Arch Bishops

FM Doug Eckert's victory over FM Robby Adamson delivered the knock-out punch for the Arch Bishops.

The fourth round of the U.S. Chess League was pivotal for both teams, since the Scorpions were 1-2 and the Arch Bishops a paltry 0-3! But we were able to get on the scoreboard with a real team effort.

The Mechanics' Institute building houses the oldest chess club in the United States. Pictured here is a more-than-100-year-old table in the playing hall of the Mechanics' Institute.

By GM Ben Finegold

The U.S. Chess League is back for its seventh season, and the Saint Louis Arch Bishops started the new season with a revamped line-up.

GM Ben Finegold will be critical to the success of the new-look Arch Bishops. 

By Mike Kummer, Assistant Manager of the Arch Bishops

The Saint Louis Arch Bishops head into its second season in the U.S. Chess League with a revamped roster and a mission to make the play-offs. The team missed the play-offs in its inaugural season with a record of 5-5.

By Spencer Finegold

The Saint Louis Arch Bishops faced-off against San Francisco's Mechanics on Wednesday, and there were no real surprises on any board. Though our opponents had a worthy line-up with GM-FM-FM-FM, they were no match for our big three plus one. I guess one could consider the Mechanics our rival as they too have a wonderful chess club in San Francisco, but The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis is of course nicer, and our victory over them karmically proved it.

GM Hikaru Nakamura showed up about 15 minutes late for his game against GM Josh Friedel, which would explain how Nakamura had only 30 minutes more than his GM opponent by the end of his victory?! Nakamura whipped out his first ten move quickly to equalize on time.

Last Wednesday, the Arch Bishops played our rival, the Chicago Blaze. Our previous encounter in week two was interesting in that we had our starting rotation: GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Yury Shulman, Ben Finegold, and myself (Spencer Finegold) and somehow only managed a draw. The difference this time around was that we were playing without Shulman on board two, who somehow lost with White in the second week, and to make matters worse they injected GM Mesgen Amanov to their line-up for this week’s showdown. All of the games were suspiciously played, as we were probably worse on all four boards at one point or another, but we managed a less-than convincing 2.5-1.5 victory to which I can recite the tautological phrase: "A win is a win."

By GM Ben Finegold

Week six of the USCL was sad for the Saint Louis Team. We were without our powerhouses Hikaru Nakamura and Yury Shulman, as they are at the Olympiad defending the honor of the USA! One of our reserves, Executive Director, Tony Rich, is also at the Olympiad, and, Spencer Finegold had just gone to the oral surgeon and had his wisdom teeth removed (we could not seriously think of playing Spencer on Board 4 missing his wisdom) so, it was difficult to find four warm bodies for the match! We were paired against the East-leading New England. New England does not have any GMs, but they have a solid team, and, like the Chicago Blaze, have outperformed thus far this season.

Grandmaster Ben Finegold continues his video lecture series with his next installment. Ben's lectures are free for club members and run most Thursday nights beginning at 7 p.m. CDT. 

Today, GM Finegold covers games from the U.S. Chess League. GM Finegold is a member of Saint Louis' new USCL expansion team, the Arch Bishops. The Saint Louis team features the two highest-rated players in the league in GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Yury Shulman, and with GM Finegold, the Arch Bishops bring one of the most formidable line-ups ever seen in USCL league play.

By Spencer Finegold

Week five was shaping up to be a tough one for the Arch Bishops. With GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Yury Shulman off to the Olympiad, our board three, GM Ben Finegold, was bumped up a couple seats and some bench players had to fill in behind him. Instead of our usual rating average of 2500+ we were down to a mere 2345 and, for the first time, lower rated than our opponents. With a little luck though, we were able to wade through the beginning of our Nakamura/Shulman-less stretch and hold a draw (white won on every board!).

By Spencer Finegold

Week four was a topsy-turvy one for the Arch Bishops. If you looked at every board about an hour into the match, you would think our last two boards would win and our two GM ringers would lose! It didn't quite end up that way, but it was close. We ended up tying the match with our bottom boards getting 1.5/2 and our GMs lucky to scrape together .5/2. All things considered we shouldn't be too unhappy with our result, as we were missing 2700-GM Yury Shulman. Also, this was the first time board four (manned by yours truly) didn't lose for our team.

By Spencer Finegold

After underachieving in the first couple of weeks, the Saint Louis Arch Bishops finally weaved together enough points to win their match against the Dallas Destiny. In case you were wondering why I didn’t use words like “we” and “our”, it is because board four was held down by Executive Director Tony Rich in my stead. To be honest, neither of us wanted to lose and let our team down, and considering our opponent would be about 300 points higher rated, it was a tough “destiny” to avoid. Our line-up did however still consist of the big three: Lebron, Wade, and Bosh (more commonly referred to as Nakamura, Shulman, and Finegold). They ended up winning the match with 2.5/3, as our GM-titleless fourth board was not so lucky.