The States Chess Cup

Note - The States Chess Cup is not organized by US Chess. Please contact Saumik Narayanan directly if you have any questions about the event. -- ~ed.

Sixteen of the top chess players from Minnesota and Manitoba played a friendly match in May, the latest edition in a series of matches dating back to 1935. Led by Frank Johnson, and assisted by Theo Wolchok and myself, we restructured the format of the match to be completely online, and made it accessible to the public by live streaming match commentary on Twitch.

This event was a lot of fun for both players and spectators, and our next plan was to start organizing similar matches with other neighboring states as well. However, because the matches are going to be played online anyways, there is no reason to limit the matches geographically - so we are now planning to create matches against states across the country!

We are looking for team captains from each state to be responsible for organizing team lineups for each match. Anybody is allowed to be a state team captain, the only requirement is that they are well-connected in their home state, and will be able to create a roster each week for matches.

While some of the details for the league are still up in the air, here is what we have so far:

• Four players per side, with an average rating under 2200
• Team captains are allowed to rotate their lineups from week to week, though players may only play for their home state
• Each state will play one match a week, with the league starting in early August
• Similar to the Pro Chess League, each player will play four games of 15+2 per match, one against each opponent.

We currently have team captains for 15 states. If you would like to represent your state as team captain, please fill out this Google Form ASAP. We are planning to finalize the list of states by July 31st and create the official schedule for the league.

If you have any questions, please let me know at Click here to show email address.