09/19/2006
Miami beats Baltimore 2.5-1.5
--------------------------------------------
by FM Marcel Martinez
--------------------------------------------
The Sharks keep swimming towards the
championship. Now I
feel a lot better since the scoreboards show (2-2) for Miami after such
a bad start. It's true the matches have not gone completely the way I
would want them to go (especially on the personal level) but ok WINNING
IS WINNING and with Baltimore being last year's champion, I shouldn't
complain. Maybe luck is coming back to our side after some time without
it. Seattle and San Francisco have started on a roll winning all their
matches as well
as Boston but we will see if we can turn the tables on some of these
guys. By the way I would like to send a shout out to
GM Serper which is
always delightful to watch play ,hope he would play more often. I'd
like to say hello to my buddy David Pruess in San Francisco, I think he
is very talented as he's gone to prove
and from Boston to our newest
GM
Eugene Perelshteyn, an old
buddy/rival in junior championships battles. Now let's go to the games:
On Board 1 Becerra is showing what he is made
of and coming
thru in the hardest moments. Facing a strong GM and my friend Pawel
Blehm he was able to win the game which I think should be the game of
the week
even without knowing what's gonna happen on Wednesday in the rest of
the games. Becerra used 1.d4 which is not common in his repertoire but
so far he is 2-0 against very strong opposition. Last time he used it
(and first!) was against GM Ehlvest in the last round of the past
Chicago Open and even though Ehlvest was somewhat better in that game
Becerra posed enough problems such that in time trouble Mr.Ehlvest
dropped a piece awarding Becerra with a share of first place. I guess
Pawel took risks that were punished by Becerra but this game really
could have gone either way as we also know how strong Mr.Blehm is.
(Becerra - Blehm) after 22....Nc6-e5
Becerra found the strong move 23.Bg5! which tears
apart black's defenses.
On Board 2 Moreno had a very hard time against
ultra-solid IM
Larry Kaufman which opposed Moreno's Benko/Volga Gambit with 4.Nd2 (a
line which is the brain-child of GM's Beliavsky and Mikhailschichin)
and was used against me long time ago by both GM Yermolinsky and GM
Beliavsky himself. Against Yermo I drew from a better position and
against Beliavsky I lost in a won position but what can I expect!!....
some of us are mortals!!..Anyways... Larry played really well, not
giving
Moreno any chances to mix it up. I still have my hopes up with Moreno
who is adjusting to US life better and better every day. He is still
seeing
people from the chess scene which he has not seen in many years and are
welcoming him aboard. As I said we will see more and better from him. I
promise.
On board 3 it was a bit of a dissapointment as
I could simply not score!!
I have (0.5 out of 3) somewhat similar to Mr.Andrews performance for
Tennessee (0-3). Playing white against John
Rouleau, I got a little plus from the opening but allowed some easy to
see exchange sacrifice which gave black a powerful position. After that
it kind of reminded me of a Korchnoi comment: CHARACTER!! when his
positions are worse,clearly worse and he still has to defend for the
rest of the game with no easy chance to turn the tables but he says to
himself: C'mom now.... stronger people have tested me and I have not
give in , why do I have to give in now....showing great character
saving games (of course this is saving the big distances between me and
Korchnoi :) I did remember that... together with some
articles that
GM Paul Keres wrote regarding defending what he called " Difficult
Positions". Rouleau really should have won this game but ended in a
draw. He let the advantage slip at some point. Hopefully this half
point from such bad position means I would eventually score and be able
to help my team insteand of drowning the sharks. Maybe IM Blas Lugo
could
be a better swimmer!
On board 4 strong Luis Barredo won a pretty
weird game as I
thought he was better from the opening (something he played in very
similar fashion during one of his games of the last Chicago Open) but
somehow he got complicated and at some point I thought lost but
anyhow... Strong FM Zimmer did not find the right continuation
allowing Black to come out of troubles and allowing the Sharks to
win
the match.
Click here to go back to
the US Chess League
homepage