Chessbrahs Defeat Arch Bishops In Epic PRO Chess Week 3

Week three of the 2019 PRO Chess League season featured probably the biggest regular season match in the league's history as the Montreal Chessbrahs and the Saint Louis Arch Bishops played back and forth match full of surprises, upsets, and post-season implications.

Cast your vote in the game and MVP of the week polls!

Chessbrahs Take The Atlantic Division Lead

The Montreal Chessbrahs and the Saint Louis Arch Bishops both scored double-digits in convincing wins in their first two matches of the season. Even in the pre-season, their match could have been hotly anticipated, but with two strong starts, their week-three match was clearly anticipated to be THE match of the division and possibly the regular season.

The momentum shifted throughout the match, but despite many surprises the match was tied after each of the first three rounds.

A star for the Chessbrahs was Shiyam Thavandiran who started things off by nearly defeating and ultimately drawing Wesley So.

He then later won an excellent defensive, counterattacking game against GM Cemil Can Ali Marandi.

Despite those defeats and the fact that the Arch Bishops would only score 0.5/8 on the bottom two boards, the match still came down to a critical blunder in the final round when Fabiano Caruana dropped a piece to GM Ivan Saric.

You can relive all of the drama from the Chessbrahs perspective on their Twitch stream where Aman Hambleton and Yasser Seirawan provided commentary.

Watch St. Louis Archbishops vs. Montreal Chessbrahs | Pro Chess League Week 3 from chessbrah on www.twitch.tv

Seven Teams Still Perfect

Seven teams are currently on 3/3 in the 2019 PRO Chess League season: the Montreal Chessbrahs, Now York Marshalls, Australia Kangaroos, Chengdu Pandas, Tbilisi Gentlemen, Armenia Eagles, and Norway Gnomes.

This season's new scoring system (10 points for a match, five points for a match draw, a point for each game win), still allows for teams to create some separation from their peers and allows big-scoring teams to makeup for some match losses.

The Chessbrahs are currently the league leader, but there's a long road between here and the playoffs.

Teams in green are slated for the playoffs. Teams in red are currently slated for relegation.

Just learning about the PRO Chess League? Visit the site and check out the official information article.

Eastern Division

• Delhi Dynamite vs. Armenia Eagles: 7.5-8.5
• Mumbai Movers vs. Gorky Stormbringers: 9.5-6.5
• Moscow Wizards vs. Estonia Horses: 9.5-6.5
• Moscow Phoenix vs. Tbilisi Gentlemen: 5.5-10.5

Central Division

• Ljubljana Turtles vs. Marseille Migraines: 10-6
• Baden-Baden Snowballs vs. Amsterdam Mosquitos
• Cannes Blitzstreamers vs. Berlin Bears: 9-7
• Norway Gnomes vs. Barcelona Raptors: 9-7

Atlantic Division

• Webster Windmills vs. London Lions: 9.5-6.5
• New York Marshalls vs. Miami Chamipons: 8.5-7.5
• Montclair Sopranos vs. Pittsburgh Pawngrabbers: 10-6
• Montreal Chessbrahs vs. Saint Louis Arch Bishops: 9-7

Pacific Division

• San Diego Surfers vs. Minnesota Blizzard: 8-8
• San Francisco Mechanics vs. Seattle Sluggers: 6.5-9.5
• San Jose Hackers vs. Australia Kangaroos: 6-10
• Dallas Destiny vs. Chengdu Pandas: 6-10

Sargsyans Help Eagles Surpass Dynamite

The Sargsyans delivered a critical 4/8 on boards three and four to help the Armenia Eagles to defeat the Delhi Dynamite in a tight match. Shant's 3/4 was actually the best score by any player in the match.

Here is one of his wins, a classy victory over Abhijeet Gupta.

2019 PRO Chess League | Armenia Eagles vs. Delhi Dynamite

Eagles	Dynamite	Harikrishna Pentala	Abhijeet Gupta	Narayanan S L	Tarini Goyal	7.5
Zaven Andriasian						2.5
Haik Martirosyan						2
Shant Sargsyan						3
Anna Sargsyan						1
8.5		2.5	2.5	2	0.5

Raja Stars In Movers' Victory Over Stormbringers

Hashit Raja had the best score on any board (3.5/4) in an impressive Mumbai Movers' win over the Volga Stormbringers.

The most exciting game of the match was probably Ganguly's win over Bryakin; it narrowly finished in second in GOTW voting.

Harshit Raja was clearly thrilled to deliver such a big score for his team and shared his celebration on Twitter.

2019 PRO Chess League | Volga Stormbringers vs. Mumbai Movers

Stormbringers	Movers	Surya Shekhar Ganguly	Abhijeet Kunte	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	Harshit Raja	9.5
Dmitry Andreikin						3
Nodirbek Abdusattorov						1
Mikhail Bryakin						1
Yaroslav Remizov						1.5
6.5		3	0.5	2.5	3.5

Wizards Stream To Victory Over Horses

Three of four of the Moscow Wizards streamed in their match victory over the Estonia Horses.The newest streamer on the team was GM Alexandra Kosteniuk who lost her first game but rebounded, saying, "All's well that ends well."

Watch Puzzle Rush Hour from chessqueen on www.twitch.tv

2019 PRO Chess League | Estonia Horses vs. Moscow Wizards

Horses	Wizards	Alexandra Kosteniuk	Vlad Dobrov	Mikhail Lushenkov	Oleg Vastrukhin	9.5
Nikita Meshkovs						2.5
Jaan Ehlvest						1.5
Ottomar Ladva						1.5
Kirill Chukavin						1
6.5		2.5	3	2.5	1.5

Gentlemen Impress In Victory Over Phoenix

The Tbilisi Gentlemen looked like the best team in the league in their match against the Moscow Phoenix. Each player on their team achieved a perfect score and while board Nika Volkov infuriated GM Robert Hess in the finale, he still massively overshot his rating and looks to be a critical piece for the Gentlemen. As a reward for his efforts, he won MVP this week.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

It was winning!!!@GM_Hess is furious with this #prochess miss. 😂🤣😂 pic.twitter.com/bSrLYjNlaT

— PROChessLeague (@PROChessLeague) January 21, 2019

2019 PRO Chess League | Tbilisi Gentlemen vs. Moscow Phoenix

Gentlemen	Phoenix	Klementy Sychev	Nikita Afanasiev	Vladimir Zakhartsov	Saveliy Golubov	5.5
Baadur Jobava						2.5
Davit Jojua						2.5
Giga Quparadze						3
Nika Volkov						2.5
10.5		1.5	2.5	0	1.5

Turtles Are Back Versus Migraines

The Ljubljana Turtles bested the rest of the Central Division in the playoffs last year and made it to San Francisco, but this year they were soundly defeated in their first two matches.

Today, their board one, GM Luka Lenic, returned and breathed new life into the team. They soundly defeated the Marseille Migraines, typically one of the best teams in the division.

The Turtles even left a point on their table as in round one their board four, Laura Unuk, let slip a winning position (and certain perpetual) and even lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

2019 PRO Chess League | Marseille Migraines vs. Ljubljana Turtles

Migraines	Turtles	Luka Lenic	Matej Sebenik	Jure Skoberne	Laura Unuk	10
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave						3
Jules Moussard						1.5
Alban Delorme						1
Stephane Regoli						0.5
6		2.5	2	3.5	2

Snowballs Freeze Out Mosquitos

3.5/4 from both Meier and Kollars was more than sufficient to defeat the Amsterdam Mosquitos, who were shut out on board four and did not get the requisite display of monster-slaying that Wouter Spoelman sometimes provides.

Miguoel Admiraal of the Mosquitos had a personal consolation when he won this nice game against Inna Agrest.

2019 PRO Chess League | Amsterdam Mosquitoes vs. Baden-Baden Snowballs

Mosquitoes	Snowballs	Georg Meier	Daniel Fridman	Dmitrij Kollars	Inna Agrest	10
Wouter Spoelman						2
Miguoel Admiraal						1.5
Quinten Ducarmon						2.5
Jasel Lopez						0
6		3.5	2	3.5	1

Blitzstreams Find Form Against Bears

The Cannes Blitzstreams had their best match of 2019 so far as with 3/4 on both boards one and two, the defeated the Berlin Bears. Mr. Blitzstream, Kevin Bordi, did not have his best outing, with only 0.5/4, but his teammates made up for it. Perennial GOTW nominee, Berger, did win another beautiful game against Bordi.

GM Krikor Mekhitarian also joined the team and streamed the match for Portuguese fans.

Watch PRO Chess League Semana 3 - !pcl from GMKrikor on www.twitch.tv

2019 PRO Chess League | Berlin Bears vs. Cannes Blitzstreams

Bears	Blitzstreams	Maxime Lagarde	Krikor Sevag Mekhitarian	Paul Velten	Kevin Bordi	9
Arik Braun						1.5
Jonas Lampert						2
Felix Blohberger						2
Steve Berger						1.5
7		3	3	2.5	0.5

Gnomes Defeat Raptors, Lead Central

The Norway Gnomes won again in week three, becoming the only Central Division team to reach 3/3.

The Gnomes had the extra pleasure of defeating the previous division leaders, the Barcelona Raptors.

Board two, Johan Salomon, also played a GOTW winner that was decided by the following tactic he shared on Twitter.

2019 PRO Chess League | Barcelona Raptors vs. Norway Gnomes

Raptors	Gnomes	Jon Ludvig Hammer	Johan Salomon	Lars Oskar Hauge	Sebastian Mihajlov	9
Daniel Forcen Esteban						2
Alvar Alonso Rosell						2.5
Hipolito Asis Gargatagli						0.5
Jose Herrera						2
7		3	1.5	2.5	2

Windmills Pack 1-2 Punch

The London Lions haven't yet found their footing after a shift to the Atlantic Division and the rare slip from the normally stellar Marcus Harvey cost them dearly as the Webster Windmills scored massively on boards one and two with 4/4 and 3.5/4 respectively.

The Lions did win one of the most exciting games of the day as GM Justin Tan eventually overcame Escalante in a game with many exciting phases.

2019 PRO Chess League | London Lions vs. Webster Windmills

Lions	Windmills	Ray Robson	Vasif Durarbayli	Brian Escalante Ramirez	Tom Polgar-Shutzman	9.5
Sergei Movsesian						2
Justin Tan						2
Ravi Haria						2.5
Marcus Harvey						0
6.5		4	3.5	1	1

Marshalls Reach 3/3 Against Champions

The New York Marshalls reached a perfect 3/3 with a win over the Miami Champions, an excellent debut in the PRO Chess League!

Critical to the Marshalls' success was FM Aaron Jacobson who defeated the Champions' board one, Eduardo Iturrizaga. He and Bykhovsky did lose two spectacular games to the Champions' third board, Alex Katz.

2019 PRO Chess League | Miami Champions vs. New York Marshalls

Champions	Marshalls	Wojciech Moranda	Sergei Azarov	Anatoly Bykhovsky	Aaron Jacobson	8.5
Eduardo Iturrizaga						3
Rui Gao						2
Alexander Katz						2
Kazim Gulamali						0.5
7.5		3	2.5	1	2

Lenderman Stars As Sopranos Best Pawngrabbers

When your board three scores 4/4, good things are bound to happen. Indeed, the Pawngrabbers could not mount a serious fight against the consuming flood of points that Lenderman delivered.

They did have a consolational brilliant win from Alexander Shabalov that was nominated for GOTW.

Unfortunately, that was Shabalov's only point of the day as he lost his remaining games including one to poker legend, Dan Smith.

2019 PRO Chess League | Pittsburgh Pawngrabbers vs. Montclair Sopranos

Pawngrabbers	Sopranos	Gadir Guseinov	Sam Sevian	Aleksandr Lenderman	Dan Smith	10
Evgeny Postny						2.5
Awonder Liang						1
Alexander Shabalov						1.5
Jennifer Yu						1
6		2.5	2.5	4	1

Chessbrahs Defeat Arch Bishops In Epic Match

The Chessbrahs' victory was discussed heavily at the top of this article. Suffice to say that the implications for the division and playoffs could not be larger. We will not be surprised if these two teams meet again in March.

2019 PRO Chess League | Saint Louis Arch Bishops vs. Montreal Chessbrahs

Arch Bishops	Chessbrahs	Ivan Saric	Eric Hansen	Shiyam Thavandiran	Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux	9
Fabiano Caruana						3
Wesley So						3.5
Cemil Can Ali Marandi						0.5
Josh Bloomer						0
7		3	1.5	2.5	2

Tang, Sheng Score Big In Draw

Andrew Tang was the biggest scorer in a tense draw between the Minnesota Blizzards and the San Diego Surfers. His first win was a nice battle between IM John Bryant in which both players threw many punches.

2019 PRO Chess League | Minnesota Blizzard vs. San Diego Surfers

Blizzard	Surfers	Alexey Dreev	John Daniel Bryant	Joshua Sheng	Craig Hilby	8
Fidel Corrales						1.5
Mauricio Flores						1.5
Andrew Tang						3.5
Sean Nagle						1.5
8		2.5	1.5	2.5	1.5

Nakamura Perfect In Sluggers Victory

Hikaru Nakamura got his first perfect score in the 2019 PRO Chess League season playing at 4 a.m. from Gibraltar as he prepared to play in the legendary Gibraltar festival. Both of his wins against Wang Hao and Daniel Naroditsky were among the best games of the day. His win against Naroditsky proved to be the GOTW winner.

IM Bryce Tiglon was also an important performer for the Sluggers. He scored 2.5/4 including the following exciting game against Naroditsky which both players were winning at various points.

2019 PRO Chess League | Seattle Sluggers vs. San Francisco Mechanics

Sluggers	Mechanics	Wang Hao	Daniel Naroditsky	Andrew Zhang Hong	Ladia Jirasek	6.5
Hikaru Nakamura						4
Gabriel Sargissian						2.5
Bryce Tiglon						2.5
Jason Yu						0.5
9.5		2.5	1.5	1.5	1

Kangaroos Overpower Hackers, Lead Pacific

Are the Australia Kangaroos the best team in the Pacific Division? They reached 3/3 and the top of the Pacific Division with another fantastic performance against the San Jose Hackers.

Raymond Song on board four particularly made his mark with 2.5/4. Here is one of his wins which really impressed me as he executed the creative maneuver Be6-b3-a4 and forced resignation.

2019 PRO Chess League | Australia Kangaroos vs. San Jose Hackers

Kangaroos	Hackers	Eltaj Safarli	Zviad Izoria	Ioan-Cristian Chirila	Vinesh Ravuri	6
Aleksey Sarana						3.5
Anton Smirnov						2
Bobby Cheng						2
Raymond Song						2.5
10		3.5	1	1.5	0

Pandas Use New Lineup To Defeat Destiny

The Chengdu Pandas were the second team to reach 3/3, and they chase the Australia Kangaroos by one point in the Pacific Division.

The Destiny's Jeffery Xiong did win the following beautiful little game against Bai Jinshi.

Unfortunately for the Destiny, Xiong lost a critical game in the final round when his knight got trapped on a6 and was eventually picked off.

2019 PRO Chess League | Chengdu Pandas vs. Dallas Destiny

Pandas	Destiny	Jeffery Xiong	Titas Stremavicius	Luke Harmon-Vellotti	Cameron Wheeler	6
Zhao Jun						3.5
Xu Xiangyu						3
Bai Jinshi						2.5
Anthony He						1
10		2.5	0	2	1.5