The Arizona Scorpions (2-0) defeated the Seattle Sluggers (1-1) last night with a score of 3-1 to remain undefeated in the USCL. Arizona was favored going into the Monday night match, but Seattle played well and the outcome was still up in the air late into the evening.

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ARIZONA WINS!!!

[Links to the PGN files are located above in the red results of each game.]

The first game to finish was Nick Thompson’s (2183) game against Michael Wang (2103) on board 4. Going into this match, I was confident with this game because I knew Nick’s playing strength and his history/experience in top level, tense match-ups. I did have concern because it was also Nick’s first game in the USCL, Michael had the advantage of the white pieces, and he is quickly improving, so his rating means nothing to his actual playing strength (an unknown).  Interestingly… when coming up with the Week 2 line-ups, we were expecting Seattle would call up Alex Guo again, after his strong performance in Week 1 against Chicago, so we had Nick preparing to face Alex playing an English opening. Perhaps it was a fluke that Michael decided to play the English on Monday.

I don’t know if Nick played his usual line for the English or if it was something prepared for Alex Guo, but after 11. … a5 it appeared to me that he had comfortable position with a lot of time still on his clock. The game followed that of Suat Atalik (2592) – Sergey Vokarev (2502), from the 2008 European Championships, up to Wang’s move 17. Bxd4 (Aralik played 17. Bd5). Aralik-Vokarev was a draw, this game would be decisive. At this point in the Game/75 match, Michael had 23 minutes on his clock to Nick’s 1 hour and 2 minutes.

Nick’s time advantage was made to good use when he found 24. … Qxe2, followed by 25. Qxc7 Rd1 26. Qc8+ Kf7 28. Rxd1 Qxd1+ 29. Kg2 Qd5+ 30. Kg1. The black queen stands strong in the center, controlling the very important white-squared diagonals. White is unable to protect his a-pawn and prevent black from securing an outside passer. Nick was able to force a queen trade, followed shortly by a bishop trade, that wrapped up the pawn promotion and the game. (Editor: USCL fun fact – The Scorpion’s 4th boards are 5.0/7.0 when playing their first ever USCL game.)

Next to finish was IM Levon Altounian (2496) on board 1 against FM Costin Cozianu (2557). I’m sure our astute fans noticed and may have wondered why Levon was on board 1 and IM Rogelio Barcenilla (2583) was on board 2.  Because our USCL official ratings are based on the September 2009 supplement, and Levon was within 50 points of Rogelio on that list, we are allowed to arrange our line-up with Levon on board 1 and Rogelio on board 2. The only caveat is that Levon has to remain ahead of Rogelio for the rest of the season including the play-offs (Editor: Are you talking play-offs?!?!). Expecting GM Serper to play Seattle’s board 1, we felt that Levon with the white pieces was good enough to overcome an rating difference, even when it turned out to be Cozianu instead. Levon decided he wanted to play 1. c4 as well, but he chose to go with a Catalan instead of the English.

The game was fairly even in the beginning but against common practice, Costin chose to go with 12. … Ra7. Out of 206 game in Big Database 2008, 197 of them played 12. … Rc8 in the same position. Compare that to just the 4 (the second most common) that played. 12. … Ra7. The move isn’t losing, Rybka a fish still felt the position was even. We were just moving in unfamiliar waters. Levon replied with 13. Rfd1 which signaled we’d moved to uncharted waters. (Editor: See Konopka – Namyslo (2000) and get a better database!)

Levon was able to get a slight advantage and initiative after he responded to Costin’s 19. … Bd5 with 20. Ne5 attacking the pawn and f7 and threatening to place the knight deeper into black’s defenses. However it certainly wasn’t a decisive advantage. Levon had tricks, but Costin wasn’t fooled by any of them. Accurate play (and quickly descending clocks) for both players had them agreeing to a draw after move 45.

Arizona now leads 1.5. – .5, however the match was far from over.

In the Scorpion camp, Levon is often referred to as “Mr. Solid” in reference to his style of play over the board. He is just a tough nut to crack. Rogelio Barcenilla is an entirely different kind of “solid” altogether. (Editor: Rogelio Barcenilla is an entirely different kind of “solid”.) He doesn’t get flustered by pressure or in positions when other players would make mistakes. As a manager, that’s the kind of things you like to hear when your Board 2 has the black pieces. (A 150 point rating advantage is nice too.) However, FM Slava Mikhailuk (2431) is never an easy opponent. Both players were coming off a Week 1 defeat and were eying their chance to even their record. As it turned out, their game on board 2 decided the match.

It appeared to be the theme of the night as Slava started the game 1. c4. Instead of the Catalan or the line from board 4. Rogelio replied with a Symmetrical English. The game diverged early from the norm with 9. cxb5, essentially trading white’s c-pawn for black’s a-pawn. As above, this wasn’t a mistake that offered an advantage to either player. The position was still very equal and both players would have to push to try to create an advantage.

The game took its rough, final pawn structure after the move 20. axb4. The a-file was open, but both players had bishops that prevented the opponent from placing a rook on it. Through some maneuvering of his minor pieces, Rogelio was able to finally get a rook on the file with 25. … Ra8. Slava replied with 26. Nd4. Unfortunately for him, this dropped a pawn as the game continued, 26. … Bxd4+ 27.Bxd4 Nxb4 28.Bb2 Nc6 29.Qc3 Nd4 30.Qxd4 Qxd4+ 31.Bxd4 Bxg2 32.Be5 Bf3.

It was approximately at move 50 when the first 2 games had finished. Arizona was leading, but Seattle still had a chance to draw or even win the match. Board 3 mirrored the match. Black was up a pawn, but advancing it would be difficult. Both sides had rooks that were eying the undefended pawn bases on the king-side. It was still either sides’ game and match.

Perhaps feeling he had to push for the win, Slava played 58. Rc8+ instead of playing 58. Ke3 to defend his g-pawn. Rogelio recognized his opportunity and took advantage of the weakness. The game continued, 58. … Kd7 59.Rc3 Kxe7 60.Rxb3 Rg2 61.Rxb5 Rxg3. The result was both bishops coming off the board and each side losing a pawn. For black, it was his outside passed pawn. For white, it was the base to his king-side pawn structure. White was unable to recover and resigned just a few moves further. Rogelio had clinched the match for Arizona.

Board 3 featured familiar foes. IM-elect Robby Adamson (2367) and WGM Katerina Rohonyan (2327) have faced each other twice before on board 3. Robby leads with a score 1.5/2.0, but Katerina has always played him tough to the end. This game would be no different.

Similar to their USCL game in 2008, Robby started off with 1. e4 (Editor: Did he not get the memo?! 1. c4 for everybody!) and Katerina for her part responded with a Sicilian, 1. … c5. It was shortly after Katerina played 11. … Qc8 that I entered the playing room with snacks for the players. Robby was visibly upset with himself. I was worried. When I made it to the spectator room to look at the games in progress and to see what people were saying I could not understand why. The game was still even and no one was making comment about Robby’s imminent doom. Perhaps it was just Robby being in “game-face mode” as he settled in for a long game. (Editor: Perhaps it was the snacks you brought.) Robby later told me that he spent most of his time at this point in the game to consider the line 12. Bxe6 Bxe6 13. Nxe6 Qxe6 14. Nd5 Qxe4+ 15. Kd1; however he decided against it because of 14. … Kd8.

The queens had come off the board and Katerina had two bishops vs. Robby’s two knights. After black played 27. … Bc6, Rybka a fish likes 28. g4. Unfortunately, Robby liked 28. Nc2. The game continued with 28. … d5 29.e5 fxe5 30.Nxe5 Be8 31.Nd3 Bd6 32. Re1 Kf8. There was an opening on the king-side for Robby, but Katerina’s center was keeping him at bay. Of the four games, this one appeared to be Seattle’s strongest shot at a full point early on in the match.

After the match, Robby commented that he could sense the tension in the room. He knew everyone was in tough games and that the match was very close. He said that he didn’t want to push too hard in a position, only to have it fall apart and force his teammates to push in their games as well. That is the nature of the beast when in the USCL and team events. You’re not just playing for yourself. Losing a game early can affect how your teammates feel and play in their games which has a domino affect on the match as a whole.

Perhaps that is why after Katerina played 38. … Ba7, Robby played 39. Nf3 instead of pushing to win an exchange (39. Nf5 Ree8 40. Nd6+ Ke7 41. Nxc8+ Rxc8). (Editor: The position repeated itself again after moves 42 and 44. I guess no one noticed the triple occurrence of position.) With the match still in contention, Katerina pushed to get her rook into white’s defenses with 46. … Re4. As a set of rooks came off the board, the power of black’s bishops were slowly expanding.

Unfortunately for Seattle and Katerina, board 3 no longer mattered. Robby was able to defuse the advantage of the bishops when Katerina played 56. … Bxd4 with 57. N6f5. Shortly after that he was able to trade the final minor pieces. The game evolved into a rooks and pawns endgame where Katerina again was able to secure an advantage (according to the fish). But as the night grew long, and the match was already decided, they agreed to a draw after move 82.

All in all, it was an exciting match. The Scorpions are 2-0 for the first time in their short USCL history. I would like to thank the Holiday Inn – Palo Verde for hosting us, our Scorpion fans who rooted us on both at the hotel and on ICC, and to Leo for giving me the opportunity to manage this great team. Lastly, I would like to thank the team, the Arizona Scorpions, for being a great group of players to work with!

Don’t forget our next match is Tuesday, September 6 against the Los Angeles Vibe! See you then!