Over President’s Day weekend (February 16-18) the “chess party of the year”, the US Amateur Team Championships, begin in four locations.

The US Amateur Team East, also known as the World Amateur Team is set in Parsippany, New Jersey. CLO coverage will include tidbits from Texas Tech Program director Al Lawrence, who will also be contributing an article for the magazine. We’ll also have US Chess Scoop coverage, featuring another video by Jason Smiles, a chess afficiando who stopped by the Amateur East for the past two years to learn about structured tournament competition and preparation.

 

Betsy Dynako will cover the US Amateur Team North in Schaumburg, IL for CLO and Chess Life Magazine. Find event details at the registration page and at  chessweekend.com.

Advance entries include WI Chess Academy led by GM Josh Friedel and strong youth teams such as the The Illini Schmakelers with Eric Rosen, Sam Schmakel, Michael Auger and Akshay Indusekar. The Schmakelers includes three students at The University of Illinois (Pan-American co-champs) as well as Sam Schmakel, who was just featured in a Chicago Tribune article. Darrian Robinson will lead the U of Chicago A team.  Lindenwood University will also bring two teams, while GMs Andre Diamant and Anatoly Bykhovsky of Webster University lead two teams.

The US Amateur Team South will be held in Sunrise, Florida. Organizer Jon Haskel said, “The Presidents are waiting for the players.  No rain in the forecast, but the highs will “only” be in the 70’s.” See a list of preregistered teams here. 

CLO coverage of the South will include a piece by award-winning writer and chess Mom Melinda J. Matthews, whose son Nicky Rosenthal is participating in the fourth-seeded team. 

The U.S. Amateur Team West will be held near San Francisco in Pleasanton. Organizer Salman Azhar said, “Festivities include a scholastic one-day event as well as 2-day and 3-day schedules for the open event. There are many other teams still registering but the juniors have shown clear intentions to send a clear message to the adults in the area.”

Last year Berkeley Chess's Forfeit by Disconnection won the event. This year the two top-rated teams, Bay Area Chess BAC Attack (Wheeler, Viswanadha, Lu, Virtanen) and Sicilian Mafia (Panchanatham, Beilin, Vasudeva, Jangle), are composed of the top juniors in the area. See links to advance entries, online registration, and more info at Bay Area Chess.

If you plan to play in a US Amateur Team event, good luck! Send games and memories to [email protected] or share with us on twitter and facebook.