Forum

IM Marc Esserman of the Boston Blitz Marc Esserman, a three season veteran of the Boston Blitz, has announced his retirement from the U.S.C.L. After annotating his Quarterfinals and Semifinals games (both wins), Mr. Esserman makes a small statement indicating that he will no longer be part of the Boston Blitz. Below is a link to the article, which is posted on the "US Chess League News" blog. <----- IM Marc Esserman's Blog Article.

Hello again U.S.C.L. fans, and welcome to another edition of U.S.C.L. game review! In anticipation for this weekend's upcoming Championship Match between New England and Miami, we are happy to bring to you a game from the Miami Sharks' very own FM Charles Galofre. Charles has been kind enough to allow us to present his week #5 Game of the Week win over FM Marcel Milat of the Seattle Sluggers. Included below is the game itself, followed by an icon that links to a video made by FM charlesgalofre that discusses his win! FM Charles Galofre FM Marcel Milat (2316) (2353) Miami Sharks Seattle Sluggers <----- Chess.com video about this game by FM charlesgalofre

Hello everyone. As some of you are aware, the 2010 Spice Cup FIDE Rated Open will be starting Thursday, October 28th, and runs through Sunday, November 7th. Many of the American players in this event are also players in the U.S.C.L. Also, a few of these players are also members of this group! Below is a link that will take you to the official site. In the second post of this thread will be the league players to keep an eye on as they compete in the event!

Hello group members, this is the official Semifinals week match prediction contest thread. Here, you will post your picks for the upcoming week's matches. Please refer to the "2010 Weekly Match Prediction Contest" article in the group news for rules of the game. Listed below are the matches set for the upcoming week. Below the list is the deadline set for you to turn in your picks. Please make a post to this thread indicating your selections for this week. Good luck, and have fun! Semifinals: Wednesday, November 10th 1. Boston Blitz vs New England Nor'easters 7:00 PM ET (New England advances on a draw) 2. Arizona Scorpions vs Miami Sharks 9:00 PM ET (Arizona advances on a draw) DEADLINE FOR PICKS!: The Deadlines for this week's picks are: Wednesday, November 10th, 2010, at 6:30 pm ET for Wednesday's matches. Picks made after the deadlines will not be accepted, no exceptions. At the bottom of the page is a link to the league site's current matches page, as well as a link to the Contest rules article in our Group News section. A reminder for this week's predictions: Since there can be no tie games in this week's two matches, we will be looking for you to pick who you feel will advance between the two teams playing head to head in both matches. You may still give a score of 2-2 if you feel that the match will score as a tie, but New England and Arizona both will advance on a draw (so if you feel that a match will draw, indicate the team that advances on draw odds as your winner and score the game 2-2). Another Rules reminder: We will no longer be giving out weekly prizes, since we are now into the post season, and the number of matches is one quarter of what it is during the regular season. The picks made during the league playoffs will count towards the season totals for the seasonal part of the contest only! Please see the rules link below. <----- U.S.C.L. Upcoming Matches Link <----- Contest Rules Article Link

Greetings again U.S.C.L. fans! As a follow-up to "U.S.C.L. Game Review ~ GM Style!," we bring you another game with Los Angeles Vibe player (and Chess.com video author) GM Melikset Khachiyan! This week 1 game placed Melikset head-to-head with one of the most popular American players today, GM Yury Shulman. And although this game did not go his way, Mr. Khachiyan has produced a video about this encounter (an icon with a link to this video is located at the end of this post), which won Game of the Week honors in week 1 of the 2010 season! GM Yury Shulman GM Melikset Khachiyan (2715) (2590) Saint Louis Arch Bishops Los Angeles Vibe <----- Chess.com video about this game by GM GMMelik

Greetings U.S.C.L. fans! GM Khachiyan has given me the thumbs up, so to speak, to make a thread covering his first league win earlier this year as a member of the Los Angeles Vibe! This week 4 game matched two of the country's better players, as Melikset battled GM Dmitry Gurevich who was playing for the Chicago Blaze. Included below is the game itself, followed by an icon that links to a video made by GM GMMelik that discusses his win! GM Melikset Khachiyan GM Dmitry Gurevich (2590) (2481) Los Angeles Vibe Chicago Blaze <----- Chess.com video about this game by GM GMMelik

Hello group members, this is the official Quarterfinals week match prediction contest thread. Here, you will post your picks for the upcoming week's matches. Please refer to the "2010 Weekly Match Prediction Contest" article in the group news for rules of the game. Listed below are the matches set for the upcoming week. Below the list is the deadline set for you to turn in your picks. Please make a post to this thread indicating your selections for this week. Good luck, and have fun! Quarterfinals: Monday, November 1st 1. New England Nor'easters vs New York Knights 7:00 PM ET (New England advances on a draw) 2. Baltimore Kingfishers vs Boston Blitz 7:30 PM ET (Boston advances on a draw) Wednesday, November 3rd 3. Miami Sharks vs Chicago Blaze 8:00 PM ET (Chicago advances on a draw) 4. Arizona Scorpions vs Seattle Sluggers 9:00 PM ET (Arizona advances on a draw) DEADLINE FOR PICKS!: The Deadlines for this week's picks are: Monday, November 1st, 2010, at 6:30 pm ET (ET is GMT - 4) for Monday's matches. Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010, at 7:30 pm ET (ET is GMT - 4) for Wednesday's matches. Picks made after the deadlines will not be accepted, no exceptions. At the bottom of the page is a link to the league site's current matches page, as well as a link to the Contest rules article in our Group News section. A Rules reminder: We will no longer be giving out weekly prizes, since we are now into the post season, and the number of matches is half of what it is during the regular season. The picks made during the league playoffs will count towards the season totals for the seasonal part of the contest only! Please see the rules link below. <----- U.S.C.L. Upcoming Matches Link <----- Contest Rules Article Link

Hello group members, this is the official week 9 match prediction contest thread. Here, you will post your picks for the upcoming week's matches. Please refer to the "2010 Weekly Match Prediction Contest" article in the group news for rules of the game. Listed below are the matches set for the upcoming week. Below the list is the deadline set for you to turn in your picks. Please make a post to this thread indicating your selections for this week. Good luck, and have fun! Week 9: Monday, October 18th 1. New York Knights vs New Jersey Knockouts 7:00 PM ET 2. Baltimore Kingfishers vs Boston Blitz 7:15 PM ET 3. Chicago Blaze vs Miami Sharks 8:00 PM ET 4. Seattle Sluggers vs San Francisco Mechanics 9:00 PM ET Wednesday, October 20th 5. New England Nor'easters vs Carolina Cobras 7:00 PM ET 6. Philadelphia Inventors vs Manhattan Applesauce 7:15 PM ET 7. Arizona Scorpions vs St. Louis Arch Bishops 9:00 PM ET 8. Dallas Destiny vs Los Angeles Vibe 9:00 PM ET DEADLINE FOR PICKS!: The Deadlines for this week's picks are: Monday, October 18th, 2010, at 6:30 pm ET (ET is GMT - 4) for Monday's matches. Wednesday, October 20th, 2010, at 6:30 pm ET (ET is GMT - 4) for Wednesday's matches. Picks made after the deadlines will not be accepted, no exceptions. At the bottom of the page is a link to the league site's current matches page, as well as a link to the Contest rules article in our Group News section. <----- U.S.C.L. Upcoming Matches Link <----- Contest Rules Article Link

Hi, I was thinking about this. Why not a live tournament? I know I know I know this feature is currently unavailable. But here is how I was thinking it would work. It will work by the admins paring us up in quads and everyone plays everyone in a blitz match. We will choose a time and date that is good for both opponents.

A quick note: I apologize for this not being posted yeseterday. It appears that when I posted it, for some reason it did not post here in the forums. Perhaps I took too long to make the thread. In any case, here it is. Again, sorry for the delay! Hello group members, this is the official week 10 match prediction contest thread. Here, you will post your picks for the upcoming week's matches. Please refer to the "2010 Weekly Match Prediction Contest" article in the group news for rules of the game. Listed below are the matches set for the upcoming week. Below the list is the deadline set for you to turn in your picks. Please make a post to this thread indicating your selections for this week. Good luck, and have fun! Week 10: Monday, October 25th 1. Manhattan Applesauce vs New England Nor'easters 7:00 PM ET 2. Carolina Cobras vs Philadelphia Inventors 7:15 PM ET 3. Boston Blitz vs New York Knights 7:30 PM ET 4. New Jersey Knockouts vs Baltimore Kingfishers 7:45 PM ET Wednesday, October 27th 5. Chicago Blaze vs Dallas Destiny 8:00 PM ET 6. San Francisco Mechanics vs Miami Sharks 8:45 PM ET 7. Seattle Sluggers vs St. Louis Arch Bishops 9:00 PM ET 8. Los Angeles Vibe vs Arizona Scorpions 9:15 PM ET DEADLINE FOR PICKS!: The Deadlines for this week's picks are: Monday, October 25th, 2010, at 6:30 pm ET (ET is GMT - 4) for Monday's matches. Wednesday, October 27th, 2010, at 7:30 pm ET (ET is GMT - 4) for Wednesday's matches. Picks made after the deadlines will not be accepted, no exceptions. At the bottom of the page is a link to the league site's current matches page, as well as a link to the Contest rules article in our Group News section. <-----U.S.C.L. Upcoming Matches Link <----- Contest Rules Article Link

From the official U.S.C.L. website, the playoffs for the Western Division are up and ready to go and here they are: vs vs Chicago, Miami and Seattle will join Arizona in the Western Division playoffs The action was fast and furious in Week 10 of the USCL as Miami beat San Francisco, Chicago beat Dallas and Seattle knocked off St. Louis to make the USCL playoffs. This means the entire playoff picture is set. Chicago qualifies for their first ever postseason, and will have draw odds against the Miami Sharks. Meanwhile Arizona has won their first ever Division title, and will hope to defend it by taking on the Seattle Sluggers. The Eastern playoffs start next week on Monday night, while the Western playoffs are on Wednesday. The USCL playoffs are always some of the most exciting chess in the country, so tune into ICC and find out which team will become the 2010 USCL Champions.

From the official U.S.C.L. site Homepage, the 2010 Eastern Division playoffs are set to go after Monday's matches. Here is what the page had to say about the playoffs: ---------- vs vs The Eastern Division Playoffs are set The Baltimore Kingfishers grabbed the third seed with a tough 3 - 1 win over New Jersey. The New York Knights had a chance to take it away if they could defeat Boston but were only able to draw and now will face the seemingly unstoppable New England Nor'easters in the first round who broke the USCL regular season record by winning and amassing an amazing record of 9.5 - 0.5. Don't forget that in the postseason, the higher seeded teams receive draw odds. So both New England and Boston will only need a draw to advance to the Semifinals. Stay tuned for some crazy action on Wednesday night as three Western playoff spots are determined.

Hello everyone! I just wanted to make a post real quick here, to show some support for a few Chess.com members, two who are also members of this group! The World Youth Chess Championships are currently being played in Greece. One of Chess.com's own, NM Kayden Troff is playing in the U12 section. We wish him success! NM KaydenTroff Also, our very own FM Kacper Drozdowski is playing in the U14 section. We wish him success as well! FM Kacparov Also, another group member, who is also a member of the league (Arizona Scorpions) is also competing. NM David Adelberg is playing in the U14 section. We wish him success as well! NM tovchess That is great. Have fun, be safe, and see you soon! EDIT: An update here. I was unaware of it when I made this original post, but David Adelberg is also playing in this event. I became aware of this today, as Kacparov informed me he was playing against him. I apologize to David for not being more on top of this!

Hello group members, this is the official week 8 match prediction contest thread. Here, you will post your picks for the upcoming week's matches. Please refer to the "2010 Weekly Match Prediction Contest" article in the group news for rules of the game. Listed below are the matches set for the upcoming week. Below the list is the deadline set for you to turn in your picks. Please make a post to this thread indicating your selections for this week. Good luck, and have fun! Week 8: Monday, October 11th 1. New Jersey Knockouts vs Manhattan Applesauce 7:00 PM ET 2. Baltimore Kingfishers vs Philadelphia Inventors 7:15 PM ET 3. Dallas Destiny vs Seattle Sluggers 9:00 PM ET4. Arizona Scorpions vs Chicago Blaze 9:00 PM ET Wednesday, October 13th 5. New York Knights vs New England Nor'easters 7:00 PM ET 6. Carolina Cobras vs Boston Blitz 7:15 PM ET 7. St. Louis Arch Bishops vs San Francisco Mechanics 8:30 PM ET 8. Miami Sharks vs Los Angeles Vibe 9:00 PM ET DEADLINE FOR PICKS!: The Deadlines for this week's picks are: Monday, October 11th, 2010, at 6:30 pm ET (ET is GMT - 4) for Monday's matches. Wednesday, October 13th, 2010, at 6:30 pm ET (ET is GMT - 4) for Wednesday's matches. Picks made after the deadlines will not be accepted, no exceptions. At the bottom of the page is a link to the league site's current matches page, as well as a link to the Contest rules article in our Group News section. <---- U.S.C.L. Upcoming Matches Link <---- Contest Rules Article Link

This is going to be a fun Monday night match up everyone! On board 2 of Monday night's match between the San Francisco Mechanics vs. Arizona Scorpions, our very own IM Pruess (playing Black) will take on IM Rensch (playing White) in a battle of group administrators! There was some good smack talk coming from Daniel on Wednesday's "Pardon our Blunders," but David was his casual self. Has David engineered a sound game plan? Will his game mechanics be worthy of his own smack talk on next Wednesday's show? Is Daniel going to bring the desert heat to the board? In the battle of admins., will David feel the scorpions sting? Tune-in and find out!

The Administrator's Cup! Congratulations to IM ACEChess for winning the first "Administrator's Cup!" We may end up seeing round two of this event before the season is over!

Greetings U.S.C.L. fans! This thread is being made to cover the Week 3 - Game of the Week. This contest showcased two talented League players (IM Daniel Rensch and WFM Tatev Abrahamyan) battling it out earlier this season. This game earned Game of the Week honors. Included below is the game itself, followed by an icon that links to a video made by IM ACEChess that discusses his win! IM Daniel Rensch WFM Tatev Abrahamyan (2471) (2385) Arizona Scorpions Los Angeles Vibe <----- Chess.com video about this game by IM ACEChess

Hello group members, this is the official week 7 match prediction contest thread. Here, you will post your picks for the upcoming week's matches. Please refer to the "2010 Weekly Match Prediction Contest" article in the group news for rules of the game. Listed below are the matches set for the upcoming week. Below the list is the deadline set for you to turn in your picks. Please make a post to this thread indicating your selections for this week. Good luck, and have fun! Week 7: Monday, October 4th 1. Carolina Cobras vs New York Knights 7:00 PM ET 2. Manhattan Applesauce vs Baltimore Kingfishers 7:15 PM ET 3. Miami Sharks vs Dallas Destiny 8:00 PM ET 4. San Francisco Mechanics vs Arizona Scorpions 9:00 PM ET Wednesday, October 6th 5. Boston Blitz vs New Jersey Knockouts 7:00 PM ET 6. Philadelphia Inventors vs New England Nor'easters 7:15 PM ET 7. St. Louis Arch Bishops vs Chicago Blaze 8:00 PM ET 8. Los Angeles Vibe vs Seattle Sluggers 9:00 PM ET DEADLINE FOR PICKS!: The Deadlines for this week's picks are: Monday, October 4, 2010, at 6:30 pm ET (ET is GMT - 4) for Monday's matches. Wednesday, October 6th, 2010, at 6:30 pm ET (ET is GMT - 4) for Wednesday's matches. Picks made after the deadlines will not be accepted, no exceptions. At the bottom of the page is a link to the league site's current matches page, as well as a link to the Contest rules article in our Group News section. <----- U.S.C.L. Upcoming Matches Link <----- Contest Rules Article Link

The rules regarding team ratings seem to favor having young talent on your team: 1. Each team is allowed to use any rating list from September of the previous year through August of the current year. The ratings shown on the matchup page will all be from August of the current year, thus sometimes resulting in higher ratings than would be legally allowed. This means that the team in question is likely using a different rating list. Some of these 12 year olds can jump 200 points in a year, so that makes them an outstanding value when you can use a rating that is up to a year old! Here's an entertaining game with 12 year old Justus Williams (2167) taking down NM Craig Jones (2286) in Monday's Carolina vs. New York match.

Hello group members, this is the official week 6 match prediction contest thread. Here, you will post your picks for the upcoming week's matches. Please refer to the "2010 Weekly Match Prediction Contest" thread in the group forums for rules of the game. Listed below are the matches set for the upcoming week. Below the list is the deadline set for you to turn in your picks. Please make a post to this thread indicating your selections for this week. Good luck, and have fun! Monday, September 27th 1. New York Knights vs Miami Sharks 7:30 PM ET 2. Dallas Destiny vs Carolina Cobras 8:00 PM ET 3. Philadelphia Inventors vs Chicago Blaze 8:15 PM ET 4. Los Angeles Vibe vs Manhattan Applesauce 9:00 PM ET Wednesday, September 29th 5. New England Nor'easters vs St. Louis Arch Bishops 8:00 PM ET 6. Boston Blitz vs San Francisco Mechanics 8:30 PM ET 7. Seattle Sluggers vs New Jersey Knockouts 9:00 PM ET 8. Arizona Scorpions vs Baltimore Kingfishers 9:00 PM ET DEADLINE FOR PICKS!: The Deadlines for this week's picks are: Monday, September 27, 2010, at 7:00 pm ET (ET is GMT - 4) for Monday's matches. Wednesday, September 29th, 2010, at 7:30 pm ET (ET is GMT - 4) for Wednesday's matches. Picks made after the deadlines will not be accepted, no exceptions. At the bottom of the page is a link to the league site's current matches page. <----- U.S.C.L. Upcoming matches link Please Note: We have moved the contest rules from the Group Forums to the Group News section. Included below is a link (within the icon) to those rules. A rules change that was made: We have discovered that Chess.com members are able to post predictions on the thread without being a member of the group. We want everyone to be able to participate and have fun with this contest. One of the reasons we are offering it is to promote awareness of the League, as well as this group. We are therefore making it a rule that anyone participating in the contest must be a member of the group. The group settings are set up to allow anyone to join, so please feel free to sign up and make your picks! <----- Link to contest rules article