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By Alex Marler
The fourth week of the U.S. Chess League saw the Conneticut Dreadnoughts hoist the pirate flag and send the Arch Bishop's to Davey Jones' Locker. Newcomers to the USCL, the Dreadnoughts are quite the powerful team this year with an undefeated match record. The team is captained by GM Robert Hess, ranked 4th in the nation, and also sports several other strong, titled competitors, such as GM Kekelidze, IM Sarkar, and SM Otchiyev. The Arch Bishops have continuously fielded a GM, two IM and expert line up, which is a fairly rare strategy for the USCL. Many USCL teams have two titled players and then some 2300+ rated masters. The Dreadnoughts decided to match the Arch Bishops' strategy this week by playing GM Hess on board 1, GM Mekheil Kekelidze on board 2, IM Justin Sarkar on board 3 and expert rated Tanenbaum on board 4. This line up proved rather daunting for Saint Louis as they were out rated on boards 1 and 2, and board 3 was fairly equal. This meant a lot of pressure for Saint Louis' board 4, Nick Karlow, who was really in a must-win situation. Unfortunately, the team let the match slip away with a few untimely blunders.
GM Hess v. GM Finegold
"Maybe 14...Qe6 is wrong? Black should be fine...I just got outplayed, but I don't know why exactly." - GM Finegold
GM Hess is well known for his unique style of play. He plays offbeat openings in the hopes to just get some position unfamiliar to both sides and then proceed to outplay his opponent. Unfortunately for Saint Louis, Hess implements this strategy perfectly in his win over Finegold. Actually, it was Ben who attempted to surprise Hess with 4..Bc5 against Hess' Spanish Opening. White, played the super rare, maybe novel, 5. Bxc6, which Finegold had not considered in his preparation for the match, "Nobody plays Bishop takes there!"Finegold said. The game was balanced until Finegold played the first inaccuracy, 23...Ne7, which allowed white to win a pawn. Black was then on the wrong side of a pawn storm with little to no defensive resources. Eventually, Finegold had to part with more material to force an ending, but the ending proved to be hopeless.
IM Kannappan has stomped all over many of his opponents this season. His victims include GM Larry Kaufman, SM Robert Perez, and now GM Mekheil Kekelidze. Kannappan prepared a King's Indian Attack for Kekelidze's Sicilian Defense. The opening proved to be rather quiet and by move 29 the queenside was completely locked. Black was the only one with realistic play, i.e. the central pawn break e5. Kannappan recentralized his knight to a good square, e3, and was well placed to meet the further opening of the position. By move 35 the game had transformed into a complex queen-and-knight ending, with both sides in time pressure of course! In severe time pressure, Kekelidze blundered with 44...Nc5?, which gave Kannappan time to play 45.Nd6 and 46.Nxc4, winning a crucial pawn and the game.
IM Sarkar vs IM Levan Bregadze was a real nail biter for the Arch Bishops. Sarkar unknowningly walked into Bregadze's preparation in one of the most dangerous chess openings, the Botvinnik Semi-Slav! GM Yasser Seirawan, proved invaluable during the pregame preparation as he had analyzed this particular line very deeply and was able to convey its secrets to Bregadze. Black cruzed through the opening, and gained a nice edge on the clock. However, Bregadze reached a critical position on move 19 and failed to find the best response, 19...e5!. After his move, 19...Bd6, Sarkar found a nice defensive and attacking setup with a queen and bishop battery on the h1-a8 diagonal. Bregadze clearly flustered and wondering where his advantage went, committed a mental error and blundered with 21...Qxf6?, which allowed White's Queen to penetrate Black's defenses with 22. Bg4! and 23. Qxc6+.
With Bregadze and Finegold both losing, Karlow v. Tanenbaum became very important to the outcome of the match. The game was nothing but equal through and through. Both players played very well, and in fact better than their FIDE titled teammates; this was the only game where no one blundered! Sadly for Saint Louis, there was no win to be had for karlow as the position was too sterile.
