Week Eight, part one

Philadelphia vs. New York:

Looking at Panchanathan's USCL game history, he seems to draw remarkably often. It makes me feel even more astute for my SF-Arizona analysis below. If Panch does in fact manage to neutralize Kacheishvili, the performance of his teammates so far this season makes their chances in this match look pretty good. It does not logically follow from this, though, that Philadelphia is to be favored, so let me state it explicitly. Philadelphia is to be favored.


Carolina vs. Boston:

Mosiyenko lacks a picture on this site, which leads me to assume "kid", which in this league usually means "underrated", because that's what separates the men kids from the boy kids. That plus Boston's significant rating edge elsewhere makes them seem the clear choice.


San Francisco vs. Arizona:



This jumble was drawn with a government-issue #2 pencil, and it writes well enough, but the eraser is too firm, which is probably what caused the metal thing that holds the eraser to fall out the first time I moved to erase. So although the government may waste money on many things, pencils seem not to be one of them.

I guess I am picking Arizona although I don't remember why; it may be simply because that is the way the jumble points. Of course, I have always identified more with the tail than with the dog. Also, though chess was invented in India, the Persians invented checkmate.*


Seattle vs. Los Angeles:

Migratory patterns resulted in a flourishing chess culture in the area of Los Angeles in the early 21st century, which in turn lead me to pick the Vibe in this match.



* Astute analysis, as explained under Philly-NY.