Thursday, February 18, 2010

USATW final


The 27th Annual UI.S. Amateur Team West, held at the Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills February 13-15, had a good turnout of 48 teams, with 40 more in the one-day Scholastic Section. First place, and a trip to the playoff with the other three regional winners, went to Team OC, with Alexandre Kretchetov, Takashi Iwamoto, Ilia Serpik and Leo Kamgar. Matching their score of 5.5 but losing out on tiebreak, were ACA: 64 Square Modern Warfare (Vadim Kudryavtsev, Christian Tanaka, Jared Tan and Eric Zhang). The Scholastic section went to We are BEYOND just beating you, on tiebrak over … well, another team from IM Kongliang Deng's "Beyond Chess," BEYOND Chess kids.

Complete standings are posted at www.westernchess.com/atw10/standings.html. John Hillery directed, with assistance from Tom Langland, Anthony Ong, and Kenneth Poole.



1st: Team OC (Alexandre Kretchetov, Takashi Iwamoto, Ilia Serpik, Leo Kamgar), 5.5 (TB)
2nd: ACA: 64 Square Modern Warfare (Vadim Kudryavtsev, Christian Tanaka, Jared Tan, Eric Zhang), 5.5
3rd: Fourclosers (Ron Hermansen, Alessandro Steinfl, Tim Hanks, Jeffrey Cohen) 5-1
U2100: Look BEYOND what you see (rated 1880!)
U2000: Three Knights and a Queen
U1800:
Temple City High School
U1600:
Cloudy With a Chance of Meaterial
U1400:
Chess Palace
College: Trojans Drink Jack Danyuls
Industrial: Northrop Grumman Advantage in Space
Senior:
(over age 50): Tea Party for Five
Junior:
Two and a Half Asians
High School:
University High School

Board Prizes
1) Enrico Sevillano, 5
2) Andranik Matikozyan, 5.5
3) Michael Brown, 5.5
4) Eric Zhang, 6
Alternate: Ezekiel Liu, 4

(Photo courtesy of Takashi Iwamoto.)

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Amateur Team West, day 2



After three rounds, four teams have perfect scores: Team OC, 64 Square Modern Warfare, Pawns on the Ground, and Please Wait (they hope to have a new name soon). No games have been submitted yet, but hear are some photos. We will continue to post standings and pairings as available. Tomorrow will be a bit hectic, as the scholastic tournament (at least 38 more teams) will join the action

Saturday, February 13, 2010

U.S. Amateur Team West, day 1

The 27th Annual U.S. Amateur Team West off to a good start at the Warner Center Marriott. Forty-eight teams (up 4 from last year) and more than 200 players are competing. Advance entries for Monday's Scholastic Amateur team are also promising (8, close to the record of 40). Standings will be posted throughout the weekend, and perhaps some games and photos as well.