YoungStars Prevail at the Amateur Team South

Ben Silva, who will write the Chess Life Magazine article on the U.S. Amateur Team South, sets the scene:

The Amateur Team South returned to the home of ‘The Most Magical Place on Earth’ for this year’s edition. Hogwarts you say?! Nope, although come to think of it Orlando, Florida has one of those too! While on the topic of Harry Potter it must be said that there was plenty of youthful wizardry afoot, or rather over the board, in the hallowed playing hall of the ATS.

It was the YoungStars, who eventually prevailed in the U.S. Amateur Team South from Feb 8-10 in Kissimmee, Florida.  The team consisted of Raghav Venkat (2248), Benjamin Chen (2084), Dmitri Sergatskov (2047) and Tony Burrus (2015), and they won on tiebreak over Orange & Blue with Britt Ryerson (2213), Erick Zhao (2101), Grayson Cooke (1831) and Jerry Yao (1682). In the final round, they defeated top seeded Four Nations 3-1. Here are the two key victories, on boards 1 and 3.

[pgn]

[Event "Golden State Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.01.21"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Venkat, Raghav"]
[Black "Miellier, Yan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B07"]
[PlyCount "85"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2019.02.13"]
[SourceVersionDate "2019.02.13"]

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 a6 5. f3 b5 6. Qd2 Nbd7 7. Nge2 Nb6 8. b3
Bb7 9. g4 h5 10. g5 Nfd7 11. h4 Bg7 12. Bg2 c5 13. O-O Rc8 14. Rad1 c4 15. b4
e6 16. f4 f5 17. exf5 Bxg2 18. Kxg2 gxf5 19. d5 exd5 20. Nxd5 c3 21. Qd3 O-O
22. Ng3 Nc4 23. Nxf5 Nb2 24. Nfe7+ Kh8 25. Qe2 Qe8 26. g6 Rf5 27. Nxf5 Qxg6+
28. Ng3 Nxd1 29. Rxd1 Nf6 30. Nxf6 Bxf6 31. Qxh5+ Qxh5 32. Nxh5 Bxh4 33. Rxd6
Be7 34. Bd4+ Kg8 35. Rxa6 Kf7 36. Ra7 Ke6 37. Ng7+ Kd5 38. Rxe7 Kxd4 39. Nf5+
Kc4 40. Nd6+ Kxb4 41. Nxc8 Ka3 42. Nd6 b4 43. Rb7 1-0[/pgn]

[pgn]

[Event "Golden State Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.01.21"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Dmitry Sergatskov"]
[Black "Slade, Theodore"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E39"]
[PlyCount "65"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2019.02.13"]
[SourceVersionDate "2019.02.13"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 O-O 5. Nf3 c5 6. dxc5 Na6 7. g3 Nxc5 8.
Bg2 Nce4 9. O-O Nxc3 10. bxc3 Be7 11. e4 d6 12. e5 dxe5 13. Nxe5 Qc7 14. Qe2
Bd6 15. Re1 Nd7 16. Bf4 Nxe5 17. Bxe5 Bxe5 18. Qxe5 Qxe5 19. Rxe5 Rb8 20. Rb1
b6 21. c5 Ba6 22. c6 Bc4 23. Rb4 Bxa2 24. Ra4 f6 25. Re1 Bd5 26. Bxd5 exd5 27.
Rxa7 Ra8 28. Rd7 Rfd8 29. Ree7 Rxd7 30. Rxd7 h6 31. c7 Kh7 32. Rd8 Ra1+ 33. Kg2
1-0[/pgn]

Find full final standings here, play through games on follow chess and look for Ben Silva's upcoming Chess Life Magazine article.