Toronto Dragons

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  • Toronto Dragons

    As mentioned in other threads, the Toronto Dragons are a team of mostly Canadian masters competing in IM Greg Shahade's PRO Chess League from January to March this year. Our line up includes GM Bator Sambuev, Canadian Youth team coach GM Gergely-Andras-Gyula Szabo, Canada's youngest GM Razvan Preotu, IM Nikolay Noritsyn, GM Thomas Roussel-Roozmon, IM Michael Song, IM Bindi Cheng, IM Kaiqi Yang, IM Raja Panjwani, FM Shiyam Thavandiran and assistant manager IM Arthur Calugar. We are competing against teams representing cities from around the world such as the Norway Gnomes (Magnus Carlsen), Montreal Chessbrahs (Fabiano Caruana) and St. Louis Arch Bishops (Wesley So).

    This Saturday February 11th at 2:55 p.m. EST 11:55 a.m. Pacific, we are playing against one of the strongest teams in the League, the London Towers. The Towers lead the League in the number of game points they've scored, while Toronto sits a bit further back in fourth place. Gawain Jones is most famous for his repertoire books on the Sicilian Dragon, while Ameet Ghasi won the 2015 British Rapid Championship.

    Many of the players on our team have a very sharp style, so it is not uncommon for our games to end with a mating attack.

    You can watch the games live by signing into chess.com, going to Live Chess, and typing in for example

    /follow likemachine

    (Bator Sambuev) into the chat window. The pairings for our match are as follows. The first named player has White. In brackets is the player's chess.com handle.

    Round 1
    IM Thomas Rendle (Trendle) vs. GM Bator Sambuev (likemachine)
    IM Peter Roberson (Squirlolz) vs. GM Razvan Preotu (attack2mateU)
    IM Nikolay Noritsyn (Revnov) vs. IM Ameet Ghasi (ameetghasi100)
    IM Bindi Cheng (Bobbylow) vs. GM Gawain Jones (VerdeNotte)

    Round 2
    Bator Sambuev vs. Peter Roberson
    Razvan Preotu vs. Thomas Rendle
    Gawain Jones vs. Nikolay Noritsyn
    Ameet Ghasi vs. Bindi Cheng

    Round 3
    Bator Sambuev vs. Ameet Ghasi
    Razvan Preotu vs. Gawain Jones
    IM Simon Ansell (siansell) vs. Nikolay Noritsyn
    GM Keith Arkell (keitharkell) vs. Bindi Cheng

    Round 4
    Gawain Jones vs. Bator Sambuev
    Ameet Ghasi vs. Razvan Preotu
    Nikolay Noritsyn vs. Keith Arkell
    Bindi Cheng vs. Simon Ansell

    This week, Montreal is facing off against Norway with Caruana and Carlsen making their first appearance on top board for their respective teams.

    Come join us in the game chat, and cheer on our players!

    https://www.chess.com/club/toronto-dragons-fan-club
    https://www.facebook.com/todragonschess/
    https://twitter.com/TODragonsChess
    Last edited by Glenn Giffen; Saturday, 11th February, 2017, 01:04 PM.

  • #2
    Re: Toronto Dragons

    We swept our first round games 4-0 against the super strong London Towers!

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Toronto Dragons

      Razvan pulled off a sparkling mating attack vs. IM Thomas Rendle.

      [Event "PRO Chess League"]
      [Site "Chess.com"]
      [Date "2017.02.11"]
      [White "Preotu, Razvan"]
      [Black "Rendle, Thomas"]
      [Result "1-0"]
      [ECO "C05"]
      [WhiteElo "2495"]
      [BlackElo "2360"]
      [TimeControl "900+2"]
      [Termination "Preotu won by resignation"]
      [Round "5.2"]

      1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Be7 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.e5 Nfd7 6.Bd3 c5 7.c3 Nc6 8.O-O a5 9.Re1 cxd4 10.cxd4 Qb6 11.Nb1 Nxd4 12.Nxd4 Qxd4 13.Nc3 Qb6 14.Be3 d4 15.Na4 Qa7 16.Bf4 O-O 17.Rc1 Nb6 18.Nc3 dxc3 19.Bxh7+ Kxh7 20.Qh5+ Kg8 21.Rxc3 f5 22.Rh3 Nd5 23.Bh6 Rf7 24.Be3 Rf8 25.Qg6 Nxe3 26.Rh7 Rf7 27.Qh5 1-0

      The score is now 5.5-2.5 for Toronto.
      Last edited by Glenn Giffen; Sunday, 12th February, 2017, 04:08 PM.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Toronto Dragons

        We won the match 8.5-7.5! Toronto IM Nikolay Noritsyn came through in a big way scoring 3/4 against London's 2 GMs and 2 IMs. Our team now has 3 match wins, and is a step closer to clinching a playoff spot. Well done, team!
        Last edited by Glenn Giffen; Sunday, 12th February, 2017, 01:14 AM.

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        • #5
          Re: Toronto Dragons

          On Wednesday Feb. 15 at 6:35 p.m. EST 3:35 p.m. Pacific Time, we play an Argentinian team, the Patagonia Penguins led by GM Robert Hungaski.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Toronto Dragons

            A PGN file of all of the Toronto Dragons' games from weeks 1-5:

            https://mega.nz/#!6EwFTSyY!eCIY1RlvQ...P3Sd6scFuAX0MA

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Toronto Dragons

              Razvan's brilliant win that has Twitter all abuzz.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Toronto Dragons

                Congrats Razvan and Aman!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Toronto Dragons

                  NM Sam Copeland highlighted Razvan Preotu's win over IM Thomas Rendle, and Bindi Cheng's win over GM Gawain Jones in his round up of Week 5, and now they are in contention to win game/move of the week prizes.

                  https://www.chess.com/news/view/caru...ss-week-5-6866

                  Log into Twitter, and vote to support Razvan for game of the week:

                  https://twitter.com/PROChessLeague/s...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

                  Also vote for Bindi Cheng's 25.Rd4 as move of the week:

                  https://twitter.com/PROChessLeague/s...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

                  [Event "PRO Chess League"]
                  [Site "Chess.com"]
                  [Date "2017.02.11"]
                  [Round "5.1"]
                  [White "Cheng, Bindi"]
                  [Black "Jones, Gawain"]
                  [Result "1-0"]
                  [ECO "E90"]
                  [WhiteElo "2501"]
                  [BlackElo "2672"]
                  [PlyCount "121"]
                  [EventDate "2017.01.11"]
                  [EventType "schev (rapid)"]
                  [WhiteTeam "Toronto Dragons"]
                  [BlackTeam "London Towers"]

                  1. Nf3 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 g6 4. Nc3 Bg7 5. e4 O-O 6. h3 e5 7. d5 Nh5 8. g3 Qe8 9. Nh4 f5 10. exf5 gxf5 11. g4 Nf4 12. Be3 Na6 13. Rg1 fxg4 14. hxg4 Nc5 15.Qc2 e4 16. O-O-O Nfd3+ 17. Bxd3 Nxd3+ 18. Kb1 b5 19. cxb5 Rb8 20. Nf5 Be5 21.Bxa7 Rxb5 22. Nxb5 Qxb5 23. Qb3 Qa6 24. Be3 Nxb2 25. Rd4 Nd3 26. Ra4 Qb7 27.Ra7 Qxb3+ 28. axb3 Kh8 29. Rxc7 Nb4 30. Rh1 Bxf5 31. gxf5 Nxd5 32. Rhxh7+ Kg8 33. Ra7 Rc8 34. Bd2 Bd4 35. Rab7 Ra8 36. Rhd7 Bxf2 37. Rxd6 e3 38. Rxd5 exd2 39. Rxd2 Bh4 40. Rg2+ Kf8 41. Rg6 Bd8 42. f6 Ra6 43. b4 Bxf6 44. b5 Ra1+ 45.Kc2 Ra2+ 46. Kb3 Rb2+ 47. Ka3 Rf2 48. Kb4 Rb2+ 49. Kc4 Be7 50. Re6 Bg5 51. Rc6 Bd8 52. Kd5 Rd2+ 53. Ke6 Re2+ 54. Kd7 Re7+ 55. Kc8 Re8 56. Rd7 Bf6+ 57. Kb7 Be5 58. Rc8 Bf6 59. Rxe8+ Kxe8 60. Kc8 Bd4 61. Rxd4 1-0
                  Last edited by Glenn Giffen; Monday, 13th February, 2017, 03:53 PM.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Toronto Dragons

                    I've put up a recap of our victory over the London Towers, including notes on the wins by Bindi Cheng over GM Gawain Jones, Razvan Preotu over IM Thomas Rendle, and Nikolay Noritsyn over GM Keith Arkell.

                    https://www.chess.com/blog/TorontoDr...m-razvan-bindi

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Toronto Dragons

                      Our pairings for our week 6 match with the Patagonia Penguins
                      Wednesday February 15th at 6:35 p.m. EST
                      Round 1
                      FM Matias Leskovar (Maalle)-GM Bator Sambuev (likemachine)
                      IM Pablo Garcia Cardenas (mashin_xv)-GM Razvan Preotu (attack2mateU)
                      IM Nikolay Noritsyn (Revnov)-GM Robert Hungaski (kubrick28)
                      FM Shiyam Thavandiran (Kingnabber)-GM Fernando Peralta (zstardust)

                      Round 2
                      GM Fernando Peralta-IM Nikolay Noritsyn
                      GM Robert Hungaski-FM Shiyam Thavandiran
                      GM Bator Sambuev-IM Pablo Garcia Cardenas
                      GM Razvan Preotu-FM Matias Leskovar

                      Round 3
                      GM Bator Sambuev-GM Robert Hungaski
                      GM Razvan Preotu-IM Pablo Salinas (XDPS)
                      FM Matias Leskovar-IM Nikolay Noritsyn
                      IM Pablo Garcia Cardenas-FM Shiyam Thavandiran

                      Round 4
                      IM Pablo Salinas-GM Bator Sambuev
                      GM Robert Hungaski-GM Razvan Preotu
                      IM Nikolay Noritsyn-IM Pablo Garcia Cardenas
                      FM Shiyam Thavandiran-FM Matias Leskovar
                      Last edited by Glenn Giffen; Wednesday, 15th February, 2017, 11:19 AM.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Toronto Dragons

                        So - MVL is particularly nice

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Toronto Dragons

                          Mark Plotkin is broadcasting our games live right now.

                          https://www.twitch.tv/littleplotkin

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                          • #14
                            Re: Toronto Dragons

                            Toronto comfortably beat Patagonia 9.5-6.5. Our next match is Wednesday February 22nd, and then on to the playoffs!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Toronto Dragons

                              The Toronto Dragons are now tied for second in the League in terms of game points. The St. Louis Arch Bishops (Wesley So) have scored 60.5 points while the San Diego Surfers (Alexey Dreev) and we have 60.

                              https://www.chess.com/article/view/2...ague-standings
                              Last edited by Glenn Giffen; Thursday, 16th February, 2017, 12:31 PM.

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