Perhaps knights are just better than bishops?

In the GM battle on Board 1, Miami's Julio Becerra rode his steed to a winning rook ending against Josh Friedel's Berllin Defense.

The knight can visit all 64 squares, but it is the lot of poor Mr. Bishop that he can only visit 32.  Of course, White also had a healthy 4-3 kingside majority and Black had to deal with an artificially isolated h4 pawn....

Board 3: Pelaez 1 - Rosen 0

Black's problem piece in the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit is the bishop on c8. The point of 6.Qc2 is to embarrass the bishop by taking away its best square: Eric's 6...g6 is a radical attempt to solve the problem. (I've tried it more than once myself: NM Steve Tennant swept me off the board at a Western Open some years ago from the position after 8.Qb3, which forces Black to weaken the queenside pawns slightly.)

FM Jorge Peleaz really played a model game with the White pieces. Once the hanging pawns are forced into the unfavorable c4-d5 formation, the bishop on e6 is much less powerful than the dancing knight. 46.f5! is real purty.

 If Black can find a way to get away with this line, the 6...g6 idea is golden. Until then, there's always 6...Be7.

Black is OK! Blaze is OK! Sharks are OK!

There's a famous opening book by the Hungarian Grandmaster Adorjan titled Black Is OK!  Adorjan advocates the opening philosophy popularized by Fischer: don't grovel for the draw, don't play to equalize, but try to win from move one!

Even though White typically scores 56% of total points in master play, the player of the Black pieces won all four of tonight's games, and in tonight's U.S. Chess League match, the Chicago Blaze drew the Miami Sharks, 2-2.  Now could someone please explain what this means for the Blaze's playoff hopes?

Board 1: Gurevich-Becerra

The Chebanenko Slav (4...a6) is notoriously hard to beat. Dmitry Gurevich (who really really wanted to win tonight!) opted for a slow positional squeeze, and came close to converting against fellow GM Julio Becerra. The match situation required Becerra to play for a win to tie the match, and he found a good move (35...f5!) in mutual time pressure.

Dmitry still would have been better if he had played the consolidating move 36.Be3: 36.Kh3? was just too risky. Even in the game, 39.Qb1! kept the pressure on Black.

41.Bxf4? lost by force: kibitzers pointed out that Dmitry probably rejected 41.Qb7!? because it doesn't really threaten anything: the Re8 covers the back rank, and the Ng5 and Bd4 protect the sensitive squares in front of the Kg8. But the queen-rook battery on the seventh would have tied down several Black pieces to the king's defense: for example, 41...Nxf3 allows 42.Qh7+ Kf8 43.Qh6+ with a perpetual check.

Easy for a computer!

Board 2: make a wish

You've probably heard this one before. When you don't know what to do in a closed position, identify your worst placed piece, then imagine what square you would like that piece to be on. 

First, use your imagination, then see if you can find a plan to make your dream come true!

Perhaps with the help of this technique, GM Mesgen Amanov beats his third grandmaster in three days....

If you had had the Black pieces, what would your plan have been after 24.Ra2?

Board 3: Creative attack and counterattack

Florin Felecan played the Sozin against the Najdorf, and had very good practical chances to break through with the attack.  But all credit to the opponent: Marcel Martinez was a cool customer!

Knights Win USCL Title

In “stunning reversal of fortune,” losers are heroes in tiebreaks

Congratulations to the New York Knights, who have defeated the Miami Sharks to win the 2009 U.S. Chess League Championship. Last night's regulation match ended in a draw. As the USCL site reports:

“For the fourth year in a row the USCL Finals came down to a blitz tiebreaker. Two players lost during regulation, GM Giorgi Kacheishvili and IM Alejandro Moreno Roman. In a stunning reversal of fortune, both of these players were heros in the blitz tiebreaker. Moreno Roman knocked off everyone on New York's team except for Kacheishvili. Kacheishvili then turned around and did the exact same thing to Miami, finishing things off by defeating GM Julio Becerra with the black pieces.”

Perhaps because the Chicago Blaze were not in the playoffs, I have been remiss, I must admit, at covering the fairly exciting post-season action in the USCL, and as it happens I don't have time to redress that neglect at the moment with a lengthy post (all the usual excuses). Go to the USCL site to see all the playoff games.

In due course I'll try to bring Blaze fans up to speed on the thrilling 2009 USCL postseason.

(Cross-posted from Chicago Blaze blog)