The Arizona Scorpions (1 – 2) faces off against the St. Louis Bishops (0 – 3) this evening at Chad’s Steakhouse (NW corner of Swan and Ft. Lowell) at 6:00 pm (Arizona time). Both teams are looking to get back on track and are in near must-win situations if they want to keep their play-off hopes alive.

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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.

For the Arizona Scorpions, the 2010 season ended in a tough defeat at the hands of the Miami Sharks in the semi-finals. As fate would have it, the 2011 season will begin with a chance for the Scorpions to avenge that defeat. The Scorpions and Sharks will face off this Monday at 6:00 pm (Arizona time) at the Holiday Inn – Palo Verde in Tucson. For those not able to join us at the site, the match (and all USCL games) are viewable on the Internet Chess Club.

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Come out to support your team!

See all the news of the week and vote for who you think will win on the Week 1 match page.

The 2011 USCL season is upon us! Last year the Scorpions finished the regular season in first place and made it all the way to the division championships of the playoffs. This year we plan to return to the the top, to show the league that 2010 wasn’t a fluke and to work towards the championship title!

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.

The Week 4 Monday line-ups have been announced. The Arizona Scorpions (3 – 0) will face off against the Dallas Destiny (1 – 2) in this week’s match-up. This week’s match will be played in Tucson on Monday at 6:00 pm. Come down to cheer on your team or you can watch the action on ICC.

Date: September 13, 2010
Location: Tucson, 6:00 PM Arizona time

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New England Nor’easters vs. New Jersey Knockouts

New England, sporting a 2-0 record, can really establish themselves as a team to reckon with in the East while New Jersey is coming off a nice win last week and looks to improve to 2-1. The most interesting game has to be board 1 with Sam “I am sort of quitting chess” Shankland vs. Joel “I don’t have to play white to play on the team” Benjamin.

Key Game(s) for New England: FM Arthur Shen (NJ) vs. NM Alex Cherniack (NE). Cherniack has the experience and rating edge versus young Shen.

Key Game(s) for New Jersey: IM Dean Ippolito (NJ) vs. IM Jan van de Mortel (NE). Ippy has the rating edge and white.

Prediction: I think this is going to be very close. NJ wins but barely 2.5-1.5.

Manhattan Applesauce vs. Boston Blitz

Boston owns this series with 5.5/6 lifetime score but one of the games has a mismatch – so this should be an interesting match.

Key Game(s) for Apple team: FM Andrei Zaremba (MA) vs. WGM Anya Corke (BOS). Zaremba needs a big win here because of the rating disadvantage on board 4.

Key Game(s) for Boston: IM Marc Esserman (BOS) vs. IM Eli Vovsha (MA). Esserman has white and I am sure will have some tactical mess in store for Vovsha.

Prediction: Simply because of the rating edge on board 4, Boston wins 2.5-1.5.

Dallas Destiny vs. St. Louis Arch Bishops

Oh the 3 GM lineup again, with Naka, Yuri the Cat, and Ben Finegold. I picked St Louis last week and got stung, but not by a Scorpion.

Key Game(s) for Dallas: GM Alejandro “I don’t know how to plan in advance” Ramirez (DAL) vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura (STL). Alejandro needs to hold the fort here and hope for a win on board 4 where Dallas has their only rating edge, and then hope someone kicks the aforementioned previously referred to Cat there under or Lady Gaga lover.

Key Game for St. Louis: Same as key Game for Dallas.

Prediction: St. Louis rolls 3-1.

Chicago Blaze vs. San Francisco Mechanics

The closest match of the night features two teams who have not lost yet. Lots of intriguing match-ups here:

Key Game for Chicago: GM Dmitry Gurevich (CHI) vs. IM Dmitry Zilberstein (SF). In a battle of the Dmitrys, the senior one could give his team a huge lift if he wins on board 1.

Key Game(s) for San Francisco. FM Daniel Naroditsky vs. IM Florin Felecan and FM Steven Zierk vs. IM Angelo Young. Daniel has been playing very well lately while Florin just knocked off GM Shulman for a second time in the Kings Indian. Steven has also played well as of late, while Angelo has only lost one game in USCL history (last week). Very entertaining match.

Prediction: If Chicago wins its because of a win on board 1 and FM Gauri Shankar handling his USCL debut well by avoiding his ridiculous time pressure. If San Francisco wins, its because Daniel comes through with white, Zilberstein draws or wins, and FM Andy Lee wins. Overall, I see the later happening. SF wins 2.5-1.5.

After a good first week, I returned to my 2009 form of ineptness of picking matches. After finishing 5-3 in week 1, I fell to 3-5 in week 2, so I guess that makes me even, with 8-8 record after 2 weeks. I will predict Tuesday matches now, and Wednesday matches tomorrow.

New York Knights vs Philadelphia Inventors -

A tall order for Philadelphia facing a staked NY line-up with up and comer Justus Williams.

Key Game for NY:   GM Fed – Bartell – if Fed holds down giant-killer Tom Bartell, NY wins

Key Game for Philly:   IM Costigan- Williams.  Costigan has to win – otherwise Philly has no chance.

  Prediction: NY wins 3-1.

Baltimore Kingfishers vs Carolina Cobras

Baltimore employs the rarely-used balanced lineup, while Carolina has to use that lineup. 

Key Game(s) for Baltimore:   FM Simpson – Enkbhat. Simpson needs to make use of the white pieces here.

Key Game(s) for Carolina:   WGM Fosior – NM Agner. A decent rating advantage and white could be critical.

Prediction: Baltimore wins 2.5-1.5.

Seattle Sluggers vs Miami Sharks

Maybe the toughest match to pick. GM Varuzhan Akobian takes on USCL giant Julio Becerra. They have played each other in numerous swisses I am guessing. Both teams are facing potential 0-3 starts -

Key Game(s) for Seattle:   GM Akobian – Becerra. Akobian has to make use of the white pieces here – this will decide the match.

Key Game(s) for Miami:   Martinez – Cozianu and Perez – Guo are critical for Miami because they have white and because both match-ups are even.

Prediction: Seattle wins 2.5-1.5.

Arizona Scorpions vs Los Angeles Vibe

A great match between two very evenly matched teams. This match will probably swing a few times. The match is highlighted by the board 1 encounter between two real fighters IM Rogelio Barcenilla and GM Melik Khachiyan; however the other boards are very intriguing as well. 
 

Key Game(s) for Arizona:   FM Banawa – IM Aldama and IM Rensch vs. WFM Tatev Abrahamyan. Aldama has a lifetime 2.5/3 score in the USCL while Banawa has the white pieces. Danny has white and will surely come after Tatev, who is very crafty and dangerous – I should know, I lost with white to her in the last round of the U.S. Championship in 2004 – a game I think is still very theoretically important in the Winnawer French.

Key Game(s) for LA: Tanaka vs. Mateer. Christian makes his USCL debut as a 100 point favorite as well as the white pieces. Amanda is greatly improved from last year and has stepped up her game to a new level. 

Prediction:  This match can go either way, but AZ wins 2.5-1.5. 

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!!!

Read the rest of this entry »

Congrats to the upset winners Philadelphia and of course my own Scorpions for winning Week 1, and a lot of great candidates for Game of the Week – I really thought Becerra – Barcenilla would do a lot better in the voting. The resourcefulness by Becerra to hold and in fact win was quite impressive IMO.

As for Week 1, for the first time in a while, I actually got better than 50% record in picking the matches. In Week 1, I went 5-3 which isnt too bad. Unfortunately, because I am playing this week and it being a Monday match, I will give my picks quickly and without much comment (which to some might be a good thing!).

Monday Matches –

New Jersey Knockouts vs New York Knights

NY Knights Win 2.5-1.5

Carolina Cobras vs New England Nor’easters

NE Noreasters move to 2-0 with a win 3-1 over the snakes.

Miami Sharks vs San Francisco Mechanics

SF wins 2.5-1.5

Arizona Scorpions vs Seattle Sluggers

AZ wins 2.5-1.5

Wednesday Matches -

Boston Blitz vs Philadelphia Inventors

Boston changes strategy and goes with the kid on board 4, but Philly counts with their own youth. A tie is in order.
Baltimore Kingfishers vs Manhattan Applesauce

MA wins 2.5-1.5, though Baltimore has reasonable chances to pull the upset. Its tough competing with a team with a 2500 on board 3, good grief.

Chicago Blaze vs St. Louis Arch Bishops

St Louis rebounds with a 3-1 win.

Los Angeles Vibe vs Dallas Destiny

Vibe moves to 2-0 with a win, despite the Alejandro factor.

So Week 2 of the US Chess League Season is starting tonight! With a really exciting Week 1 win against the Miami Sharks, easily one of the best teams out of the West every year, the Scorpions have to be looking forward to Week 2. Below are the matchups:

Arizona Scorpions (1.0 – 0.0) vs Seattle Sluggers (0.0 – 1.0)

All Time Series Record:  (Tied 2 – 2)

Starts at 9:00 PM ET       Time Control – Game in 75 with 30 second increment

Seattle has always been a tough team for us and is the team that stole our playoff spot two years ago in a tough last match result. This year however they have a lot of new players in Akobian, Cozianu, Guo, and Wang.  All these players are new to the team and also new to the league as well.

Many interesting match-ups with more than a couple of new players to the league in this match. For the Scorpions Nick Thompson is a new player that will play his first game tonight against another newcomer in Michael Wang. Nick has improved a lot recently in strength and in rating. The Scorpions are using the September 2009 rating list for the whole season showing Nick at 2098. At the present moment he is at 2227 and showing no signs of stopping. This game should be interesting because playing the league is much different than playing in real life. It should be interesting to watch how both of these players adapt to the new circumstances (no player sitting by you, being part of a team, etc). I’ll give Nick the nod here and give us a point up in my prediction.   Arizona  1 – 0  Seattle.

Board 1 is between Scorpion veteran Levon Altounian and new player FM Costin Cozianu. I don’t know much about Cozianu but after looking at some of his games he seems like a fairly aggressive player. This game seems like it might be a contrast of styles as Lev is very solid and likes to play positions with small advantages.  Also to note is that Levon has White which he is much better with and could decide the decision in his favor. Let’s call it a draw just in case. Arizona 1.5 – 0.5 Seattle.

Board 2 is between IM Rogelio Barcenilla and FM Slava Mikhailuk. We were able to put Rogelio on board 2 for this match as the rule states that as long as the players are within 50 rating points of each other in the supplement that you chose you can make this switch.  Rogelio is an amazing player and it is something special to have a 2583 rated player on board 2 for a team. Although he lost his game to GM Becerra in the first round no one could really deny his fight in the game. He went from clearly worse to losing to unclear to winning and then again back to losing. Crazy game…with Rogelio having 1-2 minutes for much of the latter part of the game. This round is a little different in that Rogelio will face a weaker, not taking anything away from him of course,  opponent than Becerra in Slava Mikhailuk. Slava has White but Rogelio has a large rating advantage so sometimes those two even out but I’ll take Rogelio for the win.   Arizona 2.5 – 0.5 Seattle.

Board 3 between IM-Elect Robby Adamson and WGM Katerina Rohonyan is a rematch of the 2008 season where these two same opponents played each other twice. Robby got the better of the match within a match by going 1.5/2 in those games even though both games were fairly close. I feel like Robby has a slight edge having White while also having good games in the past but I will go for a draw here. Arizona 3 – Seattle 1.

Overall I am predicting a 3-1 win for my Scorpions! Stay tuned tonight at 6:00pm Tucson time and 9:00pm Eastern for a truly exciting match for both teams. Either Arizona goes 2-0 to start off the season or Seattle rebounds from their first week loss to get back to 0.500. Big match!

The line-ups for the USCL Week 2 have been posted. Arizona will play on Monday against division rival, the Seattle Sluggers. The team will play in Tucson at the Holiday Inn – Palo Verde.

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As always, fans are encouraged to come on down and root on our team. IM Mackenzie Molner (and New Jersey Knockout member) will be on-hand to offer master-level commentary to the games in progress. The match starts at 6:00 PM Tucson time.