11/24/2005
The Baltimore Kingfishers win the USCL Championship in
Resounding Fashion!
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by IM Greg Shahade
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Before the season began there was a poll on the USCL website for
fans to take a look at the team rosters and predict which team would
win the League Championship. Baltimore finished in 5th place in that
poll, however proved that they are better at playing chess than they
are at garnering votes, as they walloped the Miami Sharks by a score of
3.5-0.5. Despite the large margin of victory, there was still plenty of
drama as there always is in such team competitions with such evenly
matched teams. Let's proceed to the games:
After a wild and back and forth battle, Cabrera and Rohonyan
reached the following position:
Cabrera-Rohonyan: Black to Move
after 35. Bg2-f3
Cabrera decided to go for a caveman-like attacking approach. His simple
idea is to remove the knight on e6 (by playing Bg4) and then deliver
mate on g7. This was the point of his previous move 35.Bf3. Rohonyan needed to get some
counterplay and played the move 35...Qc8
with one possible idea that on 36.Bg4 Qxc4 37. Bxe6 Qf1 38.Kh2 Qf2,
black can force a perpetual check. Cabrera was too interested in his
attacking possibilities to allow a draw so early and instead played 36. Ra4?, but after 36...Qf8 37.Qh4 Ra8, black is
suddenly much better and almost winning. The game finished as follows: 35....Qc8 36. Ra4? Qf8 37.Qh4 Ra8 38. Rxa8
Qxa8 39. Qg3 Qa1+ 40. Kh2 Qb2+ 41.Bg2 Nf4 42.Qg4 d3 43. Kg1 Qxg2
44.Qxg2 Nxg2 0-1
This win by the higher rated Rohonyan was exactly what
Baltimore was hoping for this match, and with Miami's situation looking
dire on board 3, Baltimore was threatening to run Miami out of the
chess club.
L.Kaufman vs Lugo: Black to
move after 15...Qb8-c8
Kaufman had been playing quickly and confidently in the opening
and now found the devastating blow 15.
Qc4! after which black is totally helpless after just 15 moves.
If black tries to defend with 15...Qe6 white just plays 16.Qxe6 fxe6
17. Bxc6 Bxc6 18.Nxe5 Bxe4 19. Nxe4 Nxe4 20. Nxg6 leaves white up a
pawn in an endgame and a better position (although as ugly as it seems
this may have been black's best chance). Instead Lugo played 15...Nd8 16. Bc5 which simply wins
the exchange. Lugo tried to find a way to complicate the issue but was
unsuccessful, and Kaufman notched up a key victory for the Baltimore
Kingfishers to put them ahead 2-0, thus needing only a half point more
to win the match.
The Kingfishers have to be very happy with Kaufman's performance
this season as he played quite well during the regular season, and won
both games in the playoffs, when it really counts. There were a lot of
questions as to whether Larry's current rating of 2330 is more accurate
than his usual rating of around 2400-2500, and he proved to the world
that without a doubt that he still has the strength that made him one
of the strongest and most prominent IM's in the nation.
This loss was unfortunate for Lugo, as despite a solid regular
season that included zero losses, Blas lost both of his games in the
playoffs. When Lugo gets a chance to attack he can be very dangerous,
however Kaufman never gave him the chance.
With Baltimore so close to victory, who better to clinch the
match than the USCL Most Valuable Player, IM Pascal Charbonneau. Pascal
was facing off against the tough Cuban born GM, Julio Becerra. Pascal
employed the slow maneuvering variation, the Giuoco Piano, and it
turned out wildly successful. Pascal had Becerra fighting for his life
after the opening battle, and it was doubly unpleasant for Becerra once
board 3+4 had ended, as it was clear he would have to win a pawn down
endgame, a position in which any player would be fighting desperately
for a draw! For all practical purposes Pascal clinched the title for
Baltimore in the following position:
Charbonneau vs Becerra: White
to move after 63...Re2
Pascal now played the crushing 64.
e6! and if 64...fxe6 65. Bc6 Kf8 66. Rd8 is checkmate. Becerra
was forced to give up his rook for the bishop on e4 but after 64.e6 Rxe4 65. fxe4 fxe6 66.Rd6 h3 67.
Rxe6+ Kd8 66. Rh7 Nc4 69. Rg6 (threatening mate) Rf3 70. Kxf3 Ne5+ 71. Ke3 Nxg6 72.
Rxh3 Becerra resigned and Charbonneau showed once again
why he is the league MVP. With the type of play he exhibited in this
league, it's clear he is at the GM level as he played toe to toe with
every strong player in the league and frustrated many teams who were
counting on their GM's on board 1.
After this game, Marcel Martinez and Tegshsuren Enkhbat quickly
agreed to a draw in what was also a hard fought 79 move battle. The
result was now official and Baltimore had won the USCL Championship
Match by a score of 3.5-0.5.
The Kingfishers had a roller coaster of a season, with a slow
start that was followed by a torrid run of 4 straight crushing
victories that left the league thinking that Baltimore was nearly
unstoppable. Suddenly the unthinkable happened as Baltimore dropped
matches to Philadelphia and Carolina (The two teams with the worst
record) in back to back weeks. Just when it seemed as if the 4 match
winning streak was just a lucky run, the Kingfishers turned it up a
notch again as they took down the undefeated New York Knights and
finished the season with a solid victory over the Boston Blitz. When
the playoffs rolled around the Kingfishers were back to their
steamroller selves as they defied all the oddsmakers to beat the
favorite to win the Championship, the New York Knights, and earned
their spot in the Championship game. This was especially impressive as
the New York Knights received draw odds in the match due to their
better regular season record. With their victory last night, the
Baltimore Kingfishers completed the final chapter of their journey to
the first ever Untied States Chess League Championship.
The USCL will be back next year at the same time of year and with
many new features to come. We are looking for correspondents and
writers from every city/team and we will introduce two new cities into
the league. These cities will be determined in a few months, as the
guidelines for an official application process will be posted on the
USCL homepage shortly. Thanks to everyone who followed the US Chess
League this season and we hope to bring you more excitement next year!
Congratulations to the players/managers and fans in New York, Boston,
Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Miami and Carolina for helping to
make this league a reality. And lastly congratulations to the Baltimore
Kingfishers for an impressive showing and a well deserved Championship
title.
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