Chicago Blaze

Board 1: GM Mesgen Amanov vs GM Giorgi Kacheishvili

Tom Panelas — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 20:48:19 +0000

Live blogging the U.S. Chess League Finals

Megen is playing for the Blaze.

Last update: 5:20 Chicago time

Board 2: IM Irina Krush vs. GM Dmitry Gurevich

Tom Panelas — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 20:44:06 +0000

Live blogging the U.S. Chess League Finals

Dmitry is playing for the Chicago Blaze

Last update: 5:17 Chicago time

Board 3: IM Angelo Young vs. SM Matt Herman

Tom Panelas — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 20:38:54 +0000

Live blogging the U.S. Chess League Finals

Angelo is playing for the Blaze.

Last update: 5:14 Chicago time

Board 4: John Fernandez vs. NM Gopal Menon

Tom Panelas — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 20:33:58 +0000

Live blogging the U.S. Chess League Finals

The Blaze have Black in this game.

Last update: 5:12 Chicago time

Back Rank Regrets

Chicago Blaze — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:07:01 +0000

Trevor analyzes GM Dmitry Gurevich's victory in last week's match.

Annotations by NM Trevor Magness

Hypermodern Madness

Chicago Blaze — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:11:49 +0000

GM Josh Friedel's game, which won the USCL Game of the Week prize.

Annotations by FM Albert Chow

This is it: the Big Enchilada

Tom Panelas — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 17:50:38 +0000

Blaze win, advance to Finals, and Josh wins GOTW; Champiosnhip match tomorrow at 2:00

GM Dmitry Gurevich,NM Sam Schmakel, GM Yury Shulman, Skokie Fire Chief Ralph E. Czerwinski , GM Josh Friedel

Okay, chess fans, this is it, the thing we’ve been working and rooting for all season long: the Chicago Blaze have made it to the final round of the U.S. Chess League playoffs.

The Blaze, who will play the New York Knights for the league championship next Sunday, earned that right after beating the Los Angeles Vibe 2.5-1.5 in the league semifinals Monday night, making them the Western Division representative in the season’s final match.

The Blaze took Monday night’s match on the strength of a draw by GM Yury Shulman and victories by GMs Dmitry Gurevich and Josh Friedel, who won the league Game of the Week prize, the third week in a row it has been won by a Blazer. (Yury won it the previous two.)

Oh, yes, and it was also the first decisive playoff match victory in Blaze history.

Special thanks to Patrice Connelly of the Chicago Industrial Chess League for serving as our Celebrity Fire on the night, and to Skokie Village Fire Chief Ralph E. Czerwinski for joining us as our special guest and making the ceremonial first pawn push of the match.

The win also gives the team some much-needed momentum going into the championship contest after three-week rough patch in which they lost their only match of the season and then posted two draws after an 8-0 start.

Of course, none of that matters now: it all comes down to one match and four games against the seasoned Knights, who have lots of playoff and championship experience. See the lineups here.

The match will begin Sunday at 2:00 Chicago time at the North Shore Chess Center. Limited seating is available, so please let us know if you would like to attend. You will also be able to follow the action live on the Internet Chess Club, and we’ll be live blogging here and on Facebook.

The Blaze are extremely grateful to the many fans who have supported them and cheered them on to their best season ever. Now let’s win one more and become the USCL champs. Go Blaze!

Chicago Blaze vs. the L.A. Vibe

Tom Panelas — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 02:15:41 +0000

Good evening, chess fans. It's the second round of the USCL playoffs, and the Blaze are playing the L.A. Vibe to determine who represents the Western Division in the championship match next Sunday. Once again we’re live blogging tonight’s match. There's a lot on the line, so we're expecting a tough match. If you have access to the Internet Chess Club, go there and watch the games live. If not, we’ll try to post regular updates here. Refresh your browser every so often as we update the games in progress.

Join us in Facebook to kibitz about the games.

Last update: 11:24 PM Chicago time

Board 1: Final

Board 2 Final

Board 4 Final

Yury Wins Game of the Week – Again

Tom Panelas — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 15:37:48 +0000

I don’t know if this has ever happened before in the U.S. Chess League, but for the second week in a row—first in Week 10 of the regular season and now in the first week of the playoffs—GM Yury Shulman of the Blaze has won the league’s Game of the Week prize. And here again he’s annotated the game for our edification, enlightenment, and entertainment. Enjoy.

Blaze Push Dallas Destiny into Oblivion in Round One of Playoffs

Brad Rosen — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:25:57 +0000

Skokie, Illinois Deputy Police Chief Michael Pechter opens the match for GM Yury Shulman with 1. d4.
Photo by FIDE Master Eric Rosen

Skokie Deputy Police Chief Michael Pechter initiated the Blaze's foray into the USCL playoffs last evening with a solid 1. d4 pawn push on behalf Grand Master Yury Shulman on Board 1. 4 hours, and 67 moves later, Yury was able to close out the game with a victory, which secured a 2-2 score against the Dallas Destiny. Since the Blaze had draw odds, based on its best- in- the-league regular season performance, the team will advance to the Western Division Championship match against the LA Vibe next week.

National Master Sam Schmakel, a sophomore at Whitney Young High School, again scored a key victory by coming from behind to defeat 10 year prodigy FMJeffrey Xiong (2336 USCF) in a nail-biter of a match on on Board 4. Sam is now an amazing 5-0 in this, his rookie season for the Blaze!

On Boards 2 and 3, GM's Friedel and Amanov came up short in tough matches against GM Julio Sadorra and IM Conrad Holt, respectively.

Thanks also go out to Keith Esses for serving as our Celebrity Tournament Director for the match. Thanks again to Deputy Chief Pechter for setting this historic playoff victory in motion. Round 2 of the playoffs against the LA Vibe is set for next Monday evening, November 14th, at 8:00 pm , November 14th at Skokie's North Shore Chess Center. The Blaze will look to come out smoking. Stay tuned, and go Blaze!