USA-Romania Youth Match Scheduled for Saturday, July 11

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JULY 9 UPDATE: Pairings

JULY 6 UPDATE: 

US Chess announces the selection of the 30-player team that will represent the United States in a friendly match against Romania this Saturday, July 11.  85 players submitted applications.

If an invitee is unable to participate, US Chess will identify an alternate, based on the criteria in the match announcement below.  

More information will be announced soon – specifically, the identities of our Romanian opponents, once they have selected their team.

ORIGINAL POST:

US Chess is soliciting youth players to compete in a friendly 30-board match against Romanian youth.  This match is the brainchild of Michael Khodarkovsky, FIDE Delegate from the USA, and Ion-Serban Dobronauteanu, FIDE Delegate from Romania. 

The match will take place on the Playchess.com server.  Play will begin at 12:00pm Eastern time, Saturday, July 11.  The match will be composed of two games (each player will play two games against the same opponent, one with each color).  The time control will be game in 15 minutes, with 10 seconds increment from move one (G/15+10). 

The USA and Romanian teams will have players in each of five age groups, distributed as shown below.

Players on the USA team must be flagged as USA by FIDE.

Applicants for the match will be sorted by age, gender and FIDE rating (as of the July 2020 FRL).  The highest three rated USA players in each age and gender group will qualify for the team.  If a qualifying player is unavailable to participate, US Chess will contact the next player in line by rating to fill that spot. 

The chief arbiter for the match will be FA Lucian Jugaru of Romania.  The USA team captain and technical assistant will be NTD/NA Joe Yun.  Joe has been the backroom chief for numerous national scholastic events.  He has also been the chief TD of the US Amateur Team playoffs held online, and regularly runs online events for Progress With Chess out of Cleveland, Ohio.

There will be at least one, and possibly more, optional blitz tournaments scheduled prior to the day of the match.  The purpose of these blitz tournaments is to help players become more familiar with the Playchess.com interface, if not already acclimated.  Details about these warm-up events will be sent out shortly after the teams for both countries are announced.

Webcams will not be required for participants in this friendly match.  Results will not be rated by either US Chess or FIDE.  There is no entry fee, and there are no prizes (other than bragging rights!). 

If you are interested in entering the event, please complete the form at https://forms.gle/gMtr2JYchaqeLJkG8.  The form will be open for registrations until 5:00pm Eastern time Saturday, July 4.  Notification of qualifiers will be sent that same evening.  You do not have to have a Playchess.com account to sign up for the match, but you will of course need one to participate, so it makes sense to set one up before registering!

If you have questions, please contact the Director of Events, Boyd Reed, at Click here to show email address.