Gems from USATE 2011

Lewis - Hart, White to play  

Higgins - Chen, White to play

Most - Meinders, White to play

Vigorito - Miller, White to play

I have annotated eight gems from the US Amateur Teams East (a.k.a. World Amateur Teams) 2011.  You can download the PGN file (so your computer can help you understand any of the puzzles above that confuse you -- they are pretty difficult, I must confess), or download the whole USATE 2011 PGN of games gleaned from TWIC #853 (download zipped PGN or CB file).


Of course, by now everyone knows it was the West Orange Crush taking first prize at the 1,200 player event.  Tournaments in the South, North, and West make the World Team a far-reaching contest.  Those looking to relive the experience can check out quite a bit of video on YouTube, including a long clip featuring the impressive musical performance by Khess (starting six minutes into this otherwise boring video) and overly-complete video of the last round of the bughouse event.  The crosstable shows that I basically broke even (losing only three points), which is about what I'd expected from a 50% score (which was lucky based on my games).

Learning to Sense Danger at the Amateur Teams

Goeller - Williams, White to play
Should White play 25.Bxb6 or 25.Rxb6?

Goeller - Lima, White to play
Should White play 21.g4 or some other move?

Kopec - Goeller, Black to move
Black wants to play Bxf3 and dxc4, but in what order?

I have annotated three of my more interesting games in a piece titled "Learning to Take My Opponent's Threats Seriously at the 2011 World Amateur Teams."  That sums up the big lesson I needed to learn from my games, and the three diagrams above show the crucial position from each game where I went wrong because I did not think carefully enough about my opponent's threats.  I did see the threats and sensed the danger.  I just did not take those threats seriously.  Fortunately, I was able to get a draw in two of the games.  And I managed a 50% score on Board One for our team, so I'm pretty happy with how things went overall.


I will be posting some more games and stories from the recently concluded World Amateur Team tournament soon.

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.