New Jersey Knockouts

The final game of the match

2011-09-14T19:47:00.001-07:00

Joel vs. Erenburg.

GM Joel's Clinic for the Knockouts

2011-09-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

BREAKING NEWS from the Dean of Chess Academy and NJ Knockout Dean Ippolito...

We here at Dean of Chess Academy have an exciting event planned! On Saturday September 24th from 5pm until 8pm, Grandmaster Joel Benjamin will be offering a three-hour clinic, where he will analyze games submitted by participants. GM Joel has won the US Championship three times, and he hosts a weekly chess radio show, "Game of the Week" on the Internet Chess Club.

This event will be a fundraiser for the New Jersey Knockouts, New Jersey's only professional chess team. Both Dean Ippolito and Joel Benjamin have been members of the Knockouts since its inception. DOCA is proud to host this unique instructional seminar, given by one of the leading chess teachers in the USA.

There will be a maximum of only 10 participants in the clinic, so Joel will have time to analyze each game thoroughly. Anyone age 14 and older is eligible to participate. If you are between 11 and 13 years old, you must be an experienced tournament player and must contact Dean directly for special permission to take part in this event.

The cost of GM Joel's clinic is only $75 (in advance) for the three hour session, and $100 space permitting at the door; all funds will go to the Knockouts -- please sign up at DOCA.

The Dean of Chess Academy is located at 3150 Rt. 22W, Branchburg NJ 08876.

Additionally, we will have a G/5 tournament immediately after the clinic. The G/5 will be a 6 round swiss and is open to everyone. The entry fee is $20 to members and $30 to non-members. The prizes are 40% of the total entry fees collected minus the TD fee for first place. 20% minus the TD fee will go to second, 10% minus the TD fee will go to 3rd. 5% minus TD fee will go to top Under 1600 (quick ratings used) and 5% to the top Under 1300. The remaining 20% will go to help fund the NJ Knockouts.

Knockouts Lose Opening Match

2011-08-31T20:45:00.000-07:00

NJKOs lose opening match to Carolina. Highlight was Anna Matlin's attacking masterpiece against much higher rated Cobra, Craig Jones.

Do or Die Day for the Knockouts

2010-10-24T19:16:00.000-07:00

The Knockouts have one task this week -- to beat the Baltimore Kingfishers.

And not just beat them... utterly destroy them by a score of 4-0.

Because unless the ultimate destruction occurs, there will be no more United States Chess League season for the Knockouts. A 4-0 win by New Jersey will propel the Knockouts into the playoffs. Any other score will send the Knockouts to the phones to set up their tee times.

Watch all the action on the Internet Chess Club, Monday October 25, 2010, at 7:45pm.

Webcam: Oct 10 versus Manhattan

2010-10-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

Live webcam of NJ site in match versus the Manhattan Applesauce...

bioniclime- Broadcast your self LIVE

Knockouts vs Seattle LIVE Webcam

2010-09-29T18:11:00.000-07:00

Live webcam from the NJ Knockouts playing site... match versus Seattle.

bioniclime- Broadcast your self LIVE

Live NJ Knockout TV

2010-09-22T16:16:00.000-07:00

This is a live feed from New Jersey playing site.

bioniclime- Broadcast your self LIVE

IM Kapengut Annotates

2010-09-21T20:14:00.000-07:00

Last week, IM Albert Kapengut scored a win against Carlito Agner of the Carolina Cobras. Kapengut has played three games in the USCL and has won all three. This week, he plays again against Vadim Martirosov of the Boston Blitz. Can IM Kapengut win again?

Of course he can!

He has generously annotated last week's game and presents it below.

Albert KAPENGUT (2372) [New Jersey Knockouts] - Carlito AGNER (2251) [Carolina Cobras]
US Chess League, Week 4 (15 Sep 2010)
Internet Chess Club: G/90+30"

Annotations by IM Albert Kapengut

1. e4 d6 2. d4 g6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Qe2 Nc6 5. c3 e5 6. dxe5

(6. d5 Nb8 (6... Ne7 7. f4 exf4 8. Bxf4 Bg7 9. Nf3 Nh5 10. Be3 O-O 11. O-O f5 12. e5+= {Farges,Y-Weeramantry,S /Philadelphia 1993}) 7. Nf3 Bg7 8. Bg5 h6 9. Bh4 O-O 10. Nbd2 Qe8= {Margulis,I -Grefe,J /California 1997})

6... Nxe5! 7. Bb3 Qe7 8. Bg5

(8. f4 Nc6 9. Nd2 Bh6! 10. g3 O-O 11. Ngf3 Re8 =+ {Wachinger,G -Blodig,R /Bayern 2000})

8... h6 9. Bh4?

(9. Bxf6 Qxf6 10. Nd2=)

9... g5 10. Bg3

10... Nxe4! 11. Bxe5 Qxe5 12. Nf3 Qe7 13. O-O Nc5=+ 14. Qd1 Qf6

(14... Bg7 15. Re1 Be6=+)

15. Re1+ Be7 16. Nd4 O-O

(16... Bd7 17. Nd2 O-O-O=+)

17. Bc2 Be6?! 18. b4 Nd7 19. Qd3 Qg7

20. Nxe6 fxe6 21. Rxe6+= Ne5 22. Qh3?!

(22. Qe4!?)

22... Rf6

(22... Qf7!? 23. f3 Qf4 (23... g4? 24. Qxh6 gxf3 25. Bb3+-) 24. Na3 g4 25. Qg3 Bg5 26. Qxf4 Bxf4 27. fxg4+=)

23. Rxf6 Bxf6 24. Nd2 Nf7?!

(24... g4!? 25. Qh5 Rf8 26. Rd1 Qg5=)

25. Ne4 Be5

(25... d5 26. Nxf6+ Qxf6 27. Re1+=)

26. Rd1 b5?

27. Qd7!+- a5 28. Qc6! Qf8

(28... Ra7? 29. Qxb5+-)

29. Bb3! axb4 30. cxb4 Qe8

(30...Kg7 31. Bd5 Rc8 32. Qxb5 c5 33. bxc5 dxc5 34. Bxf7 Rb8 35. Qc6 Qxf7 36. Nxc5+-)

31. Qxc7 Ra3

(31... d5? 32. Qb7+-)

32. Qb7 Rxb3 33. axb3 Qe6 34. Qd5 Qg4 35. g3 Kg7 36. Rc1 Qd7 37. Rc6 Qb7 38. Rxd6!

Black resigns.

(38. Rxd6 Nxd6 39. Qxe5+ Kh7 40. Nxd6+-)

1-0

Match In Progess: Carolina Week 4

2010-09-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

Match is currently in progress. Here's a picture!

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Victor Shen Annotates Win Over Getz

2010-08-31T21:05:00.000-07:00

by Victor Shen
edited by Robert N. Bernard

Editor's note: We are honored to have Victor annotate this beautiful victory over Alec Getz of the New York Knights.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nf3 h6 8. O-O Be7 9. Re1 O-O 10. h3 Be6 11. Bf1 Rc8 12. Nd5 Bxd5 13. exd5 Nb4 14. c4 a5

I was pretty happy about my position at this point, as I have two bishops and slightly more space. However, I found it more difficult than I thought to make progress.

15. a3 Na6 16. Bd2

I thought this was better than Rb1, as the rook may potentially be wanted on c1. Also, I had strange dreams of attacking the a5 pawn.

16...Nd7 17. b4 f5

18. Qb3

I spent way too much time playing this natural move, perhaps because I was frustrated that black had counterplay. The computer suggests the move 18. Qc2 as the road to advantage, which to me looked odd but actually is quite interesting as it stops a piece from coming to f6.

18...Bf6 19. Bc3 Qb6 20. Nd2

Apparently the retreat 20. Qd1! is the only way to make progress, as black's queen is slightly misplaced on b6. If e4, Nd4. This would have a been a cool solution to the problems of the pin on my queen and e4

20... axb4

My idea was 20... e4 21. Bxf6 Nxf6 22. c5

21. axb4 e4 22. Bxf6 Rxf6 23. Rab1 Ne5

24. Qc3

I was happy with this move. This is a position with not much going on, and so strategical maneuvering begins. My idea is c5, and I simply wait to see what black will do.

24...Qc7 25. Qe3

Now I gain the diagonal, but more importantly the d4 square for my queen.

25...Qf7 26. Kh1

I'm not sure how to assess this move, but I wanted to see what he would do. If he commited with Qh5, I would be free to break on the queenside, and I believed that with only 3 pieces he could not stir up much of an attack

26...Qh5 27. Rb3

Multipurpose: I protect h3 and the kingside, while at the same time may double on the c-file in the future.

27...Qh4 28. Kg1

...Ng4 ideas were scaring me.

28...Rg6 29. Rc1 Nc7 30. Qd4

Around here we were both down to about 5 minutes, but I thought that my position was easier to play. His c7 knight is clumsy, and my plan of c5 is simple. The computer says equal, but under the circumstances white should be preferred.

30...Ne8

It seems natural to try and get the knight into play, but now white's q-side initiative gives him a large advantage.

31. c5 Nf6 32. Rbc3

32...Ra8?

The losing mistake in time pressure. 32... Nh5 was necessary to quickly create threats with Nf4.

33. c6 Kh7

34. c7

Call me a coward, but with a couple minutes left I didn't want my queen to go too far
away. For example, 34. cxb7 Rb8 35. Qa7 Nfd7 36. Ra3!! followed by Rc8. The a-rook is
needed to guard against e3} (36. Rc8? e3!! 37. Qxe3 Rxb7) Note that 34. b5 is also
better than c7.

34... Rc8 35. b5

With the idea of b6 Ba6.

35...b6!

A good practical try in time pressure. Taking the b-pawn wins, but decided on a "safer" option.

36. Ra1?! Nfd7

Oops. he wants to bring a knight to c5.

37. Ra7 Nc5?

Instead, 37... Qe7 should hold.

38. Rxc5!

Forced, but good.

38...bxc5 39. Qe3 Nd7 40. Nc4 Qe7 41. Qb3 f4 42. b6 e3

With both our clocks running low, this move, though objectively bad, is scary.

43. Bd3?

Instead, 43. fxe3! fxe3 44. Qxe3 Qxe3+ 45. Nxe3 Nxb6 46. Bd3

43... e2 44. Bxg6+ Kh8

45. Ra1

Of course I saw 45. b7!, and of course I considered it. But with a minute on the clock I was seized with the fear of...I don't know... two queens for my opponent? Forgive me, but I didn't want to allow him two queens, lose, and have my teammates kick me. (45...e1=Q+ 46. Kh2 Rf8 47. Qf3!!)

45... e1=Q+ 46. Rxe1 Qxe1+ 47. Kh2 Nxb6

48. Nxd6?!

Winning immediately was 48. Nxb6! Rxc7 49. Qa4!

48... Qxf2 49. Nxc8 Nxc8 50. Bf5 c4 51. Qc3

Um... 51. Qa3! Eeek!

51... f3!

One last trick in time trouble.

52. Qxf3 Qc5 53. Qf4 Nb6

Or, 53... Nd6 54. Bg6 Kg8 55. c8=Q+

54. d6 Nd5 55. Qe5

1-0

Knockouts Roster 2010

2010-08-17T03:23:00.000-07:00

KNOCKOUTS KNEWS
by Robert N. Bernard, NJKO Manager

Facebook: New Jersey Knockouts
Twitter: NJKnockouts

The New Jersey Knockouts are getting prepared for their fourth season in the United States Chess League. Last year, the NJKOs had the best regular season record in the USCL, but were vanquished in the divisional final by the eventual USCL champion, the New York Knights.

This year, the Knockouts have returned with many of the same players as last year, and a new face. GM Joel "Señor Sombrero" Benjamin (pictured at right), captain and founder of the Knockouts, once again leads the team on the top board. GM Boris "The Incredible Gulk" Gulko, hopes to continue his streak of eight straight USCL wins on Board 2, which made him a USCL Board 2 All-Star last year.

IM Dean "501" Ippolito, also a 2009 USCL Board 2 All-Star, returns to the team as well, despite preparing for his world record simultaneous exhibition attempt in November. Newly minted IM Mackensie "Big Mac" Molner will capitalize on all his recent tournament successes to take down the Knockouts' opposition.

Also returning are FM Victor "No Longer Eligible for U-2400" Shen, who won the U-2400 section of the World Open this year, and IM Albert "Dr. Theory" Kapengut who returns after his two victories last season.

The team's rookie, FM Gregory "The Fridge" Markzon, will fill a valuable hole in the team's roster, filling the mid-2200 range. FM Arthur "Bro-Bro" Shen, returns as a formidable fourth board.

Finally, we have Sean "Dorsal" Finn, last year's late season replacement, returning to more success. And, finally, Anna "Gonna Drop You To The" Matlin, will anchor the final position.

Currently three of the Knockouts, Victor Shen, Arthur Shen, and Anna Matlin are competing in the North American Youth Championships, for which you can see up to the minute results by clicking here. Anna has all but sewn up her division (Girls Under 16) already, and the Shen brothers are in contention for the top prizes in their divisions as well.

Stay tuned for more Knockouts' Knews!

NJ Knockouts 2010 Season

2010-07-22T17:33:00.000-07:00

The 2010 season schedule for the Knockouts has been posted. You can see it on the USCL website here, or you can simply read the summary below...

Day	Date	Color	Opponent
Mon	8/23	Black	Philadelphia Inventors
Mon	8/30	White	New York Knights
Wed	9/8	Black	New England Nor'easters
Wed	9/15	White	Carolina Cobras
Wed	9/22	White	Boston Blitz
Wed	9/29	Black	Seattle Sluggers
Wed	10/6	Black	Boston Blitz
Mon	10/11	White	Manhattan Applesauce
Mon	10/18	Black	New York Knights
Mon	10/25	White	Baltimore Kingfishers

Get ready for another season where the pummeling starts!

Knockouts' Season Ends with loss to Knights

2009-11-22T00:36:00.000-08:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

In a breakthrough season, the New Jersey Knockouts were two points away from making the US Chess League Finals, but unfortunately they fell short. Despite having the best record in the league during the regular season, the Knockouts fell to the New York Knights by a score of 2.5-1.5, a worthy team that the week before, defeated the second place Boston Blitz by the same score. The Knights will play the Miami Sharks in the US Chess League finals. The Knockouts' match was close the entire time, ending with three draws and one decisive game. The Knights' Yaacov Norowitz was the difference maker, as he defeated Sean Finn on board four. Certainly this match was another chapter in a short but exciting rivalry between the two teams, and one that should be exciting to follow for years to come.

On board one, it appeared that Joel Benjamin would earn his first win this year against Giorgi Kacheishvili but that would not be the case. Joel Benjamin was up by a pawn on move 55, but Kacheishvili would find a combination that would allow him to win an exchange and a pawn. The two players would then play on into a drawn endgame, something that would be costly at the end for the Knockouts.

On board two Dean Ippolito would end up drawing Pascal Charbonneau in a game that was unbalanced from early on. At move 19, Ippolito had a queen, two rooks, bishop, and five pawns against Charbonneau’s two rooks, two bishops, knight, and seven pawns. By move 44, it appeared that Charbonneau was clearly winning but Ippolito found a draw, a draw that Charbonneau happily accepted in what would help determine the match for the Knights.

Mackenzie Molner had a lot of chances to make this a 2-2 match with a board three win against Matt Herman, but time trouble was potentially the difference in this game. Molner managed to earn a pawn on move 10, one that would evaporate 5 moves later on move 15. The clock was not friendly to Molner as seen on move 17, when Herman owned 1:27:20 of clock while Molner just had 18:35 on his clock. As the game progressed the game became more and more equal and the two played to a draw.

Sean Finn had a tough challenge to make on board four, playing against Yaacov Norowitz, possibly the most dangerous player on board four. Move 22 was the defining move, one that would allow Norowitz to gain an important pawn, after Finn took Norowitz’s bishop, Norowitz would take the pawn with his bishop attacking the queen allowing for him to take Finn’s knight and become the hero of the match as he would checkmate Finn after thirty eight moves.

The Knockouts had never made the playoffs in their history, and despite their league-best record, the loss was a heartbreaker. Still, building on the success of this season should place the Knockouts as an elite team in the US Chess League for years to come.

Knock, Knock, Knockouts on Final's Door

2009-11-16T21:42:00.000-08:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

The New Jersey began their quest for the US Chess League Championship with a big win over the Baltimore Kingfishers last week. Now, they must defeat the New York Knights for the third straight time this season in order to face the surprising Western Conference Champion Miami Sharks, who defeated the San Francisco Mechanics.

The Knockouts won both battles between themselves and the Knights, New York Knights is a team that's better than their marginally winning record. The Knockouts chose White on first board and will field the exact same lineup that led them to their decisive 3-1 victory against Baltimore. The lineup features GM Joel Benjamin, IM Dean Ippolito, Mackenzie Molner, and Sean Finn. The New York Knights do the same, bringing the same lineup that upset the Boston Blitz in the first round. Their lineup is GM Giorgi Kacheishvili, GM Pascal Charbonneau, Matt Herman, and Yaacov Norowitz. The Knockouts own draw odds for this match, meaning that all the Knockouts need are two points to make their first championship appearance, against Miami Sharks. While the championship is nice, the Knockouts must concentrate on this match first to prevent a letdown. This game will be played at 7:00 PM ET on Wednesday November 18, with the time control of game 90 with 30 seconds increments after each move.

On board one we see a matchup that already resulted in two draws this season, GM Joel Benjamin playing as white against GM Giorgi Kacheishvili. In the two matchups between the GMs this year, they were all even, though Joel Benjamin probably could have won the second game between the two GMs.

Board two features a matchup that was played the first game of the week of the season, IM Dean Ippolito ( plays as black against GM Pascal Charbonneau. In that game, Ippolito won the USCL Game of the Week prize, weaving a two knights versus pawn mating net against the former Canadian Champion. This type of win is something that may be easy for a player of Ippolito’s caliber, but certainly not one of the easier for those who enjoy this game.

On board three, Mackenzie Molner faces off as white against Matt Herman. The two have met earlier this season, with Mackenzie Molner earning the win in what would be one of two wins for the Knockouts help that decided the match for New Jerseys fourth consecutive win.

On board four, Sean Finn has the dark pieces and will try to beat Yaacov Norowitz. While ratings alone favor Norowitz, Finn’s two wins this season have both come against players with higher ratings, he has defeated WGM Jennifer Shahade for his first ever US Chess League win and earned his first playoff win against WIM Tsagaan Batsettseg.

This game can be seen at the Internet Chess Club (ICC) Wednesday November 18th at 7:00 PM. Change of schedule changed the Western Championship game to Monday so this will be the only game of the night for what has been an exciting season. Watch along as a new Eastern Division Champion will be crowned on this historic night!

Knockouts Win and Draw in Quarterfinal

2009-11-10T18:17:00.001-08:00

by Robert N. Bernard

The New Jersey Knockouts defeated the Baltimore Kingfishers on Monday night by a score of 3-1, in United States Chess League playoff action. With the win, New Jersey advanced to the Eastern conference finals, where they will play the New York Knights, who defeated the Boston Blitz 2.5-1.5. New Jersey won on boards one and four, and held Baltimore to draws on boards two and three. (GM Joel Benjamin, pictured below)

The match was closer than the 3-1 score might indicate. Because of a better regular season record, New Jersey had draw-odds, meaning that a drawn match (2-2) would count as a New Jersey win. Three of the boards had sharp, double-edged positions that could have gone either way with a misstep by one player or the other. Baltimore, which had won the USCL Championship in 2005, was hoping to get back the the playoffs, which had eluded the Kingfishers for the last few years. They put up a valiant fight, but in the end, the Knockouts' sharp and aggressive play proved to be a gamble that paid off with a handsome victory.

Board Two, which had IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat as White against the Knockouts' IM Dean Ippolito, (pictured above) was the only tame affair of the evening. In a Slav Defense, an early queen exchange and several other trades led to an early endgame, with Enkbhat's bishop and rook against Ippolito's knight and rook. After the minors were traded, a repetition in a drawn rook endgame seemed to be a logical conclusion. Ippolito commented after the game that a draw with Black in a match with draw odds is a favorable result.

Board Four saw WIM Tsagaan Battsetseg as White against Sean Finn (pictured above) of New Jersey. Finn brought out a King's Indian Defense, and while Finn opened up lines on the queenside, Battsetseg countered with a pawn rush on the kingside. Finn played the speculative and quite possibly unsound exchange sacrifice 24...Rxa4, but was rewarded when his opponent blundered in time pressure, and allowed 28...Nxd5. From then, Finn won back the exchange, had some extra pawns, consolidated, was vigilant for any perpetuals, and brought home the win. At this point, the score was 1.5-0.5 for New Jersey, and the Knockouts just need to score a draw in one of the final two games.

On Board Three, the Knockouts' Mac Molner was on the white side of a Sveshnikov Sicilian against FM Shinsaku Uesugi. The game followed known theory for a while. Molner showed signs of an attack, but queenside counterplay foiled his efforts. Molner fought valiantly until the endgame, when Uesugi was a pawn up in a rook and opposite colored bishop endgame. Uesugi allowed the exchange of rooks, which turned a possible slight advantage into a pawn up, but drawn position. When Uesugi realized that there was no point in paying further, he offered a draw, which Molner accepted and clinched the match for New Jersey. (Sean Finn and Mac Molner rejoice in the thrill of victory, below.)

On Board One, the game between GM Joel Benjamin as White and GM Sergey Erenburg was an exciting and interesting affair. Benjamin trotted out the Spanish Four Knights when he encountered Erenbug's unusual looking 4...Bd6. Of course, as everyone knows, this move has been discussed in the inaugural volume of Secrets of Opening Surprises as "Solokov's Surprise". Benjamin tossed out the aggressive, but thematic 8. g4, which he mentioned after the game is an idea in these types of positions. Benjamin has a vicious attack going, but low on time, and keeping his eye on the other games, simplified to an approximately equal position. While the other players were celebrating New Jersey's victory, Benjamin walked Erenburg's king to the queenside, wove a mating net, and eventually Erenburg had to concede after losing some material.

The victory was met by joy and celebration throughout the Garden State. Or, at least throughout the Garden State Parkway. (Dean Ippolito and Joel Benjamin celebrate the big win, below.)

The lineups for the Eastern Conference Championship -- the Battle of the Hudson -- will be posted on Sunday evening. New Jersey will have the White pieces on boards 1 and 3. This blog will have a preview of the match early next week.

First Round Playoffs: Knockouts Look to Piscatorially Dethrone Kingfishers

2009-11-09T04:00:00.000-08:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

The New Jersey Knockouts enter their first playoff game in team history in a great position to contend for a US Chess League Championship. To get there, they must first concentrate on defeating the Baltimore Kingfishers. By virtue of finishing first, the Knockouts own draw odds and thus a score of 2-2 will be good enough to advance to the Eastern Division finals. The Knockouts defeated the Kingfishers in Week 7 by a score of 3.5-0.5, but both lineups in this match definitely have a different look to them. For the Knockouts they feature a lineup of Joel Benjamin, Dean Ippolito, Mackenzie Molner, and Sean Finn against a Baltimore Kingfishers' lineup of Sergey Erenburg, Tegshsuren Enkhbat, Shinsaku Uesugi, and Tsagaan Battsetseg. The Knockouts will own white on boards one and three, and black on boards two and four. If Knockouts can stay consistent with history they have a good shot at winning, the Knockouts own the record against the two teams with a record of 3.5-1.5.

GM Joel Benjamin makes his USCL playoffs debut as white against GM Sergey Erenburg on board one. Joel Benjamin had a huge season for the Knockouts earning five out of nine points in nine games with three wins, four draws, and only two losses. The two grandmasters met two times last season with Sergey Erenburg winning both of those matchups. Sergey Erenburg is undefeated in five games with two wins and three draws.

On board two is IM Dean Ippolito facing off as black against IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat. Dean Ippoltio had a huge regular season, in five games he won three, drew one, and only lost once. Tegshsuren Enkhbat’s season has featured him earning points in six out of seven games, with five draws and one win, with one of those draws coming against Knockouts top board Joel Benjamin. The two international masters have met twice, in 2008 and 2007 with Dean Ippolito winning both of these matches for the Knockouts.

SM Mackenzie Molner plays as white on board three against FM Shinsaku Uesugi. These two have never faced each other before in the US Chess League. Mackenzie Molner played four games this season, earning a win and two draws, and only losing one game. Shinsaku Uesugi earned three out of the team’s six points, with two wins, two draws, and two losses in his first season in the US Chess League. Uesugi lost to the Knockout's IM Albert Kapengut in the New Jersey - Baltimore this year.

Sean Finn faces off against WIM Tsagaan Battsetseg with black on board four. In the short time he’s been a Knockout, Finn has done his job well, earning a win and a draw. Finn’s first win came against WGM Jennifer Shahade in a big upset that helped solidify the Knockouts in the game that clinched the Eastern Division. Tsagaan Battsegseg played two games this year, winning one and losing once.

This match can be seen at the Internet Chess Club as always at 7:15 PM Eastern Time, tonight. Time control will be the traditional game 90 with 30 second increments. The other game affecting the Knockouts as long as the Knockouts win, is the game between the New York Knights and Boston Blitz, with the winner of that match facing the winner of the Knockouts-Kingfishers game. The Boston Blitz will win the match if they draw, as they too have received draw odds. Games in the Western Division can be seen on Wednesday, November 11th.

The Knockouts are sponsored by the New Jersey State Chess Federation.

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Benjamin Frankly: GM Joel Previews New Jersey's Playoffs

2009-11-08T16:43:00.000-08:00

by GM Joel Benjamin

The New Jersey Knockouts find itself in an unaccustomed position. We weren’t quite prepared to clinch a playoff spot midway through the season, not after the brutal finishes to our first two seasons. And clinching the Eastern Division title with a round to spare…we kind of had to pinch ourselves after that. So we go into the playoffs with the top seed, giving us draw odds and choice of colors in the opening round. Our opponents, the Baltimore Kingfishers, are a formidable squad with a strong first board and good balance in their lineup. You can throw out the regular season records when you get to the playoffs, a point driven home to me by the Sunday Sports section of the New York Times. They assessed the strength of all 27 World Series Champion Yankee teams, rating the 2000 team as the worst, one of the worst World Series winners in history. That team, which won only 87 games, defeated my beloved Mets in five games. So while we remain confident, we temper our optimism with caution.

Lineups are affected by player availability. Probably every team will be kept from its ideal lineup at some point in the playoffs by logistical concerns. Both teams will have one of the two grandmasters on the roster in the match. Sergey Erenburg beat me twice last season, so I will be particularly determined to make a good showing on Monday night. We are going with Dean Ippolito and Mac Molner, two of our core players from the beginning, on two and three. Both of them played a bit less than in the past this year, but will be primed for the playoffs. Our fourth board, Sean Finn, was added to the roster late in the season as insurance for the playoffs. He looked good in two games for us—a draw with David Adelberg of Arizona, and a win over Jennifer Shahade of Philadelphia—so we think he’ll do a good job as well.

As the top seed, we got choice of colors. We had to choose before we knew their lineup, though they are fielding pretty much what we expected. With some teams, in may be clear on which boards you want the White pieces, but not always. I think the conventional wisdom is to choose White on one and three, on the theory that color makes a bigger difference for higher rated players than lower rated players. That seemed as good a reason as any to choose white on the odd boards. Indeed, New York and Arizona made the same call, with only Seattle choosing Black. I’m not surprised by the Sluggers’ decision, as Nakamura feels he can beat anybody with either color. If I were that good, maybe I would feel the same way. (If we make it through to the final against Seattle, we will have choice of color.)

The Kingfisher trio of Enkhbat, Uesugi, and Battsetseg are not particularly well versed in opening theory, but they are scrappy players who can be strong if they get the right type of position. On paper the teams are pretty even, but only needing to score two points to advance should make us a slight favorite. Hopefully we will be able to “reel in” their kings (or any other Baltimore-themed phrase in Bioniclime style) and advance to the Division finals.

New Jersey Tops Throughout Playoffs, Despite Being Sacrificed to Queens

2009-11-05T12:06:00.000-08:00

by Robert N. Bernard

A new location, flaky internet connections, and lack of donuts all contributed to New Jersey's loss last night to the Queens Pioneers, 3-1. Despite the loss, New Jersey will still be going to the United States Chess League playoffs, facing Baltimore in the first round. New Jersey is the top seed, retaining draw-odds and color choice in the first round, draw-odds in the second round, and color choice in the finals. Queens, on the other hand, will be staying home watching the playoffs on the Internet Chess Club, wishing that the magic they invoked to beat the Knockouts could have been summoned for their other matches.

The night did not start well for the Knockouts. Because the New Jersey public schools have off Thursday and Friday of this week, the regular playing location, Chapel Hill Academy, was closed for the evening. This necessitated a move to Dean of Chess Academy, a beautiful facility in Branchburg, run by the Knockouts' Dean Ippolito. Dean of Chess is in a new location, having just moved a little over a month ago. That left one of our players lost, as he had gone to the old location first, eventually showing up to the game almost 15 minutes late.

Then, while we were setting up, the wireless internet connection that had been working flawlessly for the past month, decided not to work any more. The internet company had (ahem) "repaired" and "improved" the internet connection the previous day, but alas, in NewSpeak, "repaired" now means "broke" and "improved" now means "degraded". So, after some scrambling, we were able to find unsecured wireless to which we connected. The manager of the Knockouts (your writer) was apprehensive that this randomly-selected internet connection had a very good chance of being lost in the middle of the game, and he would have to turn into a relayer. Fortunately, that didn't happen.

All these set up problems were insignificant, however, to the final issue. There were no donuts again. There was simply no time to purchase them before the match started, and when substitute donuts arrived around 10:30pm, it was already too late. The Legend of the Deep Fried Tori continues.

The games did not go much better, either.

On Board 1, Joel Benjamin took some chances in attacking Stripunsky's king, but a sufficient defense was employed, and Joel came out a couple of pawns down -- the perpetual he sought was as elusive as a unicorn in a pristine glade. He played on until Stripunsky's forced an exchange of queens, and Benjamin was lost.

On Board 2, Mac Molner (pictured, right) pressed in a tough position against Milman. With Mac low on time, Milman eventually penetrated Mac's position, and Mac was forced to call it a day.

On Board 3, Andrew Ng (pictured, left) whipped up a kingside attack on blogger-extraordinaire, Liz Vicary. At a crucial moment, where he may have been able to solidify his advantage, he blundered, losing a rook to a cute zwischenzug. Shaking his head, and casting his eyes down to his shattered position, he lay down his arms.

On Board 4, young Arthur Shen (pictured, right) was the bright spot of the night, slowly and deliberately outplaying his opponent Fritz Gaspard. Shen got a little too excited, though, as the pawn being jammed down Gaspard's throat was a little too tempting. Shen pushed the pawn, inexplicably missing that Gaspard could mate him in two moves. The crowd on ICC went wild, including Arthur's brother (the Knockouts' own Victor Shen) whose finger was stuck on the question mark key for what seemed like an eternity. And then, even more inexplicably, Gaspard missed the mate. Shen consolidated, avoided last ditch stalemate tricks, and Gaspard gave up. When the potential mate was verbally pointed out to Arthur after the game, Arthur looked to the ceiling, paused a second, gave an infectious smile, and said, "Boy, was I lucky!"

That was it for the Knockouts' regular season, as they finished with a record of 8-2, the best in the Eastern division. But it is not over! Tune in to the Internet Chess Club Monday November 9th at 7:15pm to watch New Jersey play Baltimore in the first round of the playoffs.

Knockouts to Force Queens' Abdication

2009-11-03T09:19:00.000-08:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

Now that the New Jersey Knockouts have won the Eastern Division Title in the US Chess League, there is one more thing at stake for them, and that is owning the best record league. They can earn this with a great performance against the Queens Pioneers, who themselves have to win big to make it to the US Chess League playoffs. To own the best record in the league, the Knockouts simply need to clinch, but to own the best record via the first tiebreaker, the Knockouts simply need to get one win out of the four games in this match!

The Knockouts will have a change of scenery for this match as they will be playing at the Dean of Chess Academy in Branchburg, New Jersey which is owned by the Knockouts' own Dean Ippolito. The Knockouts' regular site, Chapel Hill Academy, is closed this week. Because of the location change, the match begins at 8:00 PM Eastern on Wednesday November. The time control has changed as well, with the game being in 75 minutes with 30 second increments. For the season finale Joel Benjamin, Mackenzie Molner, Andrew Ng, and Arthur Shen face off against Alex Stipunsky, Lev Milman, Elizabeth Vicary, and Fritz Gaspard. Even though everything is set, the Knockouts can't afford a letdown. Even though the Pioneers appear to be the weakest team that still have playoff hopes, losing big to them and being forced to face them again in the first round of the playoffs facing them again would give a huge amount of momentum to Queens.

Queens can only make the US Chess League playoffs they must beat the Knockouts, while hoping the Baltimore Blitz lose to the Tennessee Tempo and the Philadelphia Inventors lose or draw to the Carolina Cobras. To make that a less likely opportunity for Queens the Tennessee Tempo and Carolina Cobras currently are last place in their division. In terms of game points, which are the first tiebreaker, the Queens Pioneers have to earn more points than the Baltimore Kingfishers, who have two more points than them, and the Philadelphia Inventors who only are up by half a game. If Queens wins 4-0 and Baltimore loses 1.5-2.5, Queens would win that tiebreaker over Baltimore by only a half a point. However they also need Philadelphia to lose as well, in the same situation where Queens sweeps and Philadelphia draws, Queens would win the game point tiebreaker as well. Thus, a sweep seems like the only thing Queens can do to better their chances of making the playoffs. Perhaps if Stripunsky’s mouse didn’t slip in week one, the Pioneers could have gotten a draw that week and be even closer to the playoff picture.

GM Joel Benjamin will have white and face off against GM Alex Stripunsky on board one playing. Benjamin's season has been nothing short of spectacular -- in eight games, he has only lost once. His three wins and four draws made it so that the Knockouts had true support at their first board. His performance has put him fifth in the 2009 MVP Standings with 12 points. Alex Stripunsky has performed well this season with two wins, one draw, and one loss in four games. Stripunsky’s lone loss came against Larry Christiansen due to an unfortunate mouse slip late in the game. In three games between these two players, the two grandmasters have both have won once, drawn once, and lost once. A win will give Joel Benjamin a great case for making the US Chess League All Star team!

SM Mackenzie Molner will be using the black pieces on board two against IM Lev Milman. In the three games Molner has played, he has one win and two draws, with one of the draws being a game where he could have won but decided to go with the draw to earn what was most important, a Knockout victory. In Lev Milman’s two games, he has lost both of them against John Donaldson of San Francisco and Gregory Serper of Seattle.

Playing as white at board three, Andrew Ng faces off against WFM Elizabeth Vicary. Ng has played two games this season with a win and a loss. His win came in the week eight Boston Massacre, where the Knockouts won by a decisive score of 4-0. In her two games, Elizabeth Vicary has lost both of them, one against Tsaagan Battsetseg of Baltimore and the other against Yaacov Norowitz of New York.

On board four is Arthur Shen facing off with the dark pieces against Fritz Gaspard. This is Arthur Shen’s third game of the season, in his previous two games he has lost both matches against opponents that were rated much higher than him, Craig Jones of Carolina and Yaacov Norowitz of New York who was up by at least 200 points in rating.

This match can be seen along with six other matches at the Internet Chess Club. Game time is 8:00 PM Eastern time . This looks to be an exciting match as the Knockouts gear up for the playoffs!

Philadel-Phiasco! New Jersey Wins and Secures First Place

2009-10-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

The New Jersey Knockouts have clinched the Eastern Division Title after overwhelming the Philadelphia Inventors a score of 3.5-0.5. The Knockouts' Eastern Division Title was earned once the Boston Blitz failed to defeat the Miami Sharks, with a 2-2 draw. The Knockouts dominated the match with wins from Boris Gulko, Victor Shen, and Sean Finn and a draw from the Knockouts' top player, Joel Benjamin. The Knockouts currently have the best record in the US Chess League with an 8-1 record, a point ahead of the Western Division leading Seattle Sluggers (7-2).

New Jersey can break the all-time single season record, held by the San Francisco Mechanics at 8.5/10, with a win in their match next week against the Queens Pioneers. Queens will try to beat the Knockouts and hope for a rematch the next week in the US Chess League Playoffs. The Knockouts will own the best record in the US Chess League with either a win or draw.

On November 9th, the Knockouts will be slated to play the fourth seed in the Eastern Division, which has not yet been decided. Three teams are battling for this position, the Baltimore Kingfishers with 3.5 points, the Philadelphia Inventors with 3.0 points, and the Queens Pioneers with 2.5 points. While Baltimore is in the lead, they face the eliminated Tennessee Tempo who definitely could play spoiler and ruin their playoff chances. The Philadelphia Inventors will face the Carolina Cobras and can get in if they can get help from the Tennessee Tempo. The Queens Pioneers are the most unlikely playoff opponent as they trail Baltimore by a point and will need help from Tennessee and Carolina as well as defeat New Jersey.

While owning bragging rights for best team in the East the Knockouts also earned something more important, they will own draw odds for the quarterfinals and semifinals, meaning that if they draw the opponent they will win the round. This is why winning the Eastern Division title is more important. The Knockouts will have color choice in the first round, and if Boston fails to beat New York in the quarterfinals, the Knockouts will own color choice in the Semifinals as well. The Knockouts are guaranteed color choice in the champion match if they can win or draw against Queens or if Seattle draws or loses against Chicago.

Joel Benjamin continues on what has been a great season for him with a draw against Sergey Kudrin. In the eight games he has played this year he has only lost one match. The match between the two Grandmasters was relatively short as neither could find an advantage in the 16 moves that they played up until the two agreed with a draw.

Boris Gulko continues his domination of the US Chess League as he defeated Tom Bartell for his fifth consecutive win of the season as well as his eighth consecutive win in his perfect US Chess League. Gulko took advantage of Bartell early as he gained Bartell’s pawn on d5 on move fifteen with his bishop on c3. Bartell attempted a full attack to try to come back to defeat Gulko but in the end it wasn’t enough as Bartell resigned after move twenty three.

Victor Shen defeated Richard Costigan in a tight battle that was determined late in the game under time pressure for both sides. On move forty one Costigan had the opportunity to open up the game with a move such as Qg3 to set up what could be a winning advantage, instead he took a pawn with his Rook and lost his Knight and this eventually became an unbalanced endgame. However Victor Shen set up an attack that overwhelmed Costigan, and after a series of precise moves with his Queen, Rook, and Bishop (in severe time pressure no less), weaved a mating net from which Costigan could not escape.

Sean Finn magaged to earn his first ever US Chess League win over the 2002 and 2004 U.S. Women's Champion, and much higher rated, Jennifer Shahade. Finn went up a pawn on move twenty one with the move exf5 after Shahade played f5, the move also weakened the safety of her king as well. Finn would have a huge attack on Shahade which proved to be decisive as he was up by a Bishop and a pawn after thirty three moves. Shahade resigned after thirty five moves after Finn set up a beautiful attack which was more than the WGM and chess author could handle.

The Knockouts move to 8-1 and will play again next Wednesday in the last game of the season against the Queens Pioneers. Most games in the league has playoff implications, so tune into the Internet Chess Club for all fourteen teams in action!

New Jersey Turns Pike on Philadelphia

2009-10-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

The New Jersey Knockouts look to cap off an excellent season by earning the Eastern Division title in the United States Chess League. If they are to do that, a good idea is to defeat the Philadelphia Inventors this week, who need a win to stay alive in the playoff race. The last time these two teams met earlier this season, the Knockouts defeated the Inventors by a score of 2.5-1.5 under a strong lineup headed by Joel Benjamin who certainly has to be one of the most important players in the US Chess League.

The Knockouts control their destiny in the East and can clinch first place this week with one of two situations, a Knockouts win combined with a Blitz draw or loss, or a Knockouts draw combined with a Blitz loss. Should one of these happen, the Knockouts will finish first place in the East with the advantage draw odd sand color choice in the first round against the fourth place team in the playoffs. This week's matchup features the Knockouts lineup of Joel Benjamin, Boris Gulko, Victor Shen, and Sean Finn against a tough Inventors lineup of Sergey Kudrin, Tom Bartell, Richard Costigan, and Jennifer Shahade. Time control for this match is game in 90 with 30 second time increments.

Board one features a matchup that was seen in week two, this time GM Joel Benjamin will be playing as black against GM Sergey Kudrin. In their first matchup, Joel Benjamin was victorious against Kudrin, in a 2.5-1.5 win for the Knockouts. Joel Benjamin has an undefeated record of 2-1 against Kudrin in the US Chess League. In the five games he has played, Kudrin has lost all five, it’s hard to imagine him losing a sixth consecutive game, but it’s also hard to see anything stopping Joel Benjamin whose lone loss came against the Arizona Scorpions.

GM Boris Gulko looks to go for his fifth win of the season with the white pieces against former New Jersey Knockout, FM Tommy Bartell. Last week, Gulko came in second the Game of the Week voting. The game will make Boris Gulko eligible to for the USCL All-Star Team, and with a record like his, he is likely to make it. The Knockouts definitely can look forward to having him in the playoffs. With a Benjamin-Gulko one-two punch in the playoffs, the Knockouts certainly give themselves a lineup that is hard to beat.

Off of his big win against the Boston Blitz, Victor Shen plays black on board three and looks to win his third game of the season against IM Richard Costigan. In the two games this season, Victor Shen has two wins including his Game of the Week third place in last week’s sweep of the Boston Blitz against Marc Esserman.

Sean Finn will be playing his second US Chess League match at board with the white pieces against WGM Jennifer Shahade. In his first match, Sean Finn managed to draw David Adelberg of the Arizona Scorpions in the only match which the Knockouts have lost this season so far. This is also Jennifer Shahade’s second game of the year, she defeated Jared Defibaugh of the Baltimore Kingfishers last week. Sean Finn will not be hula hooping during the match. No word on Shahade.

This match can be seen online at the Internet Chess Club on Wednesday, October 28 at 7:00 pm Eastern time. It is one of four matches that can be observed that night, which should be an exciting night in the US Chess League.

Knockouts Massacre Blitz: Boston Cremed, Score a Donut.

2009-10-19T22:07:00.000-07:00

by Robert N. Bernard

The scoreboard tells it all.

The New Jersey Knockouts dealt a crushing blow to the Boston Blitz in Monday night United States Chess League action, annihilating them on every board, and winning by a clean sweep of 4-0. The Blitz and the Knockouts were tied coming into the evening for first place in the Eastern Division, but this victory relegated Boston to second and vaulted New Jersey to the top. New Jersey now stands at 7-1 and Boston at 6-2.

The lineups for the match were questioned by bloggers and pundits from around the league. Why wasn't Joel Benjamin playing first board? Was he scared? Actually he had a prior commitment that evening, which the team knew about in August, so there is no truth to the conspiracy rumors.

The Knockouts won last week versus Baltimore, more than likely due to the return of the ubiquitous donuts, which went uncharacteristically missing during the team's only loss this year to Arizona. Therefore, to invoke the Caissac deities, and augment the strength of our opponents, we branded the Boston Creme donuts with a red B. Eating the donuts would surely allow us to grok the essence of the Blitz, and propel us to victory.

Boy, did it work. But it didn't look good at 6:45pm.

I came in the room, and just the arbiter, Mike Somers, was in the room. Where was everyone else? The traffic in New Jersey is usually pretty horrible, but I just drove in from 25 minutes away, and it wasn't that bad. Where is everybody? Was Arby's having a roast beef sale?

Finally, Dean arrived carrying a large, heavy box. I wasn't about to speculate what he picked up in the swamps of the Meadowlands before he arrived. The rest of the team soon followed. When Victor arrived, he went into serious study mode. Ah good, I thought, he's booking up on Esserman's pet lines. But the book was a History textbook. Either he's going to crush Esserman, or he's going to be slaughtered like the Union in the pit outside of Petersburg (I think it was an American History textbook, thus the reference).

So what could I do to psych us up and inspire the team subconsciously? I know... I could destroy one of the aforementioned donuts.

That brings us to the controversial Boston CSI (Boston Creme Smashing Incident). The perpetrator of the elegiac ellipsoidicide, armed only with a hammer and a tube of red decorative incing, prepared the enemy donuts for their destiny. The donuts were tagged with the red Boston B, pictures were taken (see above), and then one unlucky pastry was given a lesson it never forgot, as it was mercilessly pummeled with a hammer. See the video below...

So, what happened in the match?

Board two saw Dean Ippolito take the black pieces against the Blitz's manager, Jorge Sammour-Hasbun. Sammour-Hasbun has only played two matches for the Blitz this year so far, but his leadership has given them their stellar record. The Blitz leader played a Catalan, an opening quite familiar to Dean, but usually with white. The game was close throughout, but then took control of the c-file, and aimed at Dean's weak c7-pawn. The only problem was that Sammour Hasbun's bishop had little freedom, stick on a5. Sammour-Hasbun a remarkable speed chess player got in time trouble, and blundered. Ippolito won the trapped bishop, and then proceeded to consolidate his gains. Sammour Hasbun resigned, and it was 1-0 for New Jersey.

On Board three, Victor Shen went up against against brand-new International Master Marc Esserman. Shen was outrated about 150 points, but with the white pieces, Shen had a chance. Esserman played a Two Knights Defense, and Shen slowly built up a nice center. The nasty tactic 19. Bxh6 clearly surprised Esserman, and after a number of exchanges, Shen had has passed d-pawn planted firmly on the sixth rank. Esserman, seeing Shen was down on the clock, offered a draw, which Shen completely ignored. Play continued, and revolved around the d-pawn, and low on the clock, Shen calmly maneuvered his pieces until the pawn made it to d7. At that point, Esserman was forced to give up his bishop for the pawn, and after some futile attempts to find a perpetual, Esserman gave up. New Jersey was now up 2-0.

Board four, however, did not look promising for the Knockouts. Andrew Ng got in trouble in the opening, and by the 16th move was cramped and passive, with the Blitz's Andrew Wang getting a knight on Ng's sixth rank. That's always a bad sign. Ng searched for counterplay, ended up down a pawn or two, all the while draining his clock of digits. However, Wang never seemed to push his initiative as hard as he needed, and Ng ended up getting a little freedom in his position. It was only a little counterplay, but caused Wang to think. Wang ended up low on his clock, and with both players down to a less than a few minutes, Ng was back in the game, but still down a plethora of pawns. Then, the unthinkable happened. Wang's king was caught in the corner, and Wang blundered, dropping a piece. Then, almost immediately afterward, dropped an exchange. A few moves later, with his pawn approaching the eighth rank, but as helpless and clueless as a lemming's death march, Wang resigned. New Jersey 3-0, and the winner of the match.

Last to finish was Boris Gulko on board one, playing white against Eugene Perelshteyn. A topical Slav Defense, with an early a2-a4 by Gulko, led to a complex middlegame. The position was tense throughout the game. Finally, a number of exchanges led to a rook and minor piece endgame that Gulko was nursing a slight advantage. Perelshteyn blundered with 37...g5, which dropped a pawn. That's all Gulko needed -- swap, swap, swap, and a rook and two-pawns versus a rook endgame was enough for Gulko. His impeccable training was on display as he methodically brought home the point. New Jersey 4-0. Brooms all around!

After the match, the team was all smiles (photo below, L to R: Ng, Ippolito, Gulko), with the exception of Victor Shen, who had left early to continue reading his history textbook.

The next match is on Wednesday, October 28 versus the Philadelphia Inventors, a team that New Jersey beat earlier in the season. It starts at 7:00pm on the Internet Chess Club.

You know what? Next week, we are going to get some Philly cheesesteaks, draw a picture of Benjamin Franklin out of Cheez-Whiz and attack it with a garden hoe. That's sure to work too.

Live blog: Versus Boston

2009-10-19T16:06:00.000-07:00

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.

Fun Night at the KO Corral: New Jersey vs. Boston Preview

2009-10-18T18:16:00.001-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

Now that the New Jersey Knockouts have officially clinched a playoff berth for the first time in their three season history, they can set their sights on their first division title. They must finish ahead of this week's opponent, the always tough Boston Blitz. This could be the match that decides who finishes first in the Eastern Division. After seven matches, both teams have won six games and not lost a single match against a division opponent, with both teams losing their only match in interleague play. Boston currently holds the lead in the tiebraker, as they have more game points with 19 against the Knockouts who have 17.5. The teams have played two USCL matches in their history, with the New Jersey Knockouts owning the better side of the 1.5-0.5 score. Last season the Knockouts defeated the Boston Blitz in week four by a score of 3-1.

The New Jersey Knockouts will field the lineup of Boris Gulko, Dean Ippolito, Victor Shen, and Andrew Ng against the Boston line up of Eugene Perelshteyn, Jorge Sammour-Hasbun, Marc Esserman, and Andrew Wang. There are many stories in this matchup. This is the first matchup without GM Joel Benjamin, who has played every game on first board this season, and has been influential in making the team what it is today as he has earned at least a draw in every game the Knockouts have won. Filling in for Joel Benjamin on board one is GM Boris Gulko, whom was asked to join the team by Joel Benjamin to join the team in the summer of 2008 when the two did a photo shoot for a local magazine; Boris Gulko was happy to join, and the rest was history. While the Knockouts top rated player isn’t playing, neither is the Boston Blitz’s top player, Larry Christiansen, who has played four games for the Blitz this season. Instead, Eugene Perelshteyn will be on board one for the Blitz. The matchup appears even, as the Knockouts are fielding higher rated players on boards one and four while the Blitz feature higher rated players on boards two and three.

GM Boris Gulko plays his first game on board one as white against GM Eugene Perelshteyn. Boris Gulko’s has won all six of his USCL games, with three of them coming from this season, two of them coming against fellow grandmasters Larry Kaufman and Pascal Charbonneau and the other one being an incredible game of the week against Oleg Zaikov. Gulko’s opponent Eugene Perelshteyn is undefeated this season in four games, with a 3.5-0.5 record.

On board two IM Dean Ippolito will face off with the black pieces against Jorge Sammour-Hasbun. The two have faced off before in the United States Chess League in a game where the Knockouts tied the Blitz in week eight of 2007, a game that Jorge Sammour-Hasbun won. This season Dean Ippolito has a record of 2.5-1.5 with two wins, one draw, and one loss, while Sammour-Hasbun has a win and a loss.

On board three, Victor Shen faces off as white against Marc Esserman. This will be Shen’s second game of the season, with the only game for Shen coming in week one with a win against Matt Herman of the New York Knights in a 2.5-1.5 win for the Knockouts. In six matches this season, Esserman has an excellent record of 4.5-1.5.

Playing as black on board four is Andrew Ng against Andrew Wang. Andrew Ng looks for his first win of the season, with his only game being a loss at board four against Eric Rosen of the Chicago Blaze. Last season, Andrew Ng had a record of 1.5-1.5 with a win, a draw, and a loss, his only win coming against Elvin Wilson of the Philadelphia Inventors. In two games, both against fourth boards of the Queens Pioneers, Andrew Wang has two wins this season.

This exciting match can be seen on the night of Monday October 19 at 7:00 PM Eastern time on the Internet Chess Club. As with all games between east coast teams, the time control will be game in 90 minutes with time increments of 30 seconds. Fans of the US Chess League can also see the Dallas Destiny play the Miami Sharks at 8:00 PM and the Chicago Blaze play the Arizona Scorpions at 9:00 PM. Those games have a big impact of the playoff picture in the US Chess League.

Kapengut Annotates Win Against Uesugi

2009-10-16T17:09:00.000-07:00

Albert Kapengut has annotated his win against Shinsaku Uesugi. You can download the PDF of the annotations, here.

Kingfishers Get Royally Plucked by Knockouts: NJ in Playoffs!

2009-10-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

The New Jersey Knockouts made it big this week, clinching a playoff spot for the first time in team history by beating the Baltimore Kingfishers by a score of 3.5-0.5 (click here for pictures and a blow-by-blow description). The Knockouts earned wins from Boris Gulko, Albert Kapengut, and Anna Matlin and a draw from their first board Joel Benjamin, the only player on the Knockouts to have played every game this year. The Knockouts record is now 6-1 and the team must look to battle hard next week against their co-leader in the Eastern Division, the Boston Blitz, who also clinched a playoff spot this week. Benjamin and Gulko were all smiles after the completion of the match (see photo).

Joel Benjamin came into the match after a tough loss against Arizona with a nice draw against Tegshsuren Enkhbat on board one as black. The game was approximately even as there were not many opportunities for either side and was drawn by repetition after 47 moves. The draw moved the Knockouts closer to voctgory, as the match score became 1.5-0.5 at the time. The draw gives Joel Benjamin a record of 4.5-2.5 and establishes him as one of the most important and reliable players in the league, as few are capable of showing the stamina to consistently play at a high level for seven weeks in a row.

Playing on board two, Boris Gulko's record in the US Chess League remains perfect after defeating World Senior Champion Larry Kaufman on board two to keep his career record perfect at 6-0, with 3-0 this season. Not many players remain perfect after six games, let alone go undefeated, but Boris Gulko has been spectacular for the Knockouts. The game was tense, with Gulko's menacing bishops on a2 and a3 pressure Kaufman thourghout the first part of the game. Gulko kept the pressure on, but Kaufman defended tenaciously. Gulko lost a pawn after move 52. Nxf2, but this lead wouldn’t last after a nasty little tactic that left Kaufman rookless. Good players find ways to win and certainly this game was a great example of it.

Albert Kapengut defeated Shinsaku Uesugi on board three as black when Uesugi ran out of time on move 38 (see Kapengut's annotations here). Similar to the game against Pasalic, Kapengut was up on time by a lot as he had 40:20 on his clock when Uesugi’s clock went to 0:00. While there were no major advantages, the Kapengut move that caused Uesugi to lose on time was dxe3 which might have put a lot of pressure on Uesugi with not that much time remaining. Often a chess player is taught that it is better to lose on time rather than make a move that loses on the spot. Interestingly enough Uesugi could have earned a draw by simply accepting Kapengut’s earlier draw offer, but Uesugi declined and Kapengut earned more than what he expected to earn and that’s a win!

Anna Matlin defeated the higher rated Jared Defibaugh on board four in dominating fashion to earn her second win of the season. Matlin would begin her domination over Defibaugh after winning a pawn after move 23 Rxc7 and taking control of the game. Matlin was up two pawns on move 39 when she played the neat little Bxf6 and Defibaugh accepting the loss of a pawn, rather than trading the last minor pieces on the board. Not being able to stop the march of the pawns, Defibaugh resigned on move 46, giving Matlin a 2-1 record this season.

Now that the Knockouts have achieved their first goal of making the playoffs, they must now push for first place in the East next week against the Boston Blitz on Monday, October 19. The game starts at 7:00 Eastern Time and can be seen on the Internet Chess Club. Afterwards the Knockouts face two teams that are currently attempting to make the playoffs, the Philadelphia Inventors and Queens Pioneers. Most importantly, the Knockouts have guaranteed their first playoff game on Monday November 9th. This season has been a great one for the Knockouts as they have already guaranteed that they will be in the playoffs, something they were so close to the last two seasons.

NJSCF Sponsors The HomeFront Chess Marathon October 17th

2009-10-16T12:21:00.000-07:00

IM Dean Ippolito will be giving a simul tomorrow in Princeton, all for charity! From the New Jersey State Chess Federation website...

HomeFront, an organization that raises funds to assist homeless children, will be holding a charity all day chess marathon on October 17 from 9 am to 9 pm at All Saints Episcopal Church in Princeton. IM Dean Ippolito will also be giving a simul to support the event. For more information on the event, please see the Tournaments page. Come out and show your support for chess and this worthy event. See you there!!!!

Click here for more information.

Live blog Week 7 versus Baltimore

2009-10-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

Blog: http://njknockouts.blogspot.com/2009/10/live-blog-week-6-versus-baltimore.html
Tweets: http://www.twitter.com/njknockouts

11:11pm

Anna has won! New Jersey is in the playoffs for the first time in USCL history!

Here's a picture of the team before the match.

10:57pm

Joel's game ended in a draw by repetition. New Jersey leads 1.5-0.5. With a match win tonight, New Jersey is in the playoffs.

10:28pm

Kapengut has left the building. Anna and her opponent are locked in a tight endgame sruggle. Gulko the Grinder is still grinding. Joel's position is markedly better, and might head for a draw.

10:19pm

Kapengut wins! His opponent flagged in a complex and interesting position!

10:14pm

Anna has traded to a pawn up endgame. She has the two bishops against her opponent's bishop and knight.

10:13pm

Kapengut's opponent declined the offer, and is now pushing is queenside pawns.

10:08pm

Kapengut has offered a draw on board 3. A strategic offer, since he's down on material, but way up on the clock.

10:05pm

Wow -- this looks close. Perhaps Joel can draw on board 1, but he's low on the clock. Gulko just needs to continue to grind on board 2. Kapengut is in an interesting position, and his oppoent is very low on the clock. Anna is trying to find a better move than the one good one that's there.

9:44pm

Anna looks like she's in good shape. Benjamin is trying to grind out a draw. Gulko is still slowing building up.

Here's Anna before the match.

9:32pm

Everyone tonight wearing a different color. Anna in purple, Albert in blue, Boris in red, Joel in green.

9:25pm

All games are having a multitude of captures. Matlin's and Kapengut's opponents have 16 and 13 minutes on the clock left respectively, and are on move 16 and 24.

9:18pm

All games have gotten quite interesting. Joel Benjamin looks like he's given up the c-file to Enkhbat's powerful rook battery. Kapengut smashing open Uesagi's position. Gulko GMing Kaufman to death. Matlin tense in a sharp Scotch.

9:04pm

Some excellent imbalances in the Kapengut game. But Uesugi spent a LOT of time, and is way down on the clock.

8:50pm

Pre-match preparations... Kapengut (left) and Gulko (right) are discussing important issues relevant to many people. Ok, it was in Russian, and I don't know what was being said, but it sure looked serious.

8:48pm

Kapengut's game also getting interesting... looks like there might be some imbalances soon.

8:46pm

Looks like Matlin's game going to get tactical pretty soon. According to Kenilworthian blogger extrordinaire, Michael Goeller, Matlin has been following Kasparov-Yusupov, 1994 through 11. Qa5.

8:37pm

It is completely amazing to me that all of the New Jersey boards are up on time. Looks like we out-prepared the Kingfishers this week, making up for Arizona's uber-preparation that killed us last week.

8:35pm

Gulko's bishops look very very nasty, sitting on a2 and a3, cutting a swath down the middle of the board.

8:18pm

The crowds are restless... Can we see the donuts! Free the donuts! I'm wondering if I sold the pictures of the donuts to Us magazine, would they fetch a higher price than a picture of Brad and Angelina's new baby? Naw, forget it. Here they are!

8:13pm

Guess what? We have donuts tonight. That means invincibility. Next week, we're playing Boston, and having... you guessed it... Boston Cremes.

8:02pm

On Board 4, Anna Matlin puts up her 1-1 USCL record against Jared Defibaugh. As white, she played the Scotch, which she had prepared for. Joel Benjamin and Anna did some pre-match conferring on the opening -- see picture on right.

8:01pm

Nope... Breaking up ice... I think it was Sharon Stone.

7:54pm

What the heck was that noise?? It sounded like someone decided to pop some popcorn outside the playing room. I'd better investigate.

7:51pm

On Board 3, IM Albert Kapengut is taking on Uesugi. Kapengut has gone into his first serious think of the game. We has a typical pose for thinking, hands on both cheeks, low board, slightly hunched over the board.

7:48pm

On Board 2, GM Boris Gulko, and his undefeated USCL record, is playing the World Champion... No, not Anand, but instead World Senior Champion, GM Lary Kaufman. Gulko tossed out an English, but Kaufman really wasn't comfortable playing against that, and Gulko transposed into a Queen Pawn opening, which Kaufman turned into a Nimzo-Indian.

It's move 12, and Gulko has added two minutes to his clock, while Kaufman is down 20 minutes already. Gulko is relaxed, leaning back, casually staring at the board.

7:42pm

Let's go around the horn and see what we've got.

On Board 1, GM Joel Benjamin is playing IM Enkhbat, a USCL veteran. Benjamin has black and is playing against Enkhbat's Catalan. They are already on move 11, and Joel has a five minute advantage on the clock.

7:36pm

In my three years of the Knockouts' play, I cannot remember us ever being ahead on time on all four boards 20 minutes into the match. But we are. Board 2, 3, and 4 have all gained time.

7:35pm

Early in the match, and all players looked relaxed. Before the match started, Benjamin gave Matlin some last minute preparation; Gulko and Kapengut chatted seriously in Russian.

7:31pm

We're off! And the blogging has started.

Knockouts "Pun-Tinged-Verb-Meaning-'Plan-To-Defeat'" Kingfishers

2009-10-13T17:21:00.001-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo and Robert N. Bernard

The New Jersey Knockouts battle the Baltimore Kingfishers in a United States Chess League match that means a great deal to both teams and will determine how the Eastern Division Standings will look the next week. With last week's tragic loss to the Scorpions, the Knockouts are now tied with the Boston Blitz for first place with 5-1 records. The match that may determine who wins first place in the East will happen next Monday, but both teams have to take things game-by-game because a loss to a weaker team could negate any advantage. This week's match begins at 7:15 PM Eastern tomorrow night, Wednesday October 14, 2009.

The Knockouts face a Baltimore Kingfisher team that must approach every match like it is a playoff game. A win against Baltimore will solidify the Knockouts in the standings, as it will only allow Baltimore to tie the Knockouts at the end of the season. The Knockouts know not to take the Kingfishers lightly, as the Kingfishers are desperate. The Knockouts are employing a powerful double-GM lineup with Joel Benjamin, Boris Gulko, Albert Kapengut, and Anna Matlin against the Kingfisher lineup of Tegshsuren Enkhbat, Larry Kaufman, Shinsaku Uesugi, and Jared Defibaugh. The Baltimore Kingfishers have white on boards one and three, while the Knockouts will have black on boards two and four. Knockouts have a big advantage in rating on boards one and two, as well as a smaller advantage in rating on board three.

Playing as black on board one, GM Joel Benjamin takes on USCL veteran IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat. Benjamin looks for to rebound from his only loss this season, against Arizona's Ramirez, a game that won the USCL Game of the Week. Aside from that lone loss, Benjamin has been the Knockouts top scorer as he has dominated with points in all of his first five games; without him, who knows where the Knockouts would be?

Playing as white on board two is GM Boris Gulko who can earn an impressive 6-0 USCL player record against World Senior Champion, GM Larry Kaufman. Gulko is arguably the most dangerous board two player in the history of the US Chess League, with two big wins this season against the New York Knights and Carolina Cobras. There are definitely many teams that wish they had Boris Gulko on their first board, much less second.

On board three, famous trainer and theoretician IM Albert Kapengut faces off as black against FM Shinsaku Uesugi. Albert Kapengut made a huge difference on board three against Mehemed Pasalic of the Chicago Blaze in week five, which was the difference maker, when the Knockouts won their fifth consecutive match.

Playing as white on board four, Anna Matlin faces off against Jared Defibaugh. Defibaugh clearly owns the higher rating, but Matlin has had USCL success against higher rated players, winning upset of the week in week two against Rahul Swaminathan of the Philadelphia Inventors. Anna Matlin is currently 1-1 this season, with the one loss against Yaacov Norowitz of New York.

The match can be seen Wednesday October 14 at 7:15 PM ET at the Internet Chess Club. The Knockouts look to reserve their ticket to the playoffs and prepare for a USCL blistering barn burner next week against the Boston Blitz.

The Knockouts are sponsored by the New Jersey State Chess Federation.

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Joel Benjamin's Top Five Reasons

2009-10-08T08:04:00.000-07:00

by Joel Benjamin

I guess we aren’t really invincible. Arizona played a good match and certainly deserved to win. Ramirez played a good game, finishing with a combination that was even better than I thought after the game. I went home thinking that I missed a draw on the 37th move.

Here I played 37…Nc5 and lost. Who stops an h-pawn with a knight instead of a king? It’s certainly not instinctive. I moved some pieces around on the board after the end, and found the following draw:

37...Ke6 38.Bd4! [38.h6 Kf7] 38...Kf7 39.b4 Kg8 40.Kg3 Kh7 41.Kh4 [41.Kf4 Kh6 42.Kxf5 Kxh5 43.Ke5 c5 44.Bxc5 Nc3] 41...Kh6 and Black draws by a tempo; 42.Be3+ Kh7 43.Kg5 Nc3 44.Kxf5 Nd5 45.Bd2 Kg7 and whenever White’s king runs to the queenside, I snap the b4-pawn and play Kh6.

Of course this is complete nonsense because White play 38.b3! and wins easily. 38…c5 39.bxa4 bxa4 40.Bb2! and the bishop easily copes with Black’s pawns.

But everything happens for a reason, so I present...

The Top Five Reasons Why the Knockouts Lost

5) Joel’s kindergarten students gave bad advice

4) Arizona did not play Adamson, meaning disappointed fans had no opportunity for their “Larry, Larry” serenade. [At least Mets fans will get that one]

3) Dean overdosed on Red Bull and Five Hour Energy

2) They played better than us

1) NO DONUTS!!

Knockouts Scorped Upon by Arizona

2009-10-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

The Knockouts suffered their first loss of the season with a win against a very hungry Arizona Scorpions who needed a win to help their playoff cause. At the end of the day, the Knockouts fell 1.0-3.0 to the Scorpions, in their last interdivision game of the regular season. However, the Knockouts will remain on top of the East and be in a tight battle with the Boston Blitz for the Eastern Division. The Knockouts also have a nice advantage of being two wins ahead of the teams tied for third. Perhaps losing is not the worst thing for the Knockouts, as the sports world has seen many teams going undefeated into big games and end up finally losing when it matters. Joel Benjamin and Dean Ippolito suffered their first losses of the seasons on boards one and two, while Mackenzie Molner and Sean Finn managed to draw their games.

The game between Joel Benjamin and Alejandro Ramirez was an Exchange Ruy Lopez that seemed to be equal for much of the tame. Then, Joel Benjamin played 33...Rg6 which gave Ramirez the opportunity to cash in on a nice combination, exchanging rooks and set up a winning endgame. This was Joel Benjamin’s first loss of the year, in what has been an impressive year for the Knockouts' top player.

Dean Ippolito would not be able to build on his success he had benefited from on board two as he fell to Rogelio Barcenilla. Barcenilla would be able to gain a pawn on move 20 which would be the difference maker in that game as it was the beginning of what would be the first lost for Ippolito this season, in what has been an impressive year. Barcenilla would be able to have an overwhelming attack that would prevent the Knockouts from going 6-0.

Mackenzie Molner appeared to have some nice chances against Daniel Rensch. There were times where he might have taken advantage of Rensch’s mistakes and potentially build a huge advantage, but in the end the two players could not gain any decisive advantages and called it a draw after 42 moves.

Sean Finn managed to get a draw in his first US Chess League game against David Adelberg. Finn too had some nice chances where he might have found a win, but could not capitalize on those opportunities and had to settle for a draw with a clearly drawn endgame after move 50.

The Knockouts return to action Wednesday October 14 against the Baltimore Kingfishers, looking to remain undefeated against Eastern Division teams. Baltimore will be fighting hard as they are on the playoff bubble and can’t afford to lose any games. Despite the loss to Arizona, the Knockouts can control their destiny in the Eastern Division when they play the Boston Blitz on Monday October 19th, in what may determine the regular season champions in the East.

Live blogging, tweeting, webcam for Arizona match!

2009-10-05T14:01:00.000-07:00

Blog: http://njknockouts.blogspot.com/2009/10/live-blogging-tweeting-webcam-for.html
Tweets: http://www.twitter.com/njknockouts
Webcam: http://www.blogtv.com/People/bioniclime

11:56pm

Match over -- NJ loses 3-1.

11:44pm

And Joel lost, to a nice combination by his opponent in the endgame. New Jersey does not go to 6-0, and we;re in danger of losing our first match.

11:31pm

Dean succumbed to the pressure. New Jersey down 0-1.

11:03pm

Everyone in NJ is under 10 minutes on the clock. Everyone in Arizona is above 15 minutes. Yikes....

10:50pm

Match is very tight. We're looking good on 4, drawish on 1, bad on 2, and something crazy on 3. But isn't it always crazy with Mac's games??

10:39pm

Can Joel squeeze something out of this endgame? Or will it end up in a draw?

10:38pm

Dean and Joel have both left the room, looking for a refreshment. Dean is back now, looking at the other position. While his board is tough, he's given his opponent something to think about.

10:25pm

Dean is in a tough spot on Board 2. Pawns may fall soon, and he's way behind on the clock.

10:15pm

Joel was right. The Dunkin Donuts Box of Joe is good....

10:09pm

I need some coffee.

10:06pm

The room has more tension tonight than usual. Perhaps it is the fast time control. Perhaps it is the chance to make USCL history and go 6-0. Perhaps it is the fact that there are NO DONUTS.

9:53pm

On board 4, Sean Finn, in his USCL debut, is on the White side of a Sicilian. Finn is relaxed and calmly sitting at the board, looking at the compute screen.

9:44pm

On board 3, an opening that started out 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 Ne4 ... has devolved into something very off. Mac has spent a long time figuring out how to respond to 9. e5, and he has played 9...a6, after about 19 minutes of thought.

I previously said it was a London, but I clearly didn't actually look at the moves played! It was a Trompowsky, that looks like a big mess now.

9:41pm

On Board 2, Dean Ippolito is hunched over the board, completely still. He's pondering what to how to respond to Nc5. Dean opened with 1. d4, and now is contending with a lot of pressure on his pawn on e4.

9:37pm

Let's go around the horn... On Board 1, Ramirez played an Exchange Ruy, something that is apparently unusual for him (according to the kibitzers). GM Joel has used almost 25 minutes on the first 10 moves, while Ramirez has only used 2.

9:35pm

Looks like New Jersey is completely being eaten by Arizona's preparatory work. Boards 1, 2, and 3 of Arizona have only used a couple minutes each of clock time.

9:30pm

Mac's opening is very very strange to me, but what do I know? Started off as a London, now kind of looks like Beirut.

9:24pm

Ah, New Jersey.... down on the clock on every board.... :-(

9:14pm

The match has finally started on all four boards. Board 3 was slow to start due to an admin error.

5:02pm

Live blogging, live tweeting, and live webcam for tonight's match with Arizona. Follow along right here!

New Jersey Aims to Scor' Six over the 'Pions

2009-10-04T17:21:00.000-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

The New Jersey Knockouts took care of business the first five matches this season, now they go for a USCL-record six straight wins against the Arizona Scorpions, a team that needs to win to stay in the playoff battle in the Western division. In their second and final interleague match of this season, the Knockouts face the Scorpions for the first time in USCL history. As the match starts at 9:00 pm in Jersey, the time control will shortened again, to game in 60 minutes with a 30 second increment. The Knockouts lineup features Joel Benjamin, Dean Ippolito, Mackenzie Molner, and Sean Finn. The Arizona Scorpions look to get back to .500 with a lineup of Alejandro Ramirez, Rogelio Barcenilla, Daniel Rensch, and David Adelberg. The ratings are close on each board, and this will be a good test for the Knockouts if they want to have a playoff feel in the regular season, as the Scorpions will have to be in playoff mode if they want to make the playoffs.

GM Joel Benjamin faces off with Black against the young GM Alejandro Ramirez. Benjamin won last week to help win the match for the Knockouts over the Chicago Blaze. In all five matches the Knockouts have played, he has been there and has not lost one. Joel Benjamin is a real candidate for league MVP.

IM Dean Ippolito returns to action on board two against IM Regelio Barcenilla. Dean Ippolito’s performance of 2.5-0.5 in the first 3 games this season has been another great story for the Knockouts, now he returns looking to help the Knockouts earn win number six!

SM Mackenzie Molner faces off against Daniel Rensch on board three. Mackenzie Molner played his second game of the season last week and gave the Knockouts exactly what they needed to ensure a win last week, a draw, to make the score 2.5-1.5 against Chicago.

On board 4, we see the debut of Sean Finn against David Adelberg. Sean Finn is a late addition to the Knockouts and looks to try to be a factor in what has been a successful season for the Knockouts.

The match can be seen on Monday October 5 at 9:00 pm on ICC. Watch and see if the Knockouts can make history in this late night interleague matchup. The Knockouts have been good but have to play strong against a Arizona team that needs this win to make the playoffs.

The Knockouts are sponsored by the New Jersey State Chess Federation.

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Joel Benjamin's Midseason Report

2009-10-04T16:26:00.000-07:00

Midseason Report
by Joel Benjamin

After five rounds, The New Jersey Knockouts are on top at 5-0 and all is well with the world. I thought I might share a few observations on the action so far...

The New York Knights

New York’s 2.5-2,5 record is misleading. The Knights have faced a brutal schedule, including the two strongest teams in the West (Seattle and San Francisco) and the invincible Knockouts. They’re strong at the corners with Kacheishvili and Norowitz, and improved production on board two could really turn things around. But will they give HOF GM Johnny a shot? The Knights will easily make the playoffs and have as good a chance as anyone to get through to the finals.

Inventors' Team Blueprint

Philadelphia had high hopes this season with the acquisition of Alex Lenderman, but Sergey Kudrin’s stunning 0-5 has killed them. The Inventors will have to win some games on board one if they have any hopes of making a miracle comeback for the playoffs.

Cinder-lina No More

Last year Carolina was a heart-warming Cinderella story, a balanced team with a competitive first board. Losing Lev Milman, who graduated from Duke and came home to play for Queens, was a big blow. Jon Schroer is playing out of position on board one, but the real reason for their 0-5 start is lack of production on bottom. Last year Ron Simpson notched 7 ½ out of 10 on board three. This year, against much stronger opposition, he is 0-4. Mojo apparently does not transfer from one season to the next.

New Jersey's Timing

New Jersey is a consistent 4-1 on boards one, two, and three. Our kids have not scored as well so far on board four. Does this mean we are vulnerable if our higher boards are held to a standoff, or unstoppable if we win board four? In the timing is everything department: The one time we lost board three, Anna Matlin won on board four to defeat the Inventors.

San Fran Panda

Every year I think San Francisco is the best team, but they don’t seem to be that in the end. Obviously Shankland is extremely tough on three and Yian Liou has been a find for them on board four, but they need for Josh “the Panda” Friedel to scarf down some magic bamboo and get going on board one.

Dallas's Destiny

The fans were all shocked to see Dallas start so poorly after winning the league title two years running. They still have a shot at the playoffs, especially if they do not resign prematurely for the rest of the season. You certainly don’t want to count out a team that can beat a powerful Boston squad 4-0! The Destiny will battle it out with Arizona and Tennessee for the last playoff spot in the West, and I don’t know who should be the favorite to get it.

Arizona's Bloggers

The Arizona Scorpions are winning the blogging race hands down, led by Mark Ginsburg’s consistently entertaining and insightful Opening of the Week column.

Coffee

It is said that Queens’ Andrei Zaremba’s large DD iced coffee is a potent cocktail, but New Jersey’s DD Box of Joe is leading the way so far.

Game of the Week

The judging for Game of the Week has been very uneven. I think Greg Shahade and Michael Aigner are doing very good jobs, and Arun Sharma is okay as well, but Jeff Ashton and Jim Dean seems to have no clue. In week five, I couldn’t understand how Dean saw fit to give Kacheishvili no points for his stellar win over Friedel. Dean and Ashton both got it all wrong on Herman-Naroditsky (though Dean at least acknowledged that it was a good game). That was a terrific game, whether it was totally sound or not. Herman is an all out attacking player, and he’s quite right to play in that style. As to Ashton’s comments that Herman should be fined $50 for this game, I’ll say that it took me a few years to realize how good a player Shabalov is, but once I did, I lost my dogmatism.

The Adelberg win, on the other hand, was overrated. I think that was mostly because he is a young, talented, and likeable kid, but the game was completely stock. If Kasparov saw the game he would not fine Adelberg, but he would fine Zorigt.

You would think I should go easy on Ashton because he praised my games effusively, but that was actually the worst part! Only the Schroer game was worthy of points; if he had found the draw at the end it actually would have been a much better game. But giving points to my win over van de Mortel is ridiculous. In a standard position from the opening, my opponent suicided with 16…Bxc3??, forcing me into a completely winning endgame. My moves were pretty good from there, but the game was really easy. I didn’t have a single difficult decision; I could have won in several different ways. It’s not good enough for technical chess to be correct. Going from even to +- in one move means the game was not hard enough.

So let me propose judges consider “degree of difficulty.” If the loser of the game missed some opportunities, that may make the game better, not worse. If it’s a wild, insane position where the winner takes risk, credit him, don’t penalize him. If you can’t see the mistakes without a computer, it might be unfair to expect the winner to do so as well.

On the other hand, I thought Esserman-Bartell was not a very worthy winner. True, it was a weak round (probably Gulko should have won again for his game with Charbonneau, which was a hard-fought tense encounter). I didn’t think Esserman had to work at all for that win.

By the way, how about some love for Kapengut-Pasalic? That game was pretty cool. I hope I can throw patties like that when I’m Albert’s age.

The Knockouts are sponsored by the New Jersey State Chess Federation.

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Blaze Get Smoked by the Knockouts, 2.5-1.5

2009-10-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

The New Jersey Knockouts are still perfect after winning their fifth match in a row against the Chicago Blaze by a score of 2.5-1.5 in Week 5 of the US Chess League aeason. Next week, they can make US Chess League history by beating Arizona to become the first team to start 6-0. The Knockouts already have a better record than they did in either of their previous seasons, where they were 4.5-5.5.

The Knockouts are in a great position to make the playoffs as they currently can clinch the playoffs with 2 wins and a Queens Pioneers loss or draw. The New Jersey Knockouts earned their win with wins from Joel Benjamin and Albert Kapengut and a draw from Mackenzie Molner. Andrew Ng had a rough night, but went down fighting hard. The Knockouts win gives the Chicago Blaze a sense of urgency, with a 1-4 record they will need a huge second half of the season to make the playoffs.

Joel Benjamin has been clutch all season, and kept up his MVP-caliber season with a win against Jan van de Mortel at board 1 as white. With the win, Benjamin improves his regular season record to 4-1, with 3 wins and 2 draws! Benjamin has played every game for the Knockouts this season, the only player on the team to do so. Benjamin controlled the game and earned a pawn on move 30, after that Joel’s attack continued until van de Mortel resigned after move 35 when Joel played Re7+, which would win Joel the Blaze player's Knight, and therefore, the game.

Mackenzie Molner played his first game of the season did exactly what he needs to do for the Knockouts with a draw against Angelo Young in a game where he had a winning position. Molner, playing as black, had to wait 12 minutes for Young to make his first move in the game. But Young's apparent psychological warfare tactics backfired, and put Molner in a position where he could ensure a victory for the Knockouts. Once Joel Benjamin finished his game, the score was 2-1 for the Knockouts and all Molner needed to do was draw, that’s what he would do. Molner certainly had a significant advantage at the end of the game, made possible by the devastating sacrifice 25...Nb4! (DIAGRAM). Yet, Molner put the team first and was able to force the draw and win the game for the Knockouts. Most likely in any other situation, we would’ve seen a win from Molner.

Albert Kapengut gave the Knockouts a needed win on board 3, defeating Mehemed Pasalic in his first ever US Chess League game. Kapengut barely used any time early in the match, and still was on increment time with 1 hour 19 minutes left on his clock on move 18, while Pasalic only had 19:44 left! Kapengut would take his time after that while Pasalic would be in time trouble. Passed pawns won Kapengut this match as, he had his b and c pawns on the 7th rank when Pasalic resigned on move 37. Kapengut has annotated the game here.

Andrew Ng would be the Knockouts lone loss of the match against Eric Rosen. Ng would lose his rook on move 15 but made some nice opportunities in the middle game with a nice fighting counter attack, but that wasn’t enough for the US Cadet Champion, as he would lose his first game of the US Chess League season.

Next week, the New Jersey Knockouts play again Monday October 5 at 9:00 pm against the Arizona Scorpions in their second and final interleague game of the season. Arizona is currently 2-3 after drawing the Dallas Destiny and remain in a tight battle for the playoffs - they certainly need to beat Knockouts to keep hopes alive. The Knockouts can become the first US Chess League team to go 6-0, so watch Monday Night at 9:00 pm at the Internet Chess Club to find out if they can make history!

IM Kapengut Annotates his win!

2009-10-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

IM Albert Kapengut won his debut USCL game last night, and has graciously annotated it for the USCL and wider chess community. If you watched the game live, you'll remember that he gained four minutes on the clock in the first twenty moves, and if you read his annotations you will see why.

On the left is an image preview of his annotations, and you can download the PDF here.

Knockouts Preparing to Douse the Blaze

2009-09-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

The New Jersey Knockouts look to improve on their 4-0 record in their first interleague match of the season, and first match ever against the Chicago Blaze who are looking for a win to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Chicago Blaze currently have a 1-3 record and are tied for last place in the Western Division. The New Jersey Knockouts currently lead the Eastern Division, a game up on the second place Boston Blitz, whose only loss came when they were brutally obliterated by the Dallas Destiny -- a team that is tied for last place in the West with the Blaze.

This game will be played at 8:00 PM Eastern Time, with a faster time control of 75 minutes plus a 30 second increment, instead of the more usual 90 minutes plus a 30 second increment. The New Jersey Knockouts have white at boards one and three and black at boards two and four. The Knockouts lineup of Joel Benjamin, Mac Molner, Albert Kapengut, and Andrew Ng will be going against the Blaze lineup of Jan van de Mortel, Angelo Young, Mehemed Pasalic, and Eric Rosen. While Benjamin and Molner have both played games this season, this will be the first games for Albert Kapengut and Andrew Ng.

For the fifth consecutive match, we will see Joel Benjamin on board 1, whose season record has been an impressive 3.0/4.0, with two wins and two draws. Benjamin’s points all have helped the Knockouts achieve their four wins this year. This season shows why it’s important to have a player such as Joel Benjamin on a team. His draws in weeks one and four allowed the Knockouts to defeat the New York Knights 2.5-1.5. Benjamin’s two wins in weeks two and three also were the difference makers as the wins helped decide both matches. Certainly this season Benjamin has been "Captain Clutch" for the Knockouts!

Last year, teams needed five points to make the playoffs in the East, while in the West 4.5 and a tiebreaker was good enough. Last season, the Knockouts only managed 4.5 and missed to playoffs by the smallest of margins. A win in Wednesday game’s would give them five points. Currently the Knockouts magic number to clinch a spot in the playoffs is 3.5. A loss or draw by either Queens or New York would also lower lower the Knockouts' magic number. The battle for fourth place and the final playoff spot in the East is currently being contended between the New York Knights and Queens Pioneers -- should this keep up, we will have a nice "battle of the boroughs" going down the stretch.

Let's check out the matchups, board by board.

As stated above, the Knockouts will have GM Joel Benjamin (2641) playing as white at board 1 against IM Jam de Mortel (2456). Last week, Benjamin wrote a great article about last week’s match where he went over his game, discussed Boris Gulko, and mentioned that he feels that the Knockouts will get the job done against the Blaze. Certainly on this board Benjamin should be expected to pull through with a win. Joel’s opponent, Jan van de Mortel, has a season record of 0.5-1.5 in the two games he has played.

Mackenzie Molner (2446) will be playing his second game for the Knockouts this season on board two, with the black pieces against IM Angelo Young (2325). Molner will be expected to put up a great result on board two, he started his season for the Knockouts by thrashing the Knights' Matt Herman on board three, a win that helped the Knockouts earn their fourth win. Molner’s opponent, Angelo Young, is not slouch, having a fantastic USCL season with a 3-0 record for the Blaze.

IM Albert Kapengut (2379) will be facing off as white on board 3 against IM Mehemed Pasalic (2346). This is Kapengut’s first game in the USCL. It should be a very exciting and important game for Kapengut, who is no newcomer to chess, winning the Belarus Chess Championship seven times. Aside from playing, Kapengut has been a very successful chess teacher and coach -- one of the best players he has taught is Chicago Blaze’s top player Yury Shulman. For Chicago, Mehmed Pasalic will be playing his fourth game of the year, and has a record of 1-2 this season.

Playing as black on the Knockouts' board four is Andrew Ng (2182) against Chicago's Eric Rosen (2164.) Andrew Ng is having a great year in his chess career, winning the US Chess Cadet Championship over teammate Victor Shen last summer with a record of 5.5-1.5 with 4 wins, 3 draws, and no losses. This game will be Andrew Ng’s first game for the Knockouts this season and fourth game in his USCL career. Last season, Andrew Ng went 1.5-1.5, with 1 win, 1 loss, and 1 draw, the a win occurring in his first game against Elvin Wilson of the Philadelphia Inventors in a 3-1 win for the Knockouts. This game will be the US Chess League debut for Eric Rosen.

This matchup between the New Jersey Knockouts and Chicago Blaze can be seen on the Internet Chess Club (ICC) on Wednesday September 30th at 8:00 PM on the Internet Chess Club (ICC.) The games should be exciting as the Knockouts fight to stay at the top and the Blaze fight to try to stay alive in the West.

The Knockouts are sponsored by the New Jersey State Chess Federation.

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A Geld Medal Performance (by Joel Benjamin)

2009-09-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

by Joel Benjamin

Payback is sweet.

To paraphrase my good friend HOF GM Johnny (who the NY Knights have not let out of the stable yet), I have nothing against the Knights; I just hate them. It has already been pointed out that Giorgi Kacheishvili is a gentleman of the highest order, and the same is certainly true about Pascal Charbonneau. [Perhaps not true about Fed, but I like him anyway.] But really, after they quashed our playoff plans two years in a row, it is intensely satisfying to sweep them this year. [Good thing we got them early this season. Apparently the Gothamites don’t wake up until about round six.]

With limited time for blogging due to all my teaching, writing and daddying responsibilities, I usually focus on my own game of the match. But I don’t really want to say too much about my game with Kacheishvili.

It seems Giorgi didn’t pay much attention to the thrashing his countryman Mchedlishvili (I’m glad I just have to write that and not pronounce it) suffered at the hands of Nigel Short and didn’t prepare for 2.Ne2 in the Caro-Kann. I was handed a winning position on a silver platter, a pawn up for absolutely nothing. The only problem was choosing between a vast array of delicacies, which for some reason is difficult for me.

I think I did okay until move 18, when Bxf7+ would have led to an easily winning position, or even better, 18.Rxf7!. I was actually quite proud of 18.Bc2, thinking that Black had no chance to survive my kingside attack, but I overlooked some nuances (21…Bxc3 for starters) and soon I wasn’t winning anymore. I probably had some way to at least maintain an edge, but when you get in bad time pressure (for no particular reason) you can’t expect to find subtleties. Shortly before the end Giorgi tendered a pretty reasonable draw offer which I didn’t even notice until after I moved. We headed into that direction anyway, with an unusual perpetual check.

[I think Giorgi and I had only played once despite competing in several tournaments together for many years. Now we’ve played three times in one month!]

This is what I really want to talk about. Boris...Gulko. I want to put an adjective in the middle of his name, one with a few asterisks followed by a gerund. Anybody read the King’s Gambit by Paul Hoffman? Remember the nickname he mentioned for Rustam Kasimdzhanov? Well, that’s what I want to call Boris. After beating Pascal in an awesome game, Bo is now 5-0 for the Knockouts. It’s true that four of those games were whites, and he hasn’t had to play on board one, but his opposition hasn’t been too shabby and he’s won most of those games easily. This one certainly wasn’t easy. Pascal missed a kibitzer-pleasing miracle draw late in the game...

Instead of 55.Nf5, 55.Nd5!! forces Black to acquiesce to a stalemate.

But still, Boris was winning a move earlier with 54…Nf2 (instead of 54…Ke6). And the way Boris constructed a mating attack with so few pieces was impressive.

When Boris and I did a photo shoot for a local magazine last summer, I decided to ask him to join the Knockouts. I didn’t know what to expect; would he feel invested in the team, would he thrive in the Internet milieu? I figured we had nothing to lose with a player of his caliber, but I have to admit, I did not expect total domination.

Boris is so awesome, he’s really awe-a lot. I think he deserves a cool nickname. As the one who dubbed Alex Yermolinsky “the Yerminator,” I think I’m the right man for the job. Boris arrives for each game wearing the traditional head covering for Orthodox Jewish males. Therefore, he is “the Yarminator.” All bow before his awesome power.

Anna Matlin played a nice game against Norowitz, but like our first board, took way too much time on her moves. Matt Herman seems to be a player that thrives in wild, complicated positions, but he played a stronger version of himself. You just don’t get into a street fight with Molner, or you wind up the victim of a Big Mac Attack.

Next week we try for 5-0, staying up late for the Chicago Blaze. I’m not much for trash talking, but I believe we will get the job done, even if we have to face a lineup of four Ditkas.

K vs K, USCL Style: Knockouts Win Again!

2009-09-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

Forget Valencia.... The real K versus K battle took place last night in the fourth week of the United States Chess League, where the New Jersey Knockouts defeated the New York Knights a the second time this season for their fourth consecutive win. The Knockouts remain the only undefeated, untied team this year, improving their record to an impressive 4-0. With the win, the Knockouts hold a one game lead in the Eastern division over the Boston Blitz, who are 3-1. The Knockouts got wins from Boris Gulko and Mackenzie Molner, while Joel Benjamin scored a draw. The win also kept the New York Knights on the playoff bubble, and if the playoffs were to begin today, we would see a third matchup between the first place Knockouts and fourth-place Knights.

The match between these Hudson River rivals wasn’t the only major chess event today. Earlier, old rivals Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov faced off in Valencia, Spain. Not many chess players have beaten Kasparov, but one of the heroes of yesterday's USCL match, Boris Gulko, has beaten both of them, including a win over then World Champion Kasparov at Linares, 1990 (click here for the game).

The match was highlighted by a number of missed opportunities by both teams.

On board 1, Joel Benjamin has the white pieces, and managed to draw Giorgi Kacheishvili, giving him an impressive season record of 3-1. Benjamin was winning for much of the game, and 18.Rxf7! would have sealed the deal. However, he was unable to hold the win when he ran into time trouble. The game eventually was drawn by repetition on move 41. The draw was good enough for the Knockouts, as they would get their two wins they needed on the middle two boards.

On board 2, Boris Gulko played as black, and defeated Pascal Charbonneau to improve his career USCL record to 5-0. Gulko managed to gain a winning advantage on move 47 when he had a beautiful mating attack working for him that allowed him to win a bishop. In a wild turn of events on move Gulko's 54...Ke6? would have given a clear draw to Charbonneau, had he played the beautiful stalemate trick played 55. Nd5, but instead the knight went to f5, giving the game back to Gulko. They would play on until move 60 where Charbonneau finally resigned. This is Charbonneau's second loss this year against the Knockouts.

On board 3, Mackenzie Molner made his 2009 USCL debut as white and defeated Matt Herman in a wild tactical melee. It looked as Molner would easily win the match when Molner won the exchange on move 12, however things evened up on move 21 when he castled kingside on and gave away a bishop. After some more exchanges Molner missed a mate in three, but skewered Herman’s rook, which still gave Molner a clear advantage. Herman would resign on move 33.

On board 4, Anna Matlin played as black and lost to Yaacov Norowitz, who was over 300 points higher than her. Norowitz played the Stonewall formation, something that he recently lectured at the Kenilworth Chess Club. The Stonewall is something many can see when he blitzes on ICC. The game was pretty much even, as Matlin put up a strong fight against her higher rated opponent, until move 34 when she played e3, losing a pawn and that was enough for Norowitz to win the game. Still, a strong showing by Matlin who won upset of the week a few games ago.

The next game is Wednesday September 30, when the Knockouts face the Chicago Blaze at 8:00 pm in their first interleague game this season. As always the games can be watched on the Internet Chess Club. The Chicago Blaze is currently 1-3 in the Western Division. Other games of interest include Monday’s matchup which features the second place Boston Blitz who are battling the Knockouts for first place in the East, and the Baltimore Kingfishers who need the win to keep ahead of the New York Knights and Queens Pioneers, who play Wednesday. The New York Knights likely are better than what their record indicates.

Live Tweeting and Webcam Tonight

2009-09-23T13:01:00.000-07:00

I am going to be Live Tweeting the match tonight. Join the NJ Knockouts on Twitter at...

Tweets: http://www.twitter.com/njknockouts

Also, there will be a live webcam tonight as well. Watch it at...

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

We hope to see you there!

Knockouts to Beat Dead Horse

2009-09-20T20:45:00.000-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo and Robert N. Bernard

In Week 1 of the USCL, the New York Knights put together the lineup of Kacheishvili, Charbonneau, Herman, and Norowitz, against the New Jersey Knockouts, and were defeated. They have elected to resurrect that dead horse and use that same losing lineup against the Knockouts in this week's rematch of that first week encounter. As New Jersey resident Yogi Berra might say, "It's deja vu all over again."

The first place New Jersey Knockouts will try to maintain their perfect record against a team they have already beaten the New York Knights. This matchup will have a major impact on how the second half of the season will flow, as a Knockouts' win will place them in a nice spot to clinch a playoff berth and keep the Knights in the bottom half of the standings. A Knights' win will put them half a game behind first place, setting up for a close battle in the second half of the season for the top of the division, and a possible rematch in the playoffs.

The Knights finally won their first match week when they defeated the Queens Pioneers 3.5-0.5. While the Horsies are using the same lineup, only Joel Benjamin returns for the Knockouts, playing first board. Boris Gulko, Mackenzie Molner, and Anna Matlin round out the remainder of the lineup for the Knockouts. Boris Gulko had an exciting debut in his first game of the season last week, winning a well deserved game of the week.

Playing as white on board 1 is GM Joel Benjamin (2641) against GM Giorgi Kacheishvili (2666). In week 1, they drew their game when Kacheishvili played as white. Joel Benjamin has put up an amazing performance for the Knockouts posting 2.5 points in 3 games. Joel Benjamin won his second game of the season last week against Johnathan Schroer of the Carolina Cobras, and those on ICC can see him review his game on ICC with his ICC Game of the Week radio show.

Playing as black on board 2 is GM Boris Gulko (2609) who will be facing GM Pascal Charbonneau (2560). Boris Gulko looks to remain undefeated in his US Chess League Career, with his all time record now standing at 4-0. Boris Gulko won the USCL Game of the Week prize last week with unbelievable play against Oleg Zaikov of the Carolina Cobras.

Playing his first game of the season as white on board 3 is Mackenzie Molner (2446) against Herman (2275). Molner had 5 points in 8 games last season and has previously played for the New York Knights in 2006, a year before the Knockouts inaugural season.

Playing as black on board 4 is Anna Matlin (2003) who is facing famous ICC blitzer Yaacov Norowitz (2354). Anna Maitlin was heroic in her first game for the Knockouts, defeating Rahul Swaminathan of Philadelphia on board 4 to deliver the win for the Knockouts as well as taking home Endgame Clothing's upset of the week award. A win or draw for Matlin will most likely win her upset of the week again, as Norowitz is 351 rating points over her. Placing Norowitz on board 4 was an interesting roster choice for the Knights, as he is 79 points higher than board 3, Matt Herman.

This exciting rematch be seen this Wednesday September 23 at 7:00 PM on ICC. With both teams fielding 2 GMs expect 2 close games on the top boards as well as the future of New Jersey chess in Molner and Matlin! And if you can’t get enough chess, there are four other USCL matchups that night for you to enjoy!

The Knockouts are sponsored by the New Jersey State Chess Federation.

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New Jersey Kicks Carolina's Asp!

2009-09-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

The New Jersey Knockouts take first place in the Eastern Division of the United States Chess League after defeating the Carolina Cobras 3-1 with exciting wins by Joel Benjamin, Boris Gulko, and Dean Ippolito. Arthur Shen had a solid game until losing the thread when in time trouble. The win propels Knockouts' record to 3-0, taking sole first place when the Boston Blitz were swept by the Dallas Destiny 0-4, in a new Boston Massacre. The win also drops the defending division champion Carolina Cobras to 0-3, leaving them in the cellar of the East. The highlight of the match was Boris Gulko’s first game the season, which will definitely be a top nominee for game of the week and definitely deserves its own article. The Knockouts look to go an amazing 4-0 when they play the New York Knights in a rematch of the season opener which saw the Knockouts' amazing start to the season.

Due to technical problems with a server creating a beeping noise in the computer room in which they normally play, the games were moved to another room, which wasn’t a problem at all for the Knockouts as they never suffered any disconnections. Unfortunately for the Cobras, they had 3 disconnects at 3 different boards with Benjamin, Ippolito, and Shen, with each player getting an added 2 minutes to their games. Joel Benjamin also got an additional 2 minutes when a Schroer sent Benjamin a draw offer early in their game.

Joel Benjamin’s game was the last one to finish and the one that decided the match. Joel Benjamin’s win against IM Jonathan Schroer gave him a season record of 2.5 out of 3, which is something a great board 1 player can do. The game was close until Jonathan Schroer played 26. Qg2 this allowed Benjamin to win a crucial pawn. Benjamin took that advantage and fought hard in the end game, where his two passed pawns in the center were too much for Schroer.

Boris Gulko’s game against FM Oleg Zaikov was nothing short of legendary. Playing as white in his first game of the year, he would make moves many ordinary players would never conceive. On move 27 he would sacrifice the exchange for a pawn. Move 30, he traded his queen for two rook. On move 32, the game was materially rather unbalanced; Gulko had two bishops, a rook, and five pawns against Zaikov's queen, knight, and four pawns, and had a winning position! Not only that he had 44 minutes while Zaikov had 8 minutes. Zaikov played hopelessly as his queen could not do anything to stop Gulko’s beautiful combination. On move 42, Zaikov resigned, as the only way to save his king would be to play Kg7 which loses his queen after Bc4+. Calling it game of the week would be an understatement. Gulko was serene the entire game, seeming to be able to see these moves quickly, while Zaikov had to use most of his time to be outmatched by Gulko's legendary play.

Dean Ippolito has had a great start to the season and has no signs of slowing down. Dean Ippolito defeated FM Ron Simpson at board 3 as black, improving to an impressive record of 2.5 out of 3 games! Ippolito would gain control of the game early and never look back, winning an exchange at move 18. Following the principles of trading when having a lead in material, Dean Ippolito traded queens right away on the next move and didn’t look back. Just as things looked to be shifting towards Simpson’s favor, he played 32 Kb3? Which Ippolito responded with d5, with Simpson being unable to capture the pawn because of two major pins, the b4 pawn (covering the King) and the Bishop at d4 (covering the Rook,) this would win Ippolito the bishop and force a trade of rooks. The final blow was when Ippolito promoted his h pawn to queen, as Simpson would be unable to promote any of his pawns without preventing mate. Simpson resigned after move 44 with a mating combination that Simpson could not prevent.

In his second USCL game, Arthur Shen came up short again against Craig Jones. However Shen played solidly for most of the game. Late in the game Shen had slightly worse, but tenable position, but he would face time trouble and lose give up queen with less than a minute on his clock. Despite losing, the young Arthur Shen showed that he can become a competitive player in the USCL and he will certainly have a bright chess career.

The New Jersey Knockouts return to action Wednesday September 23 at 7:00 pm on ICC when they take on the New York Knights in a rematch of the first week's action. They continue their quest to win their first four matches and just as important, take away points from their division rivals who would love to take down the top team in the East.

The Knockouts are sponsored by the New Jersey State Chess Federation.

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Live Blogging: Week 3 vs. Carolina

2009-09-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

10:54

Joel Benjamin wins it at board 1! The win improves the Knockouts record to 3-0 and Benjamin's record to 2.5 out of 3. Next match is next Wednesday September 23 as they rematch against the New York Knights with hopes of the season sweep.

10:52

Arthur Shen resigns on board 4 after a tough battle. Its all up to Joel Benjamin now.

10:51

Benjamin is tense as he looks to finish the match with a win.

10:48

In time trouble, Arthur Shen loses his queen for a rook on move 35.

10:45

Joel Benjamin looks to finish off Schroer at board 1. Both have atleast 3 minutes of time.
Arthur Shen and Jones are in a close battle with both in time trouble.

10:43

Its up to Joel Benjamin and Arthur Shen, should either one win or draw, the Knockouts will be 3-0 for the season! The webcam now focuses on Benjamin and Shen, watch them battle it out at http://www.blogtv.com/People/bioniclime

10:40

NJ 2-0 Dean Ippolito defeated Ron Simpson on board 2. Ippolito's win improves his record to an impressive 2.5 out of 3 games, the win also ensures that the Knockouts are undefeated after 3 games! The Knockouts need at least a draw to win the match.

10:38

Ippolito has promotes his pawn to queen on move 43!

10:37

Joel Benjamin flinched as Schroer played Kg2.

10:34

Ippolito moves his pawn to h2, that pawn will be a queen really soon.

10:32

Ippolito moves rook to a7 to block Simpson's "a" pawn.

10:31

Ippolito moves his h pawn to h4, knowing that pawn can not be stopped!

10:30

Getting close to the end here, the player's times looks like this.
On board 1 Joel Benjamin has 3:18 left against Schroer's 8:21
Boris Gulko defeated Zaikov on board 2 giving NJ a score of 1-0
On board 3 Dean Ippolito has 11:34 left against Simpson's 8:00
On board 4 Arthur Shen has 4:40 vs Jones 11:37

10:26

Ippolito and Simpson trade rooks, leaving Ippolito with a Rook and 4 pawns vs 5 pawns. Things looking good for Ippolito.

10:23

On move 32 Simpson plays Kb3? allowing Ippolito to play c5! taking advantage of the pinned bishop and pinned b4 pawn! Ippolito would win the bishop on d4 and has the game under control!

10:21

Joel Benjamin make a bold move on move 24, playing fxe4.

10:17

Game between Ippolito and Simpson appears to be getting more closer than Ippolito wanted.

10:13

Gulko wins his game on board 2 with a Zaikov resigning. Gulko seemed really excited about his nice win, which certainly is one of the most exciting matches this season. 1-0 NJ

10:09

Gulko uses time to his huge time advantage on move 40 with hopes to find a winning combination.

10:01

3 hours in and no game has been determined yet. Ippolito holds a lead against Simpson, while Gulko is playing one of the most exciting games of the night.

9:55

Gulko's game is getting very interesting, on the board and on the clock. Gulko has an enormous time advantage of 43 minutes against 3:44 as well as a nice bishop pair.

9:49

Ippolito and Simpson trade queens. Things look good for Ippolito.

9:40

Boris Gulko trades his queen for 2 rooks!

9:36

On board 4 for Carolina has disconnected, giving Arthur Shen an extra 2 minutes
Zaikov down to 8 minutes against Gulko's 51

9:30

2 hour 30 minutes into the match and the Knockouts up on time big on the top 3 boards. Gulko has the biggest lead in time, having 51 minutes against Zuikov's 14 minutes.

9:24

Arthur Shen plays Nc5 on move 20, forking the queen and bishop of Jones.
Gulko responds to 28.....Qe6 with 29.Qxb7

9:18

Carolina disconnected on boards 1 and 3, Benjamin and Ippolito both receive an extra 2 minutes.

9:14

Everyone takes a look at Gulko's game, while Gulko may be down the exchange he has a manageable position as well as some nice opportunities on the board if Zaikov isn't careful.

9:12

In a comfortable position, Dean Ippolito has Simpson's knight pinned at e7 after making Re8 at move 17.

9:07

Boris Gulko sacrifices the exchange against Zaikov on move 27.

9:01

The NJ Knockouts cam now focuses on GM Boris Gulko as he plans his 27th move. Also in sight is Dean Ippolito. Angle will change at 9:30
http://www.blogtv.com/People/bioniclime

8:57

Ippolito looks like he was in deep thought as he makes the move Nxd4

8:55

Very quiet and composed room right now, Gulko and Ippolito both are on their move right now.

8:50

After making his 18th move Arthur Shen gets up and walks around. Also standing is Joel Benjamin

8:44

Here is some information on moves made and time remaining for each player
17 moves in Joel Benjamin has 52 minutes while Schroer has 47
23 moves in Boris Gulko has 66 minutes while Zaikov has 38
14 moves in Dean Ippolito has 48 minutes while Simpson has 47
17 moves in Arthur Shen has 49 minutes while Jones has 49 as well

Unusual, since the Knockouts tend to be behind on time.

8:40

No players standing up right now as all of them on the clock.

8:33

Live NJ webcam shows one of our spectators, an iguana!
http://www.blogtv.com/People/bioniclime

8:28

Boris Gulko appears to be relaxed while playing. After thinking about his move for 7 minutes he plays 20. e4 and responds to Ne7 with 21. d4 in 6 seconds.

8:23

After 26 minutes, Dean Ippolito has decided to play Bxg4 gaining a pawn and gets up from his seat as he waits for Simpson's next move.

8:20

The computer room where they normally play chess has been known to be freezing cold, today's game had to be played in a different room and has not been anything close to freezing.

8:17

Dean Ippolito has been deciding his 13th move for quite a while, he's been thinking his next move for about 20 minutes and hasn't gotten up from his seat as he thinks his move.

8:14

Joel Benjamin makes his move a5 and gets up to walk around.

8:06

Rob Bernard performs an amazing act of stuffing 5 donuts into his mouth on web cam. Of course the Knockout players don't notice as they are concentrating on their games closely.

7:58

While Joel, Dean, and Arthur have gotten up to walk around while playing Boris Gulko has been sitting the entire time. He looks determined to win this match.

7:56

Dean Ippolito took a good look at the board before playing Be6.

7:51

The Knockouts are playing in a other than the room the normally play in. Unfortunately, the server in the room they play in wouldn't stop beeping creating a room unsuitable for chess. Fortunately the room they're in now is perfect to play in.

7:45

Fans can view the New Jersey Knockouts live via webcam! Just visit http://www.blogtv.com/People/bioniclime

7:37

On board 1, Joel Benjamin has played the Kings Indian Defense vs Schroer.
Board 2, Boris Gulko decided to play the English Opening
On board 3, Dean Ippolito has elected to play the Petrov's Defense against Simpson
Finally on board 4, we see Arthur Shen has faced the French Defense

7:14pm

Games all just started and Jonathan Schroer sent a draw offer, this might have been a mouseslip, who knows?

4:48pm

Live blogging tonight from the New Jersey Knockouts' match against Carolina! Stay tuned!

PREVIEW: Knockouts to Charm Cobras Monday

2009-09-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

If the New Jersey Knockouts want to go to 3-0, they will have to make life miserable for the 0-2 Carolina Cobras. The Knockouts appear to really want to go 3 for 3, with the Knockouts out-rating the Cobras significantly on the top 3 boards. The exciting lineup for the Knockouts has 2 GMs, the always dangerous Joel Benjamin and the legendary Boris Gulko at board two. If that isn’t enough, we get to see the NJ State Champion Dean Ippolito on the third board! Finally, young and upcoming star for the Knockouts Arthur Shen will be playing on board 4.

Certainly the Knockouts want this match - the playoffs may not be enough for them - they definitely want more. Certainly, they won’t be completely satisfied until they win the United States Chess League Championship. Looking at the playoff picture, last year the Knockouts would have needed 5 points to make the playoff, they had 4.5 and failed. This year, having 3 wins in the first 3 games would give them 7 games to get only 2 more, which is something they easily can achieve.

On board 1 we have GM Joel Benjamin as black facing off against IM Jonathan Schroer. Joel Benjamin has been great for the Knockouts, winning on board 1 last week against GM Sergey Kudrin. Benjamin is worried about being considered the favorites for every game, but this is a game where if everyone gets the job done, the Knockouts will be 3-0.

On board 2 we have the legendary GM Boris Gulko as white facing off against FM Oleg Zaikov. This is Boris Gulko’s first game of the season. Last year he had three wins in three games. With such a rating difference between Zaikov and Gulko, look for Gulko to do what the Knockouts need him to do.

On board 3, we have IM Dean Ippolito as black facing off against FM Ron Simpson. Ippolito has been solid this year, with 1 win and 1 draw. A player like Dean Ippolito at board 3 is never a good thing for an opponent, and ratings suggest Ippolito may be too much for Simpson.

On board 4, we have Arthur Shen, as white, facing off against NM Craig Jones. This is the second match for the young Shen, who looks for his first win in the USCL. This is the only board where the Cobras have a rating advantage, but the young Shen is ready for the challenge.

The game is on Monday September 14 at 7:00 pm on ICC as always. Be there to see if the Knockouts can do what they should do, win their third match of the year.

The Knockouts are sponsored by the New Jersey State Chess Federation.

Follow the Knockouts on Twitter!

Become a fan of the Knockouts on Facebook!

Inventing a Path To Victory

2009-09-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

by Joel Benjamin

The Knockouts win again! It sure didn’t look that way for a long time. Dean, after getting a very good opening, found himself in a potentially desperate situation before holding the balance with some nimble bishop maneuvers. Aviv had a terrific opening as well, but hallucinated once to lose a pawn, and a second time in what looked to be a drawn rook ending. Anna actually had the best winning chances for a good while, but her position looked only even until she took control of the d-file and the game. And finally, there was a bit of thievery off Route 23.

Joel Benjamin -Sergey Kudrin [B52]

USCL (2), 08.09.2009

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Nxd7 5.0–0 e6

Until this game I wondered why Sergey always did this in

stead of the more obvious 5…Ngf6.

6.c4 Be7 7.Nc3 a6 8.d3 Rc8

He’s trying to deter the typical kingside attacking plan after 8…Ngf6 9. Ng5 h6 10.Nh3 0-0 11.f4. To that end, the best way to wait might be 9.Be3.

9.b3 Bf6 10.Bb2

Originally I planned 10.d4 cxd4 11.Nxd4, intending to meet 11…b5 with 12.Ndxb5!? axb5 13.Nxb5. Alas, after 13…Rc6 DIAGRAM, I just didn’t see enough compensation for the piece.

It can be a bit embarrassing to sack all your pieces and resign in a team event. Unfortunately, the bishop doesn’t really belong on b2, where it can create pin opportunities for Black.

10...Ne7 11.d4 cxd4 12.Nxd4 0–0 13.Qd2 Nc5 14.Rad1

I didn’t agonize over whether I should prevent d6-d5, because I didn’t notice the possibility until after I made this quick move.

14…d5

Grrr. Now I have to start calculating already.

15.exd5 exd5 16.Qe2

I thought 16.b4 Ne6 (16...Ne4 is playable, but perhaps weaker) 17.Nxe6 fxe6 18.cxd5 exd5 would be about equal, and I wanted more.

16...Qd7

I didn’t see this move at all. I calculated 16...dxc4 17.Ne6 Nxe6 18.Rxd8 Rfxd8 19.bxc4 Nd4 and then I move my queen somewhere and play 20.Ne4—I can only be better in that position. Also 16...Re8 17.Qf3 dxc4 18.Nf5 Qc7 (18...Nd3 19.bxc4) 19.Nd6 is better for me.

17.Nc2?!

17.Nf3 was a safer choice, as after Qe6 18.Qxe6 Nxe6 I can simply play 19.cxd5. I had visions of this knight coming to e3 and doing damage, but… 17...Qe6!

Ouch. For some reason, I can never predict what Sergey is going to do. If 18.Qxe6 Nxe6 I’m a pin cushion. And 18.Ne3 d4 19.Ncd5 dxe3 20.Nxf6+ gxf6 21.fxe3 Ne4 just loses a piece for nothing. 18.Qf3 dxc4 19.Rfe1 Qf5 is also bad. I think I found the best move.

18.Rfe1 Qxe2 19.Rxe2 dxc4 20.bxc4 Rfd8 21.Rxd8+ Rxd8 22.g3

Black has an optical advantage because my pawns are split, but b7 can be attacked, too. Still, it’s hard to see at this point how Black can lose.

22…Nc6 23.Ba3 Bxc3 24.Bxc5 f6 25.Ne3

25…Rd2?!

It doesn’t appear that Black has done anything wrong until this move, but there are a lot of better moves. 25…Nd4 26.Bxd4 Rxd4 27.Nd5 is dead equal. Black can probably still press a bit with 25…Ne5. Kudrin may have been simplifying in view of the match situation, which probably looked good for them at that moment. But it only makes White’s position easier.

26.Rxd2 Bxd2 27.Nf5

Now 1-0 at least becomes a realistic possibility. Still something like 27…Bb4 looked like a sure draw to me.

27…b5??

Within a minute or so I realized that this move is so bad White may already be winning. I don’t think the endgame is Sergey’s specialty, but I feel his pain. A few days earlier I took a superior bishop v. knight endgame against Jay Bonin and butchered in so badly on the way to making the time control that I was immediately lost. I resolved to learn from my mistakes and channel my inner Bonin.

28.cxb5 axb5 29.Nd6 b4

29...Bb4 30.Bxb4 Nxb4 31.a3 simply costs Black a pawn, so now I have a juicy target to go for.

30.Kf1 Bc3 31.Nb5 Ba1 32.Ke2

I considered 32.f4 Kf7 33.Ke2 ( 33.f5!?) Ke6 34.Kd3 Kd5? 35.Bf8 g5 36.Nc7 and checkmate, grandmaster! But 34…Kf5 didn’t seem so easy, so I decided to Keep It Simple, Stupid.

32...Kf7 33.Kd3 Ke6 34.Kc4 Ne5+ 35.Kxb4 Kd5 36.Be3 Ng4 37.h3

It didn’t occur to me at the time, but I guess 37.a4 is even simpler, because the a-pawn should queen if he grabs my a-pawn.

37...Nxe3 38.fxe3 Be5

There’s no time to penetrate: 38...Ke4 39.a4 Be5 40.a5 Bxg3 41.a6 Bb8 42.Kc5 and a new girl is on her way.

39.Nc3+

Get back!

39…Kc6 40.g4 g6 41.e4

No pawn trades, please.

41…Bd4 42.Kc4 Be5 43.Nb5 Bg3 44.a3!?

I wanted to see where he would put his bishop. Black has a good plan to draw this game: Run the king over to grab/trade pawns and sac the bishop for my a-pawn. The problem is, I’ll never let him give up the bishop for the pawn!

44…Bf2 45.Nd4+ Kd6 46.Nf3 Kc6 47.a4 Bb6 48.Ne1

I’m starting to see why Bonin likes those knights so much.

48…Bc7 49.Nd3 Bd8 50.Nc5 Bb6 51.Ne6 h5 52.gxh5 gxh5 53.Ng7 Kd6 53...h4 54.Nf5 Bf2 55.a5 Black has to let my king come to b5 due to Zugswang.

54.Kb5! Bf2 55.Nxh5 Ke5 56.a5 Bd4 57.a6 f5

Or 57...Kxe4 58.Nxf6+!

58.exf5 Kxf5 59.Ng3+ Ke6 60.Kc6 1–0

I have just one request for all the prognosticators. Please pick Carolina to win 3-1! So far that has been our good luck charm. Don’t anybody say we’re going to win next week. We like being the underdogs.

Knockouts Patently Infringe Inventors, 2.5 - 1.5

2009-09-09T18:37:00.001-07:00

by Robert N. Bernard and Joseph Criscuolo

In the computer room of the Chapel Hill Academy in Lincoln Park, New Jersey (photo, right), the New Jersey Knockouts took down the Philadelphia Inventors Tuesday night by a score of 2.5-1.5 with wins coming from captain Joel Benjamin and upcoming star Anna Matlin. Dean Ippolito drew his game at board two. The win puts the Knockouts on top of the East with a 2-0 record, while putting the inventors at the bottom, looking up, with a 0-2 record. The Knockouts look to go 3-0 next Monday when they face the defending Eastern division champion Carolina Cobras in week three of US Chess League action.

The match started strangely, with Phildelphia's manager Alex Lenderman foregoing his advantage of the first move, by playing 1. a3 (photo, left, taken a few moves later). New Jersey's board two, IM Dean Ippolito had just won the New Jersey state championship the night before, calmly won a pawn, but then got into somewhat uncomfortable position, despite the material advantage. With Ippolito's time running down, Lenderman quixotically offered a draw, which Ippolito declined, but then made an offer, which, after a few minutes thought, Lenderman accepted. The draw gives Ippolito a season record of 1.5-0.5 in two games.

New Jersey's alternate Aviv Friedman, scraped off the rust, and began his season for the Knockouts with a loss on board three against Tom Bartell, who had tied with Ippolito in the New Jersey state championship the previous day. Friedman would battle on to the very end, resigning after move 60 after being unable to promote a pawn before Bartell did (see photo below, clockwise from top, Friedman, Ippolito, Matlin).

The score was then 1.5 - 0.5 in favor of the Inventors. But, the tides would soon turn.

Fourth board, and USCL and New Jersey rookie Anna Matlin would prove to be the difference maker in this match. Playing the first USCL game in her promising chess career, she would defeat Rahul Swaminathan. Matlin played a Sicilian Kan and was in a tough position after the opening, having to concede that her dark-squared bishop was badly placed, as Swaminathan enjoyed a confortable space advantage. Matlin ground hard in the middle game, eventually winning the pawn she needed in the endgame on move 34. She exchanged into a won king-and-pawn endgame, with Swaminathan resigning after move 50. This game would prove why a team needs to be good on all boards!

The match was then tied 1.5 to 1.5. It was all up to the veteran captain Benjamin.

Benjamin and Kudrin played a tight game (photo, right). The spectators on the Internet Chess Club were commented that one slight misstep on either side would cost the game. The game was equal in material until Benjamin gained the pawn he needed on move 35. Benjamin would win another pawn in the endgame. On move 60, with his pawns on the a-file and h-file, and a knight against Kudrin's lonely bishop, Kudrin realized that his time was up and resigned. Thus, the match was clinched for New Jersey.

After the match, Benjamin proclaimed that the Knockouts resilient and tenacious play carried the day, as only Matlin had decent winning chances for the majority of the match. The Knockouts were all smiles after the match (see photo below, left to right, Aviv Friedman, Anna Matlin, Joel Benjamin, Dean Ippolito).

The Knockouts take on the Carolina Cobras Monday September 14 at 7:00 pm on ICC. Going 3-0 would be big for them, as a strong start can help the Knockouts cause of solidifying their first playoff bid. Last year the Cobras defeated the Knockouts in week 8, a loss that would cost them the season. The Knockouts look to avenge that defeat in what should be an exciting matchup!

Week 2 Preview: Knockouts to Steal Inventors' Intellectual Property

2009-09-07T17:30:00.000-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo and Robert N. Bernard

In week two, the New Jersey Knockouts look to floor the Philadelphia Inventors in what should be an exciting matchup, this Tuesday, September 8th, at 7:00 pm. The Knockouts began their season on the right foot, defeating the New York Knights 2.5 to 1.5. The Philadelphia Inventors, on the other hand, started with a defeat by the Tennessee Tempo by an indentical score, and hope not to go to 0-2 this week. Now, the battle of New Jersey vs. Philadelphia is in gear, with the all-New Jersey studded lineup going against the team apparently representing Philadelphia. New Jersey will keep their first two boards intact with Joel Benjamin and Dean Ippolito on boards one and two. With boards three and four, New Jersey will have FM Aviv Friedman and young Anna Matlin.

On board one, Joel Benjamin faces off against GM Sergey Kudrin. Those two have played two draws previously in the USCL (in 2007 and 2008). Benjamin will look to change that for the better when he puts up a good fight against Kudrin. Benjamin will be playing as white.

For board two, IM Dean Ippolito will look to repeat his winning ways against Philadelphia manager and weekly commuter IM Alex Lenderman. Lenderman was last year's USCL MVP. Ippolito won game of the week last week, winning with two knights on the board against a pawn against a previous USCL MVP, GM Pascal Charbonneau, with a limited amount of time left on his clock. Ippolito will be playing as black.

On board three, alternate FM Aviv Friedman takes on FM Tom "Benedict" Bartell. Bartell was a New Jersey Knockouts team member back in 2007 with Friedman, before defecting to Philadelphia. Friedman will be playing his first game since 2007, where he went 1.0/3.0. Expect him to change this when he plays Bartell as white.

On board four, we have the first game of young and talented Anna Matlin (right, photo by Ted Wu), the second player to play their first USCL game this year. Matlin will be playing Rahul Swaminathan as black. With so many young players such as Anna Matlin and Arthur Shen, you can expect the New Jersey Knockouts to keep on getting better.

Game time is at 7:00 pm Tuesday, the games can be seen on the Internet Chess Club as always, and games can always be attended at the Chapel Hill Academy in Lincoln Park, New Jersey, as the Knockouts fully support having true chess fans at our games. As our games wind down and Philadelphia fans mourn, stay tuned on the ICC for more great USCL matchups as fan favorite Hikaru Nakamura’s Seattle Sluggers face off against our week one victims, the New York Knights.

The Knockouts are sponsored by the New Jersey State Chess Federation, and the USCL is generously sponsored by PokerStars.net.

Follow the Knockouts on Twitter!

Become a fan of the Knockouts on Facebook!

Joel Benjamin on Week 1's Victory

2009-09-04T20:11:00.000-07:00

Captain of the Knockouts, GM Joel Benjamin has published an article in Chess Life Online about the Knockouts' stunning come-from-behind victory over the hapless New York "3-1" Knights.

You can read GM Joel's article here.

Perhaps the Knights would have better luck playing a different game on the USCL's generous sponsor PokerStars.net?

Knockouts Geld the Knights, 2.5 - 1.5

2009-09-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo

The New Jersey Knockouts opened the season on the right foot, by getting their revenge by knocking out the New York Knights by a score of 2.5-1.5 with two wins coming from Dean Ippolito and Victor Shen and a draw by Joel Benjamin. Also Arthur Shen began his promising career in the US Chess League. The win gives them a team record of 1-0 with hopes of adding another early win against the Philadelphia Inventors next Tuesday who lost by a score of 1.5-2.5 against the Tennessee Tempo. For those who can’t get enough of this rivalry, the Knockouts will make life even worse for the Knights when they play them again on September 23.

Playing as white, Joel Benjamin drew newcomer US Chess League player Giorgi Kacheishvili after 32 moves with both sides in slight time trouble after both took their time in the opening, which is never a bad thing to do in chess. Joel appeared to have the more active position in this game.

The most notable game of the night was when Dean Ippolito defeated New York Knights MVP Pascal Charbonneau as white. Late in the game Ippolito had two pawns and two knights while Charbonneau had one pawn, a knight, and a bishop. With the pawns being up on the board, Charbonneau decided to trade his knight and bishop for those two pawns, hoping that Ippolito would not know how to get a checkmate with two knights on the board. Unfortunately for Charbonneau, Ippolito did know how to win with two knights against a pawn, expanding his school, Internet-wide. This win won the first of many games they will win this season for the Knockouts!

Matt Herman hailed to the Victor on board three... Victor Shen that is! In an exciting fashion, Victor Shen made brilliantly sacrificed a rook for a knight on move 34 (see diagram)! Herman would take the rook and Victor’s next move he played Rd1+ and Herman resigned! At such a young age, Victor Shen will be around a long time for chess fans to enjoy!

Rising star Arthur Shen’s first game in the US Chess League would not be the result he wanted against blitz legend Yaacov Norowitz, but his first win should come pretty soon. Arthur resigned after 35 moves against strong opposition. Arthur’s rating of 2107 is something many chess players can envy, not many players his age can say they have the honor to play in the US Chess League!

Chess fans should tune in next Tuesday on ICC to see the New Jersey Knockouts face another nearby rival, the Philadelphia Inventors. Game time is at 7:00 pm and chess fans will get to see the Knockouts invent Philadelphia’s second lost of the season.

Preview: Week 1 - New York Knights

2009-08-31T14:13:00.001-07:00

by Joseph Criscuolo and Robert N. Bernard

Its the first week of the United States Chess League season, and the Knockouts are ready to floor the competition! Its the fifth year of the league, and the third year the Knockouts have been in the league.

The Knockouts begin the 2009 USCL season with high hopes, as both 2007 and 2008 ended in disappointment at the hands of the Knights. Both years, the Knockouts just missed the playoffs, losing in the last week to the Knights, who took the playoff spot from New Jersey each year. This year, the USCL scheduling gods have taken it upon themselves to let New Jersey exact revenge in the first week of the season, as the Knockouts take on the Knights this Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 7:00pm on the Internet Chess Club.

A good start to a season will always be a big thing with almost every game deciding whether or not a team will make the playoffs. The New York Knights are located across the Hudson River at the Marshall Chess Club, making this a part of the rivalry between New York and New Jersey, something that always meant something in the eyes of fans in the NY-NJ area. The New Jersey Knockouts will be eying to bring home a division title to the Garden State.

The matchup should provide excitement as the New Jersey Knockouts will provide the talented lineup of Joel Benjamin, Dean Ippolito, Victor Shen, and Arthur Shen. The big story for New Jersey is the first USCL game for the young and upcoming star Arthur Shen who has a bright and promising future. Young talent seems to be a key theme here as both Arthur and Victor Shen represented the United States in the Pan-American Youth Championships in Argentina, with Arthur taking home a silver medal and Victor taking home the gold for the United States!

Let's look at a board-by-board match up.

New Jersey's captain GM Joel Benjamin takes on Kacheishvili on Board 1. Benjamin has the Black pieces. It is Kacheishvili's first season in the league. Benjamin has been the KO's workhorse, playing in 18 of their 20 previous matches.

Board 2 has the Knockouts' IM Dean Ippolito has the White pieces against former USCL MVP GM Pascal Charbonneau. Ippolito, who runs a chess school here in New Jersey, plans to school Pascal Charbonneau on the board.

Board 3 sees Pan-Am gold medalist and US Cadet runner-up Victor Shen taking on Matthew Herman. This is the first match either over the board or in the USCL for these two. Herman is a league veteran as this is his fourth season.

Finally, Board 4 has Arthur Shen against renowned blitz player Yaacov Norowitz (rated 3215 on ICC, with over 20,000 games!) who somehow ended up here on fourth board.

The Knockouts are sponsored by the New Jersey State Chess Federation, and the USCL is generously sponsored by PokerStars.net.

Follow the Knockouts on Twitter!

Become a fan of the Knockouts on Facebook!

New Jersey Knockouts Calendar

2009-08-25T03:59:00.000-07:00

Here is the calendar of matches for the 2009 season. The Knockouts' season starts in eight days!

NJKO Social Networking Links

2009-08-12T19:38:00.001-07:00

TWITTER: New Jersey Knockouts -- http://twitter.com/njknockouts

FACEBOOK: United States Chess League -- http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19479743986

NJ Knockouts Seek Writers and Bloggers

2009-07-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

The New Jersey Knockouts, a member of the United States Chess League, starts its third season later this summer. Team members include GM Joel Benjamin, GM Boris Gulko, IM Dean Ippolito, among others. We are looking for interested people who would like to contribute to the NJKO blog and website, by doing player interviews, match previews, match wrapups, and general interest articles on the Knockouts and the USCL. Please contact Rob Bernard, manager of the Knockouts at njknockouts@gmail.com if you are interested.

Check out the USCL site at http://www.uschessleague.com , and the NJKO blog at http://njknockouts.blogspot.com . We hope to hear from some of you.

Knockouts are back!

2009-07-17T07:58:00.000-07:00

The New Jersey Knockouts are back, and ready to conquer the United States Chess League!

We have a different roster this year -- many of the old faces are back, but we have new talent that is ready to add extra pop to our collective left hook.

The first new change is that the Knockouts' new manager is your humble blogger. Yes, I'll be taking over the management of the team for 2009. No, I won't be playing any games, as I certainly want to be a positive influence on the team!

Watch this space over the next six weeks for more announcements!

Goodbye and thanks for all the fish...

2008-10-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

Hello NJ Knockouts Fans!

Well, this is my last entry on this blog for a while. Now that the Knockouts' season has ended, its onto the playoffs for the other teams.

Next year, I hope to be a guest blogger here again, and follow the matches with the rest of you.

Best wishes and good luck to all the Knockouts and their fans, and especially to the captain and managers Joel Benjamin and Michael Khodarkovsky for the oppotunity to blog for this great bunch of guys and exciting team!

The Knockouts Season is Over!

2008-10-29T20:32:00.000-07:00

Well, deja vu all over again... all over again.

The New York Knights defeated the New Jersey Knockouts to take the final playoff spot in the Eastern division, by a score of 2.5 - 1.5.

Just like last year.

Ugh.

Oh well -- next year, the Knockouts will prevail!

Deja vu all over again

2008-10-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

It is the last week of the USCL matches. New Jersey stands in 4th place in the Eastern division and tonight takes on the New York Knights, who stand in 5th place.

A win or draw tonight, and New Jersey goes to the playoffs.

A loss tonight, and New Jersey goes home.

Where have I heard this before? Oh yeah... the same exact situation happened last year -- same teams, same scenario.

Stay tuned as New Jersey battles the Knights...

Cobras, Real time blog week 8 and webcam

2008-10-13T16:07:00.000-07:00

FACEBOOK: Join the NJ Knockouts group on Facebook!

ARTICLE: Read a profile of Benjamin and Gulko at 201 Magazine.

WEBCAM: Watch the live NJKO webcam at http://www.blogtv.com/People/bioniclime

10:58pm

Next week, New Jersey takes on Miami and tries to lock up a playoff berth.

10:54pm

In the span of a few minutes, several things happened -- and the match ended.

Ju resigned his game, after his attack fizzled.

Molner lost the thread, lost a piece, and lost the game.

Milman resigned and Joel won.

Shen and Jones agreed to a draw.

Carolina wins a squeaker, 2.5 - 1.5.

10:38pm

On Board 2, Mac Molner is up a piece for some pawns, in a very entertaining position. Will he be able to pull it off? He seems to excel in unbalanced positions.

10:31pm

On Board 4, Victor Shen is down to 50 seconds or so. It is going to be tight there too!

10:29pm

On Board 3, Evan Ju is down to 38 seconds in a crazy position. His opponent must play carefully to counter Evan's speculative attack.

10:19pm

I always wondered. A sacrifice is called a "sac". But which is correct, "saccing" or "sacking"?

10:17pm

Joel is walking from game to game, checking out all the other players' action. His serpentine movements are ironic.

10:05pm

The room is quiet as the tension in palpable.

On Board 1, Joel Benjamin has a menacing position, with his knight squarely in the center of Milman's esophagus.

On Board 2, Mac Molner has some space, and a decent time advantage, but it is not clear whether it is enough for the pawn.

On Board 3, Evan Ju forayed a rook onto f5, sacking a pawn in the process. A risky move by the young man, but his play is inspired.

On Board 4, Victor Shen, down on the clock but with an even position, looks like it will be down to the wire.

9:45pm

Joel Benjamin's pieces are slowing making their way toward Milman's king. With a few more exchanges, Joel could see a solid plus.

9:40pm

On Board 1, a third mate-in-one threat from Joel Benjamin. Trying to see if his opponent will fall for it. (wink, wink)

9:38pm

On Board 3, Simpson is trying to open the position against Evan Ju. Ju's next move will be to bludgeon Simpson's thorax with his mighty pieces of doom.

9:35pm

On Board 2, Mac Molner is trying to figure out how to hold his initiative for his sacked pawn. White looks pretty solid, though, so it might be time for Mac to rip the intestines out of his opponent's position.

9:25pm

Back on Board 1, Joel has thrust his bishop into the love handles of Milman's position with the pointy Bh6!

9:19pm

Evan Ju is having a long think about his fifteenth move. It seems like this is the critical position on how he is going to break the game open.

9:15pm

After a couple of munchkins, its back to blogging. Victor Shen has loosened up his position, with an exchange of rooks along the a-file.

8:54pm

Victor Shen is down on time by a big margin on board four. White also has the bishop pair and more space. Looks like Victor will have to do something drastic to get back in the game.

8:50pm

On Board 2, Mac has his big wood ready to smash White's queenside pawns, which theink they're going somewhere.

8:44pm

GM Alex Yermolinsky is commenting on Joel's game on board 1. He said that Milman's parrying of Joel's mate-in-one threats was "no fun". We agree!

8:43pm

The games all seem to be tight. For a change, it appears like New Jersey has time advantage on three of the four boards, which is unusual

8:39pm

Joel Benjamin is throwing around another mate-in-one threat.

8:38pm

The ubiquitous back up alarm is going off again! Ah, it stopped.

8:36pm

On Board 2, Carolina's Zaikov is trying to emulate a Fischer Random setup, but putting all his pieces on the first rank.

8:34pm

Joel's Ng5 throws out the mate in one threat. Maybe Milman will do a Kramnik and not see it?

8:20pm

Joel Benjamin will be commentating on the Internet Chess Club on the World Chess Championship, which starts tomorrow. The game tonight serves as a good warmup for it!

8:14pm

On Board 2, Mac Molner has some wide open a- and b-files. I expect that's where his attack will begin on the defenseless Cobra.

8:07pm

Joel is pacing the room like an expectant father, or so he said earlier. Indeed, both Evan Ju and Victor Shen are Joel's students.

8:03pm

On Board 1, Joel is trying his best to get in time trouble again. A fifteen minute think on move 13 for the little pawn push a2-a3. Certainly, there is deep meaning in the pawn push -- don't get me wrong -- but the pawn taking 15 minutes to go 2.25" means it was moving at 0.000142 miles per hour.

8:02pm

The room, once again, is cold, but not as bad as it has been before. The air conditioner is actually on today, because of the near 80 degree temperatures today in New Jersey.

7:59pm

We've not been known to have a plethora of fans show up to the site, but today we have a local Expert who's walking around the room taking in the games. All NJ fans are welcome to join the action here at the Chapel Hill Academy.

7:50pm

The webcam is a big hit among the fans, but it seems that Boston is dispensing with their webcam because it makes the players too uncomfortable. I find that really interesting, as players are used to being watched all the time at tournaments, and the webcam subscriptions (number of watchers) is usually so low.

7:47pm

On Board 4, Craig Jones of Carolina has pulled out a pure English against fourth board and second year Knockout Victor Shen. Both have spent about 10 minutes and are on the 9th move.

7:42pm

On Board 3, 2007 US Cadet Champion Evan Ju has pulled out a Ruy Lopez against FM Ron Simpson. On move 8, Evan is down on the clock nine minutes or so, and has just played Be3.

7:37pm

On Board 2, Mac Molner, true to his reputation, has essayed a Benko Gambit against FM Zaikov. Playing quickly and confidently, Mac has gained a minutes and a half on the clock already on move 12.

7:34pm

Joel Benjamin, first board and captain of of the NJ Knockouts, has an interesting Closed Sicilian against IM Lev Milman. Milman has played all seven games for the Cobras and has done well.

7:32pm

Hard to get the webcam aligned just right. Evan Ju is being cut out a bit from it.

7:24pm

Welcome to week 8 of the Knockouts' (presumably) championship season! We're live at the Chapel Hill Academy in Lincoln Park, NJ, to watch the Knockouts take on the second place Carolina Cobras!

Knocking out the Cobras

2008-10-13T10:45:00.001-07:00

FACEBOOK

Join the NJ Knockouts group on Facebook!

ARTICLE

Read a profile of Benjamin and Gulko at 201 Magazine.

TONIGHT'S ACTION

Tonight, we're hoping for real time blogging and the webcam again, as the Knockouts take on the Carolina Cobras in a battle for second place in the Eastern division.

NJ vs Queens! Live blogging and webcam!

2008-10-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

Knockouts versus Pioneers, LIVE!

Tonight, we had a live webcam!

The Knockouts and the Pioneers tied 2-2. Next week is the Carolina Cobras, in the battle for 2nd place in the Eastern division!

Joel Writes About Midseason

2008-10-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

Click here for a great, detailed article about the New Jersey Knockouts at midseason. Don't miss it!

Knockouts draw Kingfishers

2008-10-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

Click here to read an article on the USCL (sponsored by PokerStars) at ChessVibes.com.

The battle of the Knockouts and the Kingfishers was drawn last night. The Knockouts are now 4-2, and firmly in second place in the Eastern Division. Division leader Queens lost last night, and are now 5-1. The Carolina Cobras pushed up to third place in the East with their win over Queens.

The first game to finish was Board 3, where Mac Molner unloaded two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and a sesame seed bun against FM Ray Kaufman's kingside. A nice combination finished the same, which can be found here.

On Board 1, GM Joel Benjamin lost to GM Sergey "I Win Every 2008 Event That I Play In" Erenburg. Benjamin played the Panov-Botvinnik attack against Erenburg's Caro-Kann, and lost in 58 moves, as Erenburg's b-pawn was about to give birth. The game is here.

About the same time, on Board 4, the Knockouts Victor Shen had to give up his black bishop to stop Aaron's Kahn's white pawn from queening in a 68-move Trompowsky. The material advantage was just too much. The game is here.

So, at that point, the Kingfishers were up 2-1. The only hope was for IM Dean Ippolito on Board 2 to pull out a win. But, like a knight on the rim, his prospects for a victory, or even a draw, were dim (or grim, depending on your preferred cliche).

However, the tables turned, and after a series of exchanges, Ippolito was up a passed h-pawn, with his king nearby. Far be it for me to try and judge whether it was objectively won or drawn for Dean, but Dean didn't falter, and pulled out the victory. The game is here.

Dean's great success has propelled him to fourth in the USCL MVP standings.

Next match is huge for the Knockouts. It is against division leading Queens and it is this Monday night, October 6 at 7:15pm at the Internet Chess Club. A win for the Knockouts will put them tied for the division lead.

Real-time Match Updates, Week 5 Philadelphia

2008-09-24T18:05:00.000-07:00

10:54pm

An interesting endgame in the Ippolito Costigan game. Who will queen first?

10:38pm

Dean is slowing pushing his advantage. If he wins, it will be a huge win for Knockouts. As it is, though, a win is a win!

10:27pm

Andrew Ng has gone home, probably to do his homework. Joel Benjamin is talking with Michael Khodarkovsky, manager and assistant manager planning strategy for the next match, as they await the conclusion of Dean Ippolito's game.

10:18pm

And Andrew has won! The Knockouts win the match 2.5 - 1.5! Only Dean Ippolito's game to finish up!

10:17pm

Andrew is now way ahead.

10:09pm

Andrew looks like he's trying to finish off the game, but he's standing up, pacing around in his t-shirt, since it is so cold in this room.

Now he's coughing. Poor kid is going to get pneumonia!

10:03pm

Ah! Kudrin and Benjamin saw the draw offer, finally, and Board 1 is drawn. The Knockouts lead 1.5 - 0.5

10:02pm

Kudrin and Benjamin just offered a draw to each other. And Joel missed seeing it.

10:00pm

Andrew Ng has emerged from downtown Tactics City up an exchange, but way low on time. He will just need to solidly tiptoe through any potential conterplay and finish off his opponent.

9:53pm

Nice illustration of basic endgame principles on Board 1. In a Bishop endgame, put all your pawns on squares of the opposite color on which the bishop travels. Each side has a dark squared bishop, each side has all their pawns on light squares.

9:51pm

Joel Benjamin just got up, walked over and checked out Dean Ippolito's game. It looks pretty equal, but what do I know? Since the game is wide open, it will probably be decided by a flurry of tactics in time trouble.

Just a guess, though.

9:49pm

Ker-SMASH! Andrew Ng blew apart Black's pawns with the anvil-splitting 24.Nxe6!

9:44pm

On Board 4, Andrew Ng had a nice long think, before uncorking the powerful move 23.Bh5. The threats to f7 are mounting, and his opponent, Elvin Wilson, must do some serious de-stickying to get out of this jam.

9:42pm

On Board 1, Joel Benjamin's game is looking pretty drawish. Same colored square bishops, pawns equal on each side of the board. White's king is still centralized, but it would be difficult to work it.

9:34pm

The team is deep in thought. Joel is staring intently at the computer monitor, but both Andrew and Dean are overlooking their physical boards.

Boris Gulko is in the hallway, chatting!

9:25pm

Andrew Ng is walking quickly around the room. He may be confident about his attack along the h-file, but my bet is that he's also freezing. It is about 58 degrees in here again, and he's only wearing a t-shirt!

9:23pm

Bryan Smith made a blunder, and Gulko played c7, which ended the game immediately. Gulko wins! The Knockouts are ahead 1-0.

9:18pm

Gulko is striding confidently around the room, observing the other games.

9:15pm

On Board 3, ultra solid Dean Ippolito is having no problems with IM Richard Costigan. Costigan has had some good results in the league, but probably hasn't had the luxury of playing too many 2500s on board 3.

9:12pm

To my eye, Board 1, between Joel Benjamin and Sergey Kudrin, looks relatively even. Kudrin's kng is centralized, and he only has two pawn groups (as compared with Benjamin's three), but material is even, and it looks like Joel should not have a problem holding the position.

9:09pm

Gulko just played the exchange sac 23.Rc6, which the chatter seems to believe is a winning or a nearly-winning move. The spectators in the room are getting excited by this. Gulko's victi... opponent, IM Bryan Smith, will have to do some serious tap dancing to defend.

9:05pm

I just got to the site a few minutes ago, so I thought I would give a few match updates. It is a big week in Knockout history. The Knockouts have the strongest average line up in the history of the USCL. Board 1 and 2 are GMs Joel Benjamin and Boris Gulko. Board 3 is IM Dean Ippolito. Board 4 is Knockout alternate, and underrated junior Andrew Ng.

Week 4: Real Time Blogging Returns

2008-09-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

11:11pm

And Mac has won! And the Knockouts crush the Blitz 3-1!! Until next week.

10:48pm

An exciting finish on Board 3 -- both players under a minute. Boston has to win in order to draw the match.

10:46pm

Joel just came over to me and gave me the double thumbs up. He's pretty psyched that the KOs have at least drawn.

10:45pm

And Dean Ippolito pulls it out! A big win for NJ on Board 2. The Knockouts have at least drawn the match!

10:40pm

A nice maneuver by Dean Ippolito on Board 2 (34...Nc6), has brought Board 2 back into New Jersey's favor. With a wild melee on Board 3, it is still anybody's ballgame.

10:28pm

When "El Capitan" says "Take a picture of the donuts, blogger!", you do not question. You obey. Thus, here are the Boston Cremes!

10:21pm

Captain Joel Benjamin is carefully studying the demonstration boards, seeing where the next New Jersey point will come from. On Board 2, the situation is still tight, with Dean having five minutes remaining, and Shmelov eight.

10:12pm

And Larry Christensen, lost from move 8, has resigned. Boston and New Jersey now tied 1-1!

10:08pm

Yes, Jayson resigned. Boston up 1-0.

10:05pm

Doesn't look good for the Knockouts on Board 4. Jayson made an error in an endgame in which he was already down, and a few tactics later, he should be down some serious material.

9:47pm

Once again, the room is cold tonight. Jayson Lian has his arms completely tucked inside his t-shirt. Joel Benjamin and Dean Ippolito are folding their arms and covering up. Mac Moldner has half his face inside the front of his shirt.

Clearly no one is going to fall asleep for fear of hypothermia!

9:40pm

Number of people watching the games:
Benjamin: 194
Ippolito: 67
Molner: 54
Lian: 56

9:35pm

Denys Shmelov has bravely declined to take Dean Ippolito's rook on board 2, so the draw is not actually forced. Dean will now have to slug it out with the Blitz player.

9:30pm

Jayson Lian is in tough shape, but he's concentrating very hard at his terminal. Wearing a green t-shirt and jeans, he's been exceedingly still for the half-hour I've been on site.

9:24pm

Dean has just taken 16...Rxe4, probably now forcing the draw on Board 2.

9:22pm

IM Dean Ippolito has been on move for about 15 minutes. He keeps getting up to survey the other boards, deciding whether to force the draw or not.

9:07pm

Now that we've passed the two hour mark, let's recap all the boards.

On Board 1, after a huge blunder in the opening, GM Larry Christensen finds himself down a queen for two bishops against New Jersey Knockout captain GM Joel Benjamin. GM Joel, as usual, is way down on time, with about 20 minutes left to LarryC's 52 minutes. They are on move 18.

On Board 2, IM Dean Ippolito's Nimzo-Indian has brought him to a position where he can practically force a draw if he wants. With 16...Rxe4 17.fxe4 Qh3+, a perpetual could ensue. This might be just the result the Knockouts want on Board 2, with Joel winning on Board 1.

On Board 3, material is virtually equal in Mac Molner's game against Riordan. Mac's slightly better pawn structure may balance out Riordan's development, but it looks like this will be a tough fight.

On Board 4, the Knockout's Jayson Lian is down a pawn against clearly underrated Marc Esserman -- both have a queen, rook, and dark-squared bishop, The game is wide open, with potentially a lot of tactics.

9:03pm

Realtime blogging is back, now from Lincoln Park, NJ, the Chapel Hill Academy. The players have been moving up and about for the past few minutes. Mac Molner took a stroll, Dean ippolito walked around the room and inspected all the boards. Joel Benjamin rushed out of the room with a grimace on his face.

7:54pm

Well, it is time to sign off for about an hour. We'll be back with more live coverage from the New Jersey site at 9:00pm!

7:51pm

The word is that after Joel made the 8.Be3 move, he got up, got a Boston Creme donut, and devoured it. Take that, Blitzpatzers!

7:49pm

Word from the front... Boston Creme Donuts at the site!!!

7:47pm

He played it! The crowd is amped up now for an epic struggle of Man versus Blitz.

7:45pm

On Board 1, GM Joel could play a very cute and exciting move, 8.Be3. The fans are cheering for that move! Play it Joel! Make the fans go WILD!!

7:38pm

Dean Ippolito really impresses me as a solid tournament player. He tries to win as white and will play solidly and draw with black. He doesn't take too many unnecessary risks. He plays in tournaments frequently, and runs his own chess school located in Branchburg, NJ, (see deanofchess.com).

Check out the results from last week's Miami Open... While he didn't have a spectacular tournament, he never lost, and drew several GMs. Very very solid.

He's also a super-friendly, nice, normal guy.

7:30pm

Ok, this really is a "break the opening principle" night.

Benjamin has a knight developed to a3
Christensen pulled his queen out on move 4
Shmelov pushed four pawns, and developed a knight to h3
Ippolito moved five pawns, the same knight twice, and it ended up on h5
Molner pushed his rook pawn

Only Riordan on board 3, and both players on board 4 have read their Reinfeld recently.

7:25pm

Kerpow! Something really got into Esserman -- Smith Morra on board 4!

7:21pm

Both sides clearly needs to brush up on their opening principles. Riordan's got his knight on a5, and Ippolito's got his on a5.

Tsk tsk tsk...

7:19pm

Esserman decided to show up. My challenge clearly emboldened him.

7:15pm

Esserman has decided not to show up for his game against fourth board Jayson Lian. Clearly afraid...

7:13pm

On Board 3, Mac Molner has tossed out the Guioco Piano against Riordan, and Riordan has played a Two Knights Defense. As most of the Knockouts' fans, groupies, and entourages know, Big Mac's rarely has a "Quiet Game" and this is likely to be a Guioco Forte instead.

7:11pm

On Board 1, Larry has thrown out a Sicilian with the hyper-accelerated 2...g6. Joel is pondering the brashness of Larry's foolish play.

7:09pm

IM Dean Ippolito on Board 2 has thrown out a Nimzo-Indian against Denys Shmelov. The commentary points out that he didn't lose a game last weekend in Miami. He drew several GMs and ended with a solid result.

7:07pm

And they're off! The games have started.

On Board 1, GM Joel Benjamin has essayed his king pawn a double square foray toward GM Larry Christensen's evil Blitz territory.

7:03pm

The natives are restless... The games have not started yet.... We wanna game! We wanna game!

6:58pm

I am watching the games from here, and will transfer to the New Jersey playing site around 9pm. From there, I can make insidious and flippant comments, like I usually do. But for right now, it looks like I'll have to concentrate on the games.

6:44pm

Live from Wizards of the Mind chess club, here in Springfield, New Jersey.... its real-time blogging of the New Jersey - Boston match in the USCL! How can I blog from here, you ask? Stay tuned!

3:13pm

Real time blogging of the New Jersey Knockouts' match against the Boston Blitz returns tonight! Watch theKnockouts make the pizza-crazed Boston players wish they were stuck on the Garden State Parkway on a beach-travel morning, rather than being demolished by the talents of Benjamin, Ippolito, Molner, and Lian.

The match starts at 7pm, and the blogging will start late, around 9pm or so, as the match is in full swing! So stay tuned to this post, as it will be updated through the evening!

GM Joel Annotates from the NJ-Seattle Match

2008-09-12T22:38:00.000-07:00

Join the NJ Knockouts group on Facebook!

This past week, the New Jersey Knockouts tied their match against the Seattle Sluggers, 2-2. New Jersey now sits firmly in third place in the Eastern division, with a 1.5-1.5 record.

We'll get to board 1 in a minute.

On Board 2, the last game to finish, veteran GM, former Soviet and US Champion, and USCL rookie, Boris Gulko, slowly out played his opponent IM Eric Tangborn, and scored the full point. One of the funnier comments that appeared in the chat leading up to this game was given by IM Mark Ginsburg, who said the Gulko could give a simul to the whole Seattle team.

On Board 3, Mac Molner had black against John Readey. A tense game, in which Mac couldn't quite get a kingside attack going, and ended with a repetition.

On Board 4, the KO's Jayson Lian matched up against Josh Sinanan. Jayson was winning toward the end of the game, but low on time, fell into a repetition. The repetition wasn't easy to see, because it didn't come from the more typical alternation of moves, but from a series of different moves leading to the same position.

Back to Board 1, where captain GM Joel Benjamin fell with black to now-nearly-2700-FIDE, and new Seattle Slugger, GM Hikaru Nakamura. While it seemed like Nakamura's opening was taken from a page out of GM Joel's 1987 book "Unorthodox Openings", Nakamura actually claimed that they reached a "relatively standard" opening position.

Indeed, we're in for another treat, as GM Joel sent me some annotations on the crucial parts of the game. I present them here (and blame me for the title, not Joel).

Don't Cry For Me, Nakamura - The Truth Is... (by GM Joel Benjamin)

Wednesday night was a heartbreaker. Jayson played so well, only to be tripped up by a three-time repetition.

I can’t cry about my loss to Nakamura, but the game has been portrayed as two things it’s not...

A game of the week candidate
One-sided

It certainly wasn’t as good as Pascal’s win. It was very cool how he sneaked in on the light squares while Sergey wasn’t looking. I’m not criticizing Hikaru’s play, now. He didn’t make any mistakes, and he made some cool-looking maneuvers, but he didn’t make any difficult moves either.

Let’s examine:

1.g3 d5 2.Bg2 Nf6 3.d3 c6 4.Nc3 e5 5.e4 Bg4 6.f3 Be6 7.Nh3 Bc5 8.Qe2 dxe4 9.dxe4 Qd4 10.Nd1 Bc4 11.c3 Qd3 12.Bf1 Qxe2+ 13.Bxe2 Be6 14.Nhf2 Nbd7 15.f4 exf4 16.gxf4 Nb6 17.b4 Bxf2+ 18.Nxf2 Bc4 19.Rg1 0-0-0 20.Rxg7 (D)

Here I played 20...Rhe8?? and after 21.e5 Nd5 22.Rxf7 I noticed that the planned 22…Nxb4 leads to nothing after 23.Bxc4 Nc2+ 24.Ke2 Nxc4 (24…Nxa1 25.Bd3) 25.Rb1. Heck, even 20...Rhg8 was better. I wish I had taken more time on that move. But I should have played…

20...Bxe2 21.Kxe2 Nxe4!! 22.Nxe4 Rhe8 (D - analysis)

Black recoups the piece with an unclear position. White can win a pawn or two in some lines, but he is in danger of losing his bishop. Feel free to run your chess engines on this one. Those of you who scoffed at 19…0-0-0, I accept your apologies now.

I didn’t see the sacrifice during the game, but found it moving the pieces around after the game, and I showed it to my teammates. I’m not one to make excuses for losing (other than when I’m joking), but this possibility should be noted by all those who attempted to assess this game.

Week 2: Knockouts versus Pioneers

2008-09-04T18:10:00.000-07:00

In Week 2, the glorious Knockouts were orienteered back to earth by the surprisingly powerful Queens Pioneers. Only captain and board 1, GM Joel Benjamin, was able to grind out a solid, grandmasterly win that ought to compete for game-of-the-week honors.

The remainder of the team was struck by some chess plague. On board 2, Mac Molner got a thorn in his territory, when his opponent's knight crimped his position something wicked with its presence on d6. On board 3, Evan Ju played a relatively even game against IM Alex Lenderman, but was torn down in time trouble, by a nice little combination. On board 4, Victor Shen got his queen trapped in the middle of the board and had to lose a knight to save her.

The US Chess League (sponsored by pokerstars.com) site has all the games, and you can also find coverage on the Kenilworthian and the "oh-we're-so-darn-lucky-to-have-this-domain-name" site, chess.com.

Unfortunately, there won't be any real-time from-the-site blogging next week either, but you can catch all the action at ICC.

Joel Benjamin on his game of Week 1

2008-08-28T21:58:00.000-07:00

Join the NJ Knockouts group on Facebook!

After the resounding victory, the Knockouts are all smiles. From left to right, Victor Shen [board 4], Dean Ippolito [board 2], Michael Khodarkovsky [assistant manager], Mac Molner [board 3], Joel Benjamin [captain and board 1].

Joel Benjamin asked me to post the following note. Its great to have our esteemed captain add to the blog!

How 'bout those Kayos? My teammates did a great job in the first round. I think a lot of our players are under-rated and will score big this season.

I wasn't so happy though about my game, and I think the USCL fans should know why I lost the game.

The obvious excuses are:

My young opponent has been touring the country winning tournaments while I've been touring Bergen County maternity wards.
I didn't study 12.d5 sufficiently and couldn't remember anything about the games I looked at.
The last time I sacrificed that many pieces I was playing bughouse.

But I'm going to opt for a darkhorse excuse for losing. I'm going to blame it on the METS. That's right, my favorite baseball team is driving me crazy! On Tuesday night they managed to blow a 7-0 lead. Seven nothing!!! And they took an agonizing five+ hours to do it, finally capitulating in the 13th inning, sometime after midnight. There was no way I could sleep after such a debacle. After tossing and turning all night, I lacked the energy to combat such a strong young player. [I have scoresheets older than this guy. A lot of them]

Hopefully the bullpen will get its act together and give me some peace. I don't think it's fair to ask my boys to bail me out every week.

Joel

Week 1 - Knockouts vs. Kingfishers, Realtime!!

2008-08-27T16:16:00.000-07:00

10:54pm

And Dean wins too! The Knockouts have won 3-1.

10:44pm

Victor forked, won the exchange, and then played the Krazy Killer Korner Kween move, Qh8! His opponent resigned, and Knockouts are up 2-1!!!

10:38pm

Victor is out of his seat, pacing back and forth, awaiting his seemingly vanquished opponent's next move.

10:34pm

On board 4, Victor Shen has just played 33.Ne4, with a nasty little three-tined fork threatened on d6.

10:31pm

And Joel couldn't quite pull it out. The match score is tied 1-1. Erenburg has been on a roll lately, winning tournament after tournament -- his luck continued here.

10:09pm

There are two other games going on in this room! On Board 2, Dean Ippolito seems to be slowing pressing ahead. His bishop on h6 and his pawn on f5 make a potent combination, a bind on Black's position. Dean is also ahead on the clock with 31 minutes left, to Kaufman's 9 minutes.

10:07pm

There are 120 people watching the Benjamin-Erenburg game. The general consensus is that Erenburg merely has to consolidate, and the game will be in his favor. The arguments are over how he should consolidate.

10:02pm

A rook down, with four minutes to go. Is GM Joel's attack sound?

9:46pm

With a 1-0 lead, 200 cheerleaders, and Joel Benjamin with a speculative attack on Board 1, it is an exciting night here in Lincoln Park! On Board 2, Dean Ippolito is slowly grinding down Larry Kaufman -- Dean's bishops are criss crossing Kaufman's kingside like Michael Palin getting from Moscow to Bangkok and Tokyo to Cairo in three days by public transportation only.

Ok, that analogy was just wierd. Sorry.

9:39pm

Quite tense moments in the Benjamin game. Joel's way down on the clock but he's pressing his attack. Playing directly from the screen, not looking at his physical board, he's a paragon of supreme concentration.

9:34pm

It is getting rather chilly in this room. I wonder if the alarm that went off a half-hour ago was a heat alarm?

9:28pm

Arizona Scorpion and IM Mark Ginsbug says the Erenburg-Benjamin game contains "craziness". It's beyond me, but have a look.

9:23pm

Joel Benjamin is down on the clock -- only 16 minutes left to Sergey Erenburg's one hour. The game is getting exciting though. Joel is starting to unleash the majestic archers with their golder arrows. Or, he's sacking an exchange. I'm not sure.

9:16pm

Mac Molner has won! His opponent abruptly resigned, in a totally uncomfortable position! The Knockouts are up 1-0!

9:14pm

The alarm wasn't a big deal. Some sort of thing on the computer stack in the playing site. Here's a picture of the playing site. From left to right, Victor Shen, Mac Molner, TD Mike Somers (back to camera), Joel Benjamin (standing), and Dean Ippolito.

9:07pm

The Shen-Zimmer game to me is interesting... augh! Alarm going off!

9:03pm

On Board 2, Dean Ippolito's opponent, Larry Kaufman, has been thinking about his 19th move for over a half-hour. Perhaps he had to go outside to feed the meter?

8:56pm

The Big Mac attack is at again. Mac Molner is smashing the ramparts on Board 3.

8:48pm

The inaugural donuts of 2008. Go ahead and lick your screen. I understand Boston Blitz supporters tend to do that a lot.

8:43pm

Finally, on Board 1, Benjamin's heavy pieces are majestically arrayed, like a line of British archers ready to pierce the hearts of the enemy with their golden arrows. Well, sort of. Actually there's just a queen and both rooks kind of hanging out. (94 people watching this game)

8:41pm

On Board 2, IM Dean Ippolito has the bishop pair and a slightly better pawn structure, as he's centralizing his pieces to slowly crush IM Larry Kaufman. (31 people watching the game)

8:36pm

On board 3, Mac Molner's Benko has a inverted phalanx of pawns on dark squares, and has opened up the g-file in front of Ray Kaufman's king. Mac's about 10 minutes up on the clock. (28 people watching that game)

8:31pm

Let's go around the horn and check out our games, starting with board 4, Victor Shen, White against FM Zimmer.

Victor's got a nice Knight planted in Black's territory on the queenside. The pieces are filling up the queenside of the board for both sides. Victor's down on the clock thought, with only 42 minutes left to his opponent's 1 hour and 16 minutes. (26 people watching that game)

8:17pm

Joel Benjamin's got his rooks poised on the f-file to crush Erenburg's emasculated monarch.

8:11pm

So, here's a subset of the 200 cheerleaders outside the New Jersey site.

8:04pm

If you're reading this blog, you're either a fan of the Knockouts, or have a lot of time on your hands. In any case, the New Jersey Knockouts are on Facebook! Come and join our group!

8:01pm

Joel Benjamin is walking around the room surveying the three other games.

7:59pm

I always find it interesting, the way these top level players play the USCL matches. Benjamin and his student Shen (Boards 1 and 4) are studying the computer monitor intently, although they both have physical boards set up next to them. Molner and Ippolito are bother leaning over their physical boards.

7:54pm

On Board 1, the Knockouts' captain and esteemed leader, Joel Benjamin, is already down 20 minutes on the clock, Erenburg still has extra time (over 90 minutes)! Last year, the Knockouts had some problems with time trouble. Let's hope the trend doesn't continue to this year.

7:45pm

Here's a picture of the playing site, Chapel Hill Academy in Lincoln Park, NJ. When I got here, the outside lawn was filled with about 200 cheerleaders (and, no, I'm not kidding). The New Jersey State Chess Federation must have a great PR machine, I thought. Alas, they were just on the site for a cheerleading clinic. I could not convince any of them to come inside to root for the Knockouts, unfortunately.

7:38pm

And "Big" Mac "Attack" Molner -- winner and victim of a few "Games of the Week" last season, has started with FM Ray Kaufman on Board 3. Molner, never afraid to shy away from complications and excitement, has the black side of a Benko Gambit. What can expect from the Mac Attack this week?

7:35pm

Board 2 has finally started, with IM Dean "Of Chess" Ippolito opening with his characteristic 1.d4. His opponentIM Larry Kaufman, has played the Nimzo Indian, and it is a 4.Qc2 variation.

7:30pm

GM Joel Benjamin's game has started again GM Sergey Erenburg. Both have had recent spreads in Chess Life Online about them, both taking place at NJ Board Two's IM Dean Ippolito's facility in Branchburg. Erenburg won the Futurity that was there back in July, and GM Joel just taught the US Chess School there a few weeks ago. That US Chess School was attended by board 4, Victor Shen.

7:23pm

And Victor Shen has started his game. He has nary a donut in front of him. Instead, he has an White in an Accelerated Dragon.

7:16pm

Ready to start the Knockouts' second glorious season!

NJKOs 2008 Schedule Preview

2008-08-19T19:24:00.000-07:00

The 2008 United States Chess League commences play in less than a week! The New Jersey Knockouts are set to begin their second season, ready to lay some bone-crushing hurt to the souls of their feeble competition. (Hey, this blog isn't supposed to be objective.)

The USCL has two new teams this year, the Chicago Blaze and the Arizona Scorpions. Fortunately, for the Blase and the 'Pions , they do not have to face the mighty Knockouts this year, except perhaps in the playoffs.

But the big news for the Knockouts is the addition of veteran Grandmaster Boris Gulko to the roster. GM Gulko adds cassiac gravitas and a potent left hook to the line-up.

Let's take a look at the schedule. (Ratings are from the unofficial 2007 USCL rating list.)

Week 1: Baltimore Kingfishers

The opening week sees the Knockouts taking on the Kingfishers of Baltimore, and last year the Knockouts drew Baltimore in two matches. The 'Fish are 2005 league champions, but their glorious past is well behind them, as they finished in the cellar of the Eastern division last year. Their top board, GM Sergey Erenburg (USCL 2558), has had some excellent tournament success this past year (including winning the NJ Futurity II), but we'll see if his success can translate to his team.

Week 2: Queens Pioneers

The Pioneers, last year's fifth place team in the East, battle the Knockouts in the second week. Last year, the Knockouts drew one match and lost another to the Queensmen. GM Alex Stripunsky (USCL 2525) returns as top board.

Week 3: Seattle Sluggers

The Knockouts and the Sluggers parlay their pugilistic proclivities in week three. Its the first meeting between the teams. The Sluggers have acquired GM Hikaru Nakamura (USCL 2580), formerly of the New York Knights, as their top board. Nakamura now lives in Vancouver, and will have to drive a ways to get to their matches. Will the drive tire him out? In week three, we may get to see.

Week 4: Boston Blitz

The Knockouts light up the board with the Blitz in the fourth week of the season -- they drew last year's match. GM Larry Christiansen (USCL 2581) and GM Eugene Perelshteyn (USCL 2481) head up the team, but don't forget about USCL All-Star Jorge Sammour Hasbun (USCL 2579), who ruled board 2 last year.

Week 5: Philadelphia Inventors

In the fifth week, the Knockouts will attempt to avenge last year's loss to the Inventors. The Inventors are led by USCL rating leader GM Sergey Kudrin (USCL 2591), who undefeated consistency last year lead Philly to the playoffs. Notable also is the inclusion of the Inventors' latest addition, FM Tom Bartell (USCL UNR), who fought for the Knockouts last season. Tom moved to Philadelphia, and is better known to New Jerseyites as Benedict Arnold!

Week 6: Baltimore Kingfishers

Midway through the season, the Knockouts pluck the Kingfishers in a rematch of week one.

Week 7: Queens Pioneers

Week seven is a rematch of week two. As northern New Jersey resident Yogi Berra apparently once said, "Its deja vu all over again."

Week 8: Carolina Cobras

The geographically challenged (or perhaps they are simply peripatetically inclined) Cobras are back in the Eastern division, after a one year foray into the West. The Knockouts de-venomed and fang-extracted the Cobras last year. FM Oleg Zaikov (USCL 2423) was a USCL All-Star in 2006.

Week 9: Miami Sharks

The penultimate week of the regular season sees the Knockouts tackling the Miami Sharks for the first time. Lead by two-time USCL MVP GM Julio Becerra (USCL 2566), the Sharks almost drowned in the first half of last season, only to perform swimmingly in the last half and make the playoffs.

Week 10: New York Knights

The last week of the season sees the Knockouts joust with the nearby New York Knights, in a contest that is hailed as "The Battle of the Silent Ks". Two GMs take over the top two slots in the roster, GM John Fedorowicz and 2007 US Champion (and former USCL Game-of-the-Week judge and Chris Berman of ESPN imitator) GM Alex Shabalov. The Knockouts also have to watch out for fourth board All-Star Iryna Zenyuk (USCL 2402), who tends to pull of big wins.

In the next post (early next week), I'll post a Knockouts' player preview.

NJ Futurity II - Erenburg Repeats!

2008-07-12T02:43:00.000-07:00

UPDATE! Games are available at NJoyChess.

Sergey Erenburg repeats as champion of the New Jersey International Futurity. In a remarkable performance, Erenburg drew all his games with his fellow GMs, and won all his games against the IMs and untitled players. The tournament was sponsored by the New Jersey State Chess Federation and Michael Khodarkovsky's International Chess School (ICS).

Yesterday, Friday July 11, were the final two rounds.

Round 8

= Ehlvest - Erenburg =
1 Yudasin - Scekic 0
0 Zlotnikov - Ju 1
= Ippolito - Palatnik =
1 Saenz - Molner 0

GM Ehlvest had a chance to catch GM Erenburg this round, but Erenburg played a Petroff, and the game was drawn in 38 moves. The final position was nothing remarkable - Ehlvest's bishop and Erenburg's knight, with three pawns each. Probably a smart decision by Erenburg, trying to close down any potential chances that Ehlvest wanted.

Yudasin outplayed Scekic in a 32 move Caro-Kann. See the diagram below for Scekic's crucial mistake, which Yudasin pounced on, and brought to a decisive conclusion.

In a battle of Knockouts, Evan Ju as Black, defeated IM Zlotnikov in a 30 move English. Ju penetrated his Queen into Zlotnikov's queenside, snapped off a couple of pawns, and ended with a slightly unusual ending, where each side had all four minor pieces, but the big wood was gone from both sides. The key, though, was that Ju had two connected passers on the queenside, and Zlotnikov was down those two pawns.

The soporific sounds of a Dutch Defense, led IM Ippolito (White) and GM Palatnik to call it quits after only eight moves.

In the game with the most norm implications, Mackensie Molner (Black) lost his chance for an IM norm, as he was defeated in a rare Benoni Counter Gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5 3.d5 b5) by IM Saenz as White. 3...b5 was a move favored by Keres in the 1950s. In fact, Molner played the same variation in the last week of the United States Chess League's regular season, against IM Jay Bonin (but lost that game too). Bonin had played 4.Ng5, but in thous tournament, Saenz countered with 4.a4, a comparatively rare variation that is played only about 10% of the time. In the Polish/Orangutang Opening (1.b4), 1...a5 is a good reply, and this variation reminds me of that. In any case, Molner went into the ending a pawn up, but Saenz's advanced, passed c-pawn was his compensation. Saenz's king came in to help out, and after a few inaccuracies right at the end, Molner finally had to give up big material, or Saenz would queen his pawn.

Round 9

= Palatnik - Saenz =
= Ippolito - Yudasin =
= Molner - Ehlvest =
1 Erenburg = Zlotnikov 0
0 Ju - Scekic 1

Ippolito - Yudasin, 11 moves. Palatnik - Saenz, 6 moves. Getting to go home after a long tournament, priceless.

Molner (White), now without the chance for an IM norm, still managed to give Ehlvest a run for his money. A 49 move Hedgehog-Pirc-Modern something-or-other, saw Molner with a nicely advanced e-pawn in Ehlvest's positions. After the GM swept it away, Molner's king was chased around the board by Ehlvest's queen, and the game was drawn.

Erenburg (White) completed his remarkable sweep of the non-GMs, by finishing off IM Zlotnikov in a 33 move Modern, with some nasty queenside penetration and a mating attack. Zlotnikov clearly had an off-tournament, and we're sure he'll be back in form soon.

In the final game, IM Scekic finished off Evan Ju, with a cute bishop sacrifice. See the diagram below.

It was most excellent to see another round robin come to New Jersey, and we look forward to next year's event. Congratulations to GM Sergey Erenburg of Israel on repeating as champion!

Games are available at NJoyChess.

The Knockouts' second season begins the last week of August. Watch this blog for continuing coverage of their likely championship winning season!

NJ Futurity II Round 7

2008-07-10T19:52:00.000-07:00

Just got results in my mailbox. Try the NJSCF site for the relay tomorrow (Friday) for the final round. The relay today was problematic, unfortunately, but it was due to a physical connection being disconnected, accidentally, as opposed to hosting issues, as before.

Round 7 Results
= Palatnik - Yudasin =
0 Molner - Ippolito 1
1 Erenburg - Saenz 0
= Ju - Ehlvest =
1 Scekic - Zlotnikov 0

Standings after Round 7
6.0 Erenburg
5.0 Ehlvest, Yudasin
3.5 Molner, Palatnik
3.0 Scekic
2.5 Ippolito, Ju, Saenz
1.0 Zlotnikov

The big game of the final day is Round 8's clash between Ehlvest (White) and Erenburg (Black). Molner needs 1.5/2.0 on the last day to gain an IM norm. In Round 8, Mac has Black against Saenz, and in the final round, he has White against Ehlvest -- a tall order, but we hope that he can play a typical Big Mac Attack (like in many US Chess League games), and gain his norm.

Also, there's an article and some nice photos on the USCF site, here.

NJ Futurity Round 6

2008-07-10T07:43:00.001-07:00

The kinks finally seemed to be worked out with the relay, and you can watch round 6 here.

Let's root for the Knockouts to have a great round!

UPDATE: Erenburg sacked a bishop in his game against Ippolito. Here's a diagram...

Round 6 Results:

1 Yudasin - Zlotnikov 0
= Ehlvest - Scekic =
0 Saenz - Ju 1
0 Ippolito - Erenburg 1
= Palatnik - Molner =

Standings after Round 6
5.0 Erenburg
4.5 Ehlvest, Yudasin
3.5 Molner
3.0 Palatnik
2.5 Saenz
2.0 Ju, Scekic
1.5 Ippolito
1.0 Zlotnikov

NJ Futurity Rounds 4 and 5

2008-07-09T07:02:00.001-07:00

Raw results of Round 4. Unfortunately, I have no details.

= Yudasin - Ehlvest =
1 Saenz - Zlotnikov 0
0 Ippolito - Scekis 1
= Palatnik - Ju =
0 Molner - Erenburg 1

Standings after Round 4
3.5 Erenburg
3.0 Yudasin, Ehlvest
2.5 Molner, Palatnik
1.5 Saenz, Scekic
1.0 Ippolito, Zlotnikov
0.5 Ju

It just hasn't been the Knockouts' tournament. Molner has performed well, but Ju, Zlotnikov, and Ippolito have 1 win, 3 draws, and 8 losses after four rounds. Combined, the Knockouts are 5.0/16.0.

Partial results of Round 5

= Erenburg - Palatnik =

A quick 10 mover Exchange Ruy that ended with a forced perpetual -- I found 88 other games just like it in my database. These guys called it a day pretty early!

= Molner - Yudasin =

A 17 move French Defense lead to an equal position, but still with a lot of life left in it. Nevertheless, in the second round of the day, it seemed like a good time for them to call it off, I guess.

= Ju - Ippolito =

A 14 move Petroff leading to dead equality. Neither of these guys are having a good tournament, so they made peace.

0 Saenz - Scekic 1

A 50 move Slav transformed early into a rook and dark-squared bishop ending. Scekic made some nice maneuvers, exchanged some pawns and eventually the bishops and ended in an rook and pawn endgame, with Scekic about to queen his e-pawn. Saenz, presumably, threw in the towel.

0 Zlotnikov - Ehlvest 1

A 43 move Pirc, transformed into a rook and knight endgame, with Ehlvest pushing his d-pawn to its ultimate destiny. It was inevitable at the end, and Zlotnikov gave up.

Standings after Round 5
4.0 Erenburg, Ehlvest
3.5 Yudasin
3.0 Palatnik, Molner
2.5 Scekic
1.5 Ippolito, Saenz
1.0 Ju, Zlotnikov

NJ Futurity Rounds 2 and 3

2008-07-08T16:39:00.000-07:00

Round 2

While in Round 1, there were three Black wins (and one White win), Round 2 saw three decisive games, all won by White.

GM Yudasin (White) beat IM Saenz in a 40 move Two Knights Defense. At the end, Yudasin had an extra bishop and his c-pawn was passed and on the sixth rank. Saenz had hoped for a perpatual a few moves earlier, but when Yudasin wriggled his way out of it, there was no hope.

Knockout and tournament host IM Dean Ippolito (White) opened with his usual 1. d4, and GM Ehlvest responded with the King's Indian. Ippolito fianchettoed his king's bishop, and the game ended peacefully after 21 moves. (Don't believe Ehlvest's final move in the game file at the NJSCF site. It drops a queen!)

GM Erenburg (White) put away Knockout Evan Ju in an French Defense, Tarrasch variation. After 54 bruising moves, Erenburg was poised to queen one of his two remaining pawns supported by his rook, while Ju had only one pawn and a rook. A fairly even game for most of the first two-thirds, Erenburg neutralized Ju's isolani, split and weakened Ju's queenside pawns, and expertly finished the contest.

Knockout Mac Molner (White) and IM Scekic played a Lowenthal Sicilian that lasted over 50 moves (the game file at the NJSCF site has some strange moves at the end) and ended in a drawn in an unbalanced position; Molner had two rooks and a pawn, and Scekic had a rook, bishop, and two pawns, and they called it a day.

In a 70 move Pirc marathon, GM Palatnik (White) took down Knockout IM Zlotnikov. Palatnik sacked the exchange for a serious kingside attack. Zlotnikov weathered the storm, but Palatnik ended with three monstrous kingside pawns. Zlotnikov gave back the exchange, but Palatnik's pawns were too powerful.

Games are available at the NJSCF site.

Standings after Round 2
2.0 Erenburg, Yudasin
1.5 Ehlvest, Molner
1.0 Ippolito, Palatnik
0.5 Saenz, Scekic
0.0 Ju, Zlotnikov

Round 3

In the only completed game, and a GM-GM clash, GM Erenburg (White) and GM Yudasin (Black) drew in 26 moves in a Sicilian.

Results - I have no details!

= Erenburg - Yudasin =
0 Ju - Molner 1
0 Scekis - Palatnik 1
1 Zlotnikov - Ippolito 0
1 Ehlvest - Saenz 0

Standings after Round 3
2.5 Erenburg, Yudasin, Ehlvest, Molner
2.0 Palatnik
1.0 Ippolito, Zlotnikov
0.5 Saenz, Scekic
0.0 Ju

NJ Futurity: Round 1 Results

2008-07-07T18:20:00.001-07:00

The first round of the Second New Jersey International Futurity has concluded!

GM Yudasin (Black) beat NJ Knockout Evan Ju (White), in a 42 move Najdorf. It seemed like Ju had chances up until at least move 35 in a Rook and six Pawn versus Rook and six pawn endgame, but it ended rather quickly. I don't pretend to tell you where exactly it went wrong for Ju, but seven moves later, Yudasin had two connected passed pawns on his fifth rank.

IM Saenz (White) and NJ Knockout Dean Ippolito (Black) drew in a 34 move Slav. The relay site gives 35 moves, but the last moves are outright blunders, so I suspect it they are relay errors.

IM Scekic (White) lost to last year's winner GM Sergey Erenburg, in an exciting 46 move Slav, where both sides had furious attacks at the end, but Erenburg's was more powerful. Again, the last move or two are unclear, likely because of the relay.

The first GM clash, between Ehlvest (White) and Palatnik (Black) ending with a win for Ehlvest in the midst of a King and Pawn endgame. The game started as a Queen's Gambit Declined Tarrasch.

The game between the two NJ Knockouts, IM Zlotnikov (White) and Mackensie Molner (Black), ended with Molner a few moves from mating Zlotnikov, in that rarest of endings, Knight and Bishop against Zlotnikov's lone king. Zlotnikov played for a while and clearly wanted Molner to prove that he could execute the W-maneuver and mate him. When Molner proved that he had actually studied his endgame technique, Zlotnikov resigned.

Standings after round 1:
1.0 Ehlvest, Erenburg, Molner, Yudasin
0.5 Ippolito, Saenz
0.0 Ju, Palatnik, Scekic, Zlotnikov

Combined, the NJ Knockouts are 1.5 / 4.0.

The second round begins tomorrow at 10am at the Dean of Chess Academy in Branchburg, NJ.

NJ Futurity II starts today

2008-07-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

At 3:15pm Eastern today, the New Jersey Futurity II starts. According to one of the sponsors, the New Jersey State Chess Federation, there will be a live game broadcast, which you can reach by clicking here. The other sponsor of the tournament is the International Chess School (ICS).

Good luck again to Ippolito, Zlotnikov, Molner, and Ju, the New Jersey Knockouts' representatives in the tournament!

New Jersey Futurity II

2008-07-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to the New Jersey Knockouts blog! Where have you been? More importantly, where have I been? The US Chess League starts up again in under two months, and you can tune in right here to find all the action.

Until then, there's other New Jersey chess action to keep us occupied. The New Jersey State Chess Federation and the International Chess School (ICS) are sponsoring another Futurity tournament starting on Monday, July 7, 2008, the day after the conclusion of the World Open. The ten-player single round robin will take place at the Dean of Chess Academy in Branchburg, NJ. It concludes on July 11, 2008.

I got a scoop on the pairings, and an updated list of the participants, so without further ado...

Participants

GM Jaan Ehlvest (2603 - USA)
GM Sergey Erenburg (2563 - ISR)
GM Leonid Yudasin (2550 - ISR)
GM Sam Palatnik (2472 - USA)
IM Dean Ippolito (2445 - USA)
IM A. Almeida Saenz (2419 - MEX)
IM Milos Scekic (2371 - SRB)
IM Mikhail Zlotnikov (2345 - USA)
Mackensie Molner (2337 - USA)
Evan Ju (2286 - USA)

Average Rating = 2439 (Category 8)

Erenburg is returning to defend his title from last year's tournament. Many of the participants are the same as last year; new players this year are Ehlvest, Palatnik, Saenz, and Scekic. Ehlvest, formerly in the world's top five, and Palatnik, with his team and individual medals at the Student Team Championships in 1974 and 1976, are impressive additions to this powerful tournament.

Most importantly (in the context of this blog), is the fact that Ippolito, Zlotnikov, Molner, and Ju were all members of the Knockouts last year! Just a couple of weeks ago, Molner picked up an IM norm at the Marshall Chess Club. Ippolito may have a homefield advantage, playing at his own school. Let's cheer them all on to floor the rest of the competition.

Schedule (White listed first)

Round 1 (July 7, 2008: 3:15pm)
Ju - Yudasin
Scekic - Erenburg
Zlotnikov - Molner
Ehlvest - Palatnik
Saenz - Ippolito

Round 2 (July 8, 2008: 10:00am)
Yudasin - Saenz
Ippolito - Ehlvest
Palatnik - Zlotnikov
Molner - Scekic
Erenburg - Ju

Round 3 (July 8, 2008: 4:00pm)
Erenburg - Yudasin
Ju - Molner
Scekic - Palatnik
Zlotnikov - Ippolito
Ehlvest - Saenz

Round 4 (July 9, 2008: 10:00am)
Yudasin - Ehlvest
Saenz - Zlotnikov
Ippolito - Scekic
Palatnik - Ju
Molner - Erenburg

Round 5 (July 9, 2008, 4:00pm)
Molner - Yudasin
Erenburg - Palatnik
Ju - Ippolito
Scekic - Saenz
Zlotnikov - Ehlvest

Round 6 (July 10, 2008: 10:00am)
Yudasin - Zlotnikov
Ehlvest - Scekic
Saenz - Ju
Ippolito - Erenburg
Palatnik - Molner

Round 7 (July 10, 2008: 4:00pm)
Palatnik - Yudasin
Molner - Ippolito
Erenburg - Saenz
Ju - Ehlvest
Scekic - Zlotnikov

Round 8 (July 11, 2008 10:00am)
Yudasin - Scekic
Zlotnikov - Ju
Ehlvest - Erenburg
Saenz - Molner
Ippolito - Palatnik

Round 9 (July 11, 2008, 4:00 pm)
Ippolito - Yudasin
Palatnik - Saenz
Molner - Ehlvest
Erenburg - Zlotnikov
Ju - Scekic

The Season is Over for the Knockouts

2007-10-31T20:53:00.000-07:00

A glorious first season came to a tragic end tonight, as the New Jersey Knockouts lost to the New York Knights, by a score of 2.5 - 1.5. GM Joel Benjamin won on first board against GM Pascal Charbonneau, but the Knockout's Mike Zlotnikov and Mackenzie Molner, lost on boards 2 and 3 respectively. Evan Ju, on Board 4, fought a long difficult struggle, but had to settle for a draw, after 117 moves and the 50 move rule. The Knockouts end their inaugural season with a respectable record of 4.5 - 5.5.

All Knockouts' matches in the year were extremely close, all ending by a score of 2 - 2 or 2.5 - 1.5. The Knockouts were competitive all year long, and, although counted out by some at the beginning of the season, put up a resilient and brave fight.

Congratulations to the winner of the match tonight, the New York Knights, who take third place in the Eastern division of the USCL, and play Philadelphia in the playoffs.

Thanks go to Greg Shahade, commissioner of the United States Chess League, for all his hard work. Check back periodically throughout the year for updates on the Knockouts' players, and other events in Garden State.

Knockouts flooring the Knights

2007-10-31T18:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight, the New Jersey Knockouts are flooring the New York Knights. I was unable to real-time blog, tonight, but Debbie Benjamin was kind enough to send me a picture of the Halloween donuts at the site, for all you donut lovers.

Until next week, when the Knockouts are in the playoffs!

Justice Prevails: Molner wins game of the week!

2007-10-27T08:06:00.000-07:00

For the first time in the Knockouts' brief history, a player has won game of the week in the USCL. Mackensie Molner's (a.k.a. Big Mac and the Sac Attack) thrilling and innovative crush of Baltimore's IM Larry Kaufman on Board 3 has prevailed.

While Molner came in second in the GotW contest several weeks ago, this week the judges rightly came to their senses and awarded Big Mac and this Sac Attack this weeks prize. His innovative knight sacrifice and resourceful, and well-timed, defense maneuvering clinched it for him. Plus, as the tiebreak judge remarked, it was quite an interesting game.

Congrats to Big Mac and have fun replaying the wild game here.

Real Time Blog for Week 9: KO and Fish

2007-10-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

Next week is the last week in the USCL. Unfortunately, this will be last real-time blog of the regular season. If (when) New Jersey makes the playoffs, I should be back in November for another blog.

But next week, when New York and New Jersey will play, it might be for the final playoff spot! Watch the United States Chess League action next week on the Internet Chess Club, sponsored by PokerStars.com.

11:13pm

Blehm resigned! And the Knockouts have tied the match 2.0 - 2.0!

11:09pm

And Joel has won a piece, but Blehm is trying to mate him and get a perpetual.

11:05pm

And Molner put the final crush on Kaufman, and Kaufman resigned! The Knockouts now are behind only 1.0 - 2.0.

11:01pm

Molner's got Kaufman in a nasty zugzwang. He just needs to push his pawns to victory, it seems.

10:54pm

But Khodarkovsky's game really wasn't as interesting as I made it out to be. A few short moves later, White's central passed pawn stopped the dancing monarch, and Michael had to resign. Therefore, the Knockouts are down 0.0 - 2.0.

A bad taste of donuts infects the bile within me.

10:51pm

Khodarkovsky's game is rather interesting. In this R+B vs. R+B, his king is kind of tied up dancing around White's pieces, but at the same time, when not dancing, he's pushing is outside passed baby queens toward their birthing center.

10:48pm

After a furious exchange of pieces, Mac's game has turned into a very unbalanced position. Mac has a Queen and two pawns for Kaufman's Bishop, Knight, and Rook. Point-wise it is straight up, but Molner's queen is well-positioned, and if he can take advantage of it before Kaufman manages to coordinate his pieces, then he's in good shape.

10:45pm

Blehm make what looked like a threatening move, but Joel has calmly and quickly moved his queen to g3, attacking Blehm's queen and threatening further to simplify the position. Joel would be living off the increment, but in a materially equal endgame.

10:43pm

The Knockouts are low on time on all the other boards too. Molder has three-and-a-half minutes left, but Khodarkovsky and Benjamin have less than two minutes each.

10:42pm

And Aviv has resigned. The mating attack was just too strong. The Knockouts are down 0.0 - 1.0 to the Kingfishers.

10:34pm

Uh-oh. It looks like Board 2 is in bad shape for the Knockouts. Enkhbat has what appears to be a crushing attack against Friedman. He's just sacced a Rook for what appears to be a smash up mating attack.

Molner is still trying to figure out a way to wipe out Kaufman, and hope his knight sac was not in vain.

10:24pm

Another Mac sac! He let go of his light-squared bishop for another rook lift. If he can pull this out, he's definitely in contention for game of the week again... although Irina Krush's rook sac in her game is also pretty.

Here is Mac's game...

10:12pm

Battsetseg - Khodarkovsky is looking pretty drawish. Michael's pawns are on square colors that complement his bishop, but there's a lot of harmonic tension in the position. My guess is that they are going for a repetition soon.

10:11pm

Mac's pieces are all posed for the attack. He's standing up now, striking an imposing figure over the physical board. The smack is back!

10:04pm

I've been too busy watching the games to actually blog. For which I apologize. Profusely.

What I did notice that Mac's attack ain't wack, and we're gonna see a sac, that will hack Black.

10:02pm

Ratings for the games at the 10:00pm hour.
Board 1: 72 observers (+9%)
Board 2: 30 observers (=0%)
Board 3: 27 observers (+4%)
Board 4: 21 observers (=0%)

9:42pm

While we await the photos of the donuts at the Boston Blitz site, let's check out Aviv's game on Board 2. It looks like there are three little two pawn islands for White, while Aviv (as Black) has a three-pawn island on both coasts of the board. Aviv is lining up his heavy pieces to fire at the central island. Clocks are approximately equal.

9:37pm

On Board 1, Joel is currently playing from the screen, not the physical board.

On Board 2, Aviv is angled between the screen and the board, but mostly looking at the board itself.

On Board 3, Molner is close to the screen, with his hand poised on the mouse.

On Board 4, Khodarkovsky is ignoring the screen, and his hunched over the board, hand ovre mouth, thumb on cheek.

9:32pm

On Board 4, we have a pretty equal looking endgame, although Khodarkovsky is down a bit on time. Nevertheless, it is R+B vs. R+B and bishops are same color and pawns are equal. Looks drawish.

9:25pm

Indeed, Blehm is having a long think about what to do with a pawn stuck in his throat.

9:11pm

On Board 1, GM Joel and GM Blehm are getting ready to set up the pieces for a game of Fischer Random. Pieces are slowly moving back to the first couple of ranks.

Actually, you know what it really reminds me of. A cat. Both sides, actually. A cat that this ready to spring forth and pounce on a rodent. The pieces on both sides are lying in wait for the opportunity to strike.

9:04pm

Molner is viscious. He's castled on the queenside (opposite), moved his king a tad safer to b1, and has now started another attack against poor Kaufman's king. He grabbed the mouse, pressed and held the mouse-button for a perceptible instant, while slowly -- with the deliberation of a Senator pondering a response to a question from an Ethics committee -- shifting his mouse cursor north, guiding his determined and grim h-pawn toward its ultimate sacrificial goal, of smashing the living crap out of the pawn shield that feebly guards Kaufman's emasculated monarch.

9:02pm

Ratings for the games at the 9:00pm hour.
Board 1: 61 observers (+43%)
Board 2: 30 observers (+20%)
Board 3: 26 observers (+4%)
Board 4: 21 observers (+5%)

8:55pm

Let's move onto Board 4. The Knockouts' assistant manager, Michael Khodarkovsky, played his Alekhine against his opponent, WIM Tsagaan Battseteg. As you may know, Michael is the president of the Kasparov Chess Foundation, and was a coach/manager of the 2004 US Women's Olympiad team. Michael may be mumbling "oil can" to shake off the rust, but he's already in a dynamic position, lining up the big guns on White's isolated d-pawn. I sense there may be a big exchange of pieces soon.

8:39pm

Let's see what Big Mac is up to on Board 3. As everyone knows, Mac was inexplicably ripped off in a complete travesty of justice as he missed out on the Game of the Week prize (he lost to this pedestrian effort) with his brilliant win from late September (which you can replay here), and the USCL tried to justify their shameful voting in this post.

Anyway, he's attempting to win the prize again this week, as he is gobbling up space on Kaufman's side of the board, and showing once again, that the French reputation (shrink and surrender) is not wholly undeserved.

8:36pm

On Board 2, Enkhbhat declined the draw by playing 15. Qc4. He will regret that Aviv gave him an opportunity to live and play another day. Now, the crushing begins.

8:33pm

Only 75 minutes in, and Friedman has offered a draw to his opponent on board 2!

8:27pm

Back to Board 2... FM Aviv Freidman has traded off three minor pieces a side, to reach what appears to me to be a relatively equal position. Both sides have a Knight and their heavy pieces, Aviv has a 3-2 majority on the queenside, but his e-pawn is pretty far advanced and looks lonely. It might need some more protection at some point soon.

8:19pm

The destruction has begun. GM Joel has blasted open the a-file for his rook, who smartly stayed at home, while the Fish's rook, went, um... fishing on the b-file, looking for a tasty snack. All he found was a worm, and GM Joel is poised to gut him and fry him. Perhaps with a bit of tarragon and a side of leeks.

8:15pm

Let's look back in a little more depth at the situation on the boards.

On Board 1, the DMZ seems to be the line separating the fourth and fifth rank. No one seems willing to cross it. The real question is, though... where will the pawn break occur? Will the a-file open up for both sides? What about the center? Who will make the first pawn capture? Both sides just castled. When will the destruction begin??

8:07pm

The coffee is excellent tonight. And the donuts, well... The munchkins are covered with Halloween-theme-colored sprinkles. And the sprinkles are crunchy, not chewy.

8:04pm

As I said, Mac Molner, New Jersey's third board tonight, just completed the World Junior Championship. You can see the final standings at their website, here.

8:01pm

Ratings for the games at the 8:00pm hour.
Board 1: 43 observers
Board 2: 25 observers
Board 3: 25 observers
Board 4: 20 observers

7:54pm

Finally, on Board 1, GM Joel Benjamin has forcefully slammed his finger down on the mouse, when he smashed out 3 Bb5+ to his unsuspecting, and fashionably late, opponent, GM Pawel Blehm. Blehm tried the supposedly more unusual reply 3...Nbd7, and they are only at move 6, already 40 minutes into the game.

7:49pm

On Board 2, the Knockouts' late roster replacement, FM Aviv "Sveshi" Friedman has surprised his opponent FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat with a Chigorin Defense. Morozevich would be proud. Aviv has clearly shaken off the rust of his long layoff, and will soon be tempting the Kingfisher with his wily ways.

7:40pm

On Board 3, the Knockouts' Mackensie "Big Mac Attack" Molner, is White against IM Larry Kaufman. Molner just returned last week from a solid showing at the World Junior Championships in Armenia. Despite starting ranked 60th, he finished in a tie for 48th-56th, with 6.0/13.0, and a performance rating 122 points over his FIDE rating. The experience he gained there is bound to help him in the White side of Kaufman's French Defense.

7:34pm

A quick look around the four boards before a deeper look. Let's start with Board 4. The Knockouts Assistant Manager and Team Alternate Michael Khodarkovsky, has played the Alekhine defense against US Women's Championship participant WIM Tsagaan Battseteg. They have already hit move 8, and Khodarkovsky's fianchettoed bishop aims at White's pawn center, consisting of a c- and d-pawn.

7:33pm

Three of the four games have started. GM Joel Benjamin has been unable to start his game as his opponent is late. We're the only team that seems to get to the matches on time!

7:25pm

Everyone has arrived, and the matches are about to start. We are waiting on the Fish to swim up to our hooks.

6:51pm

GM Joel Benjamin and his wife Debbie are here. Mac Molner just walked in. Ready to hook the fish.

Pictures from Tonight's Contest versus the Boston Blitz

2007-10-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

Even though I'm not in New Jersey tonight, Debbie Benjamin was kind enough to email me a few pictures from tonight's match.

ABOVE: Joel Benjamin showing off his loyalties, although the placement of the Indians hat is probably not a coincidence, considering Cleveland is playing Boston in the American League Championship Series (in baseball).

ABOVE: Evan Ju (far) and Victor Shen (close) start their games. Dean Ippolito is on the left in the back.

ABOVE: Dean Ippolito prepping before the game. With him, is his ubiquitous Red Bull.

Player Profile: Victor Shen

2007-10-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

Victor Shen is a 14 year old national master, living in Edison, New Jersey. After being taught to play at age seven by his father, Victor admires from afar the attacking games of Kasparov and Tal, and his former coach Scott Massey, and current coach (and Knouckouts' manager) Joel Benjamin. Interestingly, he also mentions that current American #3 Alexander Onischuk is a favorite because of his superb opening preparation and his classical style.

Besides the hundreds of Kasparov games that Victor claims he doesn't actually study, a particular game that he admires is Tal's victory against Smyslov in the 1964 USSR team championship. Victor is awed by 24...Qe2!! and extraordinarily impressed by Tal's endgame technique at the end. You can replay the Tal-Smyslov game here.

Victor has played two games so far for the Knockouts with a loss and a draw. The draw, especially, was an amazing save, and if you don't know the story, you should check it out here. Despite his 0.5 - 1.5 record, he thinks the USCL is a brilliant idea. The camaraderie of being on a team with others from your area, the possibility of being in "must win" situtations, and the practice with the FIDE time control, all make playing for the Knockouts a great experience for which Victor is thankful.

Highly emotional experiences make for lasting memories, and while most people's memorable experiences over a chess board are joyous, Victor's was on the other end of the happiness spectrum. It happened earlier this year in the last round of the 2007 Liberty Bell Open, where he was playing Alex Shabalov. Coming out of the opening in good shape, he blundered the exchange for a pawn, but it was a blunder of serendipity, as he came out of the opening with a big positional advantage that became winning. But then, disaster struck. He missed some wins in time trouble, then exchanged queens. The last board in the last round of the top section is always a harrowing experience, since the spectators crowd around you. In Victor's case, the pressure of the spectators was far greater than the pressure on the board, since the queen exchange produced a dead drawn endgame. Shabalov declined Victor's draw offer, and Victor traded rooks to produce what he thought was an even deader position. But it didn't work, and tactical shots by Shabalov caused Victor to resign. We've all likely experienced situations like Victor's -- I know I have -- but Shabalov's "I'm sorry" during the postmortem permanently etched this episode in Victor's mind.

He confesses to not being an avid reader or purveyor of television and movies, spending most of his time on chess and schoolwork. While he may relax for a few minutes, playing basketball with his friends, he takes the time he used to spend playing sports and studies his opening theory.

Finally, in my interactions with Victor, I've noticed that he has a wickedly self-deprecating sense of humor. He claims that he sucks at chess and has never have played a game of chess of which he was proud. Indeed, everytime he ruminates on his game versus Shabalov, he wonders why he still actually plays this maddening game. And, he claims that if he ever does play a game of which he is proud, he will send it in. I expect, though, that the remainder of his games this year with the Knockouts will provide moments of pride and glory.