by Dana Mackenzie, staff writer Because I was in the midst of playing in the U.S. Amateur Team West tournament on Monday, I wasn’t able to write my usual timely coverage of the PRO Chess League. For any California Unicorn fans out there wh...
by David Pruess, manager Just looking at the lineups for the Eastern and Central divisions this week got me pretty excited, so I wanted to share the perspective of an avid PCL fan (and manager) seeing them. Eastern Division Bulldogs-Eagles ...
by Dana Mackenzie, Staff Writer In week six of the PRO Chess League, the California Unicorns picked the right time to play their best match of the season. Against the heavily favored New York Marshalls, who were led by Hikaru Nakamura on board o...
by NM Dana Mackenzie, staff writer Today, in the PRO Chess League, the California Unicorns faced almost inconceivable odds in their match against the St. Louis Arch Bishops. The magnitude of the difficulty becomes quite apparent when you look at...
by David Pruess, manager Last year, GM Daniel Naroditsky played all 10 regular season matches for the team. And in addition to scoring well, he was famous for some really exciting games, such as this, earning him game of the week nominations wee...
by Dana Mackenzie, staff writer Welcome to the first blog post written on my new laptop! I don’t have a chess program on my laptop yet, so I will have to do with some makeshift diagrams and no computer analysis. Maybe that will be a refres...
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For historical purposes, this post shows our previous year's home page and roster: Schedule Results Support us! &...
A New Taste by David Pruess, Manager What is this new taste? So delectable, so different from any I have tasted before? A playoff victory?? The San Francisco Mechanics have won a playoff match?? Yes, it is a franchise first PCL postseason wi...
by David Pruess, manager Following the same methodology as in this first post on the Pacific, here is my analysis of the top lineups in the Central Division and their playoff prospects. This post also includes Final Four picks!! This analysis ...
by David Pruess, manager Following the same methodology as in this first post on the Pacific, here is my analysis of the top lineups in the Central Division and their playoff prospects. I'll note that throughout the season, I had some misgivin...
by David Pruess, manager Following the same methodology as in this first post on the Pacific, here is my analysis of the top lineups in the Atlantic Division and their playoff prospects. 1. St Louis Archbishops St Louis Official Accu...
by David Pruess, Manager I've looked over the 4 pacific playoff teams, looking for lineups that best utilize the players with the strongest performances so far this year-- although in some cases there are still some potentially strong players on...
Here are my predictions for this week's final Battle Royale. I expect things to be very close, especially between 3rd-5th places. I don't have time to explain my method in detail, but the "accurate" rating weighs the player's real rating and their...
By Dana Mackenzie, Staff Writer Someone get David Pruess an ice-cold Yoo-Hoo, because he’s gonna need it. The San Francisco Mechanics’ manager was speechless after our unbelievable last-round meltdown last night. He looked like She...
Hey fans, manager David here. I just wanted to share some chess analysis and highlights from our match. Every week I want to do this, but the task of analyzing these crazy GM-games ends up taking too much time. Here, for once, for your pleasure, s...
By Dana Mackenzie, Staff Writer When the San Francisco Mechanics started out the season with three losses in three matches, there was some understandable consternation in the City by the Bay. Tears were shed. Bad rap lyrics were written. Hope was...
We are 2/3 of the way through the season, and I took a hard look at the top performers in the league, thinking about which individual players were the most valuable so far this season. The first stat that one could look at would either be points...
By Dana Mackenzie, Staff Writer Last week I wrote that the San Francisco Mechanics’ PRO Chess League match this week was one that we “really have to win to achieve our team goals.” Hm, perhaps that was a bit of exaggeration. In...
By Dana Mackenzie, Staff Writer First, let’s get one thing straight. Avalanches never happen in Berkeley. Reason one: There’s no snow. But yesterday, for the first time since 2011, there was snow in the mountains to the east of San...
Today at 6:30 pm pacific, the Mechanics take on the top team in the Pacific Division, the Chengdu Pandas. The Pandas were the Pacific representative last year in the final four, and they are tops again this year. The Mechanics meanwhile with a ter...
By Dana Mackenzie, Staff Writer Today’s post is about two players on the San Francisco Mechanics who are both coming to a turning point in any young chess player’s career—or indeed, in the life of anyone in their early twenties...
In what will be a new weekly show, Wednesday evening on twitch, David and Josiah looked at a couple of the most interesting games from the Mechanics' match this week. Below you can find video clips of a portion of the show and PGNs with notes to v...
by Dana Mackenzie, staff writer My wife is a big fan of reality television, and has watched almost every episode of the Great British Baking Show and has moved on to watching the not-so-great British interior design show. Even if the shows fail ...
In the picture above, the Kangaroos are a sledgehammer and the Mechanics a small nut. A Bad Beating and a New Lineup by David Pruess, team manager Last Tuesday, we were beat quite badly by the Kangaroos 11-5. From the outset almost everythin...
