Week 3 Results

Week 3 was by far the most successful week so far, we had all but one game decided over the board! The big questions in week 3 were do Team Lake Michigan and Team Lake Superior have what it takes to continue their winning ways, and can Team Lake Huron and Team Lake Ontario bounce back from some tough losses? Let's check out the games and find out.

Team Lake Superior vs Team Lake Huron

Board 1: @houghton24 vs @neatgreatfire  1 - 0

This Sicilian was crazy from the start. They went fairly deep down a gambit line of the Alapin Sicilian where @houghton24 gambited two pawns in the first 10 moves. This created an open, tactical position where @neatgreatfire took what looked like a free pawn on c3. After the exchanges Bxc3, Qxc3; Rc1 threatened to bring down the house, forcing @neatgreatfire to go down a queen for rook exchange. This game made me want to go searching in @houghton24's past games for more crazy gambit lines and Tal-like games. I'll do that later, for now, on to board #2.

Board 2: @MinnesotaDude vs @theKirbster 1 - 0

This advance Caro Kann showed the tactical teeth that the 3...c5 variation can contain, for both black and white. @MinnesotaDude had his tactician goggles on early, taking on dxc5 on move 6 and winning a bishop two moves later. From that point @MinnesotaDude just destroyed black's kingside, only to bring his queen back and nearly force a queen trade while up half an army. This game ended in 14 moves. Definite knockout of the night candidate here, even though it was a TKO and not an actual knockout. This also will receive nominations for Upset of the night, as @MinnesotaDude was 40 points lower ranked in this matchup. I do happen to know though that we have a couple more upsets to look at before this analysis is over.

Board 3: @Gorgonops vs @ngosman 0 - 1

This advance French had shades of the previous game, an early c5 and some tactics initiated by pawn breaks. This one, however, would go black's way. After white took on c5 and allowed a bishop queen battery on the a7 - g1 diagonal, @ngosman saw the initiative and delayed castling to bring more pieces to the party. Moves like Rd8, Bf4 - Bd3 chased the queen away and that battery was able to deliver carnage with Bxf2, Kh1 and then when @ngosman brought the queen in to threaten mate, white resigned. This game ended in 17 moves and was an upset by 130 points! Seems we have some competition this week for the highly coveted fight of the night bonuses.

Board 4: @nd23903 1 - 0 @Gherkins54868 https://www.chess.com/game/live/34372751513

Board 5: @kmeier45239 0 - 1 @Joey759 https://www.chess.com/game/live/34825806529

Board 6: @Srobocop0615 vs @shiverosu 1 - 0

This was another tactician's delight. @shiverosu created a Queen/Bishop battery and delivered some really painful checks that ended in white going way down in material. Hats off to @shiverosu who must be grinding it out over at chess.com/puzzles.

Board 7: @Cosmosaic 0 - 1 @go0setav https://www.chess.com/a/S3hFGP9Q27Sf8

This match had everything we could hope for. Tactical positions (maybe we should start a weekly tactics blog?), upsets, and best of all, every match was decided over the board! Team Lake Superior continued their winning ways however, with a VERY close 4 - 3 win over Team Lake Huron.

Superior 4 - 3 Huron

Team Lake Michigan vs Team Lake Ontario

Board 1: @bluberrie_tea vs @GoPikachu 1 - 0

Firstly before we get into this game let's point out that @GoPikachu was almost 600 points lower ranked than his opponent. That's a tall task, and he played 38 moves with an accuracy of 87.5, really well done. The fact of the matter is, @bluberrie_tea might be unstoppable in this league. He started this game out with 1.c4, and I would have rolled my eyes and thought about a bongcloud after that. I mean, I have to play a guy who's 600 points higher ranked and he's going to open with 1.c4? @GoPikachu played principled chess, getting into a stable and safe King's Indian Defense position. This game had the looks of a slow positional matchup after some early pawn pushes kept the position closed, but @bluberrie_tea did what @bluberrie_tea does best, opened the position in just the right way, with his pieces placed perfectly, allowing a 3 on 2 attack at black's knight, winning a piece and creating all of the initiative with a dangerously placed queen. From this point, @bluberrie_tea played literally perfectly. He played the whole game with an accuracy of 96.1 and one inaccuracy, and his inaccuracy moved the evaluation bar 0.3 pts in favor of his opponent. Just wow.

Board 2: @tewald vs @lorookie 0 - 1

This game must have had both players hearts racing from the start. The middlegame had so many advantage changes and pins and complicated pawn moves that it forced a total of 13 blunders. That's not to say these guys were losing pieces or making bad moves, the position was so complicated that nearly any move was a blunder. At the end of all of that chaos, @tewald came out with the advantage, only to lose it with an inaccuracy. After 13 total blunders, this game was finally decided on a pawn exchange that the computer rates as inaccurate, but @lorookie used it to activate his remaining pieces and win a piece to enter the ending up two pawns and win via resignation when it seemed inevitable that he would promote. If we gave awards for comeback of the week I think this would be it. Well done, @lorookie, you got a big win for Team Lake Ontario, it's 1 - 1 to this point against the favored Team Lake Michigan.

Board 3: @blinddd7 vs @CRUSHR 1 - 0

This game is beautiful. It starts out normally with 1.d4 and @blinddd7 uses black's passive response to build up a central space advantage. In this tight and complicated position, black pushed d6, opening Qa4+, winning a piece. After that, @blinddd7 moved his queen over to the kingside to continue the carnage, and even topped it all off with a bishop sack on g5, and finished it with mate two moves later. I think this one has to be in that conversation for both knockout of the night and upset of the night. Really well done, @blinddd7!

Board 5: @2288sam 0 - 1 @brettkoz https://www.chess.com/game/live/34714214497

Board 6: @nb1258 1 - 0 @68ChessDaddo https://www.chess.com/game/live/34475413969

Board 7: @60_minute-man 1 - 0 @littleshooters https://www.chess.com/game/live/34662042001

This match ended up with Team Lake Michigan winning 4.5 - 2.5, staying true to the Vegas oddsmakers predictions. After trading wins on boards 1 and 2, Team Lake Michigan cleaned up the lower half. This week (week 4) the two strongest teams are playing each other, Vegas has no idea how that one will go. Stay tuned.

Michigan 4.5 - 2.5 Ontario

Weekly Awards:

Checkmate (knockout, in this case tko) of the week: @MinnesotaDude

Upset Of The Week: @blinddd7 and @ngosman

MVP: @bluberrie_tea, this has to be as good as an NM cert, right @bluberrie_tea? Congrats

Standings After Week 3:
Team Lake Michigan: 2 - 0 - 1 : 2.5pts
Team Lake Superior: 2 - 0 - 0 : 2.0pts
Team Lake Erie: 1 - 0 - 1: 1.5pts
Team Lake Huron: 0 - 2 - 0: 0pts
Team Lake Ontario: 0 - 3 - 0: 0pts

Thanks to everyone who played, this week was awesome. Let's keep it going!