US Chess League Semifinals: San Francisco vs Miami

In recent years, the San Francisco Bay Area sports franchises have not performed well. The A's 49ers, Raiders, Warriors and Earthquakes all try to out-stink each other. At least the Giants and Sharks have been competitive of late, although the hockey team seems allergic to winning playoff matches. College sports fans may look forward to the 112th Big Game, although few would have predicted before the season that Stanford, not Cal, has a chance to play in the Rose Bowl. Go Stanford! Beat Cal!!

Fortunately, at least one San Francisco franchise has made the playoffs for five straight seasons! Congratulations to the Mechanics, competing in the US Chess League, for making local fans proud. The Mechanics finished at 6.5-3.5 in the regular season standings, earning second place in the competitive Western Division.

Featuring four strong Grandmasters and three International Masters each with two GM norms, the team has strength and depth unparalleled in the league. This season, the Mechanics' captain IM John Donaldson submitted four different lineups featuring Grandmasters on both boards 1 and 2: Josh Friedel + Jesse Kraai (see photo at left), Patrick Wolff + Kraai, Wolff + Vinay Bhat and Kraai + Bhat. In fact, the 2469 rated lineup of Friedel, Kraai, IM Sam Shankland and NM Yian Liou likely was the strongest in the history of the league, at least by numbers.

However, the formula of success for the San Francisco team always has been the play of talented (and underrated) juniors on boards 3 and 4. This year's roster included four members age 18 or younger: IM Shankland, FM Daniel Naroditsky, NM Gregory Young and NM Yian Liou (see photo at right). The first three were veterans, having participated already in previous years. Newcomer Yian Liou, the #2 ranked 12 year old in the nation, turned out to be the team's star! Playing in all but two weeks, Yian scored 6.5 out of 9 for a performance rating of 2412, including wins against IM Mehmed Pasalic of Chicago and WFM Bayaraa Zorigt of Dallas.

Tonight, the Mechanics face the Miami Sharks in the semifinal round of the playoffs! These rivals squared off twice in the regular season, with the local boys winning 3:1 in week 3 and drawing 2:2 in week 6. But the playoffs have favored Miami over the years, with the Sharks eliminating the Mechanics in both 2005 and 2007. Who will win this year? Tune into ICC between 5:30 and 9:00 to watch the action LIVE!

Playoff Semifinals: San Francisco vs Miami

1. GM Jesse Kraai vs GM Julio Becerra 1/2
   
2. IM Blas Lugo vs GM Vinay Bhat 0-1
   
3. IM David Pruess vs IM Alejandro Moreno Roman 0-1
   
4. NM Eric Rodriguez vs NM Yian Liou 1-0
   

UPDATE on Monday night: It was not to be! San Francisco got pummeled on three boards and lost 1.5:2.5. Congrats to the Sharks and good luck in the USCL Championship!

UPDATE on Wednesday night: Read the thorough post mortem by team captain IM John Donaldson at the Mechanics' blog.

Kiddie Plays with Fire in US Chess League

(White to move and win! What short combination did GM Jesse Kraai play to force resignation? Hint: remember that opposite colored bishops always favor the attacker.)

The San Francisco Mechanics faced their stiffest test to date last Wednesday evening against the undefeated Miami Sharks. Led by the most dominant player in the US Chess League, Grandmaster Julio Becerra, the challengers from South Florida appeared poised to play the locals tough, perhaps motivated by a 4.5-4.5 record over the past four years.

While Becerra indeed earned his customary full point with the white pieces, the Mechanics cleaned up on the other boards to secure an important 3-1 victory. GM Jesse Kraai (photo at left) solved the diagram above for his first ever league win while the youngsters IM Sam Shankland and NM Yian Liou both outplayed their opponents in the Najdorf to improve to +2 on the season. Sam pushed hard to win as black in a sharp line while "Kiddie" calmly milked a pair of connected passed pawns from his small opening advantage as white.

Three rounds into the ten week season, the San Francisco squad sits atop the Western Division standings with 2.5-0.5. They already faced the teams tied for second, tying 2:2 with Seattle and defeating Miami 3:1. Two team members appear in the latest league MVP rankings, with the 2009 CalChess High School co-champion (Yian) debuting at #8 and the 2008 World U18 co-champion (Sam) at #9. 12-year old Yian (see photo at right) looks a wee bit out of place as the only NM on this list full of GMs and IMs!

Week 3: Miami 1.0-3.0 San Francisco

1. GM Julio Becerra vs GM Josh Friedel 1-0
   
2. GM Jesse Kraai vs FM Bruci Lopez 1-0
3. IM Blas Lugo vs IM Sam Shankland 0-1
   
4. NM Yian Liou vs NM Ernesto Alvarez 1-0

The fourth round sees the Mechanics matched up against the Chicago Blaze. Team captain and historian IM John Donaldson is well aware that the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club already survived the Great San Francisco Fire of 1906. Unwilling to take chances just in case the Blaze would be fueled by 2009 US Champion Yury Shulman, Donaldson tapped the Mechanics' biggest water guns: GM Josh Friedel, GM Kraai, IM Shankland and NM Liou. Using the latest online ratings, this is the highest rated lineup ever seen in the US Chess League at a whopping 2494 USCF!

The last two weeks, elite teams from Dallas and Miami tried to match up evenly on the top boards. The strategy did not work very well--both lost convincingly by 3:1 scores! Chicago took the opposite approach: win board 4 at all cost and pray for the best on the top boards. On paper, this is a mismatch! The Chicago players are lower rated by at least 130 points on every board; the average rating of all four boards is 2416, fully 78 points less!

Certainly IM Mehmed Pasalic is the heavy favorite to hand the Mechanics' young board 4 his first league loss. Now up 1-0, Chicago simply needs the recent trend of blunders throughout the league to continue. Perhaps Josh may hallucinate another knight sacrifice, or Jesse drop another piece to a double attack, or Sam become distracted by the latest chick he met on BART. This is the US Chess League, where chess nuts crack!

Will this match be a mismatch or will it be decided by blunders? Watch the action LIVE on the Internet Chess Club beginning Monday evening at 5:30pm PDT. Log in and type "/finger USCL" for links to the games.

Week 4: Chicago vs San Francisco (Update: SF won 2.5-1.5)

1. IM Jan van de Mortel (2456) vs GM Josh Friedel (2601) 1/2
   
2. GM Jesse Kraai (2584) vs FM Florin Felecan (2452) 1-0
   
3. IM Angelo Young (2398) vs IM Sam Shankland (2564) 1-0
   
4. NM Yian Liou (2226) vs IM Mehmed Pasalic (2356) 1-0
   

Josh Spanks Sam at US Championship

(NM Sam Shankland on left and IM Josh Friedel goofing off at the now-defunct East Bay Chess Club about two years ago.)

It is never ideal when the teacher has to face his student in a serious tournament game. The student usually feels extra motivation to play well while the teacher benefits when the student performs well. The goal of "I'm going to teach him a lesson" often proves easier said than done. I can relate from personal experience, both as teacher and student.

Perhaps IM Josh Friedel can relate as well. He was paired against his star student, NM Sam Shankland, in a pivotal round 5 game at the US Championship Qualifier in March. Sam won that game after mutual mistakes. Lo and behold, they squared off again at the US Championship itself, but this time the teacher prevailed in a strong display of positional dominance in an Old Indian Defense. By move 25, black's pieces had simply run out of squares to move to! You can play through the Friedel-Shankland game on Chess Publisher.

This outcome left Josh at 1.0/2 and Sam scoreless. The other local players had mixed results. WIM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs (2.0/2) won her second game in a row at the US Women's Championship, but she faces a difficult test today as white against top rated IM Irina Krush (2515). IM David Pruess (0.5/2) was on the short end of a positional masterpiece by GM Yury Shulman. Last but not least, yesterday's hero GM Alex Yermolinsky (1.5/2) played a short draw against veteran GM Boris Gulko.

My favorite game of round 2 was the tactical blizzard by Cuban-American GM Julio Becerra, who absolutely crushed GM John Fedorowicz in a Taimanov Sicilian. The fun began when white declined to recapture a piece and instead harassed the black queen with 13.Bf4. After the queen's came off on move 19, black's only developed piece was his king. Kids, don't try this at home! The rest was easy: white's bishop pair and a protected passed pawn on g7 force black to capitulate early. I had the pleasure of playing against Becerra at last year's tournament; he blew me away as well.

You can watch the games live daily beginning at 12:30pm PDT. Either log into ICC and click on the Events list (scroll down about halfway) or click on the MonRoi games link at the official US Championship website.