Boston vs. Philadelphia

Note: Internet postings are reporting that Boston has beaten Philly 3.5 to .5 That was some "wicked-cool" chess. (May this cartoon guy (left) continue to haunt your dreams, Boston!)

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Tomorrow is Mrs. BlueEyedRook’s 30th Birthday. Rather than taking her out to that $200-plus Italian dinner tomorrow night, I asked if she’d rather accompany me to the Franklin Mercantile Chess Club to watch the Philadelphia Inventors battle the Boston Blitz. I got a very firm “no.”

Women? (I just don't get them.)

Thus, unfortunately, I won’t be able to do much posting tomorrow night after the games are all said and done. Instead, I can only offer my in-depth, action-packed, chess pictures. (When I left around 8:30PM things still looked pretty even. We'll see . . . .).

Enjoy.

Philadelphia was using its lineup from last week (the same lineup it used to defeat the New York Knights).

NM "Faceless" Elvin Wilson (2240)

I finally got a clean facial shot of NM sensation Elvin Wilson. (Upon taking the shot, my camera was instantly seized by a series of black-suited men who scurried my camera away to an “undisclosed” secret government location. When I got the camera back, all that was left was this.).

GM Sergey Kudrin (2605) (right) & FM Michael Shahade (left)

Sitting at Table One again was GM Sergey Kudrin. In addition to dealing with annoying chess bloggers (i.e., me), Sergey had to deal with occasional taunts from several of the Philadelphia Inventors "alternates" on hand to harass. . . . errhhh…. root for their team.

IM Bryan Smith (2442)
IM Bryan Smith was back at his usual spot. No coffee this week . . . I suspect he hasn't slept since last week's cup. (Incidentally, Wawa is suing me for last week’s posting).

"Grandpa" Daniel Yeager (2313)

("This Blue-Eyed Rook guy is here every week... make him go away!!!!")

Yeager’s game started 15 minutes late. Not sure what the hold up was. Either a serious computer problem or his opponent was baffled with Daniel’s initial, unorthodox move: 1. d4!?.

IM Richard Costigan (2287), WGM Jennifer Shahade (2318)
& FM Michael Shahade

As mentioned there were several of the Philadelphia Inventors "alternates" on hand to watch the exciting match. Michael mentioned that "Jen" was coming and like an idiot, I automatically spurted out "The Chess Bitch?!" There was an awkward 5 second silence as I waited for Michael to bash my head in . . . he didn't. Guess he's use to it.

Jerome Works

The Inventors "Fifth Man" doing what he does every week . . . keeping everyone's games running smoothly.

???

Not sure who this guy is . . . apparently he plays chess and has a slight resemblance to Elvin Wilson.