Scorpions score slip by St. Louis in a tense come-from-behind battle! Last week Arizona made yet another appearance into the US Chess League Playoffs as they were paired against the St. Louis Arch Bishops. St. Louis held the tie-break advantage, if the match was tied 2-2, Arizona would be sent packing and preparing for the next season. It seemed that the Arizona game play for the night was for Mac Molner to draw his game (even though Mac was was not feeling well) and to win on Board 4, to basically repeat the results from two weeks ago when these same two teams, and same four players last met. It worked out then, why wouldn't it work out now? Well, Mac did draw his game, but Dipro did not get his expected result. After two games AZ only had 1/2 point. This meant that to advance to the Semi Finals Arizona would have to defeat this years top stars in the USCL, Kannappan and Bregadze, this seemed like an insurmountable feat, yet the veteran players for Arizona have seen it all before and put up some really solid play to score two points on the middle two boards, this victory gives Arizona the chance to face Seattle - haha, I always want to type in "Dallas" there, don't you? Enjoy the video, there are some exciting games to look at.
Arizona Wraps 2012 Regular Season With Another Win
Last week the Scorpions took on the Carolina Cobras and zapped the last remaining bit of strength and beat them 2.5-1.5. While this was not a 'must win' match for Arizona is was a nice warm up for the upcoming post season play.
This week I mostly focused on two games from the Cobra-Scorpion event, the game between Craig Jones vs Mark Ginsburg and the game between Jonathan Schroer vs Mac Molner.
First of all, the Ginsburg vs Jones game. It's always fun to watch a friend play another friend. Of the two I believe Mark has the superior fighting spirit, Craig has a seemingly ever lasting joy for the wonders of the game of chess. Mark seems to be a technician in his approach while Craig has moments of great artistic flair. This game looked to be an exciting oneeven though this match meant little in the standings. It started out with Mark getting the upper hand and gaining what I felt was, if not a winning position, it was certainly close to winning. Credit Craig for hanging in there, he managed to hold Mark to a draw in the end.
The other game that interested me was Mackenzie Molner's game. Since I just classified the previous two players I gave some thought as to the classification that Mac might fall under; Romantic comes to mind, but that's not quite right. Tactician? Defensive mastery? No, though he did make one defensive move in this game. How does one classify the play of Mackenzie Molner.
Calling Mac a Romantic is really only true on the surface because of the openings he plays. But he plays these Romantic openings in the era of chess computers and in-depth opening analysis and preparation. Often his play is risky. He seems to be flying by the seat of his pants sometimes. It's really difficult to pin Mac to a chess style, you almost need to reach outside the realm of chess to understand his mindset to the game, he's a real Maverick of sorts.
In the following video I try my best to pinpoint Mac's aggressive playing style, to try and find out why he plays the way he plays. When I pieced it all together with another career it all started to make sense to me.
Watching Mac's game is not easy on team mates and his fans. In this game he sac's the exchange and a pawn as early as move 10 when he has not even castled. Theory, maybe, yes. But theory, while important, can be bent and swayed by the likes of Mackenzie Molner. Now, the good news for Mac's team mates and fans is that, though they may be scared, Mac's opponents are scared too!
Enjoy the video. If you'd like to skip straight to the start of the game, jump to time mark 11:54.
Once again the Arizona Scorpions find their way into the US Chess League Playoffs.
Arizona has had a pretty good year, though there were some bumps in the road along the way.
Last week the Scorpions took on the St. Louis Arch Bishops in a match that had chances for Arizona to really put the screws to their opposition, but there were missed chances for both sides, so it seems fitting that the decisive result came down to the players on Board 4, Chakraborty vs Hendrickson.
Board 1 was a tight positional affair that was fairly level throughout much of the game, but towards the end Mac Molner took a risky shot to gain some play. Panic on his opponent's part allowed Mac to hold the draw. But as the video will clearly show, St. Louis missed a golden opportunity in this game.
The favor was returned in the Altounian vs Kannappan game. Lev built up a nice position and seemed to be clearly winning, yet he missed the critical move Rc7 (after d6), I feel that Kannappan would have resigned a few moves later had he played this move. As the game progressed Lev won a piece but his opponent traded down to a R&N vs R endgame and was able to hold the draw!
Mohandesi managed to draw his game will a typical Mohandesi positional grind.
So far there were three draws but on Board 4 things looked better for Arizona, and indeed, Dipro kept his calm. In a comfortable endgame where he was a pawn up he only needed to find a way to trade queens when his opponent gave him a gift and hung his knight. This made the win super easy and with this win Arizona was able to sail into the playoffs.
Next the Scorpions take on the Carolina Cobras. This match is important to Arizona as a victory here may improve Arizona's current 4th position in the post season play.
Here is a video of game fragments from the Scorpions vs Arch Bishops - enjoy!
