So every USCL blog seems to be doing predictions on how their team will fare in the next match; I predict a 4-0 win for the Blitz in week three. Here’s how it will go down:

Board 1: IM Jacek Stopa – GM Larry Christiansen

Stopa seems to play anything as white and Larry can (and does) play anything with either color, so the opening is anybody’s guess. The game will meander for a while into an endgame with a few pieces left, which Larry will then use to whip up a mating attack, forcing regicide on the e5 square. Game of the week.

Board 2: Jorge Sammour-Hasbun – IM Daniel Ludwig

This will be a Slav or Najdorf, depending on which move Philip (our TD and usual board 2 relayer) randomly plays for Jorge on move 1. Either way, it will be incomprehensible for us mortals for 25-30 moves, which we will all learn later was “all theory.” Jorge wins after the first out-of-book move by Ludwig (I predict it will be 31… f6) is a lemon.

Board 3: FM Keaton Kiewra – NM Vadim Martirosov

Vadim is underrated, but hasn’t played a tournament game in a while. Although, he is constantly analyzing games whenever I see him. Also, he explained to me how the move a4 attacks the d5 square in the Lopez, and I understood it. This will be a smooth, elegant victory as black that may even be fathomed by me.

Board 4: NM Ilya Krasik – FM Darwin Yang

Anything can, and will, happen. Krasik wins in a way that he, and only he, understands. The prevailing opinion will be that he is losing the whole game, until he wins finding a weird tactic that everyone will say, “Krasik will never see that move.”

After the match the team will go to Charlie’s in the square and get that mean waitress upstairs who will be annoyed by our boisterousness, just like the rest of the League.

There you have it; 4-0 Boston.

-Matt

Boston Blitz vs Dallas Destiny
Saturday, December 6, 3:00 pm

The Boston Blitz and the Dallas Destiny will once again meet in the USCL Championship match with memories of last year’s epic encounter, which Dallas eventually won on the final tie-break game, still fresh in most of the player’s minds.

Last year’s Championship came down to one miserable blunder, no doubt caused by fatigue as the final tie-break game was been played at 2:00 am Boston time.  Despite the excitement of the match, it was a lousy way from Boston’s perspective for a whole season’s sweat and toil to go unrewarded although some will argue that it maybe shouldn’t have even reached the tie-breaks.  However, this year there will be no such excuse for Boston as the match has been moved to the weekend with a much more reasonable start time of 3:00 pm.

Both teams have walked remarkably similar paths to reach the final match of the season.  Both finished third in their respective divisions and both overcame draw odds in the quarter-finals and the semi-finals.  The ratings for the line-ups that have been chosen to battle it out are just one point apart, 2424 to 2423 in Boston’s favor.

Similar paths yes, but the make up of each team is like night and day.  Boston employs the top heavy approach with very strong players manning boards one and two and fitting in players as necessary on the lower boards.  It helps that one of them is severely under-rated although last year it could be argued they had two such players.  Dallas has a more balanced line-up with no GMs on their roster but on each board they give themselves a fighting chance, especially with the players on the lower boards.  Remember that no team that has won any of the previous three USCL Championships have had a GM on their roster.

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The Boston Blitz’s unbeaten start to the season came to an abrupt end at the hands of the defending USCL Champions, Dallas Destiny.  The major theme for the night was revenge, payback for Dallas’ victory over Boston in last year’s USCL Championship game.  However, the night belonged to Dallas’ board 4, WFM Bayaraa Zorigt, as she was the only winner with the rest of the games ending in a draw.  It must be noted that Zorigt’s win down on board 4 in last year’s Championship was also key as that sent the match into the blitz tie-breaker system.

The board 1 encounter between Jorge Sammour-Hasbun and IM Davorin Kuljasevic was a rematch of the game that won Game of the Year in 2007, although that game was won by the Blitz player, Sammour-Hasbun.  This time Sammour-Hasbun couldn’t manage more than a draw against a solid Kuljasevic performance despite playing 1.d4, avoiding the same line that got him a bad position out of the opening in last year’s game.

The second game to finish was on board 2 where probably the Blitz’s best performance of the night was given by IM Dave Vigorito against a slightly higher rated IM John Bartholomew.  Vigorito was easily able to achieve equality out of the opening although the position was very closed with neither player having an opportunity to break it open.  After both players manouvered for a while the inevitable draw was eventually agreed upon.

The next game to finish was the decisive one of the game.  WFM Bayaraa Zorigt piled on the pressure against Ilya Krasik in a typical opposite side castling Sicilian Defense.  Zorigt’s attack always looked better, especially when Krasik was forced to retreat his pieces.  Things got complicated but, despite both players in severe time trouble, Zorigt found a testing move (Bb5) for which Krasik could only find a forced continuation that led to a losing position.  Zorigt finished the game off easily enough and with it the match in Dallas’ favor.

The last game to finish was on board 3 with Denys Shmelov playing FM Igor Schneider.  Shmelov seemed to be looking ok until Schneider found a combination that won a pawn (…Nxg3).  From then on it was Shmelov fighting for the draw although he made holding the pawn down rook and pawn ending fairly easy.  However, there were absolutely no chances to win the position and so he had to agree to a draw, sealing the inevitable after the loss on board 4.

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.

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