Boston chokes out the Cobras after a tough struggle.

How many times have you heard the expression “better to be good than lucky?”  Well, after last Wednesday’s Semi-Final action perhaps the converse couldn’t be more true as it relates to the win that propelled us into the USCL Finals.  To say that the Boston Blitz were very fortunate would be an understatement – for a large part of the match we were worse or losing on every single board!

Going into the match we couldn’t help but feel very confident in our chances despite Carolina holding the “Draw Odds.”  How could we not?  We have never lost to Carolina in our history, in fact we gave them a lot of good beatings over the years, including one this year, 3-1 in week 2.  Before the playoffs began, I called Carolina “a very weak team” and predicted they would lose to NY.  Although they proved me wrong, I can at least take solace in the fact that ultimately I was the one most responsible for their elimination.

Before the match, Jorge and I brainstormed that a draw in my game should be enough to win the match, given what we perceived to be a big edge on board 2 and an edge on 3.  I was also able to guess correctly what kind of opening Jones would choose.  Looking at his games, a Reti Defense seemed likely because it usually leads to quiet strategical and theoretically-light type of positions where the the player who thinks he is stronger can try to outmaneuver his opponent.  Carolina chose white on boards 2 and 4, likely to add more firepower to Jones who was already a favorite here with the the expectation that he will take me down, also Zaikov (who should change his last name to Huidini ) was given white to help make up for the 200 points he was missing.

When the match began, I was looking at board 3, 1.e4 c5!? suprise (I think Marc expected 1…e5) 2.d4 cxd 3.c3 dxc Smith Morra accepted - the love of Esserman’s life… Simpson is nuts I gleefully thought to myself, he doesn’t know what he is getting himself into, this game is over… Alas, it did not turn out so; in fact Simpson came quite prepared and eventually Esserman found himself in a difficult endgame down a pawn.  Kudos to him for once again saving half a point and of course the team in the process.

Jorge had a very complicated game, I haven’t analyzed it so I am not going to pretend like I know what happened other than the fact that he missed some shots he normally sees in his sleep.  In fact, Bh3!! was the bomb Jorge could have played but with about 40 seconds left he missed it.

Zaikov,Oleg (2376) – Sammour-Hasbun,Jorge (2576) [D27]
USCL Boston vs Carolina, Internet Chess Club, 19.11.2008

27…Qh6 [27...Bh3+!! 28.fxg6? Rxf1#] 28.Ne7 Nxe7 29.Qxe7 Qe3+ 30.Rf2 Rc8 31.Bc4 Rxc4 [31...Bxf5! 32.e5 Be4] 32.Qe8+ Kh7 33.Qg6+ Kh8 34.Qe8+ Kh7 35.Qg6+ Game drawn by mutual agreement 1/2-1/2

This was pointed out by Jorge’s father who called after the game.  Eugene was down some pawns before finding a nice resource that set up a perpetual.

Meanwhile, both I and my opponent got down to about 4 minutes around move 34, Jones began repeating the position and we did so twice.  The position was probably about equal but in team situations such as this, especially facing the draw odds you have to be very careful.  I jumped up from my chair having about 3 minutes or so and began trying to assess Eugene’s and Marc’s chances, my heart was racing.  Marc’s game was easy to assess, he was down a pawn but I thought he would hold, but Genya looked in a lot of trouble and it was complicated, so I ran back to my chair and played Qb7 thus avoiding repetition, a draw was equivalent to a loss at this point.  What followed was quite comical as I had made tons of moves with my queen (22 total) and I heard later our press center had a good time laughing each time I moved my Queen.  The idea was not only to gain time on the clock but as Mark LaRocca correctly pointed out in his article, it was also tease and unbalance Jones.  I didn’t believe he would mate me on the kingside with my Bishop on g7, but my aimless moves perhaps created the impression that I am helpless and so Jones, like a dog who smells bacon, went all out.  I  traded queens and went into an endgame 3 pawns up, now I finally could relax , I felt my pulse returning to normal.  I was later told even Larry Christiansen, who was watching on ICC while visiting family in California, got in on the kibitzing calling the endgame position “Krasik-proof,” obviously refering to the fact that even I cannot botch this up  

Jones,Craig (2320) – Krasik,Ilya (2144) [D02]
USCL Boston vs Carolina, Internet Chess Club, 19.11.2008

42.Qh4? Jones decides to checkmate me but overestimates his chances. 42…f5!! 43.d5? Qxc4 44.dxe6 Qxe6 [44...Rd1!] 45.Bf2 fxg4 46.Rg3 Rd1-+ 47.Qxg4 Rxf1+ 48.Kxf1 Qc4+ 49.Kg2 Qe4+ 50.Qf3 Qxb4 51.f5 Rf8! 52.Rg4 Qb5 53.Nd4 Bxd4! 54.Bxd4 Qxf5 55.Qe2 Nd5 56.Qe4 Qxe4+ 57.Rxe4 Here Jones could have resigned but I don’t blame him for playing on, in fact I thank him for it.  Looking at all the people watching me wrap up what had to be the most important win of my USCL career, gave me a chance to reflect on the  4 years I’ve played for the Blitz,  through  all the ups and downs .  This was my moment to shine that no one could take away, my answer to all the critics, the doubters, the detractors the jealous cowards who go on blogs after you lose and try to make you feel even worse, this was my answer to them.  

I wasnt sure where to fit this postion which was reached earlier in the game but I think it’s worth a diagram, find a way to breakthrough white’s position.

-/+ Without light square bishops, my Queen feels comfortable on a6 and all white’s weak light squares become apparant, also black’s knight on d5 is a monster. I played 27…g6 but 27…c5!! 28.dxc5 Rad8 29.Qe1(only move) Qd3 and White is very passive while Black has tons of iniative for the sacrificed pawn. 

The Finals – REMATCH WITH DALLAS

So we got our wish and we meet the Dallas Destiny in a rematch of last year’s final.  The trash talk has already begun.  Judge for yourself: this is what Davorin Kuljasavic, board 2 for the Dallas team, had to say about my upcoming game vs Bayraa Zorigt: DK: I only believe that Bayaraa is a clear favorite against Krasik.  She plays really well, not just USCL.  She’s a level above Krasik, for sure.  Other games are open.  (From USCL news and gossip.)

Hmmm, he seems to indicate that my game has already been decided, I don’t know maybe he talks to God every day and knows something I don’t but last time I checked I wasn’t giving her Queen odds or anything; in our previous match, even though she won, she was completely busted and needed several gross time pressure-filed blunders on my side to win.

Now lets do a bit of trivia.  What do Dmitry Schnieder, Vinay Bhat, John Donaldson and Craig Jones all have in common?

Be proud if you got it, the answer is they all gave recent interviews to Elizabeth Vicary and subsequently all their respective teams lost and were eliminaed from the playoffs.  I am pretty sure no one from our team plans to step into this curse   This was by the way pointed out to me by teammate Denys Shmelov (the Bee).

This will be a highly anticipated rematch between two teams who hate each other.  For example, Dallas Manager John Bartholomew, whom I’ve never met in real life, came onto the BCC blog earlier this season to try to explain to me and the rest of the world just how bad of a player I am, as if I needed any reminders… Since losing his last four games though he has been eerily quiet.

The matchups are Christiansen-Zivanic, Kuljasevic-Sammour, Esserman-Shnieder, Zorigt-Krasik.
Christiansen and Zivanic never played, Jorge holds a 1.5-.5 lead vs Kuljasevic, Esserman and Shnieder have never played in USCL, and Zorigt beat me in a messy game earlier this season.  The match should be very even, exciting, tense everything a fan can ask for, we will have large projection screen demo boards, i anticipate a huge crowd so make sure to come early.

The match will begin on Saturday, December 6, 3.00 pm, at Harvard Astrophysics Center; in the meantime enjoy your turkeys and have a happy Thanksgiving! GO BLITZ!!