Over 2,500 Amateurs Partake in Annual Regional USAT Events

Amateurs around the country teamed up over (mostly) Presidents’ Day weekend for the four regional U.S. Amateur Team (USAT) championships. All in all, 2,551 players competed in one of the four events or their corresponding one-day scholastic equivalents.

As always, USAT-East was the top dog in terms of attendance, with its 1,402 players (in a single section!) constituting well over half of the total number of players. In its 49th year of existence, 330 teams fought for six rounds from February 17 through 19 in Parsippany, New Jersey.

At the end of it all, Another Bacon Egg and Cheese, Please was the only team to rack up six consecutive victories. This served as a “victory lap” for a team of Dalton School students whose top three boards were also the top three boards for the scholastic team that won their tenth consecutive K-12 Grade team championship last December.

Image

Image Caption

Repeating champs Another Bacon, Egg, and Cheese, Please! (Left-to-right: Kevin Stern, Ryan Peterson, Nathaniel Shuman, and IM Gus Huston) (photo John Hartmann)

The graduating trio of IM Gus Huston (4½/6), Nathaniel Shuman (4/6), and Ryan Peterson (5½/6) were joined by Dalton School seventh-grader Kevin Stern (4½/6) on board four! Oh, and if that team name sounds familiar? They also won USAT-East last year!

For board prizes, GM Joel Benjamin was the only perfect 6/6 score on board one (for the "best name" finalist team B-E-N-K-O and Benko was his Name-O). Peter Jackson, playing for the US Military Academy 1 team, and Mitch Fishbein (one of four Fishbein's on Grandpa Knows Best, a team featuring GM Alexander Fishbein on board one) each put up 6/6 scores for board two. John Luger went 6/6 on board three for Brighton Chess, and Ishnoor Singh Chandi (from People Against the London System) went 6/6 on board four.

The highest scoring alternate was Jason Scot Layton for Deez Knights, with a 5/6 score, but it’s worth noting that US Chess Director of Programs DeVaughn Croxton went a relentless 4½/5 for the US Chess staff team. A full list of prize-winners, including college teams and state teams, is available here.

The USAT-North, held February 16 through 18 in Schaumburg, Illinois, continued its steady expansion. This year 106 teams (and 444 players) competed in the Under-2200 and Under-1600 sections, with an additional 23 teams (and 94 players) joining for the one-day Under-1000 section.

In the Under-2200 section, it was a new team name but the same champion for the third consecutive year. The University of Chicago B-team has been relegated to UChicago C for this year, but still went a perfect 5/5 to improve on their 2023 and 2022 performances. Once again, UChicago-C was led by GMs Awonder Liang (5/5) and Praveen Balakrishnan (4½/5) with IM Kapil Chandran (4½/5) and Bradley Li (0/5) rounding out the squad.

For the board prizes, it should come as no surprise that UChicago-C’s top three boards each finished tied with the best score. On board one, Liang was joined by FM Joseph Wan (dreamy knights) and IM Sam Schmakel (Chess Speaks For Itself) with perfect 5/5 scores. Balakrishnan was joined by FM Milind Maiti (Northwestern A) and Zachary Nudo (Knightmares) with 4½/5 scores on board two. Chandran was joined by FM Hersh Singh (Game of Throws) with 4½/5 on board three. Jay Feng (Thou Shall Not en Passant) was the only player on board four to boast a perfect 5/5 score, and Christian Briones Cheng (Arbiter Illegal Move) was the top-scoring alternate 3½/4

In U-1600 section, a team known only as “horsy” won with 4½/5, with three of their five players competing in their first rated event. The team consisted of Faris Adan Pena (4/5), Lazar Martic (3/5), Daniel Pinnow (4/5), Adrian Folfas (3/3), and alternate Nikolas Giannakopoulos (1½/2). In the U-1000 section, team Kings Indian won with a 4/4 score. All results from all sections are available here.

The USAT-West, also adopting the Saturday-through-Monday schedule of February 17 through 19, saw 55 teams (and 235 players) across the Under-2200 and Under-1600 sections, as well as 31 teams (and 130 players) from the two scholastic sections.

In the Under-2200 section, some big names from Team 1 grabbed tiebreaks over Monta Vista Matadors when both teams finished with a 5/6 score.

For the true-to-its name Team 1, FM Derek Wu (4½/6), WGM Rochelle Wu (4½/6), CM Brandon Yang Xia (4½/6), and Jayden Xu (2/6) put up a well-rounded score.

For the board prizes, both Jashith Karthi (for the local Mechanics' Pawn Grabbers team) and Suyuan Gui (All Hands No Brains) finished with 5/6 on board one. Tony Kukavica (Stanford Thesis Defense) was outright first on board two with his 5/6 score, as was Aryan Achuthan with the same score on board three. This left Luke Widjaja (Monta Vista Matadors) as the tournament’s only player to score 6/6, on board four, and Michael Ho (Kolty Chess Club) was the top-scoring alternate with an undefeated 4/6.

In the Under-1600 section, Reno Goldfish took clear first by a full point with a dominant 5½/6 score. The team consisted of Kevin Chung (5/6), Chris Richard (2/6), Frederick Roscher Jr (4/6), and Elijah Kaufman (4/6). In the Under-1000 section, King’s Indian (not Kings Indian from the North!) finished clear first, and Shoreview Gamma won the Under-600 section. All results are available here.

Last (chronologically, that is), was USAT-South, held February 23 through 25 in The Villages, Florida. The South was the only event other than the East to elect not to separate its main event into two sections, with 46 teams (and 191 players) competing across the weekend, along with 13 teams (and 55 players) in the Scholastic section (where all teams averaged a rating under 1100).

Image

For top honors, Deviprasath’s Doomsayers won on tiebreaks over Village A-Team after both finished with perfect 5/5 scores. The Doomsayers were led by IM Bach Ngo (3/5), CM Marvin Gao (5/5), Aniket Shukla (4/5), and Quintin Tanksley (2/5).

In an ending that was too-on-the-nose to make up, the Doomsayers were paired against their nemeses, the Deviprasath Disciples in the last round. The Disciplies were led by 2023 National High School Co-Champion FM Sharvesh Deviprasath, and both teams entered the final round with 4/4 scores. In their head-to-head match, the Doomsayers prevailed 2½–1½, with Ngo and Deviprasath drawing their game on board one.

Image

Image Caption

FM Sharvesh Deviprasath (far back, right) led his team of Disciples to the last round, when the Doomsayers eked out a tournament-clutching victory! (courtesy Kevin Pryor/Florida Chess Association)

On board one, there were no perfect scores, but Deviprasath was joined by Todd Bryant (Hikaru Ready For This) and Kevin Sevilla (Endgame Squad) boasting 4½/5 scores. For board two, Gao was joined Vincent William Stone III (Deliberately Confusing), and Oscar Izzy Williams (Villages A) with perfect 5/5 scores. Likewise, on board three, Alan Schalk (Villages A), Akshat Suresh (Nimzo Indians), and Joseph Reuben Aming (Three and Half Men) all boasted perfect scores. Agrim Kumar (Nimzo Indians), Aakaash Jani (Deviprasath Disciples), and Gavin Preston Yichen Song (ChessMates) had the top scores on board four with 4/5. In the scholastic, the Dream Team won with a 4½/5 score.

The winning team from each of the four regional events will compete in an online playoff later this Spring.