Round 1 pairings have been posted

So round 1 pairings have been posted (here they are):

Knightmares v Primates of the Caribbean (U2000 Maple Division)

(W) Tadiran (2050) - (B) Campagnolo (2043) – Monday 28 July @ 2130 EDT
(B) DFME (2000) - (W) Nosalt (1999) – Tuesday 29 July @ 1100 EDT
(W) Ehab (1837) - (B) Holm (1900) – Saturday 26 July @ 0800 EDT
(B) KingofKnights (1804) - (W) Nosferatu1 (1837) Monday 28 July @ 1730 EDT

Don is sitting out this week as he has relatives a' plenty visiting.

On paper we look good and match up rating-wise very closely with the Knightmares.
Of note this will be the first time that Tom will be playing in the 45 45 league and only my second game in 45 45 as well. Don, Tom and I have played together at the US Amateur East tournaments for several years and we collectively decided to try and wean ourselves off of blitz as much as possible (blitz is an additive habit and frankly really provides only limited benefit to your tournament game – at least that is my opinion). So, I am going to use this as a opportunity to prepare as much as possible, given the limited time I have with a job and 2 very energetic young sons!

As a side note, I am still waiting for the ICC correspondence tournaments to start up again. I enjoy them immensely (they seem to synch up nicely with my penchant to do deep analysis) and use them to experiment and learn with new openings. Some of my experiments have not gone well, others I truly learned a great deal. If ICC does not deliver on the correspondence, I’ll look for another avenue (suggestions anyone?).