A good start for the season

Team Captain IM John Donaldson writes: Today we got off to a good start by defeating a strong Dallas team 3-1. Vinay was the first to score when he sacrificed two pawns in the opening against GM Panchanathan. Black's ...b6 was played a few times before but somehow the GMs Queen was soon in big trouble. Mark Pinto won a huge game with the Najdorf against Keaton Kiewra who is closer to 2300 in strength instead of 2200. This makes Mark 3.5 from 4 over two seasons. Well done Mark! Next week we play another division rival in Miami. Last year we beat them twice during the regular season but then lost a heart breaker 2 1/2 - 1 1/2 in the playoffs. Miami has strengthed their team over the offseason so it should be a tough match.

On your mark ...

Hello everybody!

Welcome to the blog of the San Francisco Mechanics, the 2005 Western Division winners of the US Chess League (USCL; http://www.uschessleague.com). We'll post our league match results and thoughts here as the season progresses.

The first match of the 2nd season of the USCL begins with a Monday night matchup between the two new expansion teams (Tennessee and Seattle) on August 28th; the Mechanics' first match is on Wednesday, August 30th at 5:30 PM, with the regular season running through until Wednesday, November 1st. Hopefully we advance to the playoffs, with the final championship match on Wednesday, November 22nd.

Go San Francisco!