United States Chess League 2010
The United States Chess League 2010 was the sixth edition of the United States Chess League , the US team championship in chess.
Champion was the team of the New England Nor'easters , while the defending champion New York Knights failed in the playoff quarter-finals. With the teams of the New England Nor'easters (based in Somerville (Massachusetts) ), the St. Louis Arch Bishops and Los Angeles Vibe , three new teams were at the start. Tennessee Tempo had withdrawn its team from the USCL, so that the competition was held with 16 teams. The Queens Pioneers changed their team name and appeared as Manhattan Apple Sauce .
For the reported team roster, see the 2010 United States Chess League team roster .
Game dates
The competitions of the preliminary round ( Regular Season ) took place on 23/25. August 30th / 1st September, 7/8, 13/15, 20/22 and 27./29. September, 4th / 6th, 11th / 13th, 18th / 20th and 25./27. October 2010, with four competitions being played on the first and second date. Two competitions of the quarter-finals were played on November 1st and 3rd, the semi-finals took place on November 10th, and the final on November 20th. All competitions were played on the Internet Chess Club server .
mode
The 16 participating teams were divided into two groups of eight ( Eastern Division and Western Division ). Each team played twice against two other members of the same group and once against the five other teams in the same group and against one team from 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 four of each group qualified for the final round ( playoff ), which was played in the knockout system .
Preliminary round
Grouping
The 16 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 |
| New Jersey knockouts | St. Louis Arch Bishops |
| Manhattan apple sauce | Arizona Scorpions |
| Carolina Cobras | Chicago Blaze |
| New England Nor'easters | Los Angeles vibe |
Eastern Division
While New England, Boston and New York qualified early for the playoff, the decision about the last playoff participant was only made in the last round in a direct comparison between Baltimore and New Jersey.
Closing table
| Pl. | society | Sp | G | U | V | MP | Board P. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | New England Nor'easters (N) | 10 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 9.5: 0.5 | 28.0: 12.0 |
| 2. | Boston Blitz | 10 | 5 | 4th | 1 | 7.0: 3.0 | 21.5: 18.5 |
| 3. | Baltimore Kingfishers | 10 | 5 | 1 | 4th | 5.5: 4.5 | 22.0: 18.0 |
| 4th | New York Knights (M) | 10 | 4th | 2 | 4th | 5.0: 5.0 | 23.5: 16.5 |
| 5. | Philadelphia Inventors | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6th | 3.5: 6.5 | 18.0: 22.0 |
| 6th | New Jersey Knockouts (D) | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 3.5: 6.5 | 16.5: 23.5 |
| 7th | Manhattan apple sauce | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 3.5: 6.5 | 15.5: 24.5 |
| 8th. | Carolina Cobras | 10 | 0 | 4th | 6th | 2.0: 8.0 | 14.0: 26.0 |
decisions
| qualified for the playoff: New England Nor'easters , Boston Blitz , Baltimore Kingfishers , New York Knights | |
| (M) | Last year's champion |
|---|---|
| (D) | Last year's division winner |
| (N) | first time participating team |
Western Division
Before the last round, Arizona was already qualified for the playoffs, all other decisions were made in the final round.
Closing table
| Pl. | society | Sp | G | U | V | MP | Board P. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Arizona Scorpions | 10 | 6th | 1 | 3 | 6.5: 3.5 | 22.5: 17.5 |
| 2. | Chicago Blaze | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 6.0: 4.0 | 20.5: 19.5 |
| 3. | Miami Sharks | 10 | 4th | 3 | 3 | 5.5: 4.5 | 21.0: 19.0 |
| 4th | Seattle Sluggers (D) | 10 | 4th | 2 | 4th | 5.0: 5.0 | 22.0: 18.0 |
| 5. | St. Louis Arch Bishops (N) | 10 | 3 | 4th | 3 | 5.0: 5.0 | 18.5: 21.5 |
| 6th | Los Angeles Vibe (N) | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4th | 4.5: 5.5 | 18.5: 21.5 |
| 7th | San Francisco Mechanics | 10 | 4th | 0 | 6th | 4.0: 6.0 | 19.0: 21.0 |
| 8th. | Dallas Destiny | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4.0: 6.0 | 19.0: 21.0 |
decisions
| qualified for the playoff: Arizona Scorpions , Chicago Blaze , Miami Sharks , Seattle Sluggers | |
| (D) | Last year's division winner |
|---|---|
| (N) | first time participating team |
Finals
Overview
| Quarter finals | Semifinals | final | ||||||||
| New England Nor'easters | 2½ | |||||||||
| New York Knights | 1½ | |||||||||
| New England Nor'easters | 2 | |||||||||
| Boston Blitz | 2 | |||||||||
| Boston Blitz | 2½ | |||||||||
| Baltimore Kingfishers | 1½ | |||||||||
| New England Nor'easters | 3 | |||||||||
| Miami Sharks | 1 | |||||||||
| Arizona Scorpions | 2 | |||||||||
| Seattle Sluggers | 2 | |||||||||
| Arizona Scorpions | 1 | |||||||||
| Miami Sharks | 3 | |||||||||
| Chicago Blaze | 1 | |||||||||
| Miami Sharks | 3 | |||||||||
decisions
| American team champion: New England Nor'easters |
Quarter finals
All competitions saw close decisions, Arizona even reached the semifinals only thanks to the better preliminary round placement after a 2-2 draw against Seattle.
Semifinals
In the semifinals, too, a decision was only made based on the preliminary round placement, with New England beating Boston 2-2. In the second competition, Miami prevailed.
final
The newcomer New England also won the final, where they won a game without a fight.
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, on the third board 2.5 and fourth board two. 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 24 points, followed by Sergey Erenburg (Baltimore) with 20 points and Hikaru Nakamura (St. Louis) with 19 points.
Rookie of the Year
The title of Rookie of the Year was given to the most successful debutant in the USCL. The title went to Robert Hungaski (New England), who achieved 7 points from 8 games.
Most Improved Player
The title of Most Improved Player was awarded to the player who was able to increase his tournament performance the most compared to his previous participation in the USCL. The title went to Florin Felecan (Chicago).
All star teams
Four All Star Teams were nominated. The first team included Sergey Erenburg (Baltimore), Robert Hungaski (New England), Marcel Martinez (Miami) and Alex Cherniack (New England), the second Julio Becerra Rivero (Miami), Pascal Charbonneau (New York), Michael Lee and Axel Guo (both Seattle), the third Hikaru Nakamura (St. Louis), Marc Esserman (Boston), Ben Finegold (St. Louis) and Aleksandr Ostrovskiy (New York) and the fourth Varuzhan Akobian (Seattle), Julio Catalino Sadorra (Dallas ), Daniel Rensch (Arizona) and Nicholas Rosenthal (Miami).
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 as well as seven other games ( wildcards ) the game of the year (was Game of the Year ) selected. For the first time, the title went to a game nominated by wildcard, namely the win game between Varuzhan Akobian (Seattle) against Yury Shulman (St. Louis) from the tenth round. Game of the Week of the tenth round was the winning game between Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (Boston) against Giorgi Katscheishvili (New York), who came second in the Game of the Year election, and third place in the annual ranking was achieved by the winning game Yury Shulman (St. Louis) versus Melikset Khachiyan (Los Angeles) from the first round.
The championship team
| 1. | New England Nor'easters |
 |
Samuel Shankland , David Vigorito , Jan van de Mortel , Robert Hungaski , Charles Riordan, Braden Bournival, Christopher Chase, Alex Cherniack, Carey Theil. |
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
- ↑ Blog of the New England Nor'easters (English)
- ^ Announcement from June 5, 2010 on the USCL blog