The 64 - #1 With A Bullet - 8/8/2021 Sunday Recap
Every year on August 8th (8/8), in honor of the classic sports comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, ESPN adapts the moniker of ESPN 8: The Ocho, in which the worldwide leader in sports airs a 24-hour marathon highlighting some of the most obscure sports known to man. From competitive fracking to ferret bingo (one of those is actually a thing), you can catch it live on The Ocho.
So what's the connection here? "Clearly you are not comparing the immortal game, a game that has stood the test of time for thousands of years, to some dimwitted activity such as stone-skipping are you?" Of course not my inquisitive reader. I would never. Chess has set the bar as the pinnacle of human intelligence. Classical chess is cerebral and methodical. The epitome of the thinking man's game. There's a reason why during this recent chess boom, that NBC Sports has decided to air the upcoming World Championship in November instead of some second-hand network like "The Ocho".
...but it is fitting that on this day of foolish celebration for all things ludicrous, that the US Chess club had one live match and one live match only...and that was in Bullet! As credible as classical chess obviously is, in a weird way, with quick play, constant time scrambles and a reputation for an abundance of blunders, Bullet chess would almost fit right at home airing on ESPN 8.
So without further ado, let's get to the results...
On Sunday, the US Chess Federation battled Team Chile, and that's with an "E" not an "I", NOT like that chain restaurant.
The Americans may have just racked in the most medals at the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics, but we only rank 28th in the world in literacy.
But after the abundance of chess that has taken place this summer, most notably a month long string of Sunday triple-headers, and I'm sure I speak for most members of the club, it was a breath of fresh air just to have one quick match take place on Sunday. And although there's not much news to report, fortunately for the Americans, it's only good news.
As you already saw in that poorly worded graphic, US Chess took down Team Chile by a score of 20.5 to 15.5. Despite Chile's poor place in the standings, it was a fairly even matchup ratings wise. A bit lopsided towards the top but my no means a sure-fire victory. So it was rather encouraging to see that we did not overlook our opponents but rather just play what was on the board.
MVP of the match was clearly losingreallybadly, obviously a user name coated in irony because you did no anything but that, winning both games against Chile's udvuvvdu. The match with the Black pieces was a masterclass, scoring 96.4% accuracy and essentially refuting the Wing Gambit but it's the game with the White pieces we'll be looking at, and although the accuracy was significantly lower, this game was a Donnybrook!
The engine took some big swings in this one but it's one of those games while studying it with an engine, is a whole lot different than playing it without the knowledge of that engine. Nice tactic trapping the knight on move 18 only to then eventually lose the exchange a handful of moves later. But with an open h-file, check was given with the queen and although Stockfish disagreed, it can be a scary sight having the queen and rook knocking on your back door like that. But oddly enough, the king proved to be most safe on f2, as it did not move for the rest of the game. A game that took close to 80 moves to conclude and with that much play, even with a one second increment, it was only a matter of time before someone flagged. Your user name isn't fooling anyone. For your fantastic play, I award you "One Chuck Norris Approves Award".
Here are the standings for LCPAL Bullet.
https://livechessleagues.com/s4/bullet-open-tournament/
As of right now, US sits on the bubble in 6th place, the final spot for the playoffs but with one or two and as much as three games in hand on other nations, there is ample opportunity for the Americans to leap-frog some other countries in the standings and achieve a higher playoff seed. But all in all, that's two in a row now in LCPAL Bullet. Three in a row...well, that's called a winning streak. Let's keep this "Bullet" train moving!
As of right now, the only event scheduled for the upcoming weekend is a friendly Blitz match against Bulgaria. I'm sure the chat below will fill in any missing details but regardless, be sure to register and stay tactically sharp during this down week. There are some daily matches on the verge of concluding, so maybe I'll recap those but expect recaps to resume when Live Match play kicks back up again.
And, if you too are interested in participating in US Chess Live Matches, here's a link to the US Chess Club main page -
https://www.chess.com/club/uschess
where you can find all the information on how to link up as well as all upcoming events. The club and matches are FREE to join and open to ANYONE who wishes to participate. You do not need a USCF rating! Just join the club and registration for Match Play opens one hour before the scheduled time, just like all other tournaments in the Live Chess tab. It's as simple as that!
Until then, take advantage of all that Chess.com has to offer. Do your puzzles, take your daily lesson and hit those drills. See you next time!
"F****** Chuck Norris"
