Monthly Archives: October 2009
The Comeback Kid
Jan annotates his Monday-night victory
photo: Betsy Dynako
[Update, 10/31: This game has won the USCL Game of the Week! Congratulations, Jan!]
IM John Bartholomew vs. IM Jan van de Mortel
U.S. Chess League / Internet…
It’s Over
We have one more match to go this season, but our playoff hopes have been dashed
Note to those perennial optimists among you who were sure the Chicago Blaze would come from behind in the Western Division playoff race to…
Stayin’ Alive
The Blaze keep their playoff chances on life support and pull the plug on the defending champs
They may not be the team they were last year, but the Dallas Destiny are still the defending champions of the U.S.…
Iron Man
In a loss to Arizona, we learn that Angelo Young is even more amazing than we thought.
Okay, sure, we lost. To Arizona. For the fourth time in a row. And we’ve never beaten or even drawn them, it’s true.…
The Game
When IM Jan van de Mortel of the Chicago Blaze decided to play the Leningrad Dutch this week against GM Jaan Ehlvest of the Tennessee Tempo, he was “blissfully ignorant,” he confesses, of the fact that his opponent had…
Winning is Grand
Blaze beat a GM-laden Tennessee lineup
Earlier in the week we asked the following about this week’s match between Chicago and Tennessee:
“Can the Tempo do it? Can they finally beat the Blaze with two top grandmasters?”
The answer,…
Tennessee’s WMDs
It’s not often you see a 2600+ super GM and a recent U.S. chess champion on Board 2 of a USCL match, but that’s what it’ll look like this Wednesday night when the Tennessee Tempo throw everything they’ve got at…
Cool and Quiet
It’s the Blaze Game of the Week—just not this week
IM Angelo Young sent me these annotations to his September 16 victory against FM Todd Andrews of the Tennessee Tempo some time ago, and now, in keeping with my well-deserved…
Inventive Play
The winner: IM Jan van de Mortel
Confounding the league prognosticators who had picked us to go down, the Chicago Blaze fought…
