The force of nature that is the US Amateur Team Championship East has just concluded in Parsippany, N.J.
This year’s version set an attendance record with 1,379 players on 326 teams. In fact, there was a late attempt by the organizer to limit the event to 315 teams when it became clear the numbers were pushing the Hilton Hotel to its limits. Though it is not clear what the plans are for next year, it would be a shame to limit the event’s size.
This event and the three other regional amateur team events are all fund-raisers for the United States Chess Federation (www.USChess.org), with only plaques and clocks as prizes. Besides offering no prize money, thee events are amateur in that the each team’s average rating can’t be over 2200.
The winning team, with a perfect 6-0 match score, was Carnegie Mellon University. Carnegie’s domination was so great that its 2nd-4th boards each scored 5.5/6; while its 1st board (Shrewsbury’s Grant Xu) was a mere 4/6. They will now play the winners of the three other regional winners to determine a national amateur team champion later this year.
There was also a clear second-place team: NYC 1 with 5.5. Third was the defending champ, Summer Chess Academy, which had hoped to three-peat but lost early and ended up with 5/6. Fourth place and winning the Best College Team was MIT with 5/6.
The best Massachusetts team (all the members have to be from Massachusetts) was a group of youngsters: Jerry Li, 12, Alan Song, 12, Bernie Zu, 13, and Alex Yu, 13.
Coming events: March 3, Boylston March Quads, Cambridge,www.BoyltonChess.org; March 4, MACA’s 4th and last Spiegel (Scholastic) Cup Qualifier, West Marlborough, www.MassChess.org
Recent results: Boylston February Scholastic (28 players), 14&Under, 1st: Sritan Devineni, 4/4, 8&Under, 1st: Rami Rouayheb Klemencic: 4/4; 93rd W. Mass/Conn. Valley Championship, Amherst, (35 players), 1st: Yixen Li: 5/5.
Answer to today’s problem: 1.Ke4 (Otherwise Black wins easily being up a rook and a pawn.) 1…g5 (Sadly forced as Black has no other legal move) 2.Nh6 mate
Chris Chase can be reached at BostonGlobeChessNotes@ gmail.com.
