United States Chess League Begins 2009 Season

The United States Chess League begins its 2009 season tonight, with three matches being contested on opening night. The Queens Pioneers, led by Grandmaster Alex Stripunsky, take on last year's Eastern Division Champions, the Boston Blitz and their two-GM attack to begin the new season. Also on slate for tonight is a match between the Miami Sharks and the two-time defending champion Dallas Destiny, and a battle between West Coast rivals as the San Francisco Mechanics meet the Seattle Sluggers.

There are a few new wrinkles to the USCL this season. For the first time in the history of the young league, there are no expansion teams this year; at 14 teams, league commissioner Greg Shahade believes the USCL has reached a good size, although one more round of expansion is likely in the near future. There has also been a chance to the way team ratings are calculated, as teams will no longer receive a bonus to their ratings cap if they have a female player in the lineup. However, female participation is still being encouraged through the use of a bonus roster spot -- teams may have a 9-player roster rather than the normal eight if at least one player on the team is female.

What can fans expect from the upcoming season? The USCL is a notoriously difficult league to forecast, as most of the teams are well balanced and the rules are designed to allow a high degree of parity throughout the league. Even teams that have traditionally struggled, such as the Tennessee Tempo, have been improving steadily; the addition of GM Alex Shabalov to the Tempo roster should put them in the playoff race this year. Every team is capable of beating any of their rivals in a given week.

So, how to choose? I'm looking at teams with past success and powerhouse lineups. The Dallas Destiny and the Boston Blitz have both reached the finals the last two seasons, so it would be foolish to pick against them reaching the playoffs again this season -- even with a new lineup for the Destiny. Seattle's lineup is imposing, with GM (and US Champion) Hikaru Nakamura leading the way along with GM Gregory Serper. In the East, Philadelphia can point to their tremendous depth as a sign that they're likely to bounce back this season, while the New Jersey Knockouts will hope to look more like the team that ran out to a great start in the first half of the 2008 season, rather than the team that collapsed in the second half. Meanwhile, the addition of Giorgi Kacheishvili gives the New York Knights an incredible three GMs on their roster, which should offer tremendous flexibility when setting lineups each week.  They can't even claim to lead the league in that category, though, as the San Francisco Mechanics have four Grandmasters on call!

With so many good things to say about so many teams, any predictions I make are bound to go wrong. Still, here are my playoff predictions for 2009.

Eastern Division:

1. New York Knights
2. Boston Blitz
3. Philadelphia Inventors
4. New Jersey Knockouts

Western Division:

1. San Francisco Mechanics
2. Seattle Sluggers
3. Dallas Destiny
4. Miami Sharks

And who do I like to win it all? I'm a big fan of dynasties, so I'm going to take the Dallas Destiny in a three-peat! Truthfully, there are a half-dozen teams (at least) who have a great chance to win the title this year, but it's hard to pick against the back-to-back champs when they seem to be sticking with their strategy of having a deep, solid (if not spectacular) lineup that gives them a chance of winning on every board, every week.

I'm looking forward to another exciting USCL season. If you're a big fan of team chess too, you can check out the matches each week on the ICC. Good luck to all the teams and players on a successful 2009 campaign!