United States Chess League

Infobox sports league

pixels=75px
caption=
sport=Chess
founded=2005
teams=14
country=USA
champion=Dallas Destiny
website= [http://www.uschessleague.com uschessleague.com]

The United States Chess League (USCL) is the only nation-wide chess league in the United States. It currently has fourteen teams, whose members include some of the highest-rated chess players in the United States. [ [http://main.uschess.org/component/option,com_top_players/Itemid,371?op=list&month=0712&f=TopOverall&h=Overall USCF top rating list, December 2007] ] Participants in the 2007 season included Larry Christiansen [ [http://www.boston-blitz.com Boston Blitz team website] ] , Hikaru Nakamura [ [http://main.uschess.org/content/view/7989/420 US Chess Federation News] ] , Ildar Ibragimov, Sergey Kudrin and other grandmasters. The league was founded in 2005 by the current league commissioner, International Master Greg Shahade [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/nyregion/16chess.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/A/Athletics%20and%20Sports Historical notes on USCL in New York Times] ] .

History

Origin and first season

On January 30 2005 the San Francisco Mechanics became the first team to join the U.S. Chess league. Carolina joined the league on April 30 2005 [ [http://www.uschessleague.com/Feature14.html Carolina Chosen as 8th and Final Team] ] , bringing the league to its full first-season roster of eight teams. The Boston Blitz and the New York Knights played the inaugural match on August 31 2005. The league concluded its first season on November 24 2005 when the Baltimore Kingfishers defeated the Miami Sharks in the USCL Championship.

econd season

On March 10 2006 Commissioner Shahade announced that two expansion teams, the Seattle Sluggers and the Tennessee Tempo, would join the league for the second season. The 2006 season concluded on November 29 2006 as the San Francisco Mechanics defeated the New York Knights to win the championship [" [http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/magazine_124_214.php Mechanics Wrench Victory From New York] ". Accessed Jun. 4th, 2007] .

Third season

In 2007, two further expansion teams, the New Jersey Knockouts and the Queens Pioneers, joined the USCL [" [http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_306.php Queens and New Jersey join the USCL] ". Accessed Apr. 14th, 2007] . The Philadelphia Masterminds also changed their name to the Philadelphia Inventors [" [http://www.uschessleague.com/Feature193.html Philadelphia Masterminds change name to Inventors] " Accessed Apr. 14th, 2007] . In the season-ending championship match, the Dallas Destiny defeated the Boston Blitz [ [http://gambit.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/in-us-chess-league-final-its-boston-vs-dallas/ Coverage in Gambit, the New York Times chess blog] ] .

Fourth season

At the end of 2007, the league announced two additional teams for the upcoming season: the Chicago Blaze and the Arizona Scorpions. [ [http://usclnews.blogspot.com/2007/12/arizona-scorpions-and-chicago-blaze.html Official USCL announcement] ] These teams will compete in the Western Division. The Carolina Cobras will move back to the Eastern to balance the divisions.

Teams (as of 2008 season)

Eastern division

*Boston Blitz
*Carolina Cobras
*Baltimore Kingfishers
*New Jersey Knockouts
*New York Knights
*Philadelphia Inventors
*Queens Pioneers

Western division

*Arizona Scorpions
*Chicago Blaze
*Dallas Destiny
*Miami Sharks
*San Francisco Mechanics
*Seattle Sluggers
*Tennessee Tempo

Format

Teams are made up of rosters of up to eight players and two alternates, from which the manager selects a match-day team of four, depending on rating, form and availability. The average rating for each match-day team is capped at less than 2401, with certain exceptions for highly-rated players. Team members may be male or female, and using female players also allows for a slightly higher average rating cap.

The season starts the last week of August and ends in November. One match is played each week. Matches are normally scheduled for Wednesday nights, but each week (except the final week of the regular season) two teams play on Monday night. All matches are played online at the Internet Chess Club. Team members gather at a common public location where a league-appointed tournament director is present.

If either team in a given match scores 2.5 points or more from the four games, that team wins the match. If the score is split at 2 points apiece, the match is drawn. At the end of the regular season, the four teams in each division with the highest match-point totals qualify for playoffs, which are conducted in knockout format. In the final championship match, a drawn match proceeds to a series of blitz games to determine the ultimate winner. [ [http://www.uschessleague.com/rules.html Official rules from USCL site] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.uschessleague.com USCL's official website]