versus

So come on out to root on your Scorpions! We’ll be watching the match live in the Chad’s Steakhouse Lounge or you can watch all the USCL matches on ICC.

And with that, I’m proud to announce this year’s squad. Returning to the Scorpions from last season:

GM Rogelio Barcenilla
IM Levon Altounian
IM Dionisio Aldama
IM-elect Robby Adamson
NM David Adelberg
NM Nick Thompson
NM Amanda Mateer

And after a season off, the Scorpions welcome the return of IM Mark Ginsburg!

In addition we welcome two new players to the Scorpions family.

IM Mackenzie Molner
FM Pedram Atoufi

We have a strong squad with a mix of veterans and rising stars. I look forward to this year’s season and the possibilities.

The USCL starts next week at 6:00 pm (Arizona time) on Monday, August 26 against the Miami Sharks.

versus

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!

The 2010 United States Chess League is almost upon us. The teams (including 3 new ones) are gathering for another great season of Internet chess. Just as the league is making some changes, so are the Arizona Scorpions.

The 2010 Scorpions were announced today. Here is the official roster. The ratings in parenthesis are the official league ratings based on the September 2009 USCF supplement. Current USCF ratings are different.

IM Rogelio Barcenilla (2583)
IM Levon Altounian (2536)
IM Dionisio Aldama (2489)
IM Danny Rensch (2432)
FM Warren Harper (2357)
FM Robby Adamson (2346)
NM David Adelberg (2196)
NM Nick Thompson (2098)
Expert John Gurczak (2098)
Expert Amanda Mateer (1993)

One other change to announce. Leo Martinez has stepped down as manager of the Scorpions. Sources close to the organization, who wish to remain anonymous, say that “wanting to spend more time with his family, to work on his studies, and to focus on his health” were major factors in his decision. There were some rumors last season that Leo’s wild, partying nightlife and many female fans were a distraction to the team during their playoff run. When asked if “Leo’s Legion of Ladies” was the cause for the early playoff exit, Scorpion veteran Robby Adamson replied, “Everyone loves Leo. Women want to be with him, men want to be him. But that doesn’t matter now. The 2010 team is only focused on the 2010 season.” EJ will take over as manager of the team.

The first match of the year will be on Wednesday, August 25 at 6:00 PM (local time) against the Miami Sharks. A line-up and location will be announced prior to the match. Once again, the Scorpions will play matches in either Mesa (Abstrax) or Tucson (University of Arizona). All matches are viewable on the Internet Chess Club (ICC).

We look forward to another great season!

The next match-up pits the Arizona Scorpions against the Chicago Blaze in Week 8. As the Arizona Manager I will try to give you a recap of how things have gone this year and telling you about this tough match-up as well.

The Scorpions are in a great spot in the playoff race in the West being in 2^nd place on tiebreaks over San Francisco and Miami. With a record of 4.0-3.0 the Scorpions are a point and half ahead of Chicago who need to win this game in order to have chances to get in the playoffs. The Scorpions need this win if they want to secure their first playoff berth and to put themselves in a good seeding if they do get to the playoffs.

We have played the Blaze once before this year in Week 1 beating them 3.5-0.5 with wins by Alejandro Ramirez, Robby Adamson, and David Adelberg. However this week is completely different as only one player playing this week was playing for the Scorpions in Week 1. Although much has been said on the Chicago blog about how the Scorpions have dominated the Blaze in the past this gives no indication of how close this match is. Although Arizona has a rating advantage Chicago has always been a very solid team that contests every board from 1-4. Much like us Chicago doesn’t usually stack their lineups up top or on the bottom boards. On top of this Chicago has just come off a big win against the Tennessee Tempo, fighting against not one but two GM’s (Ehlvest and Shabalov) with wins by Van de Mortel and Angelo Young.

On to the match!

Board 1

IM Jaan Van de Mortel 2456        vs      GM Rogelio Barcenilla 2583

Both of these players are coming off big wins in their last matches, both against Grandmasters. Also both of these wins allowed their teams to win their matches by 2.5-1.5. Jaan beat one of the top Grandmasters in the country and former top ten player in the world in Jaan Ehlvest in a very nice game. GM Rogelio Barcenilla just came off an extremely wild game beating GM Vinay Bhat. I remember thinking around move 15 how Rogelio could have gotten into such a horrible position so early with White. However, one of the most important characteristics of a chess player is resiliency and Rogelio definitely has some of that. He ended this game by barely winning Queen against Rook ending giving me and everyone else at the site a near heart attack! After coming off a rough start this season with losses to Nakamura and Bercys, Rogelio has more than made up for this with very strong wins against IM Ippolito and GM Bhat, in both cases leading to Scorpion wins.

In the past Jaan has had trouble against the Scorpions losing to IM Levon Altounian and IM Mark Ginsburg last season, both times with Black. He no doubt will be ready to rumble to change that with White on Monday night.

Board 2

IM Dionisio Aldama 2506            vs          IM Florin Felecan      2430

This will be the second game that Dionisio will play in his USCL career with a draw against IM John Donaldson last week. His uncompromising style should make for an interesting game as Felecan plays similarly. If there is one game to watch in this match I would focus on this game as two wild players equal a wild game I’m predicting! Dionisio is one of those players that I cannot guess any of his moves but somehow he ends up making it work in the end which is all that matters.

Board 3

IM Mehmed Pasalic     2346         vs            IM Danny Rensch   2434

IM(!) Danny Rensch comes back to play after his first win in the USCL last week against Daniel Naroditsky. Danny seems to be breaking barriers everywhere lately having just broken through to the IM title as well. Danny’s solid record this year in the league, although not absolutely groundbreaking, is definitely one of the reasons we have done so well this year. Danny has the ability to beat anyone on board 2 or 3 when playing well and I hope he can continue his winning streak this week against Pasalic.  Pasalic lost to FM Robby Adamson in Week 1 and is no doubt looking for some vengeance in this game against a fellow Scorpion.

Board 4

NM David Adelberg      2202        vs            NM Eric Rosen.    2237

After David’s loss last week all I saw was him very disappointed. However, after this he was hopeful and then happy again when our team pulled the win out anyways. He played very well against Greg Young playing into a winning position before losing in the endgame. Of course this kind of stuff happens to everyone and is typical in such important games. However, David has no doubt been one of the bright spots to our team this year. I knew David was good and had all the potential in the world when I put him on the team but I had no idea how much he had improved. I played David once when he was around 1900 a couple of years ago. I had heard his name floating around the Arizona chess community a couple times but I didn’t really know him and to be honest I didn’t take him super seriously. I just thought he was like all 1900s. After barely winning a 6 hour game that ended around 12:00 am I was pretty shocked. I kept thinking after the game while analyzing the game with him that “this kid is gonna be good.” Well I don’t think David is done improving but he has already proven me right. With wins against Magness and Zorigt and a solid +1 record he has done very well in his USCL season debut. He also has just last weekend broken to become over 2200 USCF and a “Master” at only 12 years old. He is no doubt a player to watch in the future….starting with tomorrow at 6:00pm! You can check out all the games at 6:00 PM AZ time on ICC or at Abstrax in Mesa, Arizona. Come check us out!

In our match against Dallas last season the two teams were evenly contested on all four boards similar to this season.

Both Dallas and Arizona teams have had very similar roster lineups the past two years since Arizona became a part of the US Chess League. Both teams prefer a more balanced lineup of players in their lineups rather than stacked lineups with many strong players on the top boards and weaker players on the bottom boards as some teams prefer to do.  Which lineup is better (stacked lineups or balanced lineups) is still up for debate and I don’t think there is necessarily a right answer.  Both seem to work depending on the teams. Dallas has obviously perfected the balanced lineup being two time defending champions. While teams like New Jersey seems to do well with a stacked lineup.    Queens is another good example that used the stacked lineup well last season.

However, due to some scheduling issues Dallas has not been dominating (other than their Boston match) this season. However, this does not suggest that the Scorpions underestimate them in the least and we are taking this match as one against the two time defending champs and as one that is crucial for both team as we look ahead towards the rest of the season. Both teams have strong lineups up for this match.

Let’s analyze the matchups:

Board 1

GM Alejandro Ramirez    2600 vs.          IM John Bartholomew   2499

These players both know each other well as they have both been playing in the Dallas area for a while.  John has been taking the board 1 duties for Dallas this season playing the likes of GM’s Hikaru Nakamura and Julio Becerra.  This should be a very tough game for both players as John has a very, very solid style that can at times frustrate strong players. However, Alejandro is undeniably a favorite here as a 2600 GM with White.

Board 2

IM Salvijus Bercys            2503        vs.            GM-Elect Rogelio Barcenilla 2583

This match pits Rogelio Barcenilla on the board 2 spot for the first time in his short career. All of last season Rogelio played board one and had a very respectable even score against five grandmasters. Since then he has achieved his final GM norm at the Copper State tournament in Phoenix, Arizona. He will be awarded the GM title fairly soon. This also is the first time that the Scorpions will have a double GM lineup with two players almost both in the 2600s. Sal Bercys has played one game this season losing a long game to Sam Shankland. However, in this game he was in a position where he had to win for team reasons and in this game Bercys pushed fairly hard, finally losing. However this matchup between 2500s should be very close and is definitely one of the games to watch.

Board 3

FM Robby Adamson 2354 vs.           FM Keaton Kiewra  2365

FM Robby Adamson has been one of the MVPs of the Scorpion team so far this season going 2.5/3 so far this season.  From his wide experience playing ICC (literally playing tens of thousands of ICC games) he has transferred some of this “experience” to his USCL games. Keaton Kiewra seems to be the the Destiny’s regular third board playing three out of their 4 matches. In past years Dallas has chosen a lineup and stayed with that lineup throughout most of the season. This season they have varied more but Keaton has been a constant third board for them.  With a 2/3 record he has done well himself and this matchup should be very close and could easily go either way.

Board 4

WFM Bayaraa Zorigt 2270                 vs.          Expert David Adelberg 2160

The fourth board brings back the twelve year old phenom David Adelberg to the Arizona lineup! David is only twelve years old and after not playing two matches he was eager to get back in the mix. Here he faces the 2008 4^th board MVP from last season in Bayaraa Zorigt. Although Bayaraa lost her last game in the USCL her +5 record from last season stands out and she is a very tough, technical player. However, David has proven himself again and again against strong players and he will have to do so again in this situation. Both of these players are very solid and positional players who are not afraid to mix it up but would rather think about pawn structures than piece sacs. With David’s rating only 5 points from reaching master (at only 12 years old!) we are likely to see many more achievements from this kid…starting with this week!

One further comment that I would like to make concerning the Scorpions is the newly crowned International Master Danny Rensch! Danny recently got his final IM norm by drawing IM Ray Robson at the SPICE Cup in Texas. Watch a video of Danny after his great tournament:

Thanks everyone and go root for the Scorpions Wednesday at 6:00 PM AZ time!

Anyways on to the match.

Unfortunately the Arizona Scorpions lost their last match against the Baltimore Kingfishers. This was a very close match. Just like the Seattle match versus Arizona a couple breaks here or there and this could have easily been our victory. But we will have to go ahead and learn from it instead. This was our “weakest” lineup that we have had all year however we felt that we were at least solid on every board. When we saw the Baltimore lineup we were confident that this was going to be a very close match up. However, our team is fully confident that the remainder of the season is going to see a rise of the Scorpions! Stay tuned for new lineups and new players added to play to the team in the weeks ahead!

IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat (BAL) vs IM Levon Altounian (ARZ)  1/2-1/2

This game was probably the most boring of the group so I will deal with it first! Levon prepared some for Enkhbat since he almost exclusively plays 1. d4 in the league. He had told me that he was going to play a Slav and a very solid line occurred where Black had a very solid structure while White had the big center. However, Black was ready to hit the center at any moment and after 10…Bh5 he is getting ready to play …Bg6 and attack e4 again. The game started to get a little more exciting after 13. d5 c5 14. de6 Qe6 15. Ng5 Qc6 16. Nd5!?. Although this doesn’t seem like it works as an aggressive attempt it did seem to exchange a lot of the pieces that were left on the board with two sets of minor pieces coming off. After 22…c4 it seemed that Black could not be worse but it is tough to convert that to a victory. Although Black has a more mobile pawn majority White has his counter chances as well.  In the end, although Levon fought it out until he could not anymore the position just petered out to a draw.

IM Mark Ginsburg (ARZ) vs GM Larry Kaufman (BAL)  1/2-1/2

This was the second game done of the match. This was one game that affected the rest of the match I thought as Mark seemed to be in trouble the entire game.  When one board is in trouble and down a pawn (although I guess he got some play out of it at some point) the other boards of course usually look at that and decide if they have to be more aggressive or not on their board. However, Mark did very well after he lost a pawn and immediately got at least some play for his pieces. This saying is mentioned a lot but I will say it again. A lot of times when you are in a cramped position and your pieces are not functioning, when you lose a pawn your pieces open up and you have more room for your pieces. That is what happened to Mark’s game. He lost a pawn but all of a sudden he got the a-file, he got holes for his knight on e5 and c5 and he was able to attack with his bishop on g4. This maybe was not enough but it definitely made the game more dynamic and interesting.

IM Ray Kaufman (BAL) vs FM Robby Adamson (ARZ)  1/2-1/2

This game was crazy the whole way through. At one point Robby said he was +5 ahead if he played the right move. The game started with a long theoretical line of the Sozin Sicilian. I thought that 18. Bc5 was kind of suspect and after that White was just going for broke on the kingside sacrificing the exchange for play. He did have some play and for most of the game I had no idea what was going on. However, if you look at it for more time than I had (because I was still playing) you had to see that White’s rook was definitely misplaced on h4 and unless White mates his king can become weak as well. One top of this, I think one of Robby’s better chess qualities is defending tough positions and this was the case here as well. However, Robby was unable to find the wins for him in this case and instead chose to trade down into a opposite colored bishops ending where he was up material but could not break through.

NM Leo Martinez (ARZ) vs FM Shinsaku Uesugi (BAL)  0-1

So this was a pretty tough game for me as I had a very tough decision to make on move 24 where Black basically offered a draw by repeating. Black had no other choices there as he had to repeat the position or his position would be lost. So the game was pretty early and I didn’t know what to do. I could take the draw or go into some crazy complications where the position is not clear at all. If this was some normal tournament I think this would have been a much easier decision but in this team setting you have to look at how you’re going to help win as a team rather than think about your own game. I thought that Mark’s game looked very bad as he lost a pawn with White in about 20 moves. Robby’s position looked crazy and unless I analyzed it for awhile there was no way I was going to be able to make a definitive decision. And Levon’s game was not at all clear either. I honestly thought it could be any result. Therefore based on the fact that Mark was losing and the other boards were completely unclear I thought I had to go for a win here. However, perhaps I should have just decided on this by spending a couple of minutes rather than spending like 10-15 like I did in the game. It is impossible to calculate everything in that position so better would have been just to decide quickly. Anyways on to the game!

I can’t really agree with some of Mark’s analysis that he has in his column. I mean some of the Bg6 lines look good at first but Black has a lot of resources and can play …Ra7 after Bg6 in many lines. For example at one point he suggested instead of 19 Bf5 to play 19 Bg6 Black can play 19…fe3 20. fe3 Ra7 there is still some play in the position. To look at a computer and spit out what it says is pretty easy…to actually play and analyze it during a game is another thing.

According to Alejandro 24. a4! was winning after 24…fe3 25 fe3 and due to the threats of 26 ab5 and 26 Qd7 it is tough to hold Black’s position. In this case moves such as …Ra7 can just get met by axb5 with Black having to defend both the King side and the Queen side. I saw these types of lines but didn’t see the 24. a4! move. So I had to pick something else and I decided to play 24. Nb6? which in the end looks bad if Black played the correct continuation.  After 29…Qg6! 30. Qc6 f3 31. g3 Qe6! 32. Kh1 and now 32…Kf7!, also given by Alejandro, Black wins.  However, neither one of us saw this continuation and after 32. Qc8+ the position was not at clear. Of course after 33…Qh3 34. Rg1 Qxh2 doesn’t work as my queen can interpose the checkmate at h3. After 34…e3 35. fe3 Qc2 36 Rg1 the position was still completely unclear even though the computer is still loving it for White. However one move later I am just lost. After 36…Rh6 I can either play 37. h4 or 37. h3 and only one really works. After 37. h4? was played in the game I am just losing after 37…f2 38. Rgf1 Qe4 39 Kh2 Rxh4+! followed by …Be5 with mate coming. Of course if 37. h3 there is no …Rxh4 trick and the game continues with White having an advantage. This still would have been difficult to defend but this would definitely have given me chances to win. After the game continuation the game is just over and the rest was just easy technique.

A really tough match as I thought boards 3 and 4 were definitely better if not winning at certain points and somehow we didn’t even get a full point out of these two games. In the end,  you have to give credit to Baltimore for fighting hard. However the Scorpions will continue to fight in the remaining matches and we fully expect to do well! With 6 matches to go until the season’s end there are still a lot more fighting chess left!

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