Match 5: Home against Maine

Week 5 found a feisty team from Maine punching well above their ratings. Lead by NM Matthew Fishbein, Maine’s state champion, the team comprised of an expert and two class a players for an average of 2055. Much lower than our own 2198 yet that didn’t matter too much as the final score was as tight of a win you can get with an 8.5 to 7.5.

First round was a great result with our top two boards, GM Mac Molner and NM David Grasso, both being able to convert their wins and Sean Finn on board three grabbing a score against Maine’s second. Second round was a set back with only NM David Grasso with a win. Third round we bounced back flipping the script picking up 3 wins sending us into the last round needing to finish with 2 points or better. Fortunately for us we got exactly that with wins from Mac and Ed Knesevitch beating his counterpart on board 4!

This leaves NJ with a running score of 3.5 out of 5 and well within playoff contentions.

Game of the Week

Last game of the match is our game of the week. With the match currently tied at 7.5 to 7.5 it came down to Ed coming up big with this solid victory. Already having the strong knight placed on d5, his position was looking quite good locking the backwards d6 pawn. With that, black attempted to free their position by weakening their king side position at the same time. Ed did well to take advantage of these new weaknesses and converted for the win.

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