Tigers Sweep Bulldogs 4-0, Advance To Playoffs; Blitz Wins Battle On Board 4

The fourth week of the 2023 Pro Chess League began with victories by the Shanghai Tigers and Blitz over the Croatia Bulldogs and Brazil Capybaras, respectively. After shedding badly in spherical one (0.5-3.5), the Tigers bared their fangs and dominated the remainder of the match. Blitz, however, confronted a a lot nearer match that was determined within the blitz tiebreaks.

Whereas GMs Wei Yi and Xu Yi earned probably the most factors for the Tigers, not a single participant on their workforce scored under 50 % of their particular person video games. 

The rivalry on board 4 within the different match, between IM Mahel Boyer and FM Julia Alboredo, was crucial to the general victory. Whereas the latter triumphed heroically in a must-win sport to ship the match to tiebreaks, the previous gained his first sport there—and it was the ultimate win his workforce wanted to remove the Capybaras from the season.

The Canada Chessbrahs will play the Levitov Chess Wizards within the first match, whereas the California Unicorns will face the Backyard State Passers within the second, on Thursday, March 9, 2023, starting at 7:30 a.m. PT/16:30 CET. 

The primary two matches of week 4 within the PCL coincided with Worldwide Ladies’s Day. A number of ladies gamers had been indispensable for his or her groups’ successes within the following matches, as readers will see within the report.

Croatia Bulldogs 6 – 10 Shanghai Tigers

The Bulldogs added IM Irene Sukandar as an emergency alternative to their lineup after the deadline on Sunday. As a penalty, they confronted a slight handicap: the common score of their lineup needed to be under 2525 (as a substitute of 2550). 

This did not appear to have an effect on their play, nonetheless, because the Bulldogs might hardly have began the match higher than they did.

The Bulldogs gained crushingly in spherical one and took a humongous lead within the match rating. With one draw, they gained all three different video games: 3.5-0.5. 

Final-minute addition Sukandar was the hero in that early spherical as she defeated the opposing board one, super-GM Wei. Able the place she appeared to be succumbing to a ferocious assault by the highly effective Chinese language grandmaster, he made a pure transfer that turned out to be a shedding blunder. 

Simply as Hess was about to touch upon how troublesome the transfer could be to seek out, Sukandar performed it. She went on to win the sport with an unforgiving counterattack. 

Savielly Tartakower‘s phrase is usually utilized in chess: “Nobody ever gained a sport by resigning.” Dealing with an uphill battle, the Tigers mustered their power and confirmed their claws in subsequent rounds.

The “eye of the tiger” was on full show in spherical two because the Tigers did the seemingly unattainable. With a 4-0 clear sweep, they took the lead in a match when simply night the rating appeared like a Herculean problem.

The most important upset of this spherical was IM Lou Yiping‘s victory with the black items over GM Vasif Durarbayli; he swallowed a chunk sacrifice within the Ruy Lopez and lived to inform the story.

In the identical spherical, GM Mustafa Yilmaz might have been the sufferer of the most important swindle within the match. He had a successful assault in opposition to Xi, however the latter discovered a tactical useful resource that not solely drew however gained the sport. This prompted Canty to exclaim: “This man is the luckiest man alive!” 

“This man is the luckiest man alive!” (🎙️ @gmcanty)#ProChess pic.twitter.com/xcJlOK7HqD

— ProChessLeague (@ProChessLeague) March 8, 2023

The Chinese language workforce gained spherical three too. Going into spherical 4, the Tigers led 7-5, a 180-degree flip from the narrative the Bulldogs had set in spherical one.

The Tigers gained the match within the very first two video games of the ultimate spherical. Wei, taking part in Black, defeated Yilmaz on board one in simply 27 strikes—in an endgame. White performed the harmless but shedding transfer, 25.Bb5 attacking a rook, and resigned simply two strikes later.

Seeing he wanted only a half-point, Lou (who was successful) made a draw with Sukandar. The Tigers clinched the match with two video games nonetheless ongoing.

The Shanghai workforce strikes on to the Playoffs. The Bulldogs, however, are one match loss away from elimination.

Blitz 10.5 – 9.5 Brazil Capybaras