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The US Chess League final between the Boston Blitz and Dallas Destiny can be summed up in 1 word: LONG! The match started promptly at 8pm EST and didn’t finish until 2:15AM EST! The end of the match was sort of anti-climatic for the spectators since most of us wanted to just go to sleep! (and some actually fell asleep!).
For my full annotations of all the games, you can download the pgn file here.
The board 1 game between GM Larry Christiansen and IM Drasko Boskovic was quite a dull affair, they repeated after only 24 moves in a Sveshnikov Sicilian (most of which was theory). Who would have thought that 5 hours later they would be playing the most exciting game in the 2007 USCL!?!?
On board 2, IM Davorin Kujasevic seemed to get an early advantage with the black pieces against SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun. Maybe Jorge would disagree, but I think black was atleast slightly better after 15 moves. In return, Jorge got a very sharp complicated position which he loves to play. The following key position arose where Kujasevic decided to sacrifice a piece with:
Ndxe5!? {This blows open the center and is in spirit with not allowing white to catch up in development.} (15… a5 {Also seems like a good option.}) 16. dxe5 Nxe5 and black had excellent compensation for the piece. Jorge defended quite well but IM Kujasevic missed a really strong move later on (23.. e4!! instead of 23… Bd6?). After this mistake it was all Jorge, as he lined up all his pieces on the g file and eventually crashed through.
Board 3 started off well for Shmelov. I was VERY surprised IM Stopa actually played 1. Nc3!? since he told Elizabeth Vicary that he’d play it in his interview on Liz’s blog! I wonder if Shmelov prepared for this since he might have figured there is no way in hell Stopa would publicize exactly what he was going to play! Anyhow Shmelov’s opening seemed to go quite well and I even think he got an edge somewhere in there, but then he started to lose the thread. In particular, I absolutely hated 14… Bb8? Why not just put the bishop on c7 where it has more options? Anyhow his biggest mistake seemed to come on 20… h6? Instead 20… Qxc4 looks very strong, black just has to be better there. After that Shmelov was under heavy attack and the following key position occurred:
Instead of 29. Rg1? Stopa had 2 great choices with: 29. Nxf5 Rxf5 30. Bxd5+ Bxd5+ 31. Rxd5 Be7 32. Qg2 is a clear advantage for white. Or even better is: 29. Bf3! threatening Bh5 trapping the queen. Qf7 30. Nxf5! Qxf5 31. Qxf5 Rxf5 32. Bxd5+ Bxd5+ 33. Rxd5 +-. After missing this win, Stopa was still much better for the entire game, but Shmelov is such a fighter he managed to hold the game (which was key for Boston to make it to the tiebreaks).
Board 4 started off very badly for NM Chris “I’m Usually Much More Awesome Than This” Williams. First off, I don’t think Chrissy should be playing 1. d4, especially in such a critical game. He has a sharp tactical style, so why the hell did he not play 1. e4? The opening was a Queen’s Indian of some sorts and Chrissy seemed to make an error with 8. Nc3? Whenever I see the big boys playing this position they always seem to do 8. Bc3 followed by 9. Nbd2 or 9. Ne5. Chris then lost a pawn on move 13 with e4? and Zorigt was just completely winning. She missed a few real knockout blows like 14… Nxe5!! and 21… c5 (see the PGN file). Eventually they reached the following position in mutual time trouble which was the key position for the entire match, since if Chris holds it for a draw Boston wins (the other games were finished at this point).
Here Chris played 45. Rd7? The move is not so bad itself, but given the match situation, there was NO REASON to avoid playing 45. R3xd2! Bxd2 46. Rxd2 with a dead equal position. After this it wasn’t so simple and Chrissy missed 48… Qb5! which gives black a winning advantage. The Bear could have put up better resistance but instead went crazy with 50. Rxf7???? after which the match was sent to blitz tiebreaks.
The USCL tiebreak structure was as follows: The Board 4s play each other and the winner of this game plays the Board 3 of the other team. Play continues this way until all the players on one team are eliminated. If a game is drawn, then both players are eliminated unless one of them happens to be a board 1, and if so they replay the game but with reverse colors.
At the beginning of the blitz tiebreaks, I commented on ICC that there is “No way in hell Boston is gonna lose”.. With the combination of Jorge Sammour-Hasbun and Larry Christiansen, both of whom are known for their awesome blitz chess, it was hard to envision Dallas having any chance…
The tiebreaks started out with Williams playing a rematch against Zorigt. I thought Williams would lose this game too, since he is such an emotional player and he had JUST lost in the regulation match. Instead Chrissy crushed Zorigt very easily and gave Boston the early lead.
The next tiebreak game was ChrissyBear against IM Jack “I Can Only Win When I’m Dead Lost” Stopa. Chrissy made a very risky sacrifice in the middlegame with 30… Nhf4!?!? Objectively I think this move isn’t so great, but in blitz it’s a move you just gotta make, especially given the situation. Chris then found this awesome idea 36… Rf3!! after which he was just winning. The key moment in this game, and perhaps the entire match was:
Chris could have won a rook with: 49. Qf1+ Kh2 Qf4+ and resigns. Instead Chris played the awful 49… Qxe4?? and after 50. R5xg4 it wasn’t so clear. He was still probably winning here but went crazy again and lost the game. At first this didn’t seem like such a big deal since Boston has Jorge on board 3, but this loss really came back to haunt Boston later on.
Next up was Shmelov vs Stopa. Again Stopa was just DEAD LOST in the game but somehow managed to swindle Shmelov. Jack made this awful move 19… e5? after which he’s just positionally lost. Shmelov played very well up until the blunder:
Denys now played: 35. Kf2?? Nfxe4+! and now it is white who is much worse. Denys eventually lost this game, but I said to myself, “No Big Deal, Jorge will just destroy the entire Dallas team”, Wrong Again!
In the middlegame Jorge got a big advantage, but then played a few inaccurate moves and allowed Stopa to play 35. f4! and suddenly Stopa was a little bit better. Then Stopa embarked on a terrible plan of pushing all his kingside pawns (39 g4, 41. h4, and 42. f5). Jorge missed a VERY EASY win in the following position:
Here Jorge played 43.. h5? Instead 43… Rd1! just wins an entire piece. I’m sure Jorge is going to be having nightmares about this position for weeks to come. After missing this win, it was then Stopa who missed a knockout punch with 51. Nf5!! and black can resign. Instead Stopa played 51. Qxg7+? which traded down to an endgame which was probably winning for Stopa, but Jorge managed to hold it, so both players were eliminated! What a great job by IM Stopa for knocking out 3 Boston players, including the Dos Hermanas winner Jorge Sammour-Hasbun!
Now the Boston Blitz were down to their final player, GM Larry Christiansen, and Dallas had 2 players left: IM Kuljasevic and IM Boskovic. The first game between Christiansen and Kuljasevic was drawn after a seesaw battle. The second game Larry got the better of IM Kuljasevic after he turned down a 3 fold repetition in the following position:
Here they had repeated with 46… Rd2 47. Ra8 Rd7 48. Rc8 Rd2 49. Ra8 Rd7 and Kuljasevic could have played 50. Rc8 and drawn. Instead he played 50. a5? c4! and black is much better. Larry went on to win this endgame and suddenly it seemed like Boston was “Back in Business”.
The entire season came down to this moment, GM Larry Christiansen with the white pieces against IM Drasko Boskovic. It was very late on the east coast (2:00AM), so fatigue probably played a part in this game. The opening was an English which turned into an Accelerated Dragon Maroczy Bind. Boskovic played this rare, but known line with a5-a4 early on and Larry didn’t seem to know exactly what to do, but still the position was just =. Larry then seemed to make a bad decision to trade rooks on move 35 as the resulting bishop endgame seemed a little better for Boskovic. The move 41. Kg3? was also very strange after which black is clearly better. Boskovic played a couple of bad moves and the position turned back to equal, until the fateful moment arrived:
Christiansen played 49. Bc8???? Bxe4 and black is winning. Instead 49. Bf5 is just an easy draw of course. Boskovic converted the position very easily and at 2:15am EST the Dallas Destiny became the 2007 USCL Champions!
Even though Boston lost this match, they still deserve a lot of respect for what they accomplished this year. All of the 4 main players, Larry Christansen, Jorge Sammour-Hasbun, Denys Shmelov, and Chris Williams played great chess all year long. It is a pity to lose the match the way they did, but that is blitz chess where just about anything can happen! Better luck next year Boston!