Norway’s Gnomes and Spain’s Manic Shrimps defeated Brazil’s Capybaras and Charlotte’s Cobras, respectively, to kick off week three of the Pro Chess League.
The Gnomes of Norway made a smashing comeback after losing the first two rounds of the game. The Spanish Maniac Shrimps, meanwhile, had a more one-sided affair and knocked out the Charlotte Cobras, the first team to lose three games this season.
The third week continues on Wednesday 1 March 2023, from at 7:30 a.m. PT/4:30 p.m. CET. The first game will be the Levitov Chess Wizards against the Indian Yogis, followed by the Garden State Passers against the Canada Chessbrahs.
Brazilian Capybaras 7.5 – 8.5 Norwegian Gnomes
At the start of the match, the teams were more or less even; the Gnomes of Norway had higher ranked players on the first two boards while the Capybaras of Brazil had the upper hand on the bottom two, especially on the fourth board.
As previous weeks have shown, even 100 point ranking differences do not determine player performance. Although a higher-ranked player can win in a longer match format, the quick time control and single-match format between two individual players allows for surprises, sometimes exceptional ones.
GM Pavel Eljanov ultimately scored the most points in this game, with a near-perfect 3.5/4, but the final scoreline doesn’t reflect how close some of his games were.
Although Brazil’s Capybaras only led by one point after the first round, they came close to winning on all four counts. Most notably, the Brazilian team’s fourth board, IM Irina Bulmaga, won against the other team’s top board, super-GM Eljanov, but drew by triple rep – still an impressive result.
After the round, IM commentator David Pruess made a statement that would become prophetic: “The Gnomes are going to thank their lucky stars for not being beaten 4-0, and I think that will lift their spirits.”
Brazil’s Capybaras further extended their lead in the second round, where they won by a score of 2.5-1.5 again. Bulmaga played another key game, holding off Norway’s Gnomes No. 2 GM David Howell.
Eljanov secured the only victory for his team in the second round – he showed that his past pawn was worth more than a knight against GM Alexandr Fier.
GM Jose Martinez played an instructive, if not difficult, trade sacrifice against WIM Chelsie Monica. Showing his knight’s strength, he even refused to reclaim his rook initially for an attack on the king.
The third round was the most exciting at this stage of the game. Led by two points, the Gnomes recovered, won three games and tied the score. All four games were decisive.
Fier was the only player to win a game for the Capybaras of Brazil in this round, beating Monica in a lively and even ending that featured a pawn race. The endgame was played fairly accurately given the time control, but ended abruptly after Black miscalculated and played a move that looked powerful – which turned out to be a loser.
On the other boards, nothing less than divine intervention seemed to occur. Miraculously for the Gnomes, Martinez appeared to have a hallucination sacrificing a piece for insufficient compensation against Eljanov. The Ukrainian grandmaster converted the extra room with ease.
GM V Pranav managed to defeat the previously undefeated Bulmaga in a rook endgame with two pawns.
But the biggest and most amazing game of the third round was between Howell and Supi. Being trailing in the match, Howell sacrificed the rally just to continue the game, believing that a draw was equivalent to a loss at this stage of the match. Supi took the tower and quickly had a winning position. Completely winning…
…And then he lost to time. Howell’s guilty smile at the end of the game tells the story.
The stars aligned once again for the Gnomes in Round 4, with a few miracles completing their comeback. While the Martinez-Howell encounter on the second board ended in a draw, all other games were decided in favor of the victorious team.
On the third board, Fier converted an extra pawn advantage (and then two extra pawns) against Pranav. He would, however, for the second consecutive round, be the only player to win a game for his team.
Now get ready for the miraculous.
On the first board, Brazilian grandmaster Supi held the advantage for most of the game against Eljanov and even entered a rook endgame with two more pawns at one point. What could go wrong?
As he pushed past his b-pawn for what looked like a sure promotion, he missed a zwischenzug checkmate threat that cost him his rook and the game.
With a victory for each side, the match was balanced with only one table in play.
The star of the show was Monica, for whom a draw was enough to send the match to tie-breaks, which would have been a welcome result given the way the match had gone.
Early in the opening, his opponent was better than Black with a play against White’s isolated queen pawn. However, Bulmaga had a serious time problem – on move 39 she had four seconds to Monica’s 44. She dropped a pawn, and White made no mistake converting from there.
Monica’s smile when she realized she had brought her team the victory of the match is ineffable.
The Gnomes of Norway enter week four having won two games and lost one. Brazil’s Capybaras, suffering their second loss, are one more loss away from elimination this season.
Charlotte Cobras 5 – 11 Spanish Manic Shrimp
The Spanish Maniac Shrimps were quite simply a powerhouse. Although their fourth board, 17-year-old Candela Francisco, was clearly outmatched by her fourth board counterpart, GM Irina Krush, they had three 2600+ Grandmasters on the other boards. (Francisco was going to overthrow Krush in the fourth round, by the way).
The strategy of lining up four grandmasters, which theoretically should have been more effective, did not work in the Charlotte Cobras’ last game of the season. GM Eduardo Iturrizaga, who scored a perfect 4/4 against grandmaster opposition, and GM Jaime Santos, who scored 3.5 points, certainly screwed up that plan.
Spain’s Prawn Maniacs took a one-point lead in the first round. Although GM Elshan Moradiabadi scored one win for the Cobras, the fierce Shrimps picked up two.
Spanish third-table grandmaster Iturrizaga began his unstoppable rampage against rival team second table GM Andrew Tang, outclassing him in a lengthy rook-and-knight versus rook-and-knight finale.
Meanwhile, front-table Santos beat Krush after finding a deadly one-hit tactic in his opponent’s time problem. Can you find her?
Black plays and wins.
Spain’s Shrimp Maniacs dominated the next round with even greater force. Although Tang redeemed himself by defeating their fourth board, Francisco, the Spanish team won the other three games.
GM Alan Pichot beat Krush with a crushing attack, as did Santos in his game against Moradiabadi. In this last game, the Spanish grandmaster sacrificed a pawn for a powerful initiative. From there, the attack was carried out so expertly that it seemed easy – it often isn’t as easy as it looks.
When attacking a king, it’s often wise to keep queens on the board, and Santos demonstrated this concept beautifully in this one-sided game. This is our game for the day, annotated by GM Rafael Leitao below.
Iturrizaga won his second straight game against Cobras No. 1 draw Oparin. He found a nice geometric pattern – or, as commentator Canty called it, a “classic triangle” – to convert the queen’s finale cleanly.
In the third round, the Spanish Shrimp Maniacs could have ended the match. The most important game was Pichot-Oparin, where the first player had a winning advantage after capturing a piece on the 17th move.
As the games on the other boards came to an end, it became clear that a victory in this game would decide the match. Pichot had a bishop in advance, so what could be going on?
Oparin found a miracle draw with a rook sacrifice, narrowly saving the game.
But wait, there’s more. Fascinatingly, White was still winning after allowing the sacrifice, although that required finding several unique moves with less than a minute on the clock.
Players repeated positions with a draw instead.
The Cobras survived another round, but not another day.
The first game to end in the fourth round also decided the match. It was Santos, on the first board with the black pieces, who claimed victory for his team by defeating Oparin. In a desperate attempt to win the game, Oparin sacrificed a pawn but got no compensation.
It didn’t impact winning the match, but they won on two other boards – Iturrizaga beat Moradiabadi, and Francisco beat Krush – while Tang vs. Pichot ended in a draw.
Santos, the first table of the Spanish Manic Prawns, complimented his team: “The four players, we are playing very well”. He added: “It’s a big responsibility of course… [we feel] more pressure because it’s elimination next week. »
The Spanish Maniac Shrimps win their first game of the season and qualify for the fourth week. They are one defeat away from elimination. The Charlotte Cobras are the first team eliminated from this year’s Pro Chess League, but they win $2,000 for their efforts.
Ranking | Week 3
The Pro Chess League (PCL) is the world’s premier online chess league for teams around the world. The event features 16 teams playing quick games for their share of the $150,000 prize pool.
The main event continues throughout February and March and features top players like GMs Magnus Carlsen, Daniel Naroditsky and Hikaru Nakamura.
Previous cover:
