Boston Blitz and World Championship

On October 22, 2008, the Boston Blitz clinches the playoffs by beating the Philadelphia Inventors 3-1. Marc Esserman and the erratic Krasik came through, scoring two wins against their counterparts. Ilya was the first one to finish and won with a vengeance against the passive Bengston. Ilya quickly came out and exposed his opponent’s underdeveloped position, and eventually forced Bengston to give up a pawn and the game.

The next game to finish was board 3 where the outstanding Marc Esserman played against the lowest rated IM I know, Richard Costigan. Costigan generated a huge attack against Marc’s queenside in the Dutch, but Esserman controlled the position and his opponent resigned on the 30th move. (Image 28th move) After the game, Esserman analyzed the position and quickly found 28.Nd6 which equalizes for Costigan, but it was missed by both players in the time scramble.



With that, Larry Christiansen simplified into a draw against Sergey Kudrin. In the game, Larry sacked an exchange for a central pawn mass. After Krasik and Esserman won, he liquidated into an endgame and quickly offered a draw, which was accepted.

The last game to finish was Eugene Perelshteyn’s. He grinded down his opponent Thomas Bartell in a Maroczy bind, which simplified into a passive rook and pawn endgame , much to the chagrin of the aggressive player Jorge Sammour-Hasbun, who didn’t want him to exchange pieces. Bartell defended well, against Eugene’s technique and a draw came by repetition.

Meanwhile, in the world chess news, the World Championship Match between FIDE World Champion Viswanithan Anand, and former world champion Vladmir Kramnik, is almost over. The chances of Kramnik coming back from a 5-2 deficit are slim. The people at Tianmen Square had a better offer. Kramnik himself admitted that the match was lost.