The 64 - March Madness Baby!! - March 2022 Recap

That very first weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament is nothing but absolute pandemonium. Just as one game kicks off in Pittsburgh, another is starting the second half in San Francisco, all while an upset is coming down to the wire in San Antonio. In the words of the venerated broadcast announcer Dick Vitale, he would justify it like this --

The US Chess club's March schedule was just as chaotic this month as the NCAA tournament and let's be honest, much more exhilarating too.

The month tipped off on March 5th with the 4th round of the LCPAL Blitz cup, when the Americans took down Mexico Live Chess in another competitive derby match by a final tally of 31 to 27. There was a huge discrepancy in Mexico's favor when it came to the "Diaper Dandies" on the lower boards, so it was up to the top boards to carry the burden on their shoulders. Let's take a look at @technical_knockout who scored the TKO in his game with the Black pieces. 

Stop the fight! Stop the fight! And the winner, by resignation...

and NEW!!! recipient of the US Chess Club Taco Award...

@technical_knockout !!!

In the ensuing weeks, the Americans would go on to take down --

El Salvador - 21 to 7

Team Nicaragua - 17.5 to 4.5

Here are the LCPAL Blitz Cup standings after six rounds of play -

https://lcpal.tk

The US is a full 5/5, just one point behind the Chileans who are also undefeated at 6/6, but obviously the US still have a game in hand.

The Live Chess World League was a bit more of a mixed bag this month. After singing the praises of the US Chess Club in my previous recap by highlighting their current implausible winning streak, the commentator's jinx was in full effect when Team Uzbekistan demolished the Americans back on March 6th -

46 to 14 in Blitz

47.5 to 22.5 in Rapid

As the standings will soon show, Uzbekistan will be a scary lineup to try and take down in Stage 2 of the season.

So it was important to get off the schneid when the club took on team France just this past weekend. The French made it rather easy for the Americans when they didn't even sport a full lineup in neither the Rapid nor the Blitz portion. Final score -

14.5 to 5.5 in Blitz

6.5 to 3.5 in Rapid

But that's before counting all the forfeits so really the tallies are significantly more lop-sided than that. 

Let's look at a nice tactic from @nimajnebula125 with the White pieces:

However, Serbia took down the US 19.5 to 6.5. The Serbians may have been Diaper Dandies in the Blitz format but many of them were 1900 or even 2000 in longer time formats. This Serbia JV squad could take down many other nation's Varsity teams. They are fittingly anointed as "Diaper Dandies."

Here are the LCWL rankings as they currently stand stand -

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a1QkBhiblbe8Q6Q-50GiZD9VnrRBgrO-MYWBTgLrInw/edit#gid=1336658459

The US are behind Italy by a point, a team they swept earlier in the season, but have not one, but two games in hand. It seems to be a three team struggle at the top as Mexica, Uzbekistan and The USA all have legitimate shots to take home the crown. 

And finally wrapping up the recap, it's the chess.com Nations League. The US Chess Club had three affairs on the agenda this month and the Club slayed this particular gauntlet with relative ease. 

vs Jamaica

Rapid - 27.5 to 14.5

Blitz - 26 to 12

vs Uruguay

Rapid - 22.5 to 9.5

Blitz - 20 to 10

vs Greece

Rapid - 20 to 2

Blitz - 15 to 5

Going back to the Jamaica match, let's look at National Master and US Chess Club Super Administrator, coach @Dare-Dare with the White pieces in the Blitz format.

Dare-Dare is pretty good. Want to know how? So I'm watching Arena Kings on Wednesday March 30th and Hikaru, despite just wrapping up his semi-finals game in the 3rd leg of the Fide Grand Prix, is on the chess.com live stream just absolutely steam-rolling his opponents per usual (he did the exact same thing the day prior in the early edition of Titled Tuesday. Give someone else a shot for once @Hikaru ) Just after the 2-hour arena wraps up, and just before the knockouts kick off, this appears on Hikaru's live stream --

That's right, our very own Dare-Dare on the most popular chess player's Twitch stream. I don't think it's a coincidence that just as Hikaru qualifies for the Candidates Tournament, he's suddenly perusing Dare-Dare's profile. Perhaps he's looking for an American 2nd that will help him take down Magnus and I can think of nobody better than @Dare-Dare. I award you a presumptuous "Safe Trip" badge for when you travel the world telling Hikaru what openings and moves to play.

Here are the chess.com Nations League standings after 6 rounds of play -

https://www.chess.com/news/view/nations-league-round-6-final-results-and-standings

As of now there are three matches on the docket for this weekend, all on Saturday night 9:00 PM to 10:30 PM Eastern Time, all taking place simultaneously with the UNC-Duke Final Four matchup. I suspect turn out will be low for this one but hey, that's -

And if you too are interested in playing competitive chess, and don't have a penchant for NCAA basketball this Saturday evening, 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, study your lines, do your puzzles and keep searching for that "one shining moment".