"New York Knights extinguish Chicago Blaze in chess championship"

Bummer.

Listen to the podcast of WBEZ's coverage here!


 Chicago Blaze (10.0 – 2.0) vs New York Knights (7.5 – 4.5) 
                                 

Chicago Blaze			New York Knights
GM Mesgen Amanov: 2576	0.0	1.0	GM Giorgi Kacheishvili: 2653
GM Dmitry Gurevich: 2547	0.5	0.5	IM Irina Krush: 2560
IM Angelo Young: 2415	0.0	1.0	SM Matt Herman: 2426
NM Gopal Menon: 2222	1.0	0.0	John Fernandez: 2129
Avg Rating: 2440			Avg Rating: 2442
Chicago Total -------	1.5	2.5	------- New York Total

U.S. Chess League finals starting NOW!

Stolen from the USCL website.  I'll be stopping by shortly: good luck to the Blaze!

1. Chicago Blaze vs New York Knights                                   3:00 PM ET

If you are wondering why some teams have an average rating of above 2401, click here
All ratings listed below are August ratings - not always the ratings used for the league rating calculations!
Team listed first has White on Boards 1+3

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Sunday, November 20th, 2011

Chicago Blaze (10.0 – 2.0) vs New York Knights (7.5 – 4.5)
                            
All Time Series Record:  (This is their first match)

Starts at 2:00 PM CST       Time Control - Game in 90 with 30 second increment    

Chicago Blaze			New York Knights
GM Mesgen Amanov: 2576			GM Giorgi Kacheishvili: 2653
GM Dmitry Gurevich: 2547			IM Irina Krush: 2560
IM Angelo Young: 2415			SM Matt Herman: 2426
NM Gopal Menon: 2222			John Fernandez: 2129
Avg Rating: 2440			Avg Rating: 2442
Chicago Total -------			------- New York Total

*Due to the World Youth and K-12 Nationals causing many players to be unavailable, Chicago agreed to allow New York to use John Fernandez on Board Four when generally that would not have been permitted as he had not played the requisite two games during the regular season


If the match ties 2 – 2, there will be a special tiebreaker.  Click here for the tiebreaker procedures.

"Local chess team Chicago Blaze looks to keep competition in check "

Prior to last night's Blaze match, Sevan Muradian was interviewed yesterday by Alison Cuddy of WBEZ's Eight Forty-Eight.  Listen here!

Chicago 2½, L.A. 1½!!!

Last night at the North Shore Chess Center, Dmitry Gurevich and Josh Friedel powered the Chicago Blaze to a 2½-1½ win over the L.A. Vibe.  On to the U.S. Chess League finals!

Must work: games here!

Shulman annotates another USCL Game of the Week

Check it out on the Blaze blog!

Stoking the starmaker machinery

Chicago Public School (CPS) chess master key to success of Chicago area professional chess team  

SKOKIE, IL, NOVEMBER 12, 2011:  Whitney Young Magnet High School sophomore Sam Schmakel has been the key that unlocked the success of Chicago’s professional chess team, the Chicago Blaze, which set a regular season best record of 8 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss.

The Blaze entered its fourth season in 2011 with a roster that included wily veterans -- mostly Grandmasters and International Masters -- and energy filled youth players who have achieved much from a young age.

Schmakel, the best chess player ever in CPS and currently a student of Grandmaster Dmitry Gurevich, began playing chess during the summer between kindergarten and 1^st grade.  He is a product of the chess program his mother Eileen began at Decatur Classical, a CPS Gifted Program. In short order, Schmakel began to dominate the local and national scene, winning 2 national championships and winning a key game in the 2010-2011 school year, to secure the Illinois State High School Team Championship for Whitney Young.

Schmakel, who earned his title of National Master only a few months ago, has been the linchpin of success for the Blaze. He was tapped during the summer months to become part of the team and has proven himself by being undefeated in his games thus far (5-0).

Largely due to his performance, the Blaze has won its way into the Divisional Championships to take place on Monday night November 14^th at 8 p.m. Schmakel will play again that night as the Blaze try to win their first ever Divisional Championship.

The Chicago Blaze is a member of the United States Chess League (USCL), which oversees online matches among the nation’s top 16 teams.  Blaze team members gather each week during the season to play their matches at the North Shore Chess Center, located at 5500 W Touhy Ave Suite A in Skokie, IL. 

For more information on the Chicago Blaze visit http://www.chicagoblazechess.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/chiblazechess

Board 4: Xiong 0 - Schmakel 1

FM Jeffrey Xiong of Dallas is only 10 years old! Sam Schmakel may be the first to get his GM title, but I'd put my money on Jeffrey to win the World Championship first.

This Najdorf is a wonderful theoretical battle that does credit to both young players.  All of this has been played before until Sam's novelty 23...Na4!?

Board 3: Amanov 0 - Holt 1

Another fascinating game on Board 3. Mesgen's preparation in the Exchange Slav is deep, but Holt deals with the homecooking and wins a complex ending, avenging his Chicago Open defeat at Mesgen's hands.

Stolen from Facebook

...specifically from Blaze manager Daniel Parmet's post.

Tonight in the first round of playoffs the Chicago Blaze takes on the Dallas Destiny! Tune in to ICC at 7pm CST to watch the fiery match! Board1: GM Yury Shulman fresh off his GOTW win! vs GM Cristian Chirilia Board2: GM Julio Sadorra vs GM Josh Friedel Board3: GM Mesgen Amanov vs IM Conrad Holt Board4: FM Jeffrey Xiong vs NM Sam Schmakel Blaze advances on a draw!

Or stop by the North Shore Chess Center!

Board 4: Young 1 - Adamson 0

Parents will make sacrifices so their little ones can get ahead in life. So too bishops. With his killer shot on move 60, Angelo Young saved the Blaze from defeat. Well done!

Board 2: Altounian 1 - Felecan 0

Black gets overambitious against White's hypermodern noodling-around and doesn't get enough for the sacrificed pawns.  But Florin sets a beautiful coffeehouse trap on move 32.  Black doesn't take the poisoned queen, but doesn't find one of the several clear winning lines, either, and Felecan is back in the game.

Then 37...Rf6? allows 38.d5!  Ouch.  Chess is hard.

Blaze 2 - Arizona 2: Shulman's Board 1 win

First, belated congratulations to the Chicago Blaze for a fabulous regular season (8 wins, 1 loss, and Monday's tie against the Arizona Scorpions), and best of luck in the playoffs!  (About which more later.)

On Board 1, Mackenzie Molner played a Nimzoindian line that I've always found attractive in the abstract, but never understood well enough to risk in tournament play.  (Black's bishop appears to be trapped after 6...Ba5, but not really.)  Shulman plays for the center, eliminates the pesky Nc5, and creates weaknesses in the Black camp on e6 and c6.  But Molner defends well until a slip on move 39.

Find White's winning move in the diagram below!

Blaze match begins in a few minutes

Tonight the Blaze face off against the San Francisco Mechanics: Brad Rosen previews the match here.  Mechanics first board Jesse Kraai went to Shimer College: I knew him back when he had a flowing mane of hair and I wasn't quite bald.

Blaze 2½ - Baltimore Kingfishers 1½

Speaking very very selfishly, I'm glad that if Dmitry Gurevich had to lose, he lost in a variation that has been giving me trouble with the White pieces. IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat is not tempted by the long diagonal, but simply plays to recover the gambit pawn.

Blaze beat Arizona 2½ -1½

The Chicago Blaze was stung more than once in last night's match with the Arizona Scorpions, but Mesgen Amanov and Sam Schmakel were able to crush their opponents' cephalothoraces to bring home the 2½-1½ win. Cool!

Rogelio Barcenilla is the first opponent to take a full point from the Blaze.  He finds a cool shot in response to Yury Shulman's 23...e5.  But with best play it should only be good for equality: Yury overpressed on move 24.

U.S. Chess League standings

Here's the link.

With two wins and a draw, the Chicago Blaze is half a game behind the Arizona Scorpions. 

Young is a First Team All Star

Congratulations to IM Angelo Young of the Chicago Blaze for being named an all-star in U.S. Chess League's first team. The league has first, second, and third all-star teams, and Angelo is Board 3, behind GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Boris Gulko, on the first team. With NM Eric Rodriguez on board four, that's one heck of a team.

This comes as no surprise whatsoever, of course. Angelo was undefeated in six USCL games this year, extending his undefeated streak from the 2008 season. He's never lost a USCL game.

It's hard to find anything new to say about Angelo's extraordinary performance that hasn't been said before. He won the league Upset of the Week prize twice (a record), and won a game on Board 1 against a much higher rated player in a match where Angelo was filling in at the last minute for a sick teammate. Amazing.

Congratulations, Angelo!

Cross-posted from the Chicago Blaze blog.

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)