Blaze - Dallas, Board 4: Dean 1 - Xiang 0

By point count alone, Black has the advantage of two rooks vs. queen. But the two rooks need to be coordinated to be effective, and king safety is paramount in middlegames with opposite-color bishops are on the board.

31.f6!, shaking up His Majesty's hizzle, is very nice. Black could have defended with 31...Ra8! 32.Qg4 (threatening both mate on g7 and the c4 bishop) 32...g6! 33.Qxc4 Rxd2.

Manager Daniel Parmet has a very pleasant task each week filling the lower boards: Jim Dean, Eric Rosen, Sam Schmakel, Angelo Young....

FM Albert Chow analyzes Abrahamyan-Dean

Enjoy Albert's wonderful analysis of this wonderful game between WGM Tatev Abrahamyan and FM Jim Dean.

Board 3: Dean-Abrahamyan ½-½

I have no idea what happened in this game. I watched part of it last night, and early on, I thought that Jim Dean would have good chances to win with Black. But Tatev Abrahamyan is very resourceful, and I wouldn't be surprised if she had a winning ending at a certain point. (Knight and bishop often have problems coordinating against an enemy rook, to the point that Reuben Fine considered rook and two pawns vs. knight and bishop to be a win in the general case.)

Restrain, blockade, destroy, draw.

Blaze face off against LA at 8 p.m.

Follow the action live at the North Shore Chess Center in Skokie, or online at the Internet Chess Club (membership required).  This is the first Blaze game for both FM Jim Dean and NM Gopal Menon.

I hope to have the PGN boxscores up by tomorrow a.m.

Changes to the Chicago Blaze lineup!

Tom Panelas reports.