2021 US Amateur Team West Championship

I have been playing the 2021 US Amateur Team West ONLINE - National Championship as part of the team Winners 2021. This is a 2-days tournament in the format of g60+10 seconds increment. OUr average team rating is 1899.5, so we are in the 1800+ section. Here is the team - 

• NM Sriram Krishnakumar (2192)
• Jaisuraj Kaleeswaran (2086)
• Ashik Uzzaman (1940)
• Jaidev Kaleeswaran (1380)

Today was first 3 rounds and tomorrow will be the final 3 rounds.

Game 1: Team Winners 2021 vs Tonight We're Gonna Checkmate Like It's 1989

White: Ashik Uzzaman (1940) / chess.com rating 1799

Black: NM Christopher Chabris (2226) / chess.com rating 2326

Date: 30th January 2021

Result: Drawn (1/2 - 1/2)

I missed a completely winning rook endgame with 2 pawns up by making a last-minute blunder although I had plenty of time in my clock while my opponent had few seconds only. The blunder was move#44; instead of g4 I needed to play h6.

Game 2: Team Winners 2021 vs Chess Cookies

White: Lisa Sun (1708) / chess.com rating 1426

Black: Ashik Uzzaman (1940) / chess.com rating 1810

Date: 30th January 2021

Result: Black won (0 - 1)

Game 3: Team Winners 2021 vs CHECKMATE ASAP - XCELL CHESS CLU

White: Ashik Uzzaman (1940) / chess.com rating 1838

Black: Sricharan Pullela (1889) / chess.com rating 2020

Date: 30th January 2021

Result: White won (1 - 0)

I particularly liked my middle game combination of sacrificing a rook that my opponent couldn't afford to take. Check out move#20.

Update from Day 2, I lost the 4th round but won the 5th round. 

Game 4: Team Winners 2021 vs CHECKMATE ASAP - Queen Rules

White: Felix Liu (1922) / chess.com rating 2096

Black: Ashik Uzzaman (1940) / chess.com rating 1839

Date: 31st January 2021

Result: White won (1 - 0)

Game 5: Team Winners 2021 vs Pawn-Z-Scheme

White: Ashik Uzzaman (1940) / chess.com rating 1838

Black: Mateo Hansen (1687) / chess.com rating 1615

Date: 31st January 2021

Result: White won (1 - 0)

Game 6: Team Winners 2021 vs Riveting Rooks

White: Kristian Clemens (1997) / chess.com rating 1831

Black: Ashik Uzzaman (1940) / chess.com rating 1838

Date: 31st January 2021

Result: Black won (0 - 1)

XCell Chess Club Runner Up in USAT National 2017 Playoffs

We, XCell Chess Club, became runner up in the United States Amateur Team (USAT) 2017 Championship. We won the semi-final against North by 3-1. I lost in third board with White against Michael Auger rated 2268 (almost 300 more than mine) but all our other boards won. In the other semi-final game, East defeated South by 2.5-1.5 margin. South's first board couldn't play due to a personal emergency and hence they had to play up with 3 boards.

In the final we faced the current champion East. I won my game with Black against Warren Wang rated 2198 (again more than 200 points above mine). Arul and Ashrita lost in fourth and second board respectively. In first board Hayk had better position against Ethan Li but drew in time pressure as the game prolonged. Well, we were very close but couldn't make it. We will have to be happy with the runnner up. But this was a great experience and good team work. Kudos to team manager Tigran and XCell Chess Club owner Eshwaran for arranging everything for us. There is always a next time!




This playoff along with the original west zone team championship is the most significant team competition I have ever played!

We - XcellCHESS Club - Became USA Amateur Team West Champion 2017

Somehow this happened. We became champion in US Amateur Team West Championship held at Santa Clara Convention Center during February 18th to 20th! Out of 6 rounds, we won first 5 rounds straight and drew the last round. Hayk, Ashrita, Arul and Akshithi - all played wonderfully and delivered at critical moments. I am surprised with my own performance as well. My personal score was 4 win and 1 loss. With this my rating jumped up from 2000 to 2097. So now we will play the winners of other 3 zones - East, North and South  in April 22nd for the title of National Amateur Team Champion!

Below is top 4 standings out of 65 teams. Click here for the full list and here for individual performances. Also here is the event summary from us chess site. I noticed a common pattern that the teams who were well balanced, did better than the top heavy teams (as by nature their 4th board has to be weak). 

GM Christian Chirila wrote a news coverage for US chess on this event titled - Grandmaster Amateurs: XcellChess Prevails in Competitive Team West.

	Code	Name	Score	TBrk[G]	TBrk[U]
1	XCELLC	XcellCHESS Club (2104.5) - Cnt: 5 W41 W17 W20 W10 W9 D3	5.5	17.5	61.25
		NM Hayk Manvelyan (2295) 4.5
		Aksithi Eswaran (1664) 1.0
		WIM Ashritha Eswaran (2252) 3.5
		Ashik Uzzaman (1974) 4.0
		Arul Viswanathan (1897) 4.5
2	BCC-BISH	The Berkeley Bishops (2172.0) - Cnt: 4 W36 W12 W8 D3 W49 W9	5.5	16	53.75
		IM David $m Pruess (2408) 4.0
		NM Bryon Doyle (2203) 4.0
		Michael Lei Wang (2177) 4.5
		Michael Anderson (1900) 3.5
3	BCWEEK	The Berkeley Chess Weekenders (2184.5) - Cnt: 4 W28 W13 W15 D2 W11 D1	5.0	17	70
		NM Jack Qiji Zhu (2399) 2.5
		FM Ladia Jirasek (2343) 5.5
		NM Gabriel Jame Bick (2280) 5.5
		Kevin Yanofsky (1716) 3.5
4	BAC-WAR	BAC Warriors (2164.3) - Cnt: 4 W32 W18 D6 D7 W13 W10	5.0	16	60.5
		FM Konstan Kavutskiy (2445) 4.0
		Vinesh Ravuri (2133) 4.5
		Theodor Biyiasas (2121) 3.5
		Manas Manu (1958) 4.0

Here are the games I played.

• Round 1 - I didn't play so that our fifth player Akshithi could play.
• Round 2 - I won against National Master Richard Koepcke (2200)
• Round 3 - I won against Jamieson Pryor (2015)
• Round 4 - I won against National Master Annie Wang (2276)
• Round 5 - I won against Derek O'Connor (2167)
• Round 6  - I lost to National Master Gabriel Jame Bick (2280)

Update: US Chess Life May 2017 issue covered our news here at page 30.

Ashik vs Derek O'Connor, US Amateur Team West Championship, Round 5

Ashik vs NM Annie Wang, US Amatuer Team West, Round 4

Ashik vs Jamieson Pryor, US Amateur Team West, Round 3

Ashik vs NM Ricahrd Koepcke, Ametuer Team West Championship, Round 2

Ashik vs Ganesh Murugappan, Ameteur Team West 2014, Round 5

Ashik vs Arvind Sankar, Ameteur Team West 2014, Round 3

Can you find black's next move here? I am very proud of executing this move over the board against an opponent of my equal strength! This game has been featured in current CalChess Journal at page 10.




You can replay the full game below.

Ashik vs Elias Nasr, Ameteur Team West 2014, Round 2

Ashik vs Joshua Bowman, Ametuer Team West, Round 1

My opponent had a good game against me but was low on clock time. As a result of time pressure he made a blunder at the end resulting in a mating attack.

Ashik vs Anirudh, US Amatuer Team Champ 2013, Round 6

Ashik vs Kenny, Round 4, US Amatuer Team West

Ashik vs Alekhya, Round 3, US Amatuer Team West

Amir vs Ashik, Round 2, US Amateur Team West

Ashik vs, Lany, Round 1, US Amateur Team West