09/08/2005

  Wild finish ends in a 2-2 tie between New York and Baltimore
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by IM Greg Shahade                      
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Baltimore Kingfishers vs New York Knights 

Starts at 7:00 PM ET      Time Control - Game 90 with 30 second increment

Baltimore Kingfishers			New York Knights
IM Pascal Charbonneau - 2506			GM Alex Stripunsky - 2663
FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat - 2453			IM Irina Krush - 2445
IM Larry Kaufman - 2331			IM Jay Bonin - 2379
WGM Katerina Rohonyan - 2309			Evan Rosenberg - 2131
Avg Rating - 2399			Avg Rating - 2404
Baltimore Total -------	0.0	0.0	----- New York Total

IM Irina Krush (NY) vs FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat (BAL)  1/2-1/2

Things looked great for New York right out of the gate in this match. First there was a short yet violent draw between IM Irina Krush and FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat. Enkhbat sacrificed a piece and Irina was worried enough about black's attack to agree to a draw by repetition. However Irina had serious chances to fight off the attack and play for a win if she had chosen 22.Bf5 (or 22.Bh7 Kh8 23.Bf5) instead of 22.f3.

Evan Rosenberg (NY) vs WGM Katerina Rohonyan 1-0

Evan Rosenberg provided a key blow for the Knights as he knocked off his 200 point higher rated opponent in convincing fashion. With a 1.5/2 lead things were looking great for New York.

IM Larry Kaufman (BAL) vs IM Jay Bonin (NY)  1-0

 This may have been the key game of the match. Things started calmly as Kaufman had a smothering bind over Bonin for the entire early stage of the game. When time trouble approached things got wild, and suddenly Jay Bonin broke free of the bind and achieved tremendous activity and a great position. With the match score at 1.5-0.5 and Stripunsky having a sure draw in the bag, Bonin probably should have just played it safe and played one of the many draws available to him. However his position looked too good to resist and after a serious mistake with 37....Rd8, Jay was nearly lost after 38.Rd2. Now it all came down to the Charbonneau - Stripunsky game. Stripunsky clearly had the better position, but it was very difficult to break through..

IM Pascal Charbonneau (BAL) vs GM Alex Stripunsky (NY)  1/2-1/2

 After a long and tense battle the following position was reached with the match score at 1.5-1.5



Stripunsky had just played the move 44... Qb3 and it seems like black has a great position. Despite being a pawn down, the queen and the bishop bearing down on the white king look very alluring. However white has tremendous defensive resources as every key square/pawn is defended by the queen and knight and in reality there is really no way for black to break through.

 After a few testing moves, Stripunsky finally gave up and agreed to a draw, thus resulting in the second straight tied match for New York. Baltimore got off the schneid with this performance as they improved to 0.5-1.5 on the season, and they are quite lucky to not be 0-2.

Baltimore Kingfishers			New York Knights
IM Pascal Charbonneau - 2506	0.5	0.5	GM Alex Stripunsky - 2663
FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat - 2453	0.5	0.5	IM Irina Krush - 2445
IM Larry Kaufman - 2331	1.0	0.0	IM Jay Bonin - 2379
WGM Katerina Rohonyan - 2309	0.0	1.0	Evan Rosenberg - 2131
Avg Rating - 2399			Avg Rating - 2404
Baltimore Total -------	2.0	2.0	----- New York Total

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