PRO Chess League - Playoff Recap: San Jose Defeats Dallas

IM hellokostya

Mar 4, 2017, 9:20 PM | 0

In one of the closest and thrilling matches of the year, the San Jose Hackers emerged victorious over the Dallas Destiny on Wednesday night, winning by a score of 8.5-7.5. Not only the smallest margin possible, but considering Dallas had "draw odds" for the match (advancing to next round in case of an 8-8 tie), this was an incredibly tight match until the very end!

After two rounds the match was tied 4-4, but in Round 3 the Hackers managed to pull ahead with a come-from-behind victory by GM Daniel Naroditsky against current World Junior Champion GM Jeffrey Xiong:

This meant that going into the last round, with a 1-point lead we'd need just 2 out of 4 in order to clinch the match. Things were looking great (even seemed like 3.5-0.5 could be the score) until time trouble in every game turned things into an unpredictable mess! In the end, we ended up getting the 2 points needed to reach 8.5 and won the match.

As usual, I streamed live commentary for the event on my Twitch channel, along with NM Christopher Yoo and NM Teemu Virtanen. Check out the highlight reel from the match here:

And the full show here:

This Wednesday, March 8, the Hackers will be facing the Webster Windmills in the Pacific Division Semifinals. Stay tuned for a preview blog as soon as the pairings for the match are released, should be fun!

The San Jose Hackers are a professional chess team in the Pacific Division of the PRO Chess League, sponsored by Bay Area Chess. To connect with the Hackers, please visit our Facebook, Twitter, and Official Site.

PRO Chess League - Playoff Recap: San Jose Defeats Dallas

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