Sunday, September 10, 2006

Rest of US Chess League Predictions for 9/10

So, as a review, I predicted in my last post Boston over New York 2.5-1.5.

Now that the lineups for the other 4 matchups are online at the US Chess League website I will give the rest of my predictions with a little more inside view of my predictions.

Baltimore vs Carolina
It's feeling tough to go against Baltimore after they whooped on NY 3.5-.5 in their last week's match, but they walk out this weak with a weaker lineup. In the meantime maybe going to class is getting away in the performances on the top 3 boards for the Cobras, but I'm still going to give the edge to carolina who should be able to use the rating advantage to negate some of the unfavorable color splits that are lined up.
Carolina over Baltimore 2.5-1.5

Tennessee Tempo vs Miami Sharks
Tennessee, despite its 75 point team ratind disadvantage manages to outrate their opponents on 1 board. I'm sure Burnett could have good chances to draw Becerra on board 1 if htat was his goal, but since match points are what counts on this league my guess is he's going to push hard. White on boards 2 and 4 should work well along with their rating edge there for Miami.
Miami over Tennesee 3-1

Philadelphia Masterminds vs San Francisco Mechanics
I really like this matchup for San Francisco this week. Friedel is quite capable of defeating his lower rated opponent as black and there are also big edges for the mechanics on boards 2 and 3, board three is a much closer matchup that it would appear on paper. I know first hand that Naroditsky is a tough opponent with white. Obviously things happen over the course of a match and I'm not going to say mechanics win on all boards by any stretch. My guess is things average out a little, but don't ask me on which boards.
San Francisco over Philadelphia 3-1

Seattle Sluggers vs Dallas Destiny
Well, Serper is definitely going to have a huge edge in experience, rating, and also with the white pieces on board 1. Tangborn gets to face off against the Destiny's newest player in what I would consider to be an unfavorable matchup for him. Seattle also has a solid edge on board 3, but I'm not sure if Seattle will have the matchups to allow them to break through overall.
Seattle TIES Dallas 2-2

So as a recap for Week 3 in the USCL, my predictions are:
Bos over NY 2.5 -1.5
Car over Bal 2.5-1.5
Mia over Tenn 3-1
SF over Phi 3-1
Sea TIE Dal 2-2

I'll let you know how I do.

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