Boston Boll Weevils lose to Philly (1 – 3)

(Beat Reporter:Mark LaRocca)

Oh, de boll weevil am a little black bug,
Come from Mexico, dey say,
Come all de way to Boston,
Jus' a-lookin' foh a place to stay,

Jus' a-lookin' foh a home,
Jus' a-lookin' foh a home

Just ask any Boll Weevil.  Without a home, it’s tough to survive, especially in the USCL.

The Boston Blitz find themselves homeless and hapless and wholly entrenched in last place in the Eastern Division after losing a close match to the Philadelphia Inventors (BOS 1 – PHI 3).   Oh, I know what you’re thinnin’, Baba Looey, and very observant of you.  You don’t get to be a hairy, long-eared, jackass, horse’s side-kick without having a smidgeon of common sense.  Well, I’ll be ‘splainen if you be listenen… and, please, call me “Quix Draw”.

This night started in a very unusual way.   I emailed Ilya Krasik, Blitz manager, requesting a hint on the location of the match.   His answer, “Don’t know”.  It was a Tuesday, and the Harvard site was unavailable.  Uh-Oh, scrambling Ilya was on the job and finally sent out the good news that the MetroWest Chess Club, a great Boston area chess club, was willing to host this evening.   The bad news… the team had to be done, packed, and out of the building by 10pm.  Hmmm!  The match starts at 7:15.

Talk about time pressure in chess, well, I think we can all agree, this ain’t your father’s time pressure.  Did it affect the match? I think so.  Two games finished early, a draw on board 2 and a loss on board 3 (making the time limit). And two games finished outside the building on the benches connected to the public network, although the match outcome already seemed certain.

De farmer take de boll weevil,
An' he put him in de hot san'.
De weevil say: "Dis is mighty hot,
But I'll stan' it like a man,

Dis'll be my home,
It'll be my home.”

Can I get a… “Oh,  poor Boll Weevils”. 

I watched sadly as board 1 drew a very tough, looking lost at one point, game and board 4 fell apart as he carried the laptop out of the building to the bench, well, really a trash can stand, outside the building.  If it wasn’t so funny, it would be tragic… or, do I have that back-ass-wards.

IS THERE A BENEVOLENT SPONSOR WITH A REASONABLE LOCATION OUT THERE?!!!

I just can’t take the suspense.   Speaking of suspense, our best played game of the day just happened to be our first loss of the day.   NM Ahmet Bolat won a pawn, and had the initiative, but, the position was just a draw.   Now, I asked him not to look at the other games… but, would he listen to me… Noooo!  It was a fatal mistake, as he now felt that he had to win.  Oh well, let’s see what happened to Boll Weevil 3.

This was an easily drawn game right around move 30, and Ahmet wanted to repeat and/or offer a draw.  But, the positions on the other boards seemed to indicate that he needed a win, and, as it turned out, he did.  So, no fault here. You can't make chicken soup out of chicken @#$%!  Now, can you.  Boston (0 - 1)

On to our next bug.   Denys has certainly started off slow this year, two draws. and this one, as you will see, was quite a lucky one for Boll Weevil 2.

Why lucky?  Here's a nice puzzle from the game.  You tell me... no peeking now.