The UnHoly Beast . . . .

"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns . . . . and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"
-- Revelations 13:1 to 13:4

Like a Ted Kennedy Senatorial campaign or a Ben Affleck romantic-comedy (ex. Jersey Girl -- blah!), an evil, seemingly insurmountable force has emerged from the depths of Boston. Its name is the "Boston Blitz" and much like the dreaded Seven-Headed Beast that will terrorize mankind during the "End of Days," this chess-juggernaut/anti-christ is wreaking havoc among the USCL chess world.

Its ominous number is not 666, but .905 the insane (but probably, “oh, so horribly accurate”) calculation the Boylston Chess Club has assigned to the Blitz as a power rating (see here). And its many heads are not of leopards or other Biblical entities, but Boston’s chess elite – seemingly able to dominate any players unfortunate enough to be scheduled against them.

As the season looms on, and more teams fall by the Beast’s cursed wayside (our beloved Philly team was beat 3.5/.5!) . . . the question on most people’s minds is “can It be killed?”

It might take a Second Coming of Christ. . . . or GM Pascal Charbonneau and a couple of his clones (see here). Until then, all we mortals can do is just tremble in fear, tear at our hair in agony, and pray to God -- in his ultimate mercy -- to grant us deliverance.

Believe it or not that's my way of saying "good luck" to the New York Knights -- playing the Blitz this Wednesday night. (I got to visit your chess club this weekend -- very nice! I appreciate the hospitality!).