Chess to the death

I've mentioned that I'm something of a chess fan. Maybe the oddest game show for chess fans is Chess.com's "Death Match." This three-hour blitz and bullet festival pits two chess masters against each other in shorter and shorter time formats. First, five minutes a game, then three minutes a game, then one minute a game in the ultimate bullet showdown. (Well, there are wussy one-second increments per move in each format.)

International masters Danny Rensch and David Pruess provide sometimes goofy, sometimes insightful comments on the games as they play out over the Internet. The latest match saw two women players duke it out, Americans Anna Zatonskih and Tatev Abrahamyan. Really, Anna should have won because she is the much higher rated player.

But sometimes upsets happen. Tatev pulled away late in the match to a pretty easy win. Even though she looked a little haggard and fuzzy-haired during the pre- and post-match interviews, the lower rated Tatev really didn't have much trouble, especially in the one-minute games. You never know.