News
This is it: the Big Enchilada
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- Written by Tom Panelas Tom Panelas
- Created: 20 November 2011 20 November 2011
Okay, chess fans, this is it, the thing we’ve been working and rooting for all season long: the Chicago Blaze have made it to the final round of the U.S. Chess League playoffs.
The Blaze earned that right after beating the Los Angeles Vibe 2.5-1.5 in the league semifinals Monday night, making them the Western Division representative in the season’s final match.
The Blaze took Monday night’s match on the strength of a draw by GM Yury Shulman and victories by GMs Dmitry Gurevich and Josh Friedel, who won the league Game of the Week prize, the third week in a row it has been won by a Blazer. (Yury won it the previous two.)
Rulebook Tactics: Notable Rules Changes for 2012
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- Written by TD Guru Tim Just TD Guru Tim Just
- Created: 14 November 2011 14 November 2011
New Year’s Day celebrates a lot of things in the world including the starting point for some new USCF rules and policy changes. Most years those changes are not all that noticeable or notable. January 1, 2012 will be a bit different. Let us take a peek at some of the more noticeable changes from the player’s point of view with commentary by moi.
No More Time Subtraction: The most noticeable change for players will be that the rule allowing the subtraction of time when using a delay clock goes the way of the dodo; i.e., it will be extinct.
Blaze Push Dallas Destiny into Oblivion in Round One of Playoffs
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- Written by Brad Rosen Brad Rosen
- Created: 10 November 2011 10 November 2011
Skokie Deputy Police Chief Michael Pechter initiated the Blaze's foray into the USCL playoffs last evening with a solid 1. d4 pawn push on behalf Grand Master Yury Shulman on Board 1.4 hours, and 67 moves later, Yury was able to close out the game with a victory, which secured a 2-2 score against the Dallas Destiny. Since the Blaze had draw odds, based on its best- in- the-league regular season performance, the team will advance to the Western Division Championship match against the LA Vibe next week.
Bear Down Chicago Blaze
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- Written by Brad Rosen Brad Rosen
- Created: 27 October 2011 27 October 2011
I'll get right to it; the Blaze narrowly lost its first match of the season, 1.5-2.5 to Miami this past Monday night. While this was the first defeat of the season for the Blaze, now 8-1, a discomforting sense of deja vu hovered over the North Shore Chess Center. Then it struck me– Monday Night … heading into the match undefeated…losing to Miami — and suddenly I was transported back to 1985— the undefeated Chicago Bears battling the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night football. Then too, disappointment prevailed as the Monsters of the Midway came up on the short end. After that, the team had no choice but to Bear Down.
While there is no crying (or excuse making) in chess, a couple of mitigating factors need to be kept in mind about the match with our Sharky opponents. First and foremost, Blaze super-manager and main photographer, Jae Lim, missed his very first match of the season due to a scheduling conflict.
Blaze Douse Dallas; Eric Scores a T-Shirt; Sharks Circling
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- Written by Tom Panelas Tom Panelas
- Created: 23 October 2011 23 October 2011
The first item of business: the Blaze scorched the Dallas Destiny by a score of 3.5.-.5 (ouch) last Wednesday night to continue one of the greatest winning streaks in U.S. Chess League history and clinch first place in the Western Division. With two weeks left in the regular season the Blaze are 8-0, undefeated and untied, and that’s pretty impressive if we do say so ourselves. Even if you disagree (and if you’re reading this you probably don’t) the fact remains, as I understand it, that no other team in league history has ever had a perfect record this late in the season. Deal with it.
In a match where none of our players lost – we had victories by GM Friedel NM Rosen FM Dean and a draw by GM Gurevich—it’s hard to single out one player as the hero, so we won’t.