Sunday, September 1, 2013

Week 2 Lineup

Baltimore Kingfishers vs. New England Nor'easters
IM Levan Bregadze (2469) - IM David Vigorito (2532)
IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat (2492) - SM Steven Winer (2409)
NM Jared Defibaugh (2297) - FM Charles Riordan (2386)
NM Ben Krause (2323) - NM Andrew Liu (2296)

Note: Players in italic have the white pieces.

After a terrible Week 1, the Baltimore Kingfishers (0.0-1.0, 4th in the Northeast Division) look to bounce back against the New England Nor'easters (0.5-0.5, 3rd in the Northeast Division). New England drew with the Boston Blitz last week, but are in 3rd place on the 2nd tiebreak of opponents' rating average. New England leads the all-time series match score by 2.5-1.5, but when they last played each other in Week 5, 2012, Baltimore won with a 2.5-1.5 games score. Three players (IM Enkhbat, IM Vigorito, and NM Defibaugh) from that last match return to play in this one.

Board 1: IM Levan Bregadze vs. IM David Vigorito. IM Levan Bregadze is (-1) in his 2nd USCL season and has never played against New England before this match. His opponent, the player/manager IM David Vigorito, is making his first appearance in his 5th year as a player. IM Vigorito went (=1 -2) last year and has scored (+1 =1 -1) against Baltimore in his USCL career.

Board 2: SM Steven Winer vs. IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat. SM Steven Winer is making a return to the USCL with New England after having played for the Boston Blitz in the first 2 USCL seasons. He is (=1) on the season and is (-2) against Baltimore. He drew as black against SM Denys Shmelov of the Boston Blitz last week on Board 2. He will be facing IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat, who is (-1) this season and (+1 =1 -2) against New England. These two actually played against each other back in Week 10, 2005 when IM Enkhbat won with the black pieces.

Board 3: NM Jared Defibaugh vs. FM Charles Riordan. NM Jared Defibaugh is also (-1) this season and (+1 =1) against New England. He is matched up against FM Charles Riordan, who will be playing in his 7th USCL season. FM Riordan scored (+2 =2 -1) for New England last year and is (+1 =2) against Baltimore in his career.

Board 4: NM Andrew Liu vs. NM Ben Krause. NM Andrew Liu is (=1) this season having drawn with black against NM Ilya Krasik of the Boston Blitz last week on Board 4. This is NM Liu's 2nd USCL season and he is still searching for his first win after 3 games played. He is tasked against NM Ben Krause, who is making his USCL debut for Baltimore in this match.

Trivia Note: All four of the New England Nor'easter's players this week began their USCL careers on the Boston Blitz, and they are the only four players on the New England roster to have played for Boston.

Catch the games live on chess.com!

Reposted at: Chess.com blogs

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