Category Archives: eric rosen
Bear Down Chicago Blaze
I’ll get right to it: the Blaze narrowly lost its first match of the season, 1.5-2.5 to Miami this past Monday night. While this was the first defeat of the season for the Blaze, now 8-1, a discomforting sense of deja vu hovered over the North Shore Chess Center. Then it struck me– Monday Night … heading into the match undefeated…losing to Miami — and suddenly I was transported back to 1985— the undefeated Chicago Bears battling the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night football. Then too, disappointment prevailed as the Monsters of the Midway came up on the short end. After that, the team had no choice but to Bear Down. Continue reading
A Date with Destiny
Eric Rosen, Ilan Meerovich , Keaton Kiewra, and decorative horse - Lindsborg, Kansas, July, 2004
Tonight, the 7-0 Chicago Blaze have a date with destiny, and with the Dallas Destiny as well. The…
Blaze Force LA to Bite the Bullet
National Master Gopal Menon made his USCL debut in spectacular fashion Wednesday night as he extracted a win, from what many in the crowd thought was a drawn position, to clinch the Blaze win and extend the team’s perfect record to 4-0. Menon, known for his one minute bullet chess prowess (he was #1 on the ICC one minute list earlier in the year), came out of a the opening in typical fashion, with an advantage and up the exchange against 10-year old whiz kid Albert Lu. Continue reading
Get Used to the Heat
The Chicago Blaze came out smoking in its season opener with a convincing 3.5 – .5 victory over the Seattle Sluggers this past Wednesday evening. It was a hot night in the Chicagoland area as Blaze team members, management, local luminaries, chess fans, as well as members of the local press corps converged on the the North Shore Chess Center in Skokie to witness the beginning of what many believe will be a championship season. Continue reading
Opening Night Lineups
Well, this is it, chess fans. The 2011 U.S. Chess League season gets under way this week, and our first match of the year, against the Seattle Sluggers, starts Wednesday night at 8:00 PM. Here are the lineups. Continue reading
Blaze Bolster Lineup for Coming Season
Aiming to break out of the pack and make a run for the championship of the United States Chess League, the Chicago Blaze has added five marquee players to this year’s roster, including 2008 U.S. chess champion GM Yury Shulman.
Continue reading
Blaze Game of the Week I
The Chicago Blaze played the Miami Sharks to a draw last Monday, bringing our record to 5-4 with a week left in the regular season and keeping alive our playoff hopes, which had suffered setbacks in the previous two matches, which we lost. More on the match with photos shortly.
In the meantime, Chicago Blaze CAO—that’s Chief Annotation Officer—NM Jeremy Kane, has conducted his usually thorough analysis of one of the Blaze games that helped us hold Miami: the victory by NM Eric Rosen over the Sharks’ Nick Rosenthal on Board 4. Enjoy and learn.
With some luck we may later be able to bring you an analysis of the other Blaze win, by GM Mesgen Amanov. Continue reading
Game of the Week II
It’s always good to have multiple Blaze victories to show you. This morning GM Dmitry Gurevich analyzed his win from last night. Here, our annotator-in-residence, National Master Jeremy Kane, explains NM Eric Rosen’s Sicilian slugfest against NM Nick Thompson. Continue reading
Ambush in the Desert
It’s tough having a perfect won-loss record; the pressure to keep winning and stay perfect is overwhelming. Going into last night the Arizona Scorpions were the only USCL team in that highly fraught position, but thanks to the Chicago Blaze, who handed them their first defeat of the 2010 season, the Scorpions have now been relieved of that particular burden.
We will forgive them, of course, if they don’t thank us. Continue reading
The 800-Pound Arachnid
While much of the league’s attention this year has been focused on the St. Louis Arch Bishops, the new expansion team that arrived on the scene with a roster laden with super-GMs, another team, the Arizona Scorpions, has quietly amassed a perfect 4-0 record in the opening week of the season. They’re the only team that’s won all of its first four matches. While everybody’s been talking about the 800-pound gorilla, the 800-pound arachnid has taken over.
It’s no surprise to Chicago chess fans. In addition to being 4-0 on the season, the Grand Canyon State woodpushers boast that very same lifetime record against the Blaze.
Tonight, however, they put both of those records on the line when they face the Blaze in Monday night USCL action.
The match starts tonight at 8:00 PM Chicago time. Follow it on the Internet Chess Club, and keep an eye on Twitter and Facebook. Go Blaze! Continue reading
