Week Three - A Spanking From Seattle

A Seattle Spanking

US Chess League Week 3

Arizona Scorpions VS 

Seattle Sluggers

Arizona has had a nice start to the 2012 season, that is until they were paired against the Seattle Sluggers that is!

Coming off last week's match against the Inventors the Scorpions had some reason to feel suspicious about their play, still they pressed forward with the same line-up as last week, but this time things turned out differently. Pedram Atoufi, playing Board 4 for Arizona pushed hard to win his game, but it was just not there to be had. 

On Board 3 Robby Adamson faced Joshua Sinanan and the two got into a tough fray in a Dutch Defense that Robby threw at him. In a moment of inspiration Joshua found the very interesting move of 25.Rxe4! Now, this move was pretty much a must move for him as all other moves looked like passive defense, and I know that's not what Joshua (or any "real" chessplayer) would want to play. By giving up the exchange Josh was able to liven up the game, after a few slightly inaccurate moves Robby soon found himself in trouble. Eventually Robby had to resigned in a position where he was a piece down.

On Board 2 Mark Ginsburg dodged a big bullet in his game against Giorgi Orlov. Mark played an interesting move in the King's Indian Defense Saemish variation, namely 9.Bd3. Orlov gave up the exchange to get some fast moving pawns and, to be frank, I think that Black was probably winning by move 50, however, inaccurate moves creep in to games at faster time controls and this game was no different. Through tenacious defense, and a timely return of material, Mark was able to achieve a theoretically drawn endgame a pawn down, but he still had to prove it, and prove it he did - good job Mark!

On the top board we had the match-up of Akobian vs Mac Molner. This was a tense affair as Mac whipped out the Blumenfeld. Mac played an interesting Novelty with 9. ...Qg6. There seem to be conflicting views on this move (6. ...Qb6 being the norm), but I feel Mac's move is legitimate and sensible. That being said, Mac seemed to pick a few 'second best moves' and after enough of those he found himself in a difficult position. For most of the game Akobian seemed to be able to play for two results (a win or a draw) whereas Mac had to find very exacting moves to have chances to hold the game.

Results: Arizona 1 - Seattle 3. Hats off to the Sluggers, they put out a tough field last Monday!

The following video has three game fragments and full coverage of the Akobian vs Molner game.

Scorpions vs Inventors 2012 USCL Week 2

Scorpion Pit

This week's match-up pits the Arizona Scorpions against the Philadelphia Inventors.  This is the first ever meeting between these two teams and it turned out to be an exciting contest.

The video is rather long, but it includes all four games in one video. The games are presented pretty much as play unfolded so the viewer can get a feel for the dynamics involved in Team-Play.

The result of the match was not determined until the closing minutes of the match.

2012 USCL Week 1 AZ Scorpions vs LA Vibe

Welcome to the Scorpions Pit!  

The 2012 US Chess League has just started and the Scorpions at striking down victims already!

September 5th 2012
The Arizona Scorpions took on the LA Vibe and in a tense match-up the Scorpions came out on top. This win was aided by the fact that two of LA's top players are currently in Istanbul for the Olympiad and a back-up player was feeling sick (the Scorpions will do that to a person).

Here you will find my video coverage of the first week match!

In Game one we have Nicky Korba, a new comer to the league taking on, wait for it, a seasoned veteran in Amanda Mateer. Yes, I say seasoned as Amanda has been a solid team member for the Scorpions for several years now. LA would be happy with Nicky getting a draw on board 4, but this was not bad for Arizona either!

I make some comments about the opening night jitters on ICC and chess.com, but the overall coverage on chess.com was great. If you'd like to skip the intro about me and my critique about the opening night stumbles you can move to time mark 13:42 to get right to the game.

In our next video we look at how Lev  Altounian fits the role of a true 'Team Player'. He gets an edge and holds it long enough to see what is happening on the other boards before letting his opponent off the hooks with a draw from a slightly superior position in his game against Zhanibek Amanov.

Game 3 is an exciting affair from board 3. Mark Ginsburg, a cagey veteran player, takes on the young and talented Konstantin Kavutskiy. Konstantin played as solidly as possible but Mark got the upper-hand nevertheless. When Konstantin realized things were going south on other boards he seems to press too hard and Mark's year's of experience show through with a fine win.
 




Finally, the man everybody in Arizona wants to see... Mackenzie Molner takes on Andranik Matikozyan. This is a tense struggle in a Sicilian Najdorf Fischer-Sozin. Andranik makes a decision to push with e5 to complicate the position but Mac is on top of things and offers his rook, if White is willing to take it! Not to be outdone Andranik offers a trade of his queen for 3 minor pieces. Surely this would be enough, right? Well, if those pieces have nothing active to do, well, watch the video and find out!

Next week the Scorpions, for the first time in their league history, take on the Philadelphia Inventors. Most bloggers are expecting this to be a cake-walk for the Inventors, but I'm not so sure. Check in next week for video coverage of that match, or, subscribe for updates.

Sorry if this format is not perfect, this is my first blog and I hope to work out the bugs if given time :-)