Chicago-St. Louis rivalry on chessboard!

Chicago Chess Club has been keen on igniting the chess scene with spirited cage matches. However, the club is back at locking horns in a city vs. city battle and there is no matchup more fierce than Chicago-St. Louis. The two cities will square off on Saturday, December 2nd at the St. Louis Chess Club. It will be the second match held at the venue since Chicago defeated Memphis 130-70. The barnstorming Chicago team also traveled to Cleveland and crushed the Heavy Hitters 293-157.

Chicago Chess Blitzers promoter Nathan Kelly received the St. Louis roster yesterday and it appears the match will be a close one on paper. IM Angelo Young (2431) will be coming off of his 26.5/30 score to lead the Blitzers. The team will have a number of new faces in the lineup including IM Viswhnuvardhan Arjun (2300) and FM Gauri Shankar (2297). Dirtan Zekaj (2203), Aakaash Meduri (2111) and Michael Auger (2277) are also making debuts for Chitown. They will field vets in Daniel X Jones (2237), Remi Adekola (2214) and Tom Murphy (2211) helped Chicago in their rout of Cleveland.

FM Aaron Grabinsky

For St. Louis the will be led by Webster University’s FM Aaron Grabinsky (2398), IM Vitaly Niemer (2394) and NM Nicky Rosenthal (2379). NM Julian Proleiko (2283) came to the Chicago Chess Club and won a cage match in convincing style over NM Kay Kaulule. Kaulule, currently in Zambia, will not be with the Blitzers this weekend.

FM Doug Eckert is a St. Louis vet who has competed in the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship and has been a mainstay in St. Louis area chess. This will be the first match for St. Louis and it will be interesting to see if this mish-mash of players will be able to match up against a battle-tested Chicago team. Follow the action on Chicago Chess Blitzers (Facebook).

Charter members of the Chicago Chess Blitzers in St. Louis after victory against Memphis. The team will field a number of new players to battle arch rival city. Should be exciting! Photo by Nathan Kelly

“Best in the Midwest” Blitz Battle Chicago vs. St. Louis
CHICAGO
#	Player	Blitz	Team	Flag	pts./24
1	FM Gauri Shankar	2297	CHI		21.5
2	IM Angelo Young	2431	CHI		18.5
3	IM Vishnuvardhan Arjun	2300	CHI		17.0
4	NM Michael Auger	2277	CHI		17.0
5	Dritan Zekaj	2203	CHI		15.5
6	NM Aakaash Meduri	2111	CHI		14.5
7	Daniel X Jones	2234	CHI		12.5
8	Remi Adekola	2214	CHI		12.0
9	Tom Murphy	2211	CHI		10.0
10	Sedrick Prude	1975	CHI		6.5
11	Andrew Bell	1923	CHI		5.0
12	Stephen Jennings	1962	CHI		4.0
					154.0
ST. LOUIS
#	Player	Blitz	Team	Flag	pts./24
1	FM Aaron Grabinsky	2398	STL		18.5
2	IM Vitaly Neimar	2394	STL		18.5
3	NM Nicholas Rosenthal	2379	STL		15.5
4	NM Julian Proleiko	2283	STL		15.0
5	NM Nick Karlow	2231	STL		13.0
6	Jacob Wilkins	1951	STL		10.5
7	Isaiah Gadson	2055	STL		9.0
8	FM Doug Eckert	2196	STL		8.5
9	Alex Marler	2040	STL		8.0
10	NM Andrew Witte	2167	STL		7.5
11	Kaleb Gosdin	1963	STL		5.5/8
12	Dritan Nerhati	1993	STL		2.5/16
13	Dwight Beasley	1928	STL		2.0
					134.0
Score: Chicago 154 – St. Louis 134