2007 Board Two All Stars

If you are wondering what criteria was used to determine these All Stars, please refer to the first post on the subject.


1st Team: SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS). This selection was a no brainer. Jorge finished the season with an amazing record of 6.5 / 7, capping it off with an exciting victory over his main competitor IM Davorin Kuljasevic. Jorge’s performance rating was a whopping 2833 (the highest of any active player in the league this year), and his only draw came against GM Hikaru Nakamura, the one match that he played on first board. Sammour-Hasbun also became the first Boston player to defeat GM Pascal Charbonneau in their Semifinal victory.

Record: 6.5 / 7 (93%)

Performance Rating: 2833



2nd Team: IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL). This was also a very easy choice for the judges. Davorin was an absolute machine for Dallas all season long, having been nicked for only a single draw in seven tries prior to stumbling in the Finals. Davorin showed that he really meant business when he became the first USCL player in three seasons to defeat IM Vinay Bhat. His smooth win against IM Blas Lugo in the SemiFinal also helped propel Dallas to the Championship Match. Overall, it was a very memorable season from Kuljasevic.

Record: 6.5 / 8 (81%)

Performance Rating: 2703



3rd Team: IM Vinay Bhat (SF). Vinay was considered an unbeatable legend in the USCL, until his mystique was finally broken by IM Kuljasevic in Week 10, and then again by IM Blas Lugo in the Wildcard Round. Before these two losses, Vinay had reeled off six straight league victories (along with going fourteen straight league games without a loss dating back to 2005), with the most memorable one definitely being his win over GM Hikaru Nakamura while sporting a 70-1 time disadvantage.

Record: 6 / 8 (75%)

Performance Rating: 2689



Other Candidates: Board 2 was easily the most impressive group in 2007 with the three All Stars having by far the highest win percentages compared to the other boards along with there being several other top performances which normally would have been very worthy of the All Star Team. IM Irina Krush (NY) (4.5 / 7) and IM Eli Vovsha (QNS) (5 / 9) were two players who had very strong seasons, with both sporting performance ratings above 2550. FM Todd Andrews (TN) (5 / 9) also had a huge turnaround from his disappointing 2006 season, almost single handedly making the Tennessee Tempo a competitive team in every match. While these three all had very good seasons, the competition on Board 2 was simply too stiff, and the three All Stars listed above just performed too well in 2007.


Stay tuned as in the next couple of days we will be announcing the All Stars for the remaining two boards!