Week 8 Boston Blitz - NJ Knockouts

Prediction: NJ Knockouts .5 - Boston Blitz 3.5

Board 1: Benjamin-Christiansen
Prediction: 1/2-1/2

This is a pretty close matchup, Benjamin has white but Christiansen seems to be in better form as of late. The victory over Wolff and draw against Nakamura were both very impressive. Christiansen is obviously a very dangerous opponent who is capable of beating just about anyone. Benjamin should try and steer clear of complications and play a quiet positional game. I have a feeling Benjamin will do exactly this, and the game will eventually peter out to a draw.

Board 2: Sammour-Hasbun - Ippolito
Prediction: 1-0

As far as I’m concered, this is the most interesting game of the match. Jorge is higher rated and clearly stronger than Dean, but Dean has something to prove. Last week while Ippolito was playing his USCL game against IM Bryan Smith, Jorge was on ICC saying stuff like “Dean plays like a bit**” and “He needs to learn 2 move tactics”. I’m fairly sure these nasty comments got back to Ippolito, and he’ll be out for revenge. There is nothing like bad blood to make for a very interesting chess game. Despite the revenge factor, I think Jorge will probably win this game, but I’ll be rooting for Dean.

Board 3: Ju-Shmelov
Prediction: 0-1

I played Evan Ju in the World Open U2400 section this year. We drew the game, but I wasn’t particularly impressed with his play. He has had some pretty impressive results since then, so Shmelov shouldn’t understimate him. On the other hand, Deny’s play has impressed me on multiple occasions. We’ve played twice OTB (1 win 1 loss), and many times on ICC. He is a very tough player to beat due to his great fighting spirit. Sometimes his opening play and positional play are a little dubious, but I don’t think the young Ju will be able to take advantage of these small mistakes. I predict a Shmelov win with the black pieces.

Board 4: Williams-Shen
Prediction: 1-0

Chris had a disappointing loss against Zenyuk last week, but I don’t think this is such a big deal. Chris is one of those players who is much stronger with the white pieces than with black. His problem is he likes to experiment with new openings all the time, and is often in unfamiliar territory and makes mistakes. With white he is able to get away with this, but with black it’s not as forgiving. I don’t know much about Shen, except that he’s young. Most kids have trouble with positional play/endgames, so Chris should be looking for opportunities to steer the game into safe += positions where he can outplay Shen easily. I have to go with ChrissyBear in this game.