Team USA Goes to Work at NATO Championship

Team USA has arrived in Berlin to participate in the 30th NATO Chess Championship which is being held at Julius Leber Barracks from September 16th to 20th.  The top 30 boards of the competition will be broadcast live at https://www.natochess.com/2019/live/index.html.  Standings, results, and all games are also available at www.natochess.com. The USA team consists of: Second Lieutenant Eigen Wang,             U.S. Air Force,         USCF 2364, FIDE 2193 Lieutenant Chase Watters,                      U.S. Navy,                USCF 2194, FIDE 2179 Lieutenant Commander Chip Kraft         U.S. Navy                 USCF 2157, FIDE 2050 First Lieutenant Nicholas Oblak             U.S. Army                 USCF 2025, FIDE 2048 Major (select) Gordon Randall               U.S. Air Force           USCF 2052, FIDE 1975 Petty Officer Enrico Balmaceda             U.S. Navy                 USCF 2120, FIDE 2048 The USA delegation also includes the following players who will play in the event, but their scores cannot count for the official USA team: Colonel (retired) David Hater                   U.S. Army                USCF 2000, FIDE 1973  Team Captain Staff Sergeant (retired) John Farrell       U.S. Marine Corps   USCF 1918, FIDE 1985    Team Administrator Master Sergeant (retired) Rob Keough    U.S. Air Force         USCF 2065, FIDE 2108 Colonel Jon Middaugh                              U.S. Army               USCF 1924, FIDE 1918 This is a seven round event.  For those who wish to watch the games live, the rounds are at 8 AM local time (2am EDT) Tuesday through Friday and at 2 PM local time (8am EDT) on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Team USA is seeded 4th.  Nine of our ten players are seeded in the top half.  It will be an uphill climb to medal, but we are hopeful! Colonel Hater will provide a full report to CLO next week.