Amateur Team Weekend

The Chess Party of the Year Is About to Begin shouts the headline at USCF online as we head into President's Day weekend and the 41st year of the US Amateur Teams.  There seem to be some strong teams in contention, including one organized by Dean Ippolito that comes in at 2199 and is sure to be sitting on top board for at least the first rounds.  In the past few years, I have played on the Kenilworth A team and have been myself in the hunt for the top prize, which usually includes your team's photograph on the cover of Chess Life (the ultimate amateur chess player validation).  But after we lost last year despite being the only team going into the last round with a perfect 5-0 record and playing on Board One for all the marbles, I think it seemed inevitable we'd go our separate ways this year.   


This year there will be many teams with Kenilworth players, including the wonderful Chessaholics teams organized by Mike Wojcio (who came back special from Hawaii to play again this year).  My own team will be The Kenilworthians (rated 1931), with myself, Ian Mangion, Don Carrelli, and Max Sherer in board order -- a true Kenilworth team, with all of us having participated in the club championship.  We'll see how it goes.  Those looking to get psyched should read Team Spirit by Glenn Petersen and Tournament for the Rest of Us by Glenn Budzinski.


Meanwhile, just for fun I annotated three interesting games from USATE 2010 to help me remember that there are always chances and second chances in amateur games.