Round 5 Underway

8:15 PM

An attempt at "Live Blogging"

All games well underway. I'm relaying the Millman - Christiansen game which is shaping into a fine Sicilian battle. I've got an extra computer in the back of the room, for this while I watch for moves coming in from Milman on ICC.

Perelshteyn has the two bishops and both center pawns vs. none against Hoekstra's Nimzo.

Martirosov has a nice looking King's Indian type kingside push against Jones's Reti opening.


And Ilya, is white against a Benko.

Larry's attack is coming!! Gotta go.

-Matt

9:10

Larry just made me feel better by admitting while outside for a break that "It's a wild one. I don't understand what's going on." That makes two of us.

:)

8:30 AM, Wednesday, Sept. 28.

Well... live blogging didn't work out so well. I'm just too busy relaying moves and watching games. Oh well.

Milman - Christiansen was a great game. A Sicilian Rauzer with black's attack finally crashing through. It seemed like Larry was going to burn a hole through the b3 square he was staring at that move for so long. He never got a chance to play it though as Milman ended up playing it first. Soon some lines opened up and the black rooks penetrated and it was over.

Eugene had another smooth win. Hoekstra sac'ed an exchange, then Eugene gave it back to reach a nice position with the two bishops and those center pawns. Eventually the c-pawn made it far enough along to end the game.

Ilya Krasik, what more can I say? Another nice win. It looked like he was just better throughout.

Vadim had a promising looking game as black in a Reti setup, featuring my favorite move to play as black, f4! (see my earlier post). Alas it petered out into just a lost ending for him, but the match was won already, so it ended up not mattering.

Beer was consumed at John Harvard's after the match, and all is right with the World. Boston is in first place at the All Star break (hmmm... where have I heard that before? :) ).

-Matt

New Products Available

I've added some new designs in my Chess Move products. In addition to 1. e4, and 1. d4, you can now get the following (Click on the images to order!):


The Sicilian Defense (or maybe the Benko!)


My personal favorite, The Sicilian Dragon!


And even the Caro-Kann for the Karpov's of the world out there.

Week 4 & Coming Up Week 5

Not much more to add to DG's Blog post on the week 4 match vs. Philly. We moved to a different room without incident; everyone found it and seemed to like it a little better than our previous one. Plus, I didn't have to break down tables and set up other ones! A good thing for my aging back.

The games were so engrossing, I forgot to take pictures. Oh well, just a bunch of guys sitting down playing chess... you get the idea.

With both GMs available next week, and Vadim Martirosov wanting a crack at Carolina 3rd board star Oleg Zaikov, I've decided on bringing out the "Twin Guns" lineup again:

1. GM Larry Christiansen
2. GM Eugene Perelshteyn
3. NM Vadim Martirosov
4. NM Ilya Krasik

4-0 and ridin' the wave, baby!

-Matt

Update 9/25/06

Zaikov will not be playing Wednesday.

The matchups are:

White                  Black
---------------------------------------------
Milman(CAR)      Christiansen(BOS)
Perelshteyn(BOS) Hoekstra(CAR)
Jones(CAR)       Martirosov(BOS)
Krasik(BOS)      Kirby(CAR)

Photos from Week 3, "Monday Night Chess"

LarryC after playing 24. Bf1. He felt after the game that 24. Bd3 or 24. Be2 was better, "with a good attack."


Eugene Perelshteyn punishing Hess's 3. Nd2 vs. the King's Indian.


Vadim Martirosov (L) takes down another higher rated player. George Duval (R) relays the moves from ICC.


Ilya Krasik glares at the camera in the midst of tactical complications following his stunner 17... Rxe4 vs. Privman. The game settled into a materially even, but better for black, endgame which Ilya converted for another win.

Monday Night Chess

Complacency is an evil thing.

This was the third week of season 2, so this should be a breeze, right? Well, I should have known better when four of our guys, GM Eugene Perelshteyn, IM Igor Foygel, FM Steven Winer, and FM Bill Kelleher couldn't make it for the special Monday Night Chess match against "the hated" NY Knights. A plea from his friend and teammate Ilya Krasik, and some begging to the team Manager (me) from the League's commissioner, convinced Eugene to play. This allowed me to put in the "Twin Guns" lineup of GM Christiansen, GM Perelshteyn, NM Martirosov, and NM Krasik; average rating, using the Feb. '06 list (we were allowed to pick any published USCF rating list from 12/05 through 8/06) 2400.25!

Setting up the playing site started out OK; then at 5:53 I got a cell phone call from our board 4, Ilya, telling me his car won't start. Ilya lives about 30-45 minutes away, on a good day with no traffic and a stiff tailwind., both ways. No time to drive out and get him by 7:00. Then I send a tell to Greg "Commish" Shahade on ICC:

Globular says: We have a situation...
USChessLeague says: What's the situation?

After many phone calls, discussions, and fretting, Ilya ends up on a commuter train scheduled to arrive close to the playing site at 7:20. The entire match is delayed until 7:15, so he shouldn't lose too much off the clock. (Special thanks to Greg "Commish" Shahade, and Jennifer "Sis" Shahade, the NY team Manager.) Then Larry Christiansen calls me wondering where Ilya and Vadim are; they're supposed to pick him up in Harvard Square! Aaarrrrggghhh!!!

It all worked out, everyone made it. We even had an extra relayer show up, George Duval, a.k.a. BlunderProne

So I'm relaying the Christiansen - Charbonneau game, which frankly was kind of boring (to me), when I look over at Ilya's game and I see the position after 17... Rxe4 and I think "nice looking exchange sac!" Only after the match did I realize that Ilya had captured a pawn on e4! This clearly was the move of the match, if not the season. We heard later that no less than GM Kaidanov, on chess.fm, praised this move very highly. Even more impressive though, was Ilya's conversion of a materially equal endgame after the fireworks ended. Before the match started, Larry said, "Always an adventure with Ilya." Boy, was he right!

Hess - Perelshteyn was a smooth win by Eugene with the nice shot 32... Rxf2! to finish off the game in short order.

Our secret weapon, Vadim Martirosov converted another win against a higher rated player to seal the match, 3 - 1 Boston.

After Baltimore lost to Carolina on Wednesday, the Blitz stand alone in first place in the USCL Eastern Division. It must be the brilliant managing.

Pictures coming soon.

Some photos from Week 2

Stay tuned for a report from the wild Week 3 Monday Night Chess victory over NY! For now, here are some photos from last weeks Round 2.


Ilya Krasik (R) and I celebrate going 2-0 to start the season!






Igor Foygel (L) on his way to a nice win vs. Richard "Giant Killer" Costigan. Philip Nutzman (R) relays the moves from ICC.








Bill Kelleher faces Michael "Papa" Shahade
before heading off to Russia to do his FIDE VP thing.

Week two tonight

The Blitz take on the Philadelphia masterminds tonight at 7:00 PM (EDT). Email me at GlobularB79@gmail.com if you want to come watch, or to volunteer to relay moves.

I would like to acknowledge a modest sponsorship of the Blitz from The MathWorks, makers of MATLAB(TM) and Simulink(TM) software. Send me an email at the link above if you, or someone you know might be interested in sponsoring the Blitz. No amount is too small!!

Photos from USCL Week one, Boston Blitz

Here are some shots I took during Wednesday's Boston Blitz match vs. the Miami Sharks.


The team at work:








GM Eugene Perelshteyn stifles a yawn while watching Ilya Krasik's game. The game got plenty exciting later.






IM Igor Foygel (standing) hovering over NM Vadim Martirosov's game.