Team OC -- Alexandre Kretchetov, Takashi Iwamoto, Ilia Serpik, Leo Kamgar. Photo courtesy of Takashi Iwamoto.
The 27th Annual U.S. Amateur Team West, held at the Warner Center Marriott in Woodand Hills February 13-15, had a good turnout of 48 teams, with 40 more in the one-day Scholastic Section. First place, and a trip to the playoff with the other three winners, went to Team OC, with Alexandre Kretchetov, Takashi Iwamoto, Ilia Serpik and Leo Kamgar. Matching their score of 5.5 but losing out on tiebreak, were ACA: 64 Square Modern Warfare (Vadim Kudryavtsev, Christian Tanaka, Jared Tan and Eric Zhang).
Scholastic tournament winners "We are BEYOND just beating you" -- Harrison Chen, Kumann Liu, Adrian Chang, Trevor Jung). Photo by John Hillery
Complete standings are posted at westernchess.com/atw10/standings.html. John Hillery directed, with assistance from Tom Langland, Anthiny Ong, and Kenneth Poole.
The old Dragon can still bite … but which side? Dan Durham also played for the winning team in the first U.S. Amateur Team West in 1984.
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Sevillano downs junior star Tianyi He en route to taking the Board 1 prize. Black resigns because after 27.Nxf8 Nxf8, 28. Qg7+ Ke8 29. Nf6 is mate.
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US Amateur Team West
Final Standings
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1st: Team OC (Alexander Kretchetoc, Takashi Iwamoto, Ilia Seprik, Leo Kamgar), 5.5 (TB)
2nd: ACA: 64 Square Modern Warfare (VAdim Kudryavtsev, Christian Tanaka, Jared Tan, Eric Zhang), 5.5
3rd: Fourclosers (Ron Hermansen, Alessandro Steinfl, Tim hanks, Jeffrey Cohen) 5-1
U2100: Look BEYOND what you see (rated 1880!)
U2000: Three Knights and a Queen
U1800: Temple City High School
U1600: Cloudy With a Chance of Meaterial
U1400: Chess Palace
U1200 (no teams)
College: Trojans Drink Jack Danyuls
Industrial: Northrop Grumman Advantage in Space
Senior: (over age 50): Tea Party for Five
Junior: Two and a Half Asians
High School: University High School
Board Prizes
1: Enrico Sevillano, 5
2: Andranik Matikozyan, 5.5
3: Michael Brown, 5.5
4: Eric Zhang, 6
Alternate: Ezekiel Liu, 4