United States Chess League 2006
The United States Chess League 2006 was the second edition of the United States Chess League , the US team championship in chess.
Champion was the team of the San Francisco Mechanics , while the defending champion Baltimore Kingfishers missed the playoff. With the Seattle Sluggers and Tennessee Tempo (based in Nashville ) two new teams were at the start, so that the competition was held with ten teams.
For the reported team roster, see the 2006 United States Chess League team roster .
Game dates
The regular season competitions took place on August 30, September 6, 13, 20 and 27, October 4, 11, 18 and 25, and on November 1, 2006, except in In the second and tenth round, a competition was played two days earlier. The Wildcard Round was played on November 8th, the semi-finals on November 15th and the final on November 29th. All competitions were played on the Internet Chess Club server .
mode
The ten participating teams were divided into two groups of five ( Eastern Division and Western Division ). Each team played twice against the members of the same group and once against two teams in the other group. The number of team points (one point for a win, half a point for a draw, no point for a defeat), then the number of board points (one point for a win, half a point for a draw, no Point for defeat). The first three of each group qualified for the final round ( playoff ), which was played in the knockout system . The two group winners were directly qualified for the semifinals, while the second and third placed in the wildcard round played the other two semifinal places.
Preliminary round
Grouping
The ten teams were divided into the two preliminary rounds as follows:
| Eastern Division | Western Division |
|---|---|
| New York Knights | San Francisco Mechanics |
| Baltimore Kingfishers | Miami Sharks |
| Boston Blitz | Dallas Destiny |
| Philadelphia Inventors | Seattle Sluggers |
| Carolina Cobras | Tennessee pace |
Eastern Division
Before the last round, Boston had already qualified for the semi-finals, while the two starting places in the wildcard round were still fiercely contested. In the end, New York and Carolina narrowly prevailed.
Closing table
| Pl. | society | Sp | G | U | V | MP | Board P. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Boston Blitz | 10 | 7th | 2 | 1 | 8.0: 2.0 | 25.5: 14.5 |
| 2. | New York Knights (D) | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4th | 4.5: 5.5 | 18.5: 21.5 |
| 3. | Carolina Cobras | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4.0: 6.0 | 19.5: 20.5 |
| 4th | Philadelphia Inventors | 10 | 2 | 4th | 4th | 4.0: 6.0 | 19.0: 21.0 |
| 5. | Baltimore Kingfishers (M) | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4.0: 6.0 | 18.5: 21.5 |
decisions
| qualified for the semifinals: Boston Blitz | |
| qualified for the Wildcard Round: New York Knights , Carolina Cobras | |
| (M) | Last year's champion |
|---|---|
| (D) | Last year's division winner |
Western Division
Before the last round, San Francisco was the semi-finalist and Seattle was the participant in the wildcard round, while the decision about third place was made in the last round for Dallas.
Closing table
| Pl. | society | Sp | G | U | V | MP | Board P. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | San Francisco Mechanics (D) | 10 | 7th | 3 | 0 | 8.5: 1.5 | 26.0: 14.0 |
| 2. | Seattle Sluggers (N) | 10 | 6th | 2 | 2 | 7.0: 3.0 | 25.5: 14.5 |
| 3. | Dallas Destiny | 10 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 4.5: 5.5 | 21.0: 19.0 |
| 4th | Miami Sharks | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4.0: 6.0 | 18.0: 22.0 |
| 5. | Tennessee Tempo (N) | 10 | 1 | 1 | 8th | 1.5: 8.5 | 8.5: 31.5 |
decisions
| qualified for the semifinals: San Francisco Mechanics | |
| qualified for the Wildcard Round: Seattle Sluggers , Dallas Destiny | |
| (D) | Last year's division winner |
|---|---|
| (N) | first time participating team |
Finals
Overview
| Quarter finals | Semifinals | final | ||||||||
| Boston Blitz | ||||||||||
| bye | ||||||||||
| Boston Blitz | 1 | |||||||||
| New York Knights | 3 | |||||||||
| New York Knights | 3 | |||||||||
| Carolina Cobras | 1 | |||||||||
| New York Knights | 2 | |||||||||
| San Francisco Mechanics | 2 | |||||||||
| San Francisco Mechanics | ||||||||||
| bye | ||||||||||
| San Francisco Mechanics | 3 | |||||||||
| Seattle Sluggers | 1 | |||||||||
| Seattle Sluggers | 2 | |||||||||
| Dallas Destiny | 2 | |||||||||
decisions
| American team champion: San Francisco Mechanics |
Wildcard Round
The two runners-up qualified for the semi-finals. While New York clearly won against Carolina, Seattle only came to a draw against Dallas, but was on through the better preliminary round placement.
Semifinals
While San Francisco lived up to its favorite role against Seattle, Boston surprisingly failed to New York.
final
The final ended 2: 2, so the decision had to be made in a tie-break in blitz chess (with a time limit of 3 minutes for the entire game plus a 3-second premium per move). The regulations stipulated that the players lined up on the fourth board had to play against each other. The loser was eliminated while the winner faced the player on the next higher board. In a draw, both players failed, except when a player from the first board was involved. In this case the game was rescheduled with exchanged colors. The tie-break was decided as soon as all players on one team were eliminated. The results of the tie-break were:
| White | black | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Samuel Shankland (San Francisco) | Matthew Herman (New York) | 1-0 |
| Robert Hess (New York) | Samuel Shankland (San Francisco) | 0.5: 0.5 |
| Dmitry Zilberstein (San Francisco) | Irina Krush (New York) | 0.5: 0.5 |
| Pascal Charbonneau (New York) | David Pruess (San Francisco) | 1-0 |
| Joshua Friedel (San Francisco) | Pascal Charbonneau (New York) | 1-0 |
Awards
Most Valuable Player
The title of Most Valuable Player (MVP) was awarded on the basis of the preliminary round results. A player received four points for a winning game on the first board, four points were deducted for a defeat. On the second board, three plus or minus points were awarded, and two each on the third and fourth board. In addition, one point was credited for each winning and drawing game achieved with the black pieces. Julio Becerra Rivero (Miami) won the title with 19 points, followed by Oleg Zaikov (Carolina) with 14 points and Grigory Serper (Seattle) with 11 points.
All star teams
Two All Star Teams were nominated. The first team consisted of Julio Becerra Ribero, Jacek Stopa (Dallas), Oleg Zaikov and Samuel Shankland (San Francisco), the second Joshua Friedel , Vinay Bhat (both San Francisco), Richard Costigan (Philadelphia) and Craig Jones (Dallas).
Game of the Year
After each round, a game of the week (was Game of the Week ) chosen from the 13 games of the week, the game of the year (was Game of the Year ) selected. The title went to the draw game between Paweł Blehm (Baltimore) and Pascal Charbonneau from the second round, followed by the winning games of Julio Becerra Ribero against Paweł Blehm from the fourth round and Larry Christiansen (Boston) against Lev Milman (Carolina ) from the fifth round.
The championship team
| 1. | San Francisco Mechanics |
 |
Joshua Friedel , Vincent McCambridge , Vinay Bhat , David Pruess , Dmitry Zilberstein , Mark Pinto, Samuel Shankland , Daniel Naroditsky . |
Web links
- Schedule on the USCL homepage
- Preliminary round tables on the USCL homepage (English)
- Final round results on the USCL homepage
- Player statistics on the homepage of the USCL (English)
- Games of the Week on the USCL homepage
Individual evidence
- ↑ Homepage of the Nashville Chess Center (English)