It's often much easier to be the underdog with
nothing to lose, but the
US
Chess League's Boston
Blitz won't have that luxury in tonight's matchup with the
Philadelphia
Masterminds.
Even without either of their Grandmasters playing, the Blitz will
outrate their opponents by an average of 120 points per board (2380 vs.
2260). On the top three boards they have 2400 and 2500 players facing
off against 2200's. As a result, the folks at Pinnacle Sports have made
the Blitz the
most
prohibitive favorite on this week's USCL board
(-350, i.e., bet $350 on the Blitz to win $100). Now before you put
your rent money down on the Blitz, you might want to review
Philadelphia's 2005 record. Often as not, the Masterminds never let
their rating disadvantage get in the way of strong performances at the
board.
Here are
tonight's
matchups (the Blitz have White on Boards 2 & 4):