PRO Chess League - Week 5 Recap + Week 6 Preview!
The San Jose Hackers (3-2) bounced back with a huge win over the Budapest Gambit (3-2) last Saturday in Week 5 of the PRO Chess League. This was a hugely important win for the Hackers, as we kept our playoff hopes very much alive in the Pacific Division.
The match was very close and tied 4-4 after the first two rounds. Then the Hackers pulled ahead 2.5-1.5 thanks to a clean win by GM Cristian Chirila over FM Andras Orosz:
This meant the hackers just needed to hold the last round in order to win the match. We ended up winning 2.5-1.5 again, thanks to a beautiful combination by NM Ivan Ke, to essentially clinch the match:
With a final score of 9-7, the Hackers won an important match. Unfortunately, due to internet connection issues, we weren't able to broadcast live coverage as usual. But we were able to follow the games live with over a dozen of regular Bay Area Chess Team Members, as you can see here:
IM Kostya showing some key variations in this tense match. Also pictured: SJ Hackers NM Teemu Virtanen & NM Christopher Yoo
Today, the Hackers will be using the same lineup to take on the Las Vegas Desert Rats, a powerful team competing with us for one of the coveted playoff spots. I will be doing live commentary of the match on Twitch, starting at 6:50 PM Pacific time.
Here are this week's lineups:
| San Jose Hackers | Las Vegas Desert Rats |
| GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | GM Timur Gareev |
| GM Daniel Naroditsky | GM Kayden Troff |
| GM Cristian Chirila | GM Jacek Stopa |
| NM Ivan Ke | FM Elliot Liu |
Wish us luck and make sure to tune into the live coverage!
The San Jose Hackers are a professional chess team in the Pacific Division of the PRO Chess League, sponsored by Bay Area Chess. To connect with the Hackers, please visit our Facebook, Twitter, and Official Site.
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Bio
IM Kostya Kavutskiy is a professional chess author, journalist, coach, commentator, and player. As a part of Chess.com's content team since 2009, Kostya has recorded many video lectures, covered elite tournaments, written instructive articles & blogs, and has done many live commentary shows for Chess TV. Kostya has also written a number of articles for Chess Life magazine and Chess Life Online, and is currently an instructor for Chess University. In 2015, Modernized: The Open Sicilian was released, which Kostya co-authored with IM Zhanibek Amanov. Kostya's tournament accomplishments include winning the 2014 Southern California Closed Championship, as well as achieving his IM title in November 2016. In April 2017, he placed 6th in the star-studded 2017 Reykjavik Open. He currently resides in Mountain View, CA, and his plans are to pursue the GM title while working actively as a coach.