Why do they keep predicting that we lose?
--------------------------------------------
by San Francisco Mechanic: IM David Pruess
--------------------------------------------
The San Francisco Mechanics blog can
be found at https://sfmechanics.blogspot.com/
and is expected to be continuously updated for Mechanic fans during the
season. Below are parts of a post by IM David Pruess.
So, the US Chess League's second season has already
seen some pretty
bad moves. I contributed my share last week. But probably none of the
moves made on the chessboard have been nearly as bad as those of the
league's prognosticators in picking the
Mechanics to lose every week so
far.
First my jaw dropped when I saw an analysis of the
supposed
championship match-up with New York. Then I was surprised to see that
we were predicted to lose to Dallas in the first week. But when I found
we were predicted to lose to Miami as well, after our convincing first
round win, I was really confused. How are we supposed to get to the
finals, if we are expected to lose every regular season match?
I
guess Arun and Ron have a competition going now for who predicts scores
more accurately. Well, here's a little piece of free advice, with which
you could really blow the other guy out: pick the Mechanics to win,
3-1, every week, rather than lose.
I
think my game was pretty
crucial to the match, as from a very early
point, it seemed to me that white looked good in all four games. When
Marcel played 10.Nh3!, I thought to myself, "oh god, don't tell me
you're mated on move 10, and going to destroy your teammates spirits!"
I spent a bit over 30 minutes grimly staring at the position, pinching
myself, pulling my hair, slapping myself to think better and faster.
I'm sure all my teammates knew I was really in trouble from this, but
hopefully they also know that these are also signs I was not ready to
give up.
Luckily, Marcel spent a ton of time as well one move
later,
looking for a k.o. which he could not quite find yet, and leading to
the mistake 12.Bd3? (correct would be 12.f3 it seems) After this, the
position was very tense, with some chances for both sides, and we had a
similar amount of time. I think I found some good moves in the sequel,
and after white won the other three games, our game was the last to
finish, and decided the match 3-1 in SF's favor.
Check in on www.uschessleague.com next week to see if the
prognosticators improve their game at all and pick us to win.
