Thrilla in San Francisco ... or SF-Miami

Tomorrow is round 2 of the US Chess League. Our SF team is matched up against the Miami Sharks in a rematch of last year's Western Divison playoffs. It's not quite Ali-Frazier, but this is the 4th time we've played them, and we're barely into the second season of the league! We beat them twice during the regular season in 2005, but then faltered in the playoffs, allowing them to advance to the League finals. Hopefully we can get back to our usual winning ways against them tomorrow.

Here are the matchups:

Board 1: GM Julio Becerra (2624) vs IM Josh Friedel (2513)
Board 2: IM Alejandro Moreno Roman (2437) vs IM Vince McCambridge (2502)
Board 3: FM Marcel Martinez (2415) vs IM David Pruess (2459)
Board 4: Luis Barredo (2160) vs Sam Shankland (2106)

[Note, Vince and Sam have the white pieces on board 2 and 4; Josh and David have the black pieces on boards 1 and 3]

Our lineup features 2 new team members (Friedel and Shankland), and the 2006 debut of Vince McCambridge, who came on strong at the end of the 2005 season to help lead the team to the Division title.

The match begins at 5:30 PM, Pacific time, although this week, the time control will be a bit faster at G/60 minutes + 30 sec/move. As usual, the games can be followed on ICC (type "finger USChessLeague" for the game numbers), or at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco, where GM Alex Yermolinsky will provide running commentary.

Log on to ICC tomorrow (or drop by the club in SF) to root for the team!