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.