Live blog: Versus Boston

Webcam
http://www.blogtv.com/People/bioniclime

Video of Boston Creme Donut Smashed by a Hammer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnPsDrl6JWs

11:24pm

Wow! A sweep! 4-0 NJ!!!

10:49pm

Dean wins! NJ up 1-0

10:35pm

All the games going. clocks low. Incredible tension.

10:20pm

Dean has won a piece! S-H has some checks, but it looks like Dean can get out of it.

10:07pm

Sammour-Hasbun has a crucial move here. Nakamura suggested two equally plausible paths. One a draw, one a win for Dean. Which path will he take?

9:58pm

Victor in good shape, but he and Andrew are low on time.

9:48pm

Esserman offered a draw on Board 3, but Victor is going for the knockout with the killer move 25. d6.

9:47pm

Things heating up. Except the room.

9:28pm

Andrew Ng on Board 4 is still in a tough position, but slowly might be squirming his way out of it. His opponent may not be taking advantage enough of his initiative.

9:23pm

Victor Shen played the smashing move 19. Bxh6, completely crashing apart Esserman's kingside pawns. Esserman is on the ropes. Can he recover?

9:17pm

Ippolito 45min / Sammour-Hasbun 26min... A wild position, where Dean seems to be contemplating trading queens.

9:07pm

Gulko 49min / Perelshteyn 36min... Gulko's thinking about his 23rd move. He's got the two bishops and a little extra space.

8:56pm

It is almost 9pm -- the match is almost two hours old. The room has cooled a bit, but it is still in the low 80s in the room. In a few minutes, we'll go around the horn again, and see how all the boards stand.

8:51pm

Dean has no Red Bull this week. Just coffee... He did tell me that he went 12-0 at his simul this past weekend, so yay for Dean!

8:49pm

We're handling the clock well two weeks in a row. Only down significantly on board 4, where the position is tough anway.

8:39pm

Andrew Ng's position on Board 4 looks rough already. He's got a white knight buried in his position, doubled and weak e-pawns, his knight is rather passive. Material is even, but it looks like he's going to have to extricate himself from a messy and difficult situation.

8:33pm

On Board 3, Victor Shen has his Bishop dominating the center of the board at d5, and a nice white pawn center. The only issue is that he's a bout 10 minutes down on the clock.

8:21pm

On Board 2, Dean Ippolito is up 10 minutes on the clock, and has made the long-diagonal smashing move 16...Qa8, lining up his queen right behind his rook on a7.

8:15pm

Over on Board 1, Gulko and Perelshteyn have a battle of the pawn structures. Gulko's isolani versus Perelshteyn's doubled g-pawns. Gulko has some weak light-squares around his king, but without a light-squared bishop, and Perelsheyn capitalize? Clocks are pretty even.

8:12pm

The donut smashing video is causing discussion.

7:59pm

It is almost 8:00pm and there are 71, 54, 52, and 47 people observing the four boards of the Knockouts' match.

7:56pm

On Board 4, Andrew Ng, winner of the aformentioned 2009 US Cadet Championship, is playing Andrew Wang. Ng threw up a Sicilian and was given 3. Bb5+. He's now down on the clock, pondering his 13th move.

7:48pm

On Board 3, we have high school junior, PanAm Under-16 Gold Medalist, and runner up in the 2009 US Cadet Championship, Victor Shen. He's playing newly minted IM Marc Esserman, who has been a USCL phenom. He seems to win all the time. Victor is on the White side of Two Knight's Defense and is taking a long look at deciding how to recpature on his 12th move. Bishop or Pawn?

7:38pm

On Board 2, Dean Ippolito as Black is facing a Catalan, an opening he apparently plays a lot as White. Dean is carefully pondering his 11th move, and the commentators are wondering if he has forgotten his theory. Unlikely...

7:34pm

Let's go around the horn and see what's up on each board.

On Board 1, Gulko (as white) is in a topical line of the Slav Defense. His Blitz opponent just threw out 12...Qa5, and Gulko is going into a think for the first time this evening.

7:29pm

The room is about 85 degrees, but the heat is going off at 8pm, and it will get cold soon afterward.

7:25pm

Ippolito's game finally started. JS-H wasted 12 minutes on his first move. Probably transfixed by the donut smashing video.

7:20pm

Dean Ippolito's opponent, J. Sammour-Hasbun, has decided not to play, apparently. It has been 9 minutes and he still has not moved.

7:07pm

We're live from Chapel Hill Academy in Lincoln Park NJ. We smashed a Boston Creme Blitz donut prior to the match with a hammer. You can see the video evidence on youtube.