Knockouts Win and Draw in Quarterfinal

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.

Benjamin Frankly: GM Joel Previews New Jersey's Playoffs

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.

Kingfishers Get Royally Plucked by Knockouts: NJ in Playoffs!

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.

Live blog Week 7 versus Baltimore

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.