Well what else can I say, I've said it before!  Do not expect anything from the Sharks but a fight. Once again, (history repeating itself) we came back from a difficult situation, and this confirms my earlier feelings as I've never played on a losing team. Always full of fighters, I am extremely proud of my team and though they cannot say the same about me, I know deep in their hearts they expect me to come back in the finals as part of our plan of winning the US Chess League this year. Putting aside personal frustration, I am happy with the development of the Sharks in this last match against the strong team of the Dallas Destiny. We won 2.5-1.5, but let's go through each game separately.

    On board one, the strongest player in the state of Florida, GM Julio Becerra demolished GM Magesh Panchanatan in a position that is very much to Becerra's liking. In these types of positions (the type he KNOWS well) Becerra just plays like Kasparov. He gave Pancha absolutely no chance at all throughout the game. I am sure every team wishes they had a first board as solid and sharp as Becerra. He sacrificed a Knight for a tremendous attack towards the Black King and used his superior piece coordination to win in a very easy fashion in one of his favorite variations of the Ruy Lopez.

    On board two, Moreno Roman played the first Dragon variation in his life (to my knowledge) by transposition. Once again he showed up to play after a long day of work so we excuse his draw from a much better position as it seemed like he had a won position.  But like I said before, we have to give Moreno some more time in the US in order for him to properly settle all these games.  He's played some good
games so far, but the tough results unfortunately don't show it.

    On board 3 no excuse. I've been the biggest dissapointment on the Sharks team so far. If I was to try to redeem myself with some excuses, I would have to say it has not been easy dealing with team managerial duties while playing, and combining this with my regular work duties has been tough on me. But like I said before, my team expects me to come back strong as I still have not won a game. I know we will all celebrate when that happens :) I played a line that my opponent had played before so he had some knowledge of the line which gave him a nice time advantage. All in all, I thought I had gotten out of the opening with a very nice positional edge, but it did not turn out to be so smooth as I blundered a Pawn which led into a psyhcological disaster and with little time on my clock, I blew it one more time, this time decisively.