USCF National Events / USAT Playoff
“NorCal House of Chess”Houses
National Champs Once Again Déjà vu at the U.S. Amateur Team Playoff By RICHARD FRANCISCO
With a national championship on the
line, each of the four winning teams from the U.S. Amateur Team events “arrived” online on March 29, 2014 at the Internet Chess Club (
chessclub.com) ready for battle. In fact, all twelve games of the playoff were decisive! (See the May 2014 Chess Life cover story to find out how the teams qualified for this event.)
SEMIFINAL 1: “PRINCETON UNIVERSITY A” (EAST) 3—“RUSSIANS NEVER RETREAT” (SOUTH) 1
Board 1: Michael Lee (E)/Daniel Gurevich (S) 1-0 Board 2: Richard Francisco (S)/Andrew Ng (E) 1-0 Board 3: Jason Altschuler (E)/Michael Corallo (S) 1-0 Board 4: Elena Gratskaya (S)/Darek Johnson (E) 0-1
“Princeton A” accomplished the incredi -
ble feat of winning the USAT East title two years in a row. This year’s lineup saw the return of top boards FM Michael Lee and Andrew Ng who were joined by fellow Princeton students Jason Altschuler and Darek Johnson on boards three and four. Team South was composed entirely of newcomers: FM Daniel Gurevich, Richard Francisco, Michael Corallo, and Elena Gratskaya and we immediately verified this status. We arrived at the North Georgia Chess Center (
http://www.north gachess-
center.com/), owned and operated by the father/son duo Kevin and Tyler Schmuggerow, with two of our team having forgotten their computers. After a mad dash home and by using a backup laptop with no mouse, we were ready to play. All four boards were relatively close in
rating, and we expected the match to come down to a battle of nerves. The board three matchup Altschuler-Corallo saw Black lose a pawn quickly in the opening. Michael missed his chances to draw a pawn-down rook and pawn endgame and Princeton took the lead 1-0. The next game to finish was board four.
Elena was the hero of our team at the USAT South when she turned a lost
36 June 2014 | Chess Life
AFTER 20. ... Rd3 In the diagrammed position, Elena saw
that her original plan of 21. Bf2 lost material after 21. ... Nf3+!. In fact she can win material with 21. Nd1! but instead blundered under the tension, going for 21. fxe5? Rxe3 22. Qf2 Rd3 23. Nd5!?, but after 23. ... Bxd5 24. exd5 Bxe5 25. Rxc6 Qxc6! 26. dxc6 Bd4 she found herself in a lost endgame. We were down 2-0 and needed to win
both remaining games to force a blitz playoff. On board two, I was able to defeat Ng on the white side of a Sicilian Dragon leaving Lee-Gurevich on board one to decide the match. After a messy opening, mutual time trouble errors, and evaluation swings the following position was reached:
My kingdom for a tempo FM Michael Lee (2445) FM Daniel Gurevich (2352) U.S. Amateur Team playoff semifinal
(see diagram top of next column)
position into a win in the final round, inspiring us to a 4-0 win over our main rivals from Florida. She played another complicated game this round and reached the following position:
A tension-based blunder Elena Gratskaya (1822) Darek Johnson (1726) U.S. Amateur Team playoff semifinal
AFTER 70. Qc2 Here Daniel could win by pushing the
f-pawn, which cannot be taken due to mate on b1. He was attracted by the corner mate (76. ... Nb3 mate) but unfortunately lost by one tempo after 70. ... Ka3?! 71. h5 Rb1+ 72. Qxb1 Nxb1 73. h6 Nd2 74. h7 c3 75. h8=Q c2 76. Qb2+, Black resigned.
SEMIFINAL 2: “THE ILLINI SAMWICH” (NORTH) 0—“NORCAL HOUSE OF CHESS” (WEST) 4
Board 1: Sam Schmakel (N)/Enrico Sevillano (W) 0-1 Board 2: Ricardo De Guzman (W)/Eric Rosen (N) 1-0 Board 3: Michael Auger (N)/Ronald Cusi (W) 0-1 Board 4: Shafieen Ibrahim (W)/Shreya Mangalam (N) 1-0
The other semifinal was almost identical
to last year’s event. The North team re - turned their top three boards: current 12th Grade National Champion FM Sam Schmakel, former High School National Champion FM Eric Rosen, and Michael Auger. Team newcomer Shreya Mangalam round ed out the team on board four. The West team returned their two top boards from the previous year: IM Ricardo De Guzman and FM Ronald Cusi. However, they played on boards two and three respectively, as they now had the only grandmaster of the event, Enrico Sevillano on board one! Shafieen Ibrahim performed quite well on board four despite being the lowest rated player in the event!
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