12.18.07 Nine teams from across the state competed in the Maine Team Championship on Saturday, December 15, 2007 at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland. The highest rated team, The Unnamed Winners/Chess Friends, with an average rating of USCF 1798, pulled a come-from-behind victory by beating Saco 1 in the last round to win the championship with a score of 3.5 out of 4.

Thanks to Barry Magda and Dan Fishbein for contributing to this report.

Asssited by a first round bye, Saco 1 held a half point lead (3.0 - 2.5) over The Unnamed Winners/Chess Friends going into the last round.

On board three, Andrey Savov quickly got into a draw situation with Saco's John Brady. According to Brady, "Neither of us could go for a win in the position without losing, so we had a draw.’Äù Barry Magda, playing board five for TUW/CF defeated Robert Jenkins in a pawn and knight endgame made easy after Jenkins lost his knight. Next, Derrick Crocker on board four, agreed to a draw with Jon Malev of Saco in a slightly worse position.

With the score 2-1, and needing a clear victory, it came down to the last two boards to finish, both of which were looking bad for TUW/CF.

On board one, John Phythyon had what looked like a winning game, winning a bishop in the center against Ruben Babayan, team captain for TUW/CF, and with a huge time advantage, thirty minutes left on the clock to about three minutes for Babayan. Meanwhile on board two, young dynamo Lucas McCain, playing a knight and pawn endgame against Joe Wrba’Äôs bishop and extra pawn, looked to be faltering. But with grandmaster style endgame technique, McCain maneuvered his knight in and around Wrba's weak pawns The position distilled to a two pawns and knight vs. bishop situation, which McCain converted in very convincing style. This clinched the win for TUW/CF, but to keep from losing any games, Babayan had to pull out all the stops in the final two minutes of his game, sacrificing a two rooks and a knight to get a perpetual check and the draw. Babayan ended with a queen and pawns against a queen, bishop, knight, two rooks and pawns showing why he is Maine Chessplayer of the Year so often!

Four-fifths of the winning team, The Unnamed Winners/Chess Friends (left to right): Derrick Crocker, Ruben Babayan, Barry Magda and Lucas McCain pose with the Harlow B. Daly trophy. Andrey Savov is not pictured.

Ruben Babayan, captain of The Unnamed Winners/Chess Friends (left) plays his last round game on board 1 vs. John Phythyon. The Unnamned Winners/Chess Friends won this round to overtake Saco 1 who had been leading the tournament going into the last round.

Derrick Crocker (left) takes on Max Berube.

The team Saco 1 (left) takes on team rivals and friends Saco 2.

Playing for the Portland Chess Club (front right to rear right): David Rice, Gheorge Teodorescu and Charles Rotmil take on three (slightly) younger opponents.

Lee Doucette (left) playing board one for the Portland Chess Club and Brandon Greaton playing board one for Thornton Academy in a very competitive 3rd round game that attracted a crowd and ended in a draw.