Best of CLO 2011 #8- An Amateur Invades the World Team Champs
By CLO   
January 25, 2012
The #8 article in Best of CLO 2011 is An Amateur Invades the World Amateur Team by the US Chess Scoop. The video featured an amateur chess player Jason Smiles, interviewing serious chess players at the US Amateur Team East on their experiences at the event.      



The US Chess Scoop will also be attending the US Amateur Team East 2012, also over President's Day weekend in Parsippany (find more info on all the US Amateur Team events here.)   

Over the past two years, CLO has been featuring more and more video coverage, including reports on major events by the US Chess Scoop. Recent US Chess Scoop reports include the Liberty Bell Open, the National Chess Congress and the Marshall Chess Club Championship. Some of the most popular CLO video reports include a rap video by three-time US Women's Champion Irina Krush, an interview with GM Hikaru Nakamura on fashion and chess and a piece on the 2010 G-Star Raw Challenge, featuring Judit Polgar and Magnus Carlsen. CLO has also begun to debut a series of New to Chess videos hosted by Kacie Marie, starting with Chess in Less Than a Minute, a primer on the basic chess moves and En Passant in Less Than a Minute. US Chess Scoop videos are indexed under CLO editor Jennifer Shahade's youtube account.  

The producers of US Chess Scoop are also working on a chess TV series, "the X Chess Championships", which premiered on Jennifer's Blog. You can also follow the show on YouTube.

The Judges Sound Off
Read more about the judges here.

I was quite pleased with the editing and presentation of the video. It was done by an amateur, and you can tell he is an amateur, but it doesn't fall into some of the typical cliches that you can hear from non-chess players all the time. The responses from the interviewees were well presented, honest and useful- GM Alejandro Ramirez

This video is cool. I like the cinematography and the non-traditional editing techniques. The video grabs my attention and keeps it. The narrator is energetic and funny- Galen Pyle

 Because this was in a different format, I wasn’t sure how to compare it to the written articles, but it was cute, well done, and fun. Anything that encourages people to play more!-- Jessica Era Prescott

Best of CLO 2011 Countdown
#8- An Amateur Invades the World Amateur Team by the US Chess Scoop
#9- Keep the Draw--Fix the Flaw by Tom Braunlich (Judging article)
#10- Nakamura in Brazil: From Fighting Anand to Miss USA by GM Ian Rogers  (Judging article)