USCL Week 2: Exciting draw vs. Boston!
After a fantastic start in week one, week two saw the Dreadnoughts and Blitz make the only drawn match of the week. Despite the final split, the match was not without its fair share of drama.
|
Boston Blitz |
Connecticut Dreadnoughts |
||
|
0.5 |
0.5 |
||
|
0.5 |
0.5 |
||
|
0.0 |
1.0 |
||
|
1.0 |
0.0 |
||
|
Average Rating: 2403 |
Average Rating: 2429 |
||
|
Boston Total |
2.0 |
2.0 |
Connecticut Total |
The Dreadnoughts’ advantage this week lay in our board four master Kapil Chandran. Kapil just recently won the very strong Denker Tournament of High School Champions and will undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with on four. Early in the match things seemed to be going as planned. Boards one and two seemed even, three was unclear but familiar territory for FM Leif Pressman and on four Chandran already had a comfortable advantage out of the opening.
The spectators rooting for the team!
Soon IM Jay Bonin won a pawn and entered an endgame with good chances to win and so now the match seemed all but destined to end in victory. But of course anything can happen in the US Chess League and just when everything was going our way disaster struck. In the first game of the night to finish, an unfortunate blunder by Chandran in time pressure gave what seemed like a certain victory for the Dreadnoughts to a win for Boston. It would be easy for an early loss to sink a team but the Dreadnoughts are a resilient bunch. GM Kekelidze found a second wind and impressively outplayed GM Eugene Perelshteyn to reach a winning endgame and on three Pressman also gained a clear upper hand.
Click here for more pictures, puzzle and to find out what happened next!
