Player Recap for Queens Pioneers 2008

The 2nd year Queens Pioneers, definitely one of my picks for the strongest team. They started out with a blistering 5-0, a record only rivaled by the 2006 Boston Blitz. They beat Philadelphia, New Jersey, Arizona, Baltimore, and New York. Apparently, the momentum died out during the second half as they only scored 2/5, beating only Chicago, losing to Boston and Carolina, and tying New Jersey and Carolina, being edged out of first place by .5 game points.

During the season, Queens used two main setups against their opponents. Stripunsky/Schneider/Vovsha on the first two boards, Vovsha/Lenderman on third, and Katz/Ostrovskiy on fourth. Their scored 2.5/5 with both of their losses to Boston (consecutively week10 and quarterfinals.) The second lineup was the somewhat weaker Stripunsky/Schneider/Vovsha/Lenderman on boards 1 and 2, with Zhao/Thaler/Katz, on boards 3 and 4.

Queens has an advantage against most teams because of their 3 2500 lineup. However, it doesn't work against teams like Boston or New York because these 2 teams have strong 3rd boards, which is where Queens is looking for an advantage.

For 2008

1.Alex Lenderman
2.Eli Vovsha
3.Alexander Stripunsky
4.Dmitry Schneider
5.Parker Zhao
6.Benjamin Katz
7.Michael Thaler
8.Aleksander Ostrovskiy

1st Year Alex Lenderman

Alex was a 1st timer to the team, with a much stronger roster than before. He played his games on boards 2 and 3, being the first MVP to not play at board 1. Alex scored a dazzling 7.5/8 (93.75%), but ironically, was not used in the playoffs. He has garnered 22.5 points, drawing only the Boston MVP, Marc Esserman.

2nd Year Eli Vovsha

This is Eli's second year, one of the four veterans that are still on the roster. He has a score of 4.5/7 (64.3%) for this year and 5/9 (55.6%) for last year. With an overall total of 10.5/16 (59.4%) and a total of 10.5 MVP points. Eli played on boards 1, 2, and 3, with his losses to GMs Perelshteyn and Blehm.


2nd Year Alexander Stripunsky

Alex has a life time record of 7.5/15 and finished with 4/6 this year he has a total of 11.5/21 (54.8%). He plays on board one with his only loss to Blitz GM Larry Christiansen.

2nd Year Dmitry Schneider

Dmitry has finished the year with a respectable 3/6 playing on boards 1 and 2. Although he is lower rated than Vovsha and Lenderman, he plays on a higher board. He has a total of 6.5/12 (54.2%) (not 6.5/13, as there is an error on the page).

2nd Year Parker Zhao

Parker has played only three games this year, due to the rather top-heavy lineup. However, he has scored 2.5/3 (83.3%) with 7 MVP points playing on board 3. Last year, he had a 3/5 (60%) score playing on board 3 and board 4 and 4 MVP points.

1st Year Benjamin Katz

The reason why I put Katz ahead of Thaler, even with a much worse score 1.5/6 (25%), is because that Katz was necessary to the 2500 lineup. Other than that, there is not much good that can be said about him.

2nd Year Michael Thaler

Thaler scored 1.5/3 and 2/4 with a total of 2 MVP points. Playing on board 4, he has had a decent 50%. Again, not used much because of the 3 2500 lineup.

1st Year Aleksandr Ostrovskiy

Ostrovskiy played on board 4 for Queens finishing with a not-so-good score of .5/3. Again, there is not much to be said about it except that his name is misspelled on his URL, http://www.uschessleague.com/AlexOstrovsky.html

Watching the USCL Championships 2008 - A rather bleak review.

Having never watched a USCL match on site before, my father and I bravely trekked to the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to see... Boston lose?!!!!!

The first game to finish during the regular match was Larry Christiansen's game against Marko Zivanic in the Taimanov variation. Larry goaded Zivanic to capture a poisoned f-pawn and quickly lost to the attacking legend. Nice job, Larry!

Here Larry played 18. Rxf6! effectively liquidating into an equal endgame.

The next one to finish was Marc Esserman's game. As always, the should-be-IM quickly defeated IM Schneider in a queen’s pawn opening.

Next, AS I PREDICTED, Ilya Krasik soon lost to might-as-well-be-FM Bayaraa Zorigt in a KID. As the Blitz was already up 2-0, this is the second time she forced the Championship into a tie breaker (Kuljasevic on board 2 was winning at this point).

The last game was a man-slaughter where GM Davorin Kuljasevic beat might-as-well-be-GM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun. Jorge seemed out of it as a horrible opening, followed up by being down two pawns, clearly did not help him. The championship again will be decided by tiebreaker.

I should first explain the tiebreaker system in case you don’t know. The time control is 5 5, with winner moving on to play the higher boards. For example: 4 vs 4, 4 vs 3, 3 vs 3.... A draw will eliminate both players.

The first game of the blitz tiebreaker was a Classic Krasik. You can tell how tense Ilya was by his body language - hunched over, squinting, covering his forehead with his hands. Everyone was silent, except (according to sister) occasional snoring from Charlie Mays in the back. Being under ten seconds doesn't help a person to win an endgame up a pawn. Indeed, Krasik blundered and got forked by Zorigt.

Marc was up next…. Everyone in the room was cheering him on “Let’s go Marc!” The game was a Esserman against Zorigt, the Sicillian Najdorf which she used to beat Krasik at Week 3. During the game, Esserman was winning but missed tactical shots in order to "play it safe". However, he still won even with both players being under ten seconds (did anyone notice Marc was banging his mouse very loudly)?

Here, Esserman played 30... Qe7???? Instead, Rd8 trapped the queen.

The third game was Esserman against Schneider. Again, a queen’s pawn opening, which quickly liquidated into an endgame and Marc wins again some tactical tricks. However, after the two victories Marc couldn’t keep his winning streak going against Dallas's blitz ace, Kuljasevic and after defeat claimed that he would never, ever, play that variation of the Dutch again.

The fifth game was 2-time Dos Hermanas winner Jorge Sammour-Hasbun playing Kuljasevic. Apparently, trying to play for a draw is not a good strategy for Jorge, as Kuljasevic rolled him over in an Exchange Slav with the black pieces.

The sixth and seventh games were played by Kuljasevic and Larry Christiansen. The first game was a hard fought draw where Christiansen had the black pieces. The last game was a positionally crushing but tactically lost game for Christiansen, missing a mate in 3. Being so upset about the lost, I left the site without my coat and my chess set.

Well, Dallas wins again, congrats to them. It was a disappointing yet, motivational result. Next year, hopefully the Blitz will win *cough* with my help *cough*.

P.S. Here are the links for the games.

Larry Christiansen 1-0 Marko Zivanic
Davorin Kuljasevic 1-0 Jorge Sammour-Hasbun
Marc Esserman 1-0 Igor Schneider
Bayaraa Zorigt 1-0 Ilya Krasik

Few comments: White won all of the regular games in the match, and no milkshake for you Krasik.

Tiebreak Games:

Ilya Krasik 0-1 Bayaraa Zorigt
Bayaraa Zorigt 0-1 Marc Esserman
Marc Esserman 1-0 Igor Schneider
Davorin Kuljasevic 1-0 Marc Esserman
Jorge Sammour-Hasbun 0-1 Davorin Kuljasevic
Davorin Kuljasevic 1/2-1/2 Larry Christiansen
Larry Christiansen 0-1 Davorin Kuljasevic

Some photos I took: