All in good fun!

Are we really biased in the East Coast? Clint Ballard, manager of the Seattle Sluggers, and creator of the self-named BAP scoring system, and proprietor of Slugfest chess tournaments, seems to think so. Just because we're better than they are, doesn't mean we're biased. He and the Blitz's own Ilya Krasik got into a nice knock down drag out over on the BCC Blog.

Anyway, my personal feeling is that any change to the scoring system in chess is mere gimmickry. Draws are not the problem (if there indeed is a problem), twelve-move draws over in ten minutes are the problem. I remember being at the World Chess Festival in St. John, New Brunswick in 1988 and watching the Great American Hope, Yasser Seirawan draw in 15 vs. Ivanovic. I was quite disappointed and made an exaggerated "shame on you" gesture to him before he left the stage. He merely shrugged, and smiled as if to say, "Sorry, but that's how it goes sometimes." Meanwhile, later that same year, Yaz played a 119 move draw with Xu Jun in the Olympiad! That game was interesting, despite the result!

I think some form of the "Sofia Rules" might be best. No draws by mutual agreement, maybe until move 40 is complete., etc. Play it out! Show us that the position is drawn!

Clinched!!

The Boston Blitz have clinched 1st place in the Eastern Division of the USCL!!

First, some catching up. I haven't posted in a while. I apologize.

We lost our Week 6 match against Baltimore when they brought out their best lineup of Blehm, Lopez, L. Kaufman and Rohonyan. Steve Winer got soundly beaten by Lopez in a fine example of "Caveman Chess" (I mean that in a good way Bruci). Bill Kelleher then won a nice game against Larry Kaufman. Hopes were high as Ilya Krasik had a good game going against Rohanyan (who is rated 2260 USCF, but over 2350 FIDE!), when he forgot how to count to three and repeated the position for a draw. So it was all up to Larry. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out well for the home crowd. Blehm survived the onslaught with a piece to the good, and the unbeaten, un-drawn streak came to an end. Baltimore 2 1/2 - Boston 1 1/2

Week 7 had us facing the hard-luck Tennessee Tempo. DG reported on the match here and I don't have much to add. I can't explain the Tempo's bad luck season. On paper they should be a better team. Well, last year we had a much better team on paper, but ended up out of the playoffs. I wish them luck for the rest of the year. I know how it is; as a lifelong Red Sox fan, I've said this every fall but one, "Wait 'till next year!" Boston 3 1/2 - Tennessee 1/2

OK, now for last night. I hereby request the League to petition the US Immigration and Naturalization Service and see if we can't get Pascal Charbonneau deported back to Canada. This guy kills us! He just rolled over Euene Perelshteyn's Alekhine's (?!) Defense. Charbonneau is 4-0 vs. Boston! Last year he beat Friedel and Christiansen while playing for Baltimore, and this year Christiansen and Perelshteyn were the victims. Beauty, eh?

Seconds after Eugene and I stepped outside for some air, Ilya comes out ashen faced, "I lost." What? We're down 0-2? I had high hopes of winning the match and clinching first place without having to depend on anyone else to lose tonight. WTF?

Then Igor Foygel finished off a nice win versus Irina Krush. Blitz team member Vadim Martirosov, spectating for the night, confirmed my impression that Igor was pretty much better throughout the game.

So it was down to Charles Riordan on board 3 facing the ubiquitous IM Jay Bonin. Riordan has been on a tear lately. He is currently at 5.5/6 in the 2006 Boylston Chess Club Championship tournament, a strong 10 player round robin with an average rating of 2197! The game looked drawish to maybe better for Charles for a long time. Then in the end, a same-color-bishops ending arose where Charles's better king traipsed across the board and snarfed the a-pawn winning the game. Boston 2 - New York 2

So we drew the match. A quick check of the Baltimore - Dallas match saw Baltimore going down in flames. That's it! We clinch first place in the East! There was much rejoicing; beer was consumed at Daedelus in Harvard Square (a much too classy joint for the likes of us, but John Harvard's had already had last call, at 12:15 !?, what up with that?), and a tired, but happy, non-master Team Manager drove home for three hours sleep.

Round 6

We're ready!!