Week Five

Philadelphia vs. New Jersey:

Big rating edge for NJ. Philly has shown they will not roll over and die, but the downside to that attitude is that you often end up more thoroughly dead as a result. New Jersey, 3-1.


San Francisco vs. Boston:

Watching Larry C drop his queen last week, I was reminded of an Olympic wrestler who had some sort of accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He explained on TV how he came to deal with his reduced physical abilities by analogizing with chess. He used to get very upset whenever he lost his queen, he said. But then one day (after losing his queen) he realized “hey, I’ve still got a rook, knight and bishop to play with!” This week, with Wolff and Friedel otherwsie engaged, San Francisco lost the equivalent of a queen from their lineup. But by now I’m sure they realize that hey, they’ve still got a Bhat, a Pruess and a Shankland to play with. San Francisco, 2.5-1.5.

Seattle vs. Dallas:


Clicking the names, I see that Varizova is now putting her own face to her name, which I take as a sign of increased confidence. I don’t have much idea here so I’ll let that be my decider. Confident Dallas by a point.

Baltimore vs. Chicago




LYDOME
_ O _ _ O O

BUMAIR
O O O _ _ _

YORAH
_ O _ O _

UMIDO
O _ _ _ O


Looks like I forgot to write the caption. It's supposed to say "Fans knew things would get sharp on 2 because....".


Answer: IT WAS THE “_ _ _ _ _” _ _ _ _ _


Chicago, 2.5-1.5


Arizona vs. Carolina:

Looking at each individual pairing, it is surprising to see Arizona’s rating edge as big as it is. Looking at the pairings as a whole, though, with Arizona ahead on each board, it’s surprising to see the ratings as close as they are. With surprises wherever you look, a Carolina victory should not surprise. But I am not simply being glib; à propos of en passant (and it’s not piling on if no one else is talking about it anymore), a commenter on another website wrote: “If your pawn misses a capture because the other player used a two-space move, tough shit, Sherman.......it's always struck me as being a jarring, out-of-character rule that looks like it was invented by someone bitter his pawn-heavy strategy kept getting foiled by the two-space rule.” So it’s a matchup issue; a team that relies heavily on the two-space rule (Arizona) happens to be facing a team of pawn-heavy strategists (Carolina). The ‘Bras, 2.5-1.5.