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| Home Standings | Games |
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GM
Giorgi Kacheishvili wins the 2009 Game of the Year Prize! In a close race between these two Championship teammates, GM Kacheishvili ended up winning the award by a single point with his victory over GM Josh Friedel. Ironically Kacheishvili's effort also topped NM Matt Herman's game in Week 5, forcing Herman to look for a Wildcard entry into the GOTY contest. Congratulations to GM Kacheishvili for his victory. Congrats also to everyone else who participated in the contest! Click here for the comments on NM Herman's second place victory over FM Daniel Naroditsky. |
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Game of the Year winner to be announced
tomorrow ...and this year it was our closest vote ever as the winning game received just one point more than the second place game. It was certainly a good year for the New York Knights, as not only did they win the USCL Title, but the final two games were both won by NY players. Stay tuned for the announcement of the winner tomorrow! |
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Esserman
vs Simpson, 1-0, finishes 3rd place in the GOTY Contest. It's down to just two games, both from Week 5, as this exciting Wildcard clash comes in at 3rd place. The GOTY judges showed up the weekly judges by putting the game that beat this game in the weekly voting, in 20th (last) place in the Game of the Year competition. The 2009 Game of the Year winner will be announced in two days! Which do you think it'll be? Make your voice heard at the USCL news blog! |
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Charbonneau
vs Ippolito, 1/2-1/2, finishes 4th in the GOTY Contest. As usual, we had a draw finish high in the rankings, as our only draw of this season's contest came in at an impressive fourth place. With no playoff games remaining in the competition, this will be the first time in three years that a regular season game became the Game of the Year. In another surprising development, two of the final three games in the competition were chosen only as wildcards, although the judges shouldn't feel too bad, as two of the final three games were played in the same week (Week 5). |
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Bartholomew
vs Becerra, 1-0, finishes 5th in the GOTY Contest. Despite being predicted to finish in first place by WGM Jennifer Shahade, this game fell a bit short, settling in at 5th place. This was IM Bartholomew's only win of the 2009 season, but it couldn't have come at a better time, as he took down USCL legend, GM Julio Becerra in a prize winning performance. There are now just four games left to go! Who will it be? Vote on your choice at the usclnews blog page. |
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Down to the final five games in the USCL
GOTY Contest We are down to just five games left in the USCL Game of the Year Contest. Below are the five games still alive in the competition: Week 5: GM Giorgi Kacheishvili (NY) vs GM Josh Friedel (SF) 1-0 Article Week 8: IM John Bartholomew (DAL) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0 Article Semifinals: GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) vs IM Dean Ippolito (NJ) 1/2-1/2 Article Wildcard #4: NM Matt Herman (NY) vs FM Daniel Naroditsky (SF) 1-0 Article Wildcard #5: SM Marc Esserman (BOS) vs FM Ron Simpson (CAR) 1-0 Article We will announce the 5th place finisher sometime tomorrow. |
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Ramirez
vs Benjamin, 1-0, finishes 6th in GOTY contest. GM Alejandro Ramirez of the Arizona Scorpions is the unlucky sixth place finisher, coming just short of taking a prize in this season's Game of the Year contest. Alejandro's victory over GM Joel Benjamin was a key moment in the Scorpions' season, as it helped to tarnish New Jersey's perfect record was the catalyst to send them to their first playoff berth. One of the final five games will be our 2009 GOTY winner, and all five will be winning prizes! The champion will be revealed within one week! |
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Fernandez
vs Zaikov, 0-1, finishes 7th in the GOTY contest This was a sharp attacking game by both players, which helped to lead to the demise of the Dallas Destiny in 2009. FM Oleg Zaikov has been a tremendous performer for the Carolina Cobras for the past four seasons, and it remains to be seen whether he is still part of the team after his graduation from Duke University. Five of the final six games will win prize money, tune in tomorrow to see which unlucky game finishes on the "bubble". |
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Ippolito
vs Charbonneau finishes in 8th place. Ippolito finished off his Grandmaster opponent with just two knights left in his army, and while this finish was not enough to propel him to the top 5, it was enough for a very respectable 8th place finish. These two still have one game left in the contest; a draw that they played against each other. |
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Bartholomew vs van de Mortel, 0-1, finishes
9th in the GOTY contest. van de Mortel has run out of entries in the Game of the Year contest, as his exciting Dragon victory over Bartholomew finishes in 9th place, complimenting his 16th place finish for beating GM Ehlvest. Just a few more eliminations to go until we reach the prize winners (Top 5), check back each day to see who the winners are! |
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Kacheishvili vs Christiansen, 1-0, finishes
in 10th place Despite being predicted to finish higher by a few pundits, this game becomes the second playoff game to be eliminated from the competition, and Giorgi's second game to be ousted. Kacheishvili still has one game remaining, as his win over GM Friedel is still in the competition. In case you missed it, WGM Jennifer Shahade predicted the results of the final 10 at USCFOnline. You can read that story here. |
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Becerra vs Friedel, 1-0, finishes 11th in
the GOTY Contest With the elimination of Becerra's lone entry into the contest, there are now just 2 Wildcards remaining out of the final 10 games. Please note that the GOTY contest will be on break for about one week. Expect the 10th place finisher to be announced around January 19th. Stay tuned for predictions at USChessOnline.org |
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Gulko vs Zaikov, 1-0, finishes 12th in the
Game of the Year Contest So far in his short USCL career, GM Boris Gulko has been unbelievably dominant, scoring an incredible 9-0. This win against Zaikov demonstrated his strength, and won the Game of the Week prize quite easily. Unfortunately for Gulko's chances in this contest the judges were split on the merits of this game, eventually causing it to finish in the middle of the pack, in 12th place. |
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GM Andy Soltis' monthly chess problems
focus on the USCL Andy Soltis presents six tactical problems every month for his readers, and this month in ChessLife, they were all from 2009 U.S. Chess League Games. (Warning: you must be a USCF member to read the article) |
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Becerra vs Kacheishvili, 0-1, is 13th in
the GOTY Contest For the first time since 2006, the Game of the Year winner won't be from the Championship Match. Kacheishvili's victory, which sealed the New York Knights first USCL Championship, was definitely one of the most memorable moments in league history. Unfortunately too many of the judges were swayed by the fact that this was a blitz game, and so it was unable to crack the top ten. Fortunately for Giorgi, he still has two games remaining in the competition (his Quarterfinal win over GM Christiansen, and his midseason win over GM Friedel.) |
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Ehlvest vs Ramirez, 1-0, finishes 14th in
the GOTY contest. GM Ehlvest's one loss in the contest (and in his USCL career) was eliminated just two days ago, and now his only win is out of the competition as well. In this game Ehlvest executed a smooth and methodical attack, eventually outplaying Arizona's GM Alejandro Ramirez. |
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Shen vs Esserman, 1-0, finishes 15th in the
GOTY contest. Victor Shen's important win over IM Marc Esserman, which capped off a shocking 4-0 sweep for New Jersey over Boston, has been eliminated in 15th place. This is now the 3rd wildcard game to be eliminated in the last four games, leaving just four wildcards remaining in the competition. This also means that both of IM Marc Essermans losses have been eliminated from the contest, and only his Week 2 win over FM Ron Simpson remains in play. |
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van
de Mortel vs Ehlvest finishes 16th in the GOTY contest. van de Mortel is down to just one victory remaining in the Game of the Year contest, as this stunning upset victory has been eliminated in 16th place. Ehlvest was undefeated in 3 seasons of USCL play coming into this game, until van de Mortel aggressively pushed back his Dutch Defense. Stay tuned as one game will be eliminated daily until we reach the top ten, at which point there will be a week long break in the action. |
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Serper
vs van de Mortel finishes 17th in the GOTY contest After a strong four years of USCL play, this was surprisingly Serper's first entry into the Game of the Year contest. In the end there weren't enough fireworks in this performance to push this game into the top half of the contest. An interesting stat from this year's Game of the Year Contest: Four players were featured in 12 of this year's 20 games. Those players are IM Marc Esserman (4 games, +2, -2), GM Giorgi Kacheishvili (3 games, +3), GM Josh Friedel (3 games, +1, -2) and IM Jan van de Mortel (3 games, +2, -1). Congratulations to these four players for playing great chess, regardless of whether they were on the winning or losing side of the game! |
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Zaremba
vs Esserman finishes 18th in the Game of the Year Contest This battle of 2009 All Stars has become the first Wildcard game eliminated from the Game of the Year Contest. Esserman went undefeated in a fantastic 2008 season, so fans were understandably surprised when he was stopped in week 1 by Zaremba. Esserman still has one victory and one loss remaining in the competition. |
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Esserman
vs Bartell finishes 19th in the Game of the Year Contest This quick Smith Morra victory from Esserman has finished in 19th place. This upholds the feeling that many believed that Esserman's Week 2 game, which had to rely on Wildcard status to get in the contest, was superior to his Week 4 effort. This has shown to be especially true, as the very game that beat his win over Simpson in the weekly contest, finished in 20th place. |
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Friedel
vs Zivanic finishes 20th in the Game of the Year Contest. There was some criticism around this sacrificial attacking game winning the game of the week, and it even resulted in two wildcard games surviving from this very week. In the end, the GOTY judges agreed with this criticism, as they selected it in 20th place. |
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Arun Sharma reveals his Game of the Year
predictions The game of the year contest is starting very shortly, as we expect the 20th place game to be announced shortly. From that point forward, we will slowly eliminate the games until we are left with just one winner. Arun Sharma reveals his predictions, which include some surprisingly high finishes for Wildcard games. |
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USCL Commissioner predicts the Game of the
Year Contest IM Greg Shahade makes his annual picks for Game of the Year. This season there are five prestigious judges who will be choosing the winner, including three of the strongest Grandmasters in the nation. In some surprising results, Shahade predicts quite a few Wildcard games to finish very highly, but eventually concludes that this may be the most difficult year to judge in USCL history! Read the entire article here, and stay tuned as USCL Vice President Arun Sharma, reveals his predictions tomorrow! |
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Becerra vs Friedel, 1-0, takes the last
Wildcard spot. GM Julio Becerra missed out on Game of the Week by slim margins twice this season, but finally he will have a shot in the Game of the Year contest, as his exciting early season win over GM Josh Friedel has been voted in. Read the article to see all the voting results, and a rundown of the 20 entries into the contest. |
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Ehlvest vs Ramirez, 1-0, is the 6th
Wildcard game GM Jaan Ehlvest has made it into the Game of the Year contest, getting the highest point total in the final voting. There is now just one spot left in the competition. Will it goto Becerra for one of his two games, GM Perelshteyn or young NM David Adelberg? Stay tuned, as the final Wildcard game will be announced shortly, along with the voting tallies of the five final candidates. |
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The
five games that have a chance at the final two Wildcard spots have been
chosen! 18 of the games have been chosen for the Game of the Year Contest, while 2 are still up for grabs. Each Game of the Week judge nominated one more game, and those five games were voted on to determine the final two games in the competition. Four of the games were won by GMs. Two wins by GM Julio Becerra are included in the mix, along with nice wins by GM Ehlvest and GM Perelshteyn. Theonly non Grandmaster candidate is from the young Arizona Scorpions Board 4, NM David Adelberg. The results of this vote will be revealed in the upcoming days. |
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Thanks to our Sponsor, Pokerstars.net
for all of their support of the U.S. Chess League! Pokerstars has been our main sponsor since the 2006 season and we are eternally greatful for their support. If you'd ever like to play some poker, you don't have to play for money, they have free games that you can play in by clicking the link above. Also Bioniclime has released his final USCL Rating list for the 2009 season. GM Boris Gulko and his 9-0 lifetime record, lead the pack. |