US Chess League: Week 1

The US Chess League is an online chess league that holds weekly matches, similar to other sporting leagues like the NFL.  16 different cities from around the nation host a chess team.  Many of the country's strongest adult and junior chess players  represent their region.

On a given week, each city must put together a four-person team chosen from their ten-person roster. The average rating of the team must be less than 2400. Teams from different cities face off in a head-to-head match. The team with the best combined score over all four boards wins the match. Teams with the best record over the course of the season make it to the playoffs and compete to be the league champion.

Mechanics' Institute Library and Chess Room

Because of some peculiarities with how the ratings are calculated, the league format favors teams with super strong grandmasters (GMs) and under-rated juniors. This season, Cameron was selected for the roster of the San Francisco Mechanics. The Mechanics have a long history of fielding strong teams with some of the top juniors in the country to complement their GMs.

Last night the Mechanics had their first match of the season against the Carolina Cobras.  On paper, the Mechanics appeared to be big favorites against the lower-rated Cobras, but in this format, anything can happen.

While Cameron's accomplishment of becoming a master at the age of 11 puts him in a pretty elite club, his teammate, Samuel Sevian, reached the milestone just before his 10th birthday.  Sam has been on a tear lately, picking up 100 rating points and two IM norms this summer!  He is exactly the kind of under-rated junior that makes the Mechanics such a dangerous threat.  On board #3, Sam's opponent last night was FM Ron Simpson.  Despite being 40 years older, Ron's experience was no match for Sam's sharp tactical play in the Yugoslav Attack.  Sam's game was the first to finish and it appeared that things were well in order.

Cameron's opponent on board #4 was the highest-rated scholastic player in North Carolina, high-schooler Joshua Mu.  As you can see in the picture, players are allowed to make their moves "over the board" (OTB) and relay their actions to their opponent using a computer.  This year, in addition to using the Internet Chess Club (ICC), some of the matches will be played on Chess.com.  Last night's match was the inaugural event on Chess.com. After some initial confusion about logins and such, the games eventually got under way.  You can see here that Cameron's game is several moves into the opening and Sam hasn't even begun playing.  Cameron played the black side of a Classical French Defense and got a very comfortable position out of the opening.  With large rating differences in SF's favor on the top two boards and Sam's game already in the bag, it appeared that the Mechanics were rolling.

The Mechanics' formula for the US Chess League has always been to field the strongest players available on the top boards and complement them with the wealth of junior talent that the Bay Area offers.  The top board was occupied by GM Vinay Bhat.  Despite being a former junior star here in the Bay Area, Bhat likes to play his USCL games "old skool", complete with paper notation sheet and analog clock. Vinay's opponent was IM Jonathan Schroer. With the white pieces and a significant rating advantage, San Francisco was the clear favorite in this game.  As the game progressed, Bhat continued to improve his position while Schroer retreated, the victory seemed within our grasp.

Finally, on board #2, the Mechanics' top-rated player GM Jesse Kraai faced off against the dangerous young Kassa Korley from New York.  The multi-talented Korley is in his second year at Duke University and had a very successful season for the Cobras last year.  Jesse got off to a rough start in this round due to some technical difficulties.  You can see him here, visibly frustrated with his computer/wireless connection.  Eventually, Kraai gave up on his laptop and moved to one of the desktop machines with a wired connection, but by this time the damage was done; Jesse's position appeared to be slightly worse against the young upstart.

With Sam's game complete, Cameron and Vinay both in good shape, the problems in Jesse's game did not seem that significant.  However, Cameron seemed to get a bit lost in the middlegame, and slowly his advantage diminished.  Eventually, Cameron made a blunder and Joshua pounced.  Almost simultaneously with Cameron's collapse, Vinay launched an attack which just simply did not work.  Suddenly things began to look very dark for the Mechanics.  Despite an overwhelming attack from Joshua, Cam played on in the hopes of swindling a draw to give the team some chances.  Within moments of each other, both Cameron and Vinay resigned.  With Jesse looking worse or possibly holding a draw, the team's chances looked very bleak.  Despite having a couple of hours of homework and it being a school night, Cameron insisted on staying to watch Kraai attempt the miracle.  The wily GM slowly maneuvered to improve his position, and Cameron reported that he now felt that Jesse was somewhat better, but it was still probably a draw, which would not be enough to salvage the Mechanics' match.  Then in a fluke which can only be attributed to a combination of GM magic, the late hour in North Carolina, and extreme time pressure for young Kassa, Jesse managed to fork Korley's King and Bishop to win the game and secure a draw for the team.

It was a great way to end what could have been a disastrous first week of the season.  Cameron enjoyed himself and is looking forward to playing more matches in the coming weeks.  We will try to keep you posted on the Mechanics as the season progresses.  You can find more information about the US Chess League on their website.