Blaze force LA to Bite the Bullet

National Master Gopal Menon made his USCL debut in spectacular fashion 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 the opening in typical fashion, with an advantage and up the exchange against 10-year old whiz kid Albert Lu.

As with last week's match, Grand Master Mesgen Amanov was the first Blaze player of the evening to finish his match, this time with a gorgeous win over IM Zhanibek Amanov (no relation) on Board 2. 

Mesgen played a variation of the Modern Benoni where he gave up his queen in return for two active knights and a strong bishop that dominated play. "This was a very theoretical variation," Mesgen said. "I knew this line very well."

Many observers at the North Shore Chess Center thought this game should be a strong candidate for the coveted USCL Game of the Week award.

The second game of evening to finish was GM Yury Shulman with the black pieces against the formidable GM Melikset Khachiyan. The game ended in a draw on move 22 by repetition.

The final game of the night to conclude featured a scorched-earth battle on Board 3 between FM Jim Dean, a four time Indiana State Champion, and virulent attacker Tatev Abrahamyan. In the endgame Dean had a Knight and a Bishop against Abrahamyan's Rook and two pawns. Tatev pushed hard, but Dean, often in severe time trouble, fended off her attack and earned the draw to reach a final 3-1 score in favor of the Blaze.

GM Dmitry Gurevich recapped the the evening's events quite well: "It was a spectacular match!! A brilliant win by Mesgen! Jim and Gopal fought like tigers!" ... Go Blaze!!" And from Skokie, Illinois, that's the way it was.

For complete coverage of this week's Blaze match, as well as Trevor Magness' weekly puzzle for scholastic players based on this week's Blaze games, visit the Chicago Blaze Blog.