We're playing New York!

Hey there all you people who desperately need a life! It looks like the Mechanics are facing the dreaded New York Knights, and the Knights seem to be prepared. Rumor has it that team manager John Donaldson is panicking and even had a mild heart attack causing him to fall and injure his leg when he heard that the New York players now know how to set up and move the chess pieces. However, he recovered and has put a lot of thought into the lineup. The biggest surprise is putting Vinay on board 1. I shall make a prediction about how all boards will finish.

This choice seems to be a good one. We are now engaged in our own preparations, and one of them is testing our first board for short-term memory loss. One test was have Vinay look at a position where the best move is to push the king away with a check then grab a loose pawn. He passed this test by not forgetting to check, so he is clearly infinitely superior to Friedel. Also, his league performance rating is higher than Hikaru's projected, so it may be possible for him to win, although we must give Hikaru a large edge when predicting this encounter.

On board 2 we have our very trusty trustee Vince McCambridge. Although he has been inactive, his results do not indicate weakness or rustiness. However, the main reason i believe John decided to put him on board 2 is that when he mouseslips, he loses, unlike Friedel who always manages tow in by mouseslipping. His eye-hand coordination and skills with a mouse and keyboard have now been enhanced and he should be all ready to beat Krush. However, Krush is probably angry that she lost to a mechanic in the championship match, so she is going to be very agressive and vigorous, and considering her height advantage i must predict her to come out on top.

Pruess-Bonin: What can i say? although Bonin is not old and decrepit like David, he does not have the advantage of knowing our prep. The prep we used for David in the championship match seemed to work very well, however this year it may be trickier. With David playing more tournaments and being busier, his stress levels are skyrocketing. It may take a little extra work from our designated David-prepper.Although since David has the day off and can start his prep around midnight the night before so it should not pose too much of a problem. Nevertheless, Bonin should have a large advantage.

On board 4 we actually have some healthy youth. Greg Young is on fire, including trapping me in the opening only just 7 days ago and winning without any trouble. However, he will not be playing a fish, so his trap may fail this time around. Herman seems to be a well-prepared opponent, except he may not have time to learn how to set the pieces up correctly. If this is the case which i believe it may well be, Greg can simply resign because he will be out of theory and Herman is a genius. Large edge to Matt in this encounter.

I therefore should predict the Knights to sweep the Mechanics 4-0. But this is exactly the opposite of what will happen! The knights will be winning on all boards but suddenly the little ninja Naroditsky will come bashing into the Marshall club, cut the internet, and we will win 4-0 by forfeit. Danya, please do not fail us.If the knights try to hurt you, you can use your good-luck booster seat to protect yourself. SAN FRANCISCO WILL PREVAIL!