The Bare Bones

Here’s the tale of the tape from the US Chess League web site in this inter-divisional Week 6 matchup:

Arizona Scorpions (4.0 – 1.0) vs Baltimore Kingfishers (2.5 – 2.5)

All Time Series Record:  (Baltimore leads 1 – 0)

Starts at 9:00 PM ET       Time Control – Game in 60 with 30 second increment

What will occur?

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Danny Rensch earned his IM title in the middle of last season. Since that tournament, Danny has scored 4.0/5.0 pts (3 wins and 2 draws) in USCL regular season play. His resurgence has been noticed not only on the team, but throughout the league. His Week 3 game against WFM Tatev Abrahamyan was honored with two first place votes and 3 second place votes to earn him his first USCL Game of the Week!

Congratulations to IM Danny Rensch!

Hello everyone! This is Leo Martinez here, former manager and player of the Arizona Scorpions, talking to you straight from the Big Easy, New Orleans, Louisiana! Being a manager just last season I have no problem taking a little time off from my schedule to report on another Scorpion win!

The Arizona Scorpions are flying high through the beginning of this season! After a 3.5-0.5 victory against the L.A. Vibe, the Scorpions move to 3-0 this season and are now in first place after San Francisco’s loss to Chicago.  Although the final score was one of the most lopsided wins the Scorpions have had, the board by board matchups seemed like they were pretty evenly matched up. I really didn’t know what to think going into the match…board 1 seemed like a tossup. For board 2 Dionisio seemed to me to be a favorite but on the other hand he had black and of course he is always unpredictable. With a player like Danny Rensch on board 3 the Scorpions have to be confident but Tatev is never easy, especially with her solid French. Board 4 was a tossup for me as well.

Arizona Scorpions (2.0 – 0.0) vs Los Angeles Vibe (1.0 – 1.0)

All Time Series Record:  (This is their first match)

There was also the added element that although L.A. was strong, this was an expansion team with two (Tatev and Tanaka) of their players playing their first ever USCL match. The Scorpions went through this experience just two years ago and being new to the scene actually has a huge impact for some reason. I remember the first season the Scorpions struggled and they didn’t catch any breaks. It seems at least so far that we have “matured” from this somewhat. Anyways on to the games!

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The Arizona Scorpions (3 – 0) continued their winning ways with a dominate showing last night against the expansion Los Angeles Vibe (1 – 2). Although slightly lower rated, the veteran team of IM Barcenilla, IM Aldama, IM Rensch, and Expert Amanda Mateer scored 3 wins and 1 draw.

That match was played at Abstrax in Mesa, AZ. Also present in the audience was fellow Scorpion John Gurzcak and former-Scorpion IM Mark Ginsburg.

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ARIZONA WINS!!!

Links to the games are the red results above.

The Scorpions play against the Dallas Destiny next Monday, September 13 at 6:00 Arizona time. Stay tune for a Week 3 recap soon and a Week 4 announcement coming up.

The Arizona Scorpions will face the Los Angeles Vibe on Tuesday, September 7. The USCL has announced all Week 3, Tuesday line-ups. The Scorpions will play in Mesa at Abstrax. So come on out and support our team. As always, if you can’t make it to the event, you can watch the Scorpions play live on ICC.

Date: September 7, 2010
Location: Abstrax in Mesa, 6:00 PM Arizona time

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Opening Roundup – 2010 USCL Season

My role this season will be The Openings Guide.

I will round up interesting openings from each week.  Since the games are played at such a fast time control, it’s often the case that dubious openings (bluffs or semi-bluffs) work out.  Those are particularly interesting to me. I am checking things with Rybka 4 and Fritz 12 reference database 2010.

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After Arizona’s week 1 match, Scorpion IM-elect Robby Adamson had one word to say, “Unreal.” Not since last year’s match against San Francisco has there been such a match where the score, in the matter of minutes, could have swung 3-1 in one direction or 1-3 in the other. Robby looks at Arizona’s first ever victory over the Miami Sharks as they extend their opening match record to 3-0 all-time.

The Arizona Scorpions won their third consecutive opening match, in their third year in the league, with a very exciting win over the always tough Miami Sharks. This match went back and forth and really no result would have surprised me. I watched in my usual agony, with fellow teammate Amanda Mateer, and tag-along Mackenize “Snack Attack and please don’t give me mono” Molner, as we I yelled at the computer screen while watching the games live on ICC. On paper, Miami had the stronger team with an average rating advantage of 2428 vs. 2398. Also, Miami had a lifetime 2-0 record against the Scorpions, and I am sorry to say killed us both times. But as they say, that’s why they play the games.

Congratulations are in order for Team Phoenix. Almost GM Rogelio Barcenilla nearly pulled a rabbit out of his hat only to fall in time pressure vs. USCL stud-GM Julio Becerra. IM Dionisio Aldama used his Cuban magic and created a mess that IM Blas Lugo was unable to figure out in time pressure. Meanwhile, IM Danny Rensch thoroughly outplayed Miami’s All Star NM Eric Rodriguez on the black side of a Catalan. Finally, Expert John Gurczak made his USCL debut a memorable one by clinching the match for the Scorpions with a draw on board 4 against the very strong FM Charles Galofre, to win the match 2.5-1.5. I will cover the games in the order that they finished.

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Hello Everyone !

Back to the US Chess League but this time as a spectator! The only two seasons the Scorpions have played in the league I have been both manager and player but due to graduate school I have been forced to hand my title over. (EJ: I get your NM title too! Sweet!) Now I am confined to watching the games from my 200 square foot apartment in New Orleans!  Despite my move I can’t miss any games in the league so I will be predicting the results of the Arizona matches for hopefully the whole season.

The addition of the LA Vibe and the St. Louis Archbishops and the farewell of Tennessee really shakes things up in our division and makes things a lot more challenging. LA seems like a solid team for sure and St. Louis will be really top heavy so I don’t know if both teams will make it to the playoffs but I would guess at least one of them does. I’ve always thought the Western division was stronger than the Eastern but now I think it’s true even more than before. We’ll see. It should be a fun season!

Anyways, on to the match. Arizona has a really solid team this year and although we have lost GM Alejandro we should be able to fight it out in every match.  Miami has been a tough team for us to beat and is never really weak on any board. And nothing changes for this season.

All the Arizona players are on the right hand side and all the Miami players are on the left.

Board 1

These two players played against each other with opposite colors two years ago and this should be a tough match-up. Both players play pretty predictably and will probably play a Ruy Lopez. Both players are experienced in the league and obviously Becerra has a long record of good seasons. However, Rogelio is known for being very solid and can easily turn the tables if Becerra decides he needs to push hard. I’m going to predict a draw here.

Board 2

This should be a very interesting match-up! Both players are very wild and not only are not afraid of complications but really go after them. These two players also know each other pretty well. This is only the third game Dionisio has played, having a fairly good but short year last season with 1.5/2 games beating IM Felecan of Chicago and drawing IM Donaldson of San Francisco with Black. Dionisio will have White this game and I’m going to predict that he pulls this one out. If there is one game I would not miss it would be this game. Bring your popcorn and look for fireworks!

Board 3

Two more interesting and dynamic players on board 3. Danny rebounded from his horrible first season to have a solid year last season. However, from talking to him he is ready to show his true colors. Having a near 2500 IM on board 3 is always a nice feeling to have. I’m not sure but I think this is a rematch of a US Open game in Phoenix a while back. I think Danny won that one in 6 hours. That was a different time though for both players.

Eric has had a lot of experience in the league and overall has a great record. That, with the addition of being White, should make this an interesting match-up. I’m going to go with the rating advantage here and pick Danny.

Board 4

Man when you look at FM Charles Galofre on board 4 you got to be a little impressed. He is a very strong board 4 and actually played pretty well for Miami on Board 3 (!) two seasons ago. He is playing against one of our newcomers to the team in John Gurczak.  John has wanted to be on the team since we started the league two years ago and now he gets a chance. One thing going for him in this game is that he is White. Hopefully he can use some of this excitement and win this one out but I am going to predict a Galofre win here.

So overall a very tight match-up. I am predicting a 2.5-1.5 victory for my Scorpions! Stay tune on Wednesday at 9:00 PM ET, 6:00 PM Arizona time. It should be a good one!

The 2010 USCL season is about to begin! Week 1 lineups have been announced for both Monday and Wednesday matches.

The Arizona Scorpions will face off against the Miami Sharks on Wednesday night. The team will play at Abstrax in Mesa. All games will be played on the Internet Chess Club (ICC) starting at 6:00 local time (9:00 Eastern Time).

Arizona will have the black pieces on boards 1 and 3. We will have the white pieces on boards 2 and 4. All games will be Game in 60 minutes with a 30 second increment per move.

Fans across the country have started weighing in on their predictions for the new season.

Ron Young
Ryan Polsky
Arun Sharma

Wear your red and come out to support your Arizona Scorpions!!

Hello Everyone!

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!