Chicago finally gets on the board with a 2.5-1.5 victory over Tennessee
Photos: Daniel Parmet
It’s good to win. That was the sentiment at the Holiday Inn Skokie last night as the Chicago Blaze finally posted their first victory of the 2009 season, beating the Tennessee Tempo 2.5-1.5 and breaking a five-match losing streak that extended to the end of last season.
As might be expected, it was the ever-reliable IM Angelo Young, still undefeated in USCL play, who hit the Volunteer State crew first, with a victory over FM Todd Andrews to spur his teammates and even the score, after FM Florin Felecan, with the Black pieces and a near-impossible match-up against Jaan Ehlvest on Board 1, had fallen to his super-GM opponent.
That left IM Mehmed Pasalic on Board 3, and NM Jon Burgess, Board 4, with the burden of determining the outcome of the match. Both games looked iffy, and a somber mood momentarily descended on the venue until both players rallied, Mehmed to victory over FM Peter Bereolos and Jon to hold FM John Bick to a draw.
Here are the games:
1. GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs FM Florin Felecan (CHC) 1-0
2. IM Angelo Young (CHC) vs FM Todd Andrews (TEN) 1-0
3. FM Peter Bereolos (TEN) vs IM Mehmed Pasalic (CHC) 0-1
4. NM Jon Burgess (CHC) vs FM John Bick (TEN) 1/2-1/2
Tennessee was one of the weaker teams in the league last year, but with Ehlvest and former U.S. Champion GM Alexander Shabalov now playing for the Nashville cats, they started this season strong and, as the USCL site put it, look like “a different team” this year. Last night’s match was their first defeat of the season. It came harder, and is in some ways more satisfying, than the two Blaze victories over the Tempo last year.
Special thanks to Larry Cohen, who served as our Celebrity Tournament Director for the evening’s match. Kudos also to Blaze Assistant Manager Daniel Parmet, who ran the match superbly in the absence of Manager Glenn Panner.
It’s a short week, and there won’t be much time to celebrate. We come back and play the mighty San Francisco Mechanics on Monday. Tune in to the Internet Chess Club, or watch the live coverage by Chicago’s Midway Chess Club.
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5 comments:
hahahahaha - TN spends airline miles flying in strong GMs and paying them all of the league money they get and fail to remember that you can't win a match based on 1 board.
Great theory and poor practicality from Todd Andrews....
Pessimists will always be among us... one loss and some anonymous moron starts knockin on Tennessee... Tennessee bringing in world class players makes the entire league look better and strengthens its chance at existence... these anonymous nay-sayers must only want to see the league crumble, probably due to their own short comings as a human being
Apparently you are an anonymous moron yourself. No one was criticizing the league and your own short coming in the ability to read and interpret information lead to your incorrect analysis.
If any critique of the league were to exist from this scenario it would be allowing players that have no ties to a state to play for that state.
The decision to use hired guns to pray that a match is won with wins on the top boards is just poor planning.
So the critique is on the individual(s) that chose this route and in the mean time most likely are alienating the rest of the team where their league monies are being spent on the hired guns.
Enough, gentlemen. (I assume the posters here are men; women don't usually write such immature things.)
Let's keep it civil and cut the ad hominem remarks. I'll leave these up for the time being, but anymore comments like this may be subject to deletion.
This is the friendly Midwest, after all. If you want to fight there are plenty of East Coast blogs for that.
(No offense meant to the East Coast--I'm a New York native, for the record--just an observation of fact.)
As Susan says: "Win with grace, lose with dignity."
you know, I once heard it said that sometimes controversy isn't a bad thing...but I have something to say to all of the courageous and brilliant anonymous commentators out there--- if you want to be controversial, at least have the stones (can I say "stones" on the Blaze Blog?) to attach your name to it.
For example, I have heard very little said of perhaps one of the most significant changes in the Blaze attack that led to victory against the Tennessee compared to the two opening defeats. In the 3rd season match, Dan Parmet stepped up as the head team manager playing a technically superb and inspirational role. Does this mean that Glenn Panner might become the Chicago Blaze's version of past NY Yankee first baseman Wally Pipp? Only time will tell....
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