Eastern Quarterfinals see many rematches as teams battle to reach Semifinals

With both of these matches having occurred twice during the regular season, it’s far from surprising to see many of the same one on one encounters taking place, including two high profile matches on the top boards with GM Gelashvili (NY) taking on GM Hungaski (MAN) and GM Hess (CON) taking on GM Ivanov (NE). Click here for the Eastern Quarterfinals Lineups!

In a surprising near identical scenario as last season, the night starts with the subway match between New York and Manhattan, with the Applesauce possessing draw odds - the precise Quarterfinal matchup which also occurred last season where Manhattan sent the defending Champion Knights home for the winter. In the two regular season meetings between these two, each team got the far better of one of the encounters, each having a 3.5 - 0.5 victory to their credit. It’s unsurprising that the Applesauce have trotted out nearly the same lineup from Week 8 which saw the decisive victory occur on their side while the Knights are contrastly not using even a single player from the lineup which saw the big victory in Week 2 from their side! But whatever the teams’ choices might be, this is certain to be a very hard fought match with some fantastic action.

New England, after their magical 2010 season, are making a very welcome return to postseason action against Connecticut who are making their first trip to the postseason. Both regular season meetings between these teams resulted in tough draws, including their end of regular season encounter in Week 10. With that match occurring with the teams having the same color as in their Quarterfinals encounter along with both teams using three of the same four players from that match, their no doubt will be some interesting psychology on both sides as they try to out-maneuver their repeat opponents in their opening choice.

Tune in to chess.com as the playoffs kick off! With the options now being to either get the needed match score or go home for the winter, we can definitely expect to see some no holds barred chess, especially with a drawn match being an unacceptable result for the one of the two teams playing in every match!