News
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.
Schmak-down!
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- Written by Glenn Panner Glenn Panner
- Created: 19 October 2011 19 October 2011
Week 7 brought us a match against the always dangerous San Francisco Mechanics in what may be a preview of the first round of the Western Division playoffs. The 2.5-1.5 win brought the Blaze to a perfect 7-0 record.
The formidable Mechanics threw a very tough lineup in our path including (2) strong GMs, a world youth champion, and another top junior player. Like so many matches in the US Chess League, trying to guess the final match score is a futile endeavor as tightly contested games swing the score predictions one way or the other every few minutes.
As Kingfishers Catch Fire
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- Written by Brad Rosen Brad Rosen
- Created: 11 October 2011 11 October 2011
The Chicago Blaze were victorious with a 2.5-1.5 win over the Kingfishers, extending its record to a remarkable 6-0 and clinched a playoff spot in the process!! Once again there was no shortage of drama and excitement at the North Shore Chess Center .
The big surprise of the evening came early on as NM Gopal Menon upended NM Ian Schoch, the heavy favorite on Board 4 who came in with a 70 plus point rating advantage, a 3-0 record, and a lot of talk as being a 1st Team USCL Board 4 All Star Candidate. In the match, Menon got seriously down on time but in typical fashion remained cool, calm and collected as he patiently waited for his higher rated opponent to give him an opportunity to strike in this Czech Benoni opening.
Keeping the Heat On
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- Written by Tom Panelas Tom Panelas
- Created: 03 October 2011 03 October 2011
The Chicago Blaze juggernaut continues to roll through the U.S. Chess League.Last night our Chi-town team won another decisive victory, beating the St. Louis Arch Bishops 3.5-.5. At this point, halfway through the ten-week regular season, the Blaze have a perfect record of 5-0—undefeated and untied.
Once again we got stellar performances from all four boards, with victories by GM Dmitry Gurevich, IM Angelo Young and NM Sam Schmakel and a draw by GM Josh Friedel against the redoubtable St. Louis GM Ben Finegold.
Blaze force LA to Bite the Bullet
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- Written by Brad Rosen Brad Rosen
- Created: 28 September 2011 28 September 2011
National Master Gopal Menon made his USCL debut in spectacular fashion as he extracted a win, from what many in the crowd thought was a drawn position, to clinch the Blaze win and extend the team's perfect record to 4-0. Menon, known for his one minute bullet chess prowess (he was #1 on the ICC one minute list earlier in the year), came out of the opening in typical fashion, with an advantage and up the exchange against 10-year old whiz kid Albert Lu.
As with last week's match, Grand Master Mesgen Amanov was the first Blaze player of the evening to finish his match, this time with a gorgeous win over IM Zhanibek Amanov (no relation) on Board 2.
Mesgen played a variation of the Modern Benoni where he gave up his queen in return for two active knights and a strong bishop that dominated play. "This was a very theoretical variation," Mesgen said. "I knew this line very well."