Once again we're nearing the annual United States Amateur Team Championship dates. This year the South edition will once again be held in Kissimmee, Florida. (That's basically south Orlando for those that may be reading this but don't know Central Florida. It's Walt Disney World's back yard or front porch, depending on how you want to look at it.)
Once again Jon Haskel of the Boca Raton Chess Club is organizing and directing the event. The tournament flyer can be found here, and other information can be found here. Additionally, over to the right you will see that I have added a page with some of this information, so it can always be found quickly even as this post moves down the page. That page of information can be found at this link.
Be sure to get the word out to anyone that might not here about the tournament through other means, and start putting your teams together! We're already working on ours.
Showing posts with label USATS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USATS. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
2017 USATS Information
The information for the 2017 USATS, to be held in Kissimmee Florida, can be found to the right in the section for Chess References. The article contains all the appropriate links, as well as hotel reservation information.
Thursday, September 1, 2016
2017 United States Amateur Team Championship South Hotel Reservation Information
[Bumped to the top. Originally published 2016 AUG 29, 12:34 AM.]
Ten days back, I mentioned that Jon Haskel had placed the winning bid for the 2017 USATS. I now have a bit more information to pass along.
Ten days back, I mentioned that Jon Haskel had placed the winning bid for the 2017 USATS. I now have a bit more information to pass along.
The event will be held over the weekend of February 17-19, 2017, at the the Holiday Inn Orlando SW - Celebration Area, in Kissimmee, Florida. (Click the link for the hotel's website.)
If anyone would prefer to call into the hotel's Central Reservations
department, call 800-465-4359. Booking code is CHE.
As per Jon Haskel's original email announcing the event:
The special Hotel rate is $75 per night. The Hotel has waived its normal $15 resort fee, so guests will have free high speed internet, unlimited use of the fitness facility, outdoor pool with fresh towels, free parking, and free daily newspaper. A full breakfast buffet will be available for only $6 per person.
In an email I received a few hours ago with the additional information, Jon states that anyone who wants the $6 special breakfast buffet needs to email him (jon@bocachess.com), and that we should all feel free to spread the word.
So spread the word!
Friday, August 19, 2016
2017 United States Amateur Team South Announcement
Jon Haskel has sent out the following information via email:
Congratulations to Jon Haskel for winning the bid, and thanks for putting together the bid in the first place. It is most appreciated.
Many of you no doubt received the email, so this is for those that haven't. Please pass the information along to anyone that might be interested. In the future look to the Boca Raton Chess Club's website or Facebook page for more information. We will also post additional information here as it becomes availableMark your calendars for the 2017 U.S. Amateur Team Championship South that will be taking place in Kissimmee, Florida, February 17 to February 19. The Hotel is just minutes from Disney, Universal, etc. The average daytime high in February is in the mid-seventies.The special Hotel rate is $75 per night. The Hotel has waived its normal $15 resort fee, so guests will have free high speed Internet, unlimited use of the fitness facility, outdoor pool with fresh towels, free parking, and free daily newspaper. A full breakfast buffet will be available for only $6 per person.More details will follow soon.
Congratulations to Jon Haskel for winning the bid, and thanks for putting together the bid in the first place. It is most appreciated.
Monday, March 28, 2016
USATS Round 4
In the fourth round I again played up, against Miguel Ararat, 1869. This is currently my second favorite tournament game I've ever played. I thought it might have been my second best, but Stockfish has disabused me of that notion. Still, it was a fairly attractive game.
I spent a good twelve minutes or so on my first eight moves. Figuring out what I wanted to do against this ...d6 ...f5 setup took a little bit of time. Then my opponent, who had been moving quickly, slowed down considerably over the next few moves. I hadn't slept well the night before, so I was starting to nod off while waiting for my opponents moves. So I went out into the hall and did some jumping jacks to wake up! I also spent a good deal of time walking around during my Miguel's moves. I had forgotten just how much stress I put on myself during a tournament.
I spent a good twelve minutes or so on my first eight moves. Figuring out what I wanted to do against this ...d6 ...f5 setup took a little bit of time. Then my opponent, who had been moving quickly, slowed down considerably over the next few moves. I hadn't slept well the night before, so I was starting to nod off while waiting for my opponents moves. So I went out into the hall and did some jumping jacks to wake up! I also spent a good deal of time walking around during my Miguel's moves. I had forgotten just how much stress I put on myself during a tournament.
Sunday, March 27, 2016
USATS Round 3
My round three game included a long grinding slog, followed by a brief tactical sequence that left me on top ... and culminated in ignominious defeat when I tried to exploit my advantage too quickly. There's not much to point out other than the point I went wrong.
Here I played 28...g5. I had just won White's h-pawn and I wanted to crack open the king-side before he had a chance to regroup for defensive operations. The problem is that I was the one that needed to regroup - winning the pawn had ruined the coordination of my rooks in particular. Furthermore, his pieces are ideally placed to attack if the position opens up. Dumbdumbdumb. Or as Connor likes to say, "Derp." My move isn't bad in and of itself, but it was the wrong plan, and once I realized things were going wrong I lost my resolve and did not find better defensive options.
I was very upset with myself after the game, and went for a short walk outside. It was a short walk as I wasn't dressed for it and didn't know the area. I could have walked five miles that night just to start calming down. C'est la vie.
The whole game below the fold.
Todd Durham, 1733
Bill Langford, 1650
Here I played 28...g5. I had just won White's h-pawn and I wanted to crack open the king-side before he had a chance to regroup for defensive operations. The problem is that I was the one that needed to regroup - winning the pawn had ruined the coordination of my rooks in particular. Furthermore, his pieces are ideally placed to attack if the position opens up. Dumbdumbdumb. Or as Connor likes to say, "Derp." My move isn't bad in and of itself, but it was the wrong plan, and once I realized things were going wrong I lost my resolve and did not find better defensive options.
I was very upset with myself after the game, and went for a short walk outside. It was a short walk as I wasn't dressed for it and didn't know the area. I could have walked five miles that night just to start calming down. C'est la vie.
The whole game below the fold.
Saturday, March 26, 2016
USATS Round 2
Below is my second round game from the USATS. My first round game had been an utter disaster. I can't even say I played chess badly, as I just moved pieces around aimlessly and without thought. The only saving grace was that my opponent out-rated me by over 400 points, so the loss was easily the expected result.
But in round two I actually showed up and played with thought. Not always adequate thought, but thought nonetheless. I made two really bad moves in the game, and missed one good one, but otherwise I had a nice smooth win against a 1900+ player (who was only rated 1776 on the wall chart). My opponent had a good tournament result otherwise, including a win and a draw against a pair of 2100+ players.
But in round two I actually showed up and played with thought. Not always adequate thought, but thought nonetheless. I made two really bad moves in the game, and missed one good one, but otherwise I had a nice smooth win against a 1900+ player (who was only rated 1776 on the wall chart). My opponent had a good tournament result otherwise, including a win and a draw against a pair of 2100+ players.
Thursday, February 25, 2016
USATS: My journey
I'll need to talk to the rest of the team as a whole before I can give more than the thumbnail description that I gave in the earlier post. One additional point I can make is that every single half-point we scored mattered. Without any of them we wouldn't have won.
As for me, this tournament was a mixed bag, results-wise, but quite promising in terms of how I played. In the first round, I played up over 400 points. A loss was the expected result, and I did lose. Fast. I believe my game finished some 30 or 40 minutes before the next game finished. I played the losing move after my opponent's eleventh move, though I played on until move 23. (I had black.)
[NOTE: What follows is a long piece, for a blog post, about my games. I wrote it mostly for myself, but if you want to see it, click for more.]
As for me, this tournament was a mixed bag, results-wise, but quite promising in terms of how I played. In the first round, I played up over 400 points. A loss was the expected result, and I did lose. Fast. I believe my game finished some 30 or 40 minutes before the next game finished. I played the losing move after my opponent's eleventh move, though I played on until move 23. (I had black.)
[NOTE: What follows is a long piece, for a blog post, about my games. I wrote it mostly for myself, but if you want to see it, click for more.]
Monday, February 15, 2016
USATS Results now posted to USCF
The results have now been submitted to, and tabulated by, the USCF. Below are the rating changes for our teams. Congratulations to all who gained points, and commiserations to all who lost points.
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United States Amateur Team South, 2016 edition
The 2016 edition of the USATS was held in Tampa, Florida from February 12-14. I'll post more on the tournament later (perhaps even a comment or two about the hotel we stayed in, but probably not), but for now I just want to record that the Clermont Chess Club sent three teams to the tournament, and that we did well.
Our highest rated team was Clermont Chess Club Great Britain Chapter (1785.3 avg.). The team consisted of Tim Bowler and Connor Eickelman from the club itself, and club friends Wayne Strickland and Theo Slade. (Theo and Tim are from Great Britain originally, hence the name.) They had tough pairings, playing two of the top teams, but were still in contention for the Under 1800 prize in the last round. [ADDED: I should note too that Theo played a very tough schedule, against three masters and two experts. Included among the masters were John Nardandrea, who once again led the winning team, and FM Mark Ritter, who won the prize for Best Score on Board One. That was a murderer's row with an average rating of 2163 on the wall chart. That may be the toughest schedule anyone faced in the tournament. I know he was disappointed he only scored 2.5, but overall that was a good total.]
Our second highest rated team was the Clermont Chess Club Pine Hills Original Gangstas Chapter (1777.0 avg.). (Don't ask about the name, or we might tell you.) That team consisted of club regulars Jim McTigue, Paul Leggett, Garry Day, and myself. Somehow we managed to win the Under 1800 prize, no thanks to a late Round 5 meltdown from yours truly. (More on the games in later posts.) The incredible thing to me was that we were actually the leading team for the prize after the fourth round. Still not sure how that happened, but someone's got to win!
And in the Under 1500 division, the Clermont Chess Club Grand Fenwick Chapter (1227.8 avg.) won the Under 1300 prize convincingly with 3.5 match points. The final standings haven't been posted yet, but they had to have been close to finishing third overall. [CORRECTION: The team had three match points and finished in a tie for 5-7 overall. 3.5 mathc points would have tied them for first!] This team consisted of David _H_ Raymond (OUR Dave Raymond, the good one!), Norm Meintel, John Wolfe, and Thomas Lee Johnson. Again a team of all regulars, and I'm particularly pleased with this team's accomplishments. Thomas is fairly new to competitive chess and only had 11 rated games prior to the tournament. John is coming back from a decades long lay-off from the game, though he had two other tournaments under his belt from recent months. It had been two & a half years since Dave played in a tournament prior to his return two weeks ago, and Norm hadn't played a rated game in over three & a half years. Norm played especially well, scoring 3.5 points out of five, and he had one really nice endgame grind that I hope to post later. Nice work from a newbie and a bunch of drop-outs!*
So we scored two team trophies, which was all we could realistically hope for. (Great Britain and Pine Hills were competing for the same trophy.) Paul quipped, "Once again the Clermont Chess Club has demonstrated its dominance of the lower echelons of the USATS!"
True, but not entirely fair! Unless we were to get the best the club has had through the years (e.g., MarkRitter Ryan**, Theo Slade, Ray Robson(!)), and maybe recruit a couple of other strong players, we simply don't have the firepower to compete for the top prizes. (Alternately, Connor needs to jump to a much higher plateau.) But this is why they've got sections, and we put up a fight in our class! We do what we can, and that also means putting Garry Day on the team, since Garry's teams always come away with trophies for first place in these events. I doubt anyone has a better lifetime record, percentage-wise. I believe this is now five wins in five tries for Garry.
Good work, gentlemen, and perhaps we can do this again some time!
* I should add that I was returning from almost seven years away from rated chess. I know what it's like, fellas....
** Thanks to Paul for the correction. Sorry to all the Marks involved!
Our highest rated team was Clermont Chess Club Great Britain Chapter (1785.3 avg.). The team consisted of Tim Bowler and Connor Eickelman from the club itself, and club friends Wayne Strickland and Theo Slade. (Theo and Tim are from Great Britain originally, hence the name.) They had tough pairings, playing two of the top teams, but were still in contention for the Under 1800 prize in the last round. [ADDED: I should note too that Theo played a very tough schedule, against three masters and two experts. Included among the masters were John Nardandrea, who once again led the winning team, and FM Mark Ritter, who won the prize for Best Score on Board One. That was a murderer's row with an average rating of 2163 on the wall chart. That may be the toughest schedule anyone faced in the tournament. I know he was disappointed he only scored 2.5, but overall that was a good total.]
Our second highest rated team was the Clermont Chess Club Pine Hills Original Gangstas Chapter (1777.0 avg.). (Don't ask about the name, or we might tell you.) That team consisted of club regulars Jim McTigue, Paul Leggett, Garry Day, and myself. Somehow we managed to win the Under 1800 prize, no thanks to a late Round 5 meltdown from yours truly. (More on the games in later posts.) The incredible thing to me was that we were actually the leading team for the prize after the fourth round. Still not sure how that happened, but someone's got to win!
And in the Under 1500 division, the Clermont Chess Club Grand Fenwick Chapter (1227.8 avg.) won the Under 1300 prize convincingly with 3.5 match points. The final standings haven't been posted yet, but they had to have been close to finishing third overall. [CORRECTION: The team had three match points and finished in a tie for 5-7 overall. 3.5 mathc points would have tied them for first!] This team consisted of David _H_ Raymond (OUR Dave Raymond, the good one!), Norm Meintel, John Wolfe, and Thomas Lee Johnson. Again a team of all regulars, and I'm particularly pleased with this team's accomplishments. Thomas is fairly new to competitive chess and only had 11 rated games prior to the tournament. John is coming back from a decades long lay-off from the game, though he had two other tournaments under his belt from recent months. It had been two & a half years since Dave played in a tournament prior to his return two weeks ago, and Norm hadn't played a rated game in over three & a half years. Norm played especially well, scoring 3.5 points out of five, and he had one really nice endgame grind that I hope to post later. Nice work from a newbie and a bunch of drop-outs!*
So we scored two team trophies, which was all we could realistically hope for. (Great Britain and Pine Hills were competing for the same trophy.) Paul quipped, "Once again the Clermont Chess Club has demonstrated its dominance of the lower echelons of the USATS!"
True, but not entirely fair! Unless we were to get the best the club has had through the years (e.g., Mark
Good work, gentlemen, and perhaps we can do this again some time!
* I should add that I was returning from almost seven years away from rated chess. I know what it's like, fellas....
** Thanks to Paul for the correction. Sorry to all the Marks involved!
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