Week 1 Review

Connecticut Dreadnoughts vs. Baltimore Kingfishers 4-0
GM Mikheil Kekelidze (2576) - IM Levan Bregadze (2469) 1-0 View Game
GM Michael Rohde (2548) - IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat (2492) 1-0 View Game
IM Jay Bonin (2436) - NM Jared Defibaugh (2297) 1-0 View Game
Jason Shi (2173) - NM Ian Schoch (2294) 1-0 View Game

Note: Players in italic have the white pieces.

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Board 1: GM Mikheil Kekelidze vs. IM Levan Bregadze. The game began as a King's Indian where black gave up a pawn for opening up the center. In the following position, it is white to play. Black is threatening to take the f3 pawn with check, but GM Kekelidze saw deeper to found a killer sequence of moves that left him up a minor piece and eventually with a victory in hand. Can you find it as well?

Board 2: IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat vs. GM Michael Rohde. These two players trotted out the Vitolins variation of the Bogo-Indian Defense where white played an interesting knight maneuver that traversed b1-d2-f1-e3 before castling kingside. IM Enkhbat seemed to be pressing with the white pieces but slipped up in mutual time pressure, dropping a knight and the game to GM Rohde's well-spotted queen-checks-and-capture sequence. Soon after the game had finished, IM Enkhbat pointed out to me that he had missed a forced draw just before allowing those queen checks. Find it in the following position!

Board 3: IM Jay Bonin vs. NM Jared Defibaugh. This game featured an exchange Grunfeld Defense where NM Defibaugh played the novelty 11... Qa5. The game seemed rather even until IM Bonin started pushing his kingside pawns and black found his king under severe pressure. NM Defibaugh pinned his hopes on being able to promote his c-pawn, but that allowed white to surround black's king completely and that pressure eventually proved too much to handle. See how IM Bonin finished off the game after the blunder 30... c4?

Board 4: NM Ian Schoch vs. Jason Shi. NM Schoch played and Jason Shi accepted the Smith-Morra Gambit of the Sicilian Defense. White never really got the kind of pressure you would hope for when playing the Smith-Morra Gambit, but black eventually allowed a liquidation to a drawn ending in the position below. However, in the game, NM Schoch tried a different path to keep winning chances alive, but apparently miscalculated a line that is also pointed out in the game viewer below. Jason Shi was able to take advantage of the miscalculation to score another victory for Connecticut and complete the 4-0 sweep of Baltimore.

Week 1 showcased an unfortunate series of mistakes from the Baltimore Kingfishers and some great play from the Connecticut Dreadnoughts. This match was the 3rd time in USCL history that Baltimore was swept 4-0. The other occurrences were in Week 8, 2006 against the Dallas Destiny and in Week 2, 2012 against the St. Louis Arch Bishops. Baltimore finished out of the playoffs in 2006, but managed to make the playoffs in 2012 despite the early sweep. A rematch with Connecticut is scheduled for Week 9. Also, stay tuned to see Baltimore play the New England Nor'easters next Tuesday night!

Reposted at: Chess.com blogs

Week 1 Lineup

Wednesday, 7:20 PM EDT
Time Control 75 min. with 30 sec. increment

Connecticut Dreadnoughts vs. Baltimore Kingfishers
GM Mikheil Kekelidze (2576) - IM Levan Bregadze (2469)
GM Michael Rohde (2548) - IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat (2492)
IM Jay Bonin (2436) - NM Jared Defibaugh (2297)
Jason Shi (2173) - NM Ian Schoch (2294)

Note: Players in italic have the white pieces.

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And so begins the 9th season of the U.S. Chess League (USCL). In the first week's match-up, we find our Baltimore Kingfishers paired against the Connecticut Dreadnoughts. This will be Baltimore's 9th season and Connecticut's 2nd season in the league. In light of the newly-enacted four teams per division arrangement in the USCL, this match has some extra importance as these two teams compete in the same division and there will be only 6 divisional games this year. The last (and only) time these two teams squared-off, they settled for a drawn match in Week 3, 2012. Two players (GM Kekelidze and NM Defibaugh) from that match return to play in this match.

Board 1: GM Mikheil Kekelidze vs. IM Levan Bregadze. GM Mikheil Kekelidze was (+1 =6 -3) last year for the Dreadnoughts and is (=1) against Baltimore. His opponent, IM Levan Bregadze, scored (+7 =1 -2) for his former team, the St. Louis Archbishops, and is (-1) against Connecticut. Both players will look to avoid starting their sophomore season in a slump!

Board 2: IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat vs. GM Michael Rohde. IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat, who will be appearing in his 9th USCL season, was (=3 -2) for the Kingfishers last season. He has yet to play against Connecticut. IM Enkhbat is a stalwart of the Baltimore team, having a career score of 28.0/60 from the team's 85 matches (including playoffs). Sitting opposite him (on the virtual chess board) will be GM Michael Rohde, who will be playing his 1st game in the USCL. This pairing is a rare clash between a USCL Veteran, who has been in the league from the start, vs. a complete USCL Rookie.

Board 3: IM Jay Bonin vs. NM Jared Defibaugh. After not playing at all in the USCL last season (despite being on the Philadelphia Inventors' roster), IM Jay Bonin is now playing again with the 3rd team of his 9-year USCL career. He has accumulated 28.0 points in 47 USCL games. He will be facing NM Jared Defibaugh, playing in his 4th USCL season. NM Defibaugh scored (+4 -3) last season, but lost his game in Baltimore's previous match with Connecticut. He has scored 10.0/19 in the USCL thus far. Both players have plenty of experience in the USCL, so they know that every (half-)point counts.

Board 4: NM Ian Schoch vs. Jason Shi. NM Ian Schoch returns to the Baltimore Kingfishers' lineup after a year off. He previously played in 2 USCL seasons, and he won 5 out of 8 games (all were decisive). He is set to play another USCL newcomer for Connecticut, Jason Shi. Will NM Schoch be able to continue his decisive game streak?

Catch the games live on chess.com!

Reposted at: Chess.com blogs

Quarterfinals Lineup

Monday, 7:15 PM EST
Time Control 90 min. with 30 sec. increment

Philadelphia Inventors vs. Baltimore Kingfishers
GM Sergey Erenburg (2700) - IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat (2509)
FM Tom Bartell (2489) - GM Larry Kaufman (2445)
FM Dov Gorman (2327) - NM Kevin Wang (2366)
IM Richard Costigan (2288) - FM Ralph Zimmer (2304)

Note: Players in italic have the white pieces.

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After missing the playoffs last year, the Baltimore Kingfishers have returned to the playoffs in 4th place in the Eastern Division. That means they will now do battle with the Philadelphia Inventors, who finished 1st place in the Eastern Division with a 7.5-2.5 record and return to the playoffs for the 2nd straight year. Since Phildelphia is the higher seed, they will advance in the case of a drawn 2-2 match. They also received the choice of colors and picked to play white on Boards 1 and 3. Philadelphia leads the all-time series with a 8 match points against 5 match points for Baltimore. These two teams played in Week 1 this season, which ended in a draw. Five players (GM Erenburg, FM Gorman, IM Costigan, IM Enkhbat, and FM Zimmer) from that match return to play this one. All except two of the players (both board 3 players) in this match have playoff experience. Baltimore is 2-2 in playoff matches but they have not won since 2005. Meanwhile, Philadelphia is 0-2 in the playoffs.

Board 1: GM Sergey Erenburg vs. IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat. GM Sergey Erenburg, a former Baltimore Kingfisher, is (+4 =5 -1) in his 6th USCL season, (+1 =1) against Baltimore, and (+1 -1) in the USCL Playoffs. He won last week with black on Board 1 against GM Alexander Ivanov (NE). He placed 4th in the USCL MVP race, but surprisingly only 2nd on his team. In Week 1, he drew with white against his upcoming opponent, IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat. IM Enkhbat is (=3 -1) in his 8th season, (+3 =3 -1) against Philadelphia, and (=2 -2) in the Playoffs. He lost in Week 9 with white against IM Eli Vovsha (MAN) on Board 2.

Board 2: GM Larry Kaufman vs. FM Tom Bartell. GM Larry Kaufman is (+1 =2 -2) in his 8th season, (+2 =3 -3) against Philadelphia, and (+2) in the Playoffs. He lost last week as black against FM Kazim Gulamali (BOS) on Board 2. He has played twice with white (a draw in Week 4, 2009 and a loss in Week 2, 2008) against his opponent, FM Tom Bartell. FM Bartell is (+1 =1 -2) in his 6th season, (+1 =4 -1) against Baltimore, and (-1) in the Playoffs. He won last week with white against IM David Vigorito (NE) on Board 2.

Board 3: FM Dov Gorman vs. NM Kevin Wang. FM Dov Gorman is (+6 =2) in his first USCL season and (+1) against Baltimore. He won last week as black against Carey Theil (NE) on Board 3. With his impressive record, he placed 2nd in the USCL MVP race and first on his team. Also in his first USCL season, NM Kevin Wang is (+1 -1) and has not yet played against Philadelphia. He won in Week 8 with black against GM Boris Gulko (NJ) on Board 2.

Board 4: FM Ralph Zimmer vs. IM Richard Costigan. FM Ralph Zimmer is (+4 =1 -1) in his 7th season, (+4 =2) against Philadelphia, and (=1) in the Playoffs. He won last week against NM Ilya Krasik (BOS) with black on Board 4. That win gave FM Zimmer the slight half-point edge in the team MVP race. He has won twice (with white in Week 1, 2012 and with black in Week 8, 2009) against his opponent, IM Richard Costigan. IM Costigan is (=3 -1) in his 7th season, (+2 =3 -5) against Baltimore, and (-1) in the Playoffs. He drew with black against Nicolas Checa (NY) on Board 4 in Week 9.

Catch the games live on ICC!

Week 10 Review

Baltimore Kingfishers vs. Boston Blitz 2.5-1.5
GM Giorgi Margvelashvili (2593) - SM Denys Shmelov (2502) 0.5-0.5 View Game
GM Larry Kaufman (2445) - FM Kazim Gulamali (2419) 0-1 View Game
NM Jared Defibaugh (2357) - NM Vadim Martirosov (2345) 1-0 View Game
FM Ralph Zimmer (2304) - NM Ilya Krasik (2261) 1-0 View Game

Note: Players in italic have the white pieces.

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The Baltimore Kingfishers clinched the 4th spot in the Eastern Division and a playoff spot with a win over the Boston Blitz. Baltimore finished the season with a 5.5-4.5 record, tied with New York though they took 3rd place on the first tiebreaker.

Board 1: The game began with a Queen's Gambit: Slav with white playing 4. Qb3 with a later fianchetto on the kingside. White's pair of bishops allowed him to win a pawn in the middle game. As boards 2 and 3 concluded, the match was tied 1-1 with board 4 looking unclear, so GM Margvelashvili had to press for the win. Then suddenly, FM Zimmer won his game and it became clear that Baltimore just needed a draw to win the match and secure a playoff spot, so GM Margvelashvili offered the clinching draw. He certainly could have played on to try to win in the final position:

Board 2: FM Gulamali won the Game of the Week and it is analyzed by GM Alex Yermolinsky on ICC. This very exciting game started as a French Defense: Steinitz, Bradford Attack. White castled queenside and aimed his pieces at black's kingside. FM Gulamali even sacrificed a knight to prevent a queen trade and open up the kingside. It looked like GM Kaufman should be able to hold the position, but he blundered with 26... Bg7:

FM Gulamali found a spectacular mate with 27. g6 Qf6 28. Rh8+! Bxh8 29. Qh7+ Kf8 30. Bb4+ Nd6 31. Bxd6+ Ke8 32. Qg8+ and blacked resigned before 32... Qf8 33. Qf8#.

Board 3: A Scotch Gambit transposed into a tame Two Knights Defense/Philidor Defense. NM Martirosov decided to allow his pawns to be doubled on the e-file and soon white won control of the open d-file. White managed to get his queen and rook lined up on the 7th rank and black had to look for a perpetual against the white king to try to survive. The perpetual just wasn't there as seen in the game when NM Defibaugh won, but there was a very interesting attempt not played after 36. Kh4:

If black tried 36... Rf4+, NM Defibaugh noted that 37. g4! wins with 37... Qf2+ 38. Kh5 Qxh2+ 39. Kg6 Rf6+ 40. Qxf6 gxf6 41. Ra8#. White had to avoid the mistake 37. gxf4? Qf2+ 38. Kg4 (38. Kh3? and Kh5? are actually forced mates for black! i.e. 38. Kh5 Qxf3+ 39. Kg6 Qxe4+ [not 39... Qg4+ 40. Qg5! with Ra8# coming] 40. Kh5 Qf3+ 41. Kg6 [41. Kh4 Qxf4+ 42. Kh5 Qf3+ 43. Kh4 g5+ and black will win the queen and rook] Qd3+ 42. Kh5 Qh3+ 43. Qh4 [43. Kg6 Qf5#] Qf5+ 44. Qg5 hxg5 and now black has h7 for the king) Qg2+ with a perpetual check.

Board 4: In what started as a Benoni, the game transposed into Queen's Gambit Declined and Queen's Indian lines. The game became very interesting when FM Zimmer sacrificed his two queenside pawns and a rook for a bishop and white's g-pawn to open up NM Krasik's king. Black's attack took a little while to develop and white missed some chances to defend better. For example, white could have played 27. Be4 with the idea of returning the exchange on d5 and 34. h3 instead of giving up the exchange with 34. Re4. Thus, black's adventurous play was rewarded and FM Zimmer ended the game with a picturesque queen sacrifice for mate with 43... Qd1+:

Week 10 Lineup

Wednesday, 7:30 PM EST
Time Control 90 min. with 30 sec. increment

Baltimore Kingfishers vs. Boston Blitz
GM Giorgi Margvelashvili (2593) - SM Denys Shmelov (2502)
GM Larry Kaufman (2445) - FM Kazim Gulamali (2419)
NM Jared Defibaugh (2357) - NM Vadim Martirosov (2345)
FM Ralph Zimmer (2304) - NM Ilya Krasik (2261)

Note: Players in italic have the white pieces.

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The Baltimore Kingfishers (4.5-3.5, 6th place) battle the Boston Blitz (4.0-5.0, 7th place) in the final week of the USCL regular season. Both teams are fighting for a playoff spot, but even with a match victory here, they will need help from the other matches going a favorable way. Baltimore could finish as high as 3rd place while Boston could move into the 4th spot in the Eastern Division. Now, Boston leads the all-time series with 6.5 match points to Baltimore's 4.5 match points. They last played in Week 9, 2011 when Boston won 3-1. Four players (GM Kaufman, FM Zimmer, NM Martirosov, and NM Krasik) in that match return to play this time.

Board 1: GM Giorgi Margvelashvili vs. SM Denys Shmelov. GM Giorgi Margvelashvili, is (+2 =2) in his 2nd USCL season. He has not played against Boston previously. He won with white on Board 1 against GM Giorgi Kacheishvili (NY) in Week 7. He will be facing SM Denys Shmelov, who is (=2) in his 5th USCL season and (+1 =1 -1) against Baltimore. He drew last week as black against IM Jonathan Yedida (NE) on Board 2.

Board 2: FM Kazim Gulamali vs. GM Larry Kaufman. FM Kazim Gulamali is (+4 -3) in his 1st USCL season. He won last week as white against FM Braden Bournival (NE) on Board 2. His challenger, GM Larry Kaufman is (+1 =2 -1) in his 8th USCL season and (=2 -5) against Boston. He won in Week 7 as black against FM Michael Bodek (NY) on Board 2.

Board 3: NM Jared Defibaugh vs. NM Vadim Martirosov. NM Jared Defibaugh is (+3 -3) in his 3rd USCL season and (+1) against Boston. He lost in Week 8 as white against IM Albert Kapengut (NJ) on Board 3. His opponent, NM Vadim Martirosov is (+2 =1) in his 6th USCL season and (=5) against Baltimore. He drew with black against NM Christopher Wu (NJ) on Board 3 in Week 7.

Board 4: NM Ilya Krasik vs. FM Ralph Zimmer. NM Ilya Krasik is (+3 -1) in his 8th USCL season and (+4 =1 -3) against Baltimore. He won with white against NM Andrew Ryba (MAN) on Board 4 in Week 8. He will have a somewhat familiar opponent in FM Ralph Zimmer, whom NM Krasik won against in Week 8, 2008. FM Ralph Zimmer is (+3 =1 -1) in his 7th USCL season and (=3 -1) against Boston. He won in Week 8 with black against Praveen Balakrishnan (NJ) on Board 4.

Will either team make the playoffs? Everything will be decided this week so follow the action live on chess.com or as relayed on ICC!