PRO Chess League - Week 3 Recap: Rio Grande Defeats San Jose Hackers
It was a hard fought match, but ultimately the San Jose Hackers (2-1) succumbed to the Rio Grande Ospreys (2-1) 7.5-8.5 for the Hackers' first loss of the season. Despite our strong lineup, the Ospreys played fantastically overall and deservedly won the match. I was able to stream coverage of the match on Twitch, which you can see here, featuring commentary by NM Teemu Virtanen and NM Christopher Yoo of the San Jose Hackers:
Full recap:
The trouble started early, with the Hackers losing the first two rounds by a total of 5.5-2.5, a large deficit to overcome at halftime. But the Hackers almost managed, thanks to a 3-1 victory in Round 3, bringing the score to 5.5-6.5 in Rio's favor. The decisive game was Teemu's stunning upset over GM Vladimir Belous (Board 2 for Rio) who overpressed in a very double-edged position:
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.