PRO Chess League Summer Series Group C Week 2 Preview
The PRO Chess League Summer Series, which allows fans to participate along with a single player from each team in the division every week, will be marching on today with Week 2 of Group C. 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
| Team | Points | Club |
| Mumbai Movers | 5 | Fan Club |
| Moscow Wizards | 4 | Fan Club |
| Sao Paulo Capybaras | 2 | Fan Club |
| Armenia Eagles | 1 | Fan Club |
Moscow Wizards vs. Mumbai Movers
This match will be a crucial one as the two leaders in the division will face off. In both divisions so far, the leader after Week 2 maintained that lead in Week 3 and advanced to the playoffs. So, the winner of this match may join St. Louis, Chengdu, Baden-Baden, and Reykjavik in the Summer Series playoffs. Boris Savchenko will be looking to lead his Russian army to another crushing victory, while PCL veteran Diptayan Ghosh will be looking to give Mumbai the demanding lead in Group C.
Knockout Battles
Sandro Mareco (Sao Paulo) and Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (Armenia) will be joining the fray to complete the four player knockout bracket. Ghosh will face Ter-Sahakyan as the top seed and Mareco will take on Savchenko. Mareco is the highest rated player among the four in FIDE classical ratings, so I expect him to be a slight favorite over Savchenko, who will be looking to use his blitz experience to push him through to the finals. Ter-Sahakyan will try to repeat his 2018 season success against Ghosh. However, with four grandmasters again, anything could happen.
Armenia Eagles vs. Sao Paulo Capybaras
Sao Paulo manager Krikor Mekhitarian did well this week to recruit the most fans of any team in the league with over 700. Sandro Mareco will want to improve on last week's performance for Sao Paulo and give them chances in the final week. Ter-Sahakyan will want to lead Armenia's strong but small fan group to a better week as well. This match will be very important towards which team gets relegated.
Who will you play for? Who will win? Make sure to let me know in the comments.
