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 :-)