09/29/2005

  New York remains atop the USCL, defeats Carolina 2.5-1.5
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by IM Greg Shahade                       
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Carolina vs New York

1. GM Marcin Kaminski (CAR) vs IM Jay Bonin (NY)  1-0
2. NM Gregory Braylovsky (NY) vs IM-elect Lev Milman (CAR)  1/2-1/2
3. FM Matthew Hoekstra (CAR) vs WGM-elect Jenn Shahade (NY)  0-1
4. FM Lewis Eisen (NY) vs NM Greg Samsa (CAR)  1-0


 Going into this match the New York Knights held the best record in the USCL with 3/4, whereas Carolina held the worst record in the league at 1/4. Despite this, many felt that Carolina was the favorite in this matchup. New York would usually have GM Alex Stripunsky playing on board one, however he has been in Spain for the past two weeks and is thus unable to compete for the team. There is rumor that one Carolina team member made disparaging remarks about the strength of the New York lineup this week.

 New York Knights team manager, Jenn Shahade, decided that this would be great bulletin board material. She explained to the rest of her teammates what the other team was saying, and it seems as if her speech lit their fire, as this match resulted in some of the most exciting chess of Week 5.

 The match got off to a disastrous start for the Knights, as IM Jay Bonin went down in flames to GM Marcin Kaminski.



Bonin played one for the crowd as he uncorked the shocking 11....Bh3!?! The crowd on ICC was going crazy, however Kaminski remained calm and refuted Bonin's move outright. After 12.Bxh3 Qe4 13.Kd2 Nd4 14.Qg4! Nf3 15.Kc3, it seems as if the white king is out in the open, however black has no way to use any other pieces in the attack, and white is simply up a piece with a totally winning position. It's such fine calculation ability and resolve under pressure that has Kaminski atop the league in the MVP rankings.

 Lewis Eisen scored a victory over Greg Samsa to even the match up at 1-1 and the positions on boards 2+3 remained tense. WGM-elect Jennifer Shahade played a very impressive attacking game against FM Matthew Hoekstra to give New York the lead.



In the above position, Shahade (black) decided to sacrifice a piece and attack the white king with the move 12...exd5! and after 13.e5 Re8 14.Re2 Bf5 15.Qb3 Nb5! 16.ef6 Nd4, black had a raging and nearly unstoppable attack of which Hoekstra was unable to defend. This game was awarded Game Of the Week and will be annotated by Jennifer Shahade within the next few days.

 This meant that 2004 US Junior Champion, IM-elect Lev Milman, now had to win his game against Gregory Braylovsky to tie the match. Braylovsky has been playing incredible chess thus far in the USCL, with a score of 3/3 before this week. Braylovsky played exceptionally again this week, as an incredible endgame developed.



White (Braylovsky) sacrificed a piece for three pawns early in this Sicilian. Milman has just played 34...Be8 to stop the advance of the white pawns, as if white tries 35.b4 then 35...Bf7 skewers the king on c4 and the rook on a2. Much to the delight of the fans on ICC, Braylovsky ignored Milman's idea and simply played 35.b4 anyway! After 35...Bf7 white simply played 36.Rd5 resulting in the following position:



When Milman captures the rook on d5, white will have an incredible FOUR connected passed pawns for the rook! Eventually Milman was forced to capture and defend against white's flood of pawns. The game continued and the following position was reached:



Milman has just played 45...Rd4 and it seemed as if he had finally figured out how to stop the white pawns. White's rook on a2 cannot move away from the a-file because then black has Rxa4 checkmate. White can't move the a pawn because it's busy defending the pawn on b5, and the b5+d5 pawns will simply be captured if they are moved. Braylovsky found the final resource however, and played 46. d6! Rxd6 47.Rh2! Now white has only three connected passed pawns, but more importantly the white rook became active and suddenly Milman was on the edge of defeat. Now things became interesting psychologically as Braylovsky only needed a draw to give the match to New York, yet he was on the verge of winning. Braylovsky missed an immediate win on move 54:



In this position white can play 54. Kc6! and the b+c pawns are unstoppable. Low on time, and needing only a draw, Braylovsky erred with 54. Re6 Rf8 55. Rxe5 Kxa4 56. Rf5 Rh8 57. Rh5 Rf8 and Gregory repeated moves with 58. Rf5 Rh8 59. Rh8 Rf8 and a draw was agreed, thus clinching the match for the Knights. This was another impressive and imaginative game from Braylovsky.

 New York remains atop the USCL with 4/5 and is on fire with their 3rd straight win. Baltimore remains fresh on their heels with 3.5/5 as they have a three match winning streak of their own. Next week the Knights face off against the Dallas Destiny, in a battle between what many fans thought would be the top two teams in the league. New York has lived up to their promise, but Dallas has not lived up to expectations thus far, with only 2/5.

 A lot of people had high hopes on Carolina at the beginning of the season. US Champion, GM Hikaru Nakamura, stated on chess.fm last week that he felt Carolina was going to be one of the better teams in the league. The Cobras are having tremendous results from league MVP leader, GM Marcin Kaminski and are also getting good results from IM Lev Milman, however they are having serious trouble on boards 3+4, with 1.5/5 on Board 3 and 0.5/5 on Board 4. Carolina needs to work out their problems on the lower boards if they want to get back into contention. They are fortunate that their competition in the West hasn't been faring so well, and they remain only one game out of a playoff spot. With a strong late season push the Cobras could get right back into the thick of things. If Carolina was in the East they would be virtually eliminated from playoff contention.

 Carolina faces off against Philadelphia next week, and as Philadelphia has the lowest rating in the league, this could be a good chance for them to win their first match.

Carolina Cobras			New York Knights
GM Marcin Kaminski - 2473	1.0	0.0	IM Jay Bonin - 2379
FM Lev Milman - 2474	0.5	0.5	NM Gregory Braylovsky - 2376
FM Matt Hoekstra - 2407	0.0	1.0	WGM elect Jenn Shahade - 2318
NM Greg Samsa - 2200	0.0	1.0	FM Dr. Lewis Eisen - 2325
Avg Rating - 2385			Avg Rating - 2350
Carolina Total -------	1.5	2.5	------- New York Total

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