Tonight’s Week 6 match between the Saint Louis Arch Bishops and the Baltimore Kingfishers will once again be streamed live and hosted with commentary by legendary GM Yasser Seirawan. First moves are scheduled for 7:00 p.m. central.
The secret of Saint Louis’ powerful one-two punch in the lineup was displayed in week 1 against the Baltimore Kingfishers, but now the Arch Bishops are planning to show off some of its combinations.
Tonight may bring round two against division-foe Baltimore, but week 6 of the United States Chess League will be anything but a rematch. Despite suffering a 2.5-1.5 loss in their first meeting, the Kingfishers return with the same one-through-four board lineup -- and it’s the Arch Bishops who sit down at the boards with a completely new look.
Baltimore will face three different players from Saint Louis on the top three boards Tuesday night, though none of the shuffling will make life any easier. The Arch Bishops won both of the top-two boards in the first meeting and will now show off its devastating rotation of three 2700+ Grandmasters between those seats.
On the first board, GM Wesley So (2751) will serve as a fresh opponent to Baltimore GM Niclas Huschenbeth (2603) after his loss to GM Le Quang Liem (2785) to open the season. Tonight, Le Quang -- with a 3.5/4 score this season to rank second among the 2014 league leaders -- slides into the second seat against IM Levan Bregadze (2530).
NM Matt Larson scored just two points across six games for the Arch Bishops during the 2012 USCL season -- but that was a long, long time ago. Larson returns to Saint Louis’ lineup with nearly 300 points padded to his rating since then, now a National Master who recently turned in a solid performance as one of the top youths in the nation in the 2014 U.S. Junior Closed Championship. The 17-year-old makes his first appearance this season on board three against the Kingfishers’ NM Jared Defibaugh.
Only Tuesday night’s board 4 will feature a true rematch of players, as Saint Louis’ Jacob Wilkins (1909) is forced with another uphill climb against NM Andrew Zhang (2208). Wilkins lost to Zhang in week one but has played up and earned draws in two other appearances this 2014 season.
