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By Matt Barrett
In the final regular reason matchup of the USCL season, the second-place Arch Bishops met the division leading Dallas Destiny last Monday. In what amounted to a playoff tune-up for both teams, Saint Louis fielded its strongest lineup for the second week in a row, featuring GM Andre Diamant, IM Priyadharshan Kannappan, IM Levan Bregadze and NM Nolan Hendrickson.
Hendrickson grabbed the inititiative early in his Board 4 encounter with Travis Guenther with 6.Bd3!? This temporary pawn sacrifice yields White attacking chances and easy development, while posing some early questions to Black. Guenther had trouble and never got out of the opening. 9.... Ng6?? was a critical error and the position was untenable after 11.Qh5 and the black king is in hot water. This was the second shortest game in USCL history, with Black resigning on move 13.
Things looked promising early in Bregadze's game at Board 3. Then, as his f and g pawns made their way up the board, spectators started to wonder whether black's king was really safe enough. Bregadze found a free knight with a quick tactical error on move 27 when Gater couldn't recapture on d4 because an overworked Rook at d1 and the impending threat of Rxe1++.
Up 2-0, Diamant found himself in a complicated position on Board 1 against GM Conrad Holt. Despite having the black pieces, Diamant had a comfortable position after Holt's 19.Kd1!?. The Webster University GM said he thought he was simply winning after 22.hxg6 hxg6 but was surprised by the continuation, having missed white's possible response to Qh5 of g4! where black is losing a piece.
When Diamant resigned, the lead was cut in half, 2-1. On paper, this had looked like an important game for Saint Louis to draw, since the Arch Bishops had a sizeable rating edge on Boards 3 and 4, so there was some concern about the outcome of the match, which hung on Kannappan's result.
Kannappan, who has had a strong season as USCL MVP and having played several inspired games, did not have his best stuff in this match. He was struggling out of the opening, with his pieces awkwardly placed. His opponent, IM Puchin Wang, is a strong competitor who knows how to maintain the pressure. As has been the case in a few of Kannappan's recent games, there were chances for both sides, but mostly for his opponent. Wang entered the endgame with winning chances, and Kannappan was only hoping to hold a draw. This game was very interesting and again emphasized the importance of theoretical knowledge in the endgame. Wang could have simply won several times, including with Rc2!, as Bregadze showed us in the analysis room.
With the second-place finish to conclude the regular season, Saint Louis placed higher in 2012 than in any of its previous league campaigns. Now for the first time, the Arch Bishops compete in the USCL playoffs where they will meet the Arizona Scorpions in the Quarterfinals. Saint Louis looks to avenge a narrow defeat at the hands of the Scorpions in round 9. It will certainly be a match to look forward to. Tune in to watch games live!
