Here is some video action from the Boston Blitz vs Queens Pioneers, week 1 of the 2009 US Chess League season. Included in the video is the reaction at the end of the match when GM Alex Stripunsky blundered his queen via a mouse slip. There is also an interview with new Boston Blitz Manager, Jorge Sammour-Hasbun.
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Boston Blitz Management Changes
December 9th, 2008 
Matt Phelps Effective immediately Jorge Sammour-Hasbun is now the Manager of the Boston Blitz. Jorge will handle all player personnel decisions henceforth, including team makeup and lineup determination. Jorge has been acting in this capacity unofficially since the 2008 playoffs started.
Matt Phelps will move to Assistant Manager and continue to take care of all the logistical and technical considerations. “I would like to thank Mark LaRocca, whom I’m replacing, for his time as Assistant Manager. His help with relaying, game analysis articles, etc. has been invaluable and I hope it continues. It was a great comfort to know he was around every week,” said Phelps. “I also would like to thank Chris Bird who volunteered countless hours running the most awesome website in the USCL, Boston-Blitz.com. And I can’t forget Phillip Nutzman, our official TD, ultra-reliable board two relayer and laptop lugging helper. Thanks Nut-man!”
“The Blitz also want to thank the USCL sponsors PokerStars.com, and the Massachusetts Chess Association for their generous team sponsorship. Many others contributed to the team; see the list of “Blitz Buddies” and “Blitz Backers” on the team’s home page. Most of all, thanks to all the fans who watched, blogged, critisized (!), and cheered us on.”
Jorge Wins Game of the Week… Again!
September 26th, 2008 Chris Bird Jorge Sammour-Hasbun won the US Chess League’s Game of the Week for the second time this season thanks to his creative attacking victory against IM David Pruess of the San Francisco Mechanics.
The decision was totally unanimous and the USCL judges provided the following comments:
Greg Shahade: This week wasn’t a close decision, great game by Jorge, and flashy as well. 31. Nxe6 was a nice shot. I suspect that the judges will win the poll comfortably this week…
Arun Sharma: Though I had trouble finding five games I thought were super deserving of being my Top Five this week, first place was definitely not an issue this time. This year I feel the amount of games which have been both exciting and quite high quality has been very low, and this game definitely fit the bill for me in both regards. As he often does, in a fairly tame position Sammour-Hasbun found a very nice tactic with 31. Nxe6!, neatly crashing through Black’s position after which the g-pawn, who’s advance hadn’t seemed to accomplish much, quickly became deadly. (1st Place: 5 points)
Jonathan Hilton: Sammour-Hasbun showed tremendous foresight (or perhaps simply attacking intuition) when he played the move that launched a thousand ships — 12. Nb5!!? This move could easily be seen as a waste of time; sure, White can penetrate d6, but there is no way for the Knight to stay there. Yet on move 15, Sammour laid everything on the line with 15. f5!!?, sacrificing two pawns for what I believed at first to be a less-than-impressive attack. By move 25, ten moves later, it was unclear what White had accomplished. He’d sunk the g6 pawn into Black’s position, but all of his positional pressure came at the price of two pawns.
Yet White slowly developed his pieces, organizing, coordinating — until suddenly, it became clear Black could do nothing to stop White’s inevitable breakthrough. Perhaps Pruess had some chance to activate, to break up the position with an …e5 strike, but if so, he didn’t take it. 31. Nxe6!!, and White was winning. (1st place: 5 points)
Blitz Video Interview with Jorge, Marc and Ilya
September 25th, 2008 Chris Bird Listen to Jorge Sammour-Hasbun, Marc Esserman and Ilya Krasik talk candidly about their games from the 3-1 win against the San Francisco Mechanics in week 5.
Sammour-Hasbun Wins USCL Game of the Week!
September 4th, 2008 Chris Bird Boston Blitz All-Star Jorge Sammour-Hasbun had a great start to his (and the Blitz’s) 2008 USCL campaign thanks to his win against former US Champion and the top player from New York, GM Alex Shabalov. The game was a fantastic advertisement for the high level of play and the excitement and adventures that fans can have in watching some of the top players in the country.
The game won the 2008 USCL Game of the Week award for week 1 and is a great target for other players to aim for as they shoot to topple Jorge off his pedestal that was awarded to him by his USCL Game of the Year award from 2007.
Here is the game. Enjoy!
Boston Globe: Boston, N.Y. bring duel to chessboard
August 29th, 2008 Chris Bird The Boston Blitz have made it to the big time. National press coverage!
As was mentioned in a couple of prior reports, the Boston Globe came out to do an article on the Blitz’s opening season game against the NY Knights.
The complete article can be viewed online at the Boston Globe website.
Blitz Video Interview with Jorge, Ilya and Denys
August 28th, 2008 Chris Bird Here is an interview with Jorge Sammour-Hasbun, Ilya Krasik and Denys Shmelov taken after their 3-1 opening day win against the New York Knights.
Jorge responds to Shaba’s trash talk while Ilya and Denys both explain why they were amazed with their respective opponent’s play.
2007 Game of the Year… What’s Black’s Best?
July 22nd, 2008 Mark La Rocca I know the game of the Year has been discussed thoroughly; but, since I need to test the blog, I thought I would bring up the position after 11.Rh3… and ask… what is Black’s best?
Sammour-Hasbun,J (2576) – Kuljasevic,D (2491)
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Position after 11.Rh3…
Anand and Shirov, believe it or not, played two games from this position in 2000 (I don’t know the time limit). Shirov, as Black, tried 11…Na5 12.b4 cxb4 13.axb4… and, in the second encounter, he tried 11…a5 12.b3 Qc7 13.Neg1 a4 14.b4… and White (Anand) won both games.
The move played by IM Kuljasevic seems more logical if you like Shirov’s idea of …Na5.
Jorge, I know you’re out there… give us some help… what did you expect? What line did you fear? Don’t force me to research this myself… please.
Interview with Jorge Sammour-Hasbun
May 19th, 2008 Chris Bird Jorge Sammour-Hasbun talks about his win against IM Davorin Kuljasevic on board 2 of the US Chess League Final, which won him the Game of the Year Award and $1,000.
Duo Still Alive in USCL Game of the Year Voting
March 10th, 2008 Chris Bird Boston Blitz players GM Larry Christiansen and Jorge Sammour-Hasbun are still very much alive in the USCL Game of the Year voting, which takes the top 20 games from the season and every week elimates one more game from contention. The voting is now down to just 10 games remaining, with the only two Blitz games that qualified still in the hunt for a prize.
The USCL Game of the Year contest takes all of the Games of the Week from the 13 weeks in the season, along with 7 wildcard games, to give a total of 20 games. These games have been ranked from 1-20 by the 5 judges, FM Robby Adamson, NM Dennis Monokroussos, GM Alex Shabalov, WGM Jennifer Shahade and FM Ron Young. Each week, the game remaining with the lowest score from the judging gets eliminated.
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