At long last the Playoffs are here, and two great matches lead them off. In two rematches from Week 1 action, the subway matchup and a postseason rematch from 2011 between Manhattan and New York starts the night off followed by old rivals Philadelphia and Baltimore facing off. Click here for the Eastern Divisions Quarterfinal Lineups!
The subway battle sees a rematch of the Week 1 Game of the Week between GM Romanenko and GM Gelashvili. Romanenko will no doubt be looking to duplicate that effort, but it won’t be easy as Gelashvili has been extremely hot recently, not having lost a game since that first week, along with three impressive games in the last three weeks with two GOTWs and one second place. With that board being very interesting as well as all the others as well, in what is a fairly even overall matchup, the postseason intensity should make for a great encounter well the coveted draw odds Manhattan possesses will have to be weighing on both team’s minds.
In the Philadelphia vs Baltimore match, we see two rematches from their Week 1 battle as GM Erenburg battles IM Enkhbat and FM Zimmer takes on IM Costigan. While the Inventors seem to hold a bit of an edge in this match, having a reasonable rating edge along with draw odds, historically it’s been shown more than one time that anything can happen in the postseason. With Philadelphia NEVER having won a playoff match in their history, and the Kingfishers also not having done so since their Championship run in 2005, both teams will be hungry to put an end to that unfortunate streak and move on to the Semifinals.
Tune in Monday as the Playoff action takes off as we see which two teams can move onto the Semifinals!