sacrifice early on left him with a promising position.  However, Sammour-Hasbun was able to fight back and created enough complications to eventually win that game along with all the prizes.  I wonder if Sammour-Hasbun will be brave enough to attempt the same line in this game, although I would bet the house on it.

Board 2 sees the Bartman, IM John Bartholomew, take on the Blitz’s IM David Vigorito.  Vigorito had a solid outing a couple of weeks ago in the Blitz’s big win against New York while Bartholomew also had a big win last week against FM Danny Rensch.  Vigorito will get his first taste with the black pieces against a tough opponent and scoring anything from this game could be key to the Blitz’s success.

Board 3 see Denys Shmelov for the Blitz against FM Igor Schneider.  Shmelov has had a solid start to the year with two draws but he’ll be hoping to get a much better position than the one attained against FM Oleg Zaikov last week in which he had to hang on for sheer life.  However, such resilience is a great quality to have and this week he goes up against Scheider who has scored just half-point from his first two games, drawing last week with FM Robby Adamson and losing in his first game to the young, talented FM from San Francisco, Sam Shankland.

Board 4 could easily be a make or break board for either team with the Blitz having Ilya Krasik and the Destiny basically being forced to use WFM Bayaraa Zorigt because of their roster.  Krasik won an entertaining if anti-climactic game in week one against Evan Rosenberg from New York and he will be looking to make it two for two against a very talented board 4 player who was an All-Star last year.  Krasik will also be looking to score a little bit of revenge for his team-mate and friend, Chris Williams, after her win against him in the Championship game last year was the main reason the match even went to the tie-break matches.

Once again, 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