(Crossville, TN) The United States Chess Federation announced the 2007 All-America Team at the National K-12/Collegiate Championship held in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, December 8-10.  Each member of the 2007 Trophies Plus All America Team who attended the event was presented with a team jacket and plaque. Mike Nietman and Aviv Friedman, USCF Scholastic Council members and USCF Scholastic Director Jerry Nash were present during the award ceremony.

The All America Team was created in 1987 to honor the very best players under the age of 19. The team, one of the highest national honors attainable by a young chess player, is selected on the basis of age, rating, and activities during that year, similar to the selection process of “all conference” sports teams. This year’s candidates were selected based on their age as of January 1, 2006 and their peak USCF post tournament rating for events held between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2006. The minimum rating limits are reviewed annually by the USCF staff and the USCF Scholastic Council.

For the third year in a row Trophies Plus of Templeton, Iowa, has sponsored the All
America Team. In addition to providing trophies for national tournaments, owner Doyle Engelen of Trophies Plus has also provided service with after-tournament trophy shipping. We are proud to have Trophies Plus as a part of the excitement by sponsoring this year’s All-America Team. You can visit Trophies Plus at their web site http://www.trophiesplus.com or call them at 800-397-9993.

We wish to congratulate all of the members of this year’s All-America Team for
achieving this prestigious award!

It is with great pleasure that we announce the 43 members of the 2007 Trophies Plus All America Team:

Age 18 (minimum peak rating 2450)
GM Hikaru Nakamura, NY

Age 17 (minimum peak rating 2400)
Igor Schneider, NY

Age 16 (minimum peak rating 2350)
Sal Bercys, NY
Joel Banawa, CA

Age 15 (minimum peak rating 2300)
Daniel J. Ludwig, FL

Age 14 (minimum peak rating 2250)
Robert Hess, NY

Age 13 (minimum peak rating 2200)
Marc Tyler Arnold, 2241

Age 12 (minimum peak rating 2100)
Alexander C. Heimann, PA
Victor C. Shen, NJ
Mark A. Heimann, PA
Michael Lee, WA
Christian T. Tanaka, CA

Age 11 (minimum peak rating 1975)
Ray S. Robson, FL
Parker Bi Guang Zhao, NY
Michael Yang, MN
Zachary A. Young, NY
Boris Xu, GA

Age 10 (minimum peak rating 1850)
Daniel A. Naroditsky, CA
Gregory Young, CA
Christopher Heung, FL
Ryan Joseph Moon, GA
Stuart S. Finney, RI
Jason Altschuler, TX
Andrew C. Wang, MA
Sam E.Silberman, FL

Age 9 (minimum peak rating 1750)
Darwin Yang, TX
Atulya Arya Shetty, MI
Aleksandr A. Ostrovskiy, NY
Fernando L. Mendez, Jr., TX
Sylvia Yang, TX
Eric R. Zhang, CA
Lucas van Buezekom, FL

Age 8 & under (minimum peak rating 1650)
Nicholas Nip, CA
Christopher Wu, NJ
Brian J. Luo, WI
Brennen Lee, AZ
Fernando Spada, TX
Alexander Velikanov, WI
Eric N. Liao, NJ
Kevin Wang, MD
Danil Fedunov, CA
Danny Balter, PA
Andrew J. Jiang, NJ

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The United States Chess Federation (USCF), founded in 1939, serves as the governing body for chess in the United States and is now headquartered in Crossville, Tennessee. USCF is devoted to extending the role of chess in American society. It promotes the study and knowledge of the game of chess, for its own sake as an art and enjoyment, and as a means for the improvement of society. The USCF is a not-for-profit membership organization with almost 90,000 members.
For additional information on the USCF see: http://www.uschess.org.