PRO Chess League Summer Series Group C Week 1 Preview

The PRO Chess League is easily one of the most popular team tournaments in modern chess. This year, PRO Chess League commissioner Greg Shahade made several decisions to further popularize the tournament. One of them was the creation of the Summer Series, which allows fans to participate along with a single player from each team in the division every week. The Series is split up into four divisions, each with four teams. If you want to know more about the rules, here is the official information about the tournament.

2019 PRO Chess League Summer Series | Group C Standings

Armenia Eagles vs Mumbai Movers

Mumbai will be looking for revenge as they have lost four times to Armenia in two seasons, twice in the regular season and twice in the playoffs. Online expert Farrukh Amonatov will be attempting to lead his fans to victory as Mumbai outnumbers Armenia 308 fans to a mere 191. However, Amonatov won't be the only 2600+ rapid player as Zaven Andriasian will take the helm for Armenia. Armenia rarely loses and three out of their four losses in PRO Chess League history have come at the hands of teams that had 2700+ Board 1s (Volga--Dmitry Andreikin, St. Louis--Fabiano Caruana, Chengdu--Li Chao).

Knockout Battles

Alireza Firouzja (Sao Paulo) and Boris Savchenko (Moscow) will be joining the fray to complete the four player knockout bracket. Firouzja will face Andriasian as the top seed and Amonatov will take on Savchenko. Amonatov will be the favorite against Savchenko, who underperformed during the regular season, but Firouzja vs. Andriasian seems like a tossup. Andriasian has more experience in this time control, having played almost every match for Armenia in the 2018 and 2019 seasons, but Firouzja has overcame many barriers and defeated expectations time and time again.

Moscow Wizards vs. Sao Paulo Capybaras

Sao Paulo manager Krikor Mekhitarian did well to recruit 622 fans, the fourth most of any team in the league behind Montreal, Norway, and St. Louis. Firouzja will try to lead his humongous army of Capybaras to win their first ever PRO Chess League match. Moscow will try to prove once again that having more fans doesn't necessarily mean winning the live club match. In Group B, 5 out of 6 live club matches were upsets by today's fan counts. Moscow isn't used to losing matches and only has lost to three teams in their PRO Chess League debut earlier this year.

Who will you play for? Who will win? Make sure to let me know in the comments.