| US Amateur Team Preview |
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| By Kostya Kavutskiy | |
| February 13, 2015 | |
 On February
14-16, the upcoming 2015 U.S. Amateur Team West will take place at the Hilton in
Irvine, California, and is being organized this year for the first time by
Metropolitan Chess, Inc. It looks like there'll be a large turnout, with over 40 teams registered so far and a
few more expected at the door.There are a number of strong teams this year, so as usual for the USAT many will contribute to a tense fight for first place. As most people who have participated in team competition before know, playing chess alongside your teammates is a lot of charged fun -- seeing the ups and downs of each game, the swings, all while having to focus on your own game adds a rougher element to competitive chess. Some of the favorites include the following teams: (although the rating average remains at U2200 for every USAT, somehow the teams feel stronger every year) You've Got One Less Problem Without Us NM Craig Hilby, NM Daniel Mousseri, Leo Creger, Matthew Hernandez, Shaileja Jain - 2199.5 (!) NEMM NM Mike Zalozny, FM Michael Casella, NM Nikolay Arutyunov, Ed Cohen - 2198.5 The Chest Masters NM Nicky Korba, NM Kevin Davidson, Matthew Shuben, Daniel Giordani - 2194.8 SoCal so fine IM Keaton Kiewra, FM Michael Brown, NM Agata Bykovtsev, Paul Savage - 2194.5 USC 1 IM Jack Peters, Amir Azemati, Jianling Gong, Martin Leung - 2193.8 In addition to organizing the event, Metropolitan Chess will also be competing with the following team: MetroChessual FM Kostya Kavutskiy, NM Ankit Gupta, Allan Karman, Dylan Quercia, Blaine Steele - 2186.5 The full advance entries for the main event can be viewed here: www.metrochessla.com/USATW Additionally, the U.S. Amateur Team West Scholastic Championship will take place concurrently on February 14. With about 25 teams signed up so far, the youngsters seem just as eager to claim the title of champion just as much as the adults! Lots of local clubs/scholastic organizations are represented in the field, including Think Chess 4 Kids, Beyond Chess, California Youth Chess League, Fundamental Chess Academy, and American Chess Academy. The advance entries for the scholastic event can be viewed here: www.metrochessla.com/usatw-sch For more information about Metropolitan Chess, Inc. please visit www.metrochessla.com, and follow the organization on Facebook and Twitter. The US Amateur Team East returns to Parsippany, New Jersey from Feb 14-16. Look for onsite coverage from Al Lawrence as well as US Chess Scoop video next week. Betsy Dynako will write and take photographs from the US Amateur Team North in Schaumburg, IL. Find Ben Silva's report on the US Amateur Team South here. |
